First Battle of Sirte - The Battle of Sirte

The Battle of Sirte

On 17 December, an Italian reconnaissance plane spotted the British west-bound formation near Sidi Barrani, apparently proceeding from Alexandria in order to intercept the Italian convoy. Thereafter, the British convoy was shadowed by Axis planes and attacked during the afternoon, no hits were scored. Also during the day, Agnew and Stokes met the west-bound convoy. By late afternoon, the Italian fleet was close by, spotter planes from the battleships had made contact with the British convoy.

At 17:42, the fleets sighted each other; Admiral Angelo Iachino—commander of the Italian forces—moved to intercept in order to cover his convoy.

Vian also wished to avoid combat, so with the British giving ground and the Italians pursuing with caution, the British were easily able to avoid an engagement. Just after sunset, an air attack on the British ships caused them to return fire with their anti-aircraft guns, allowing the Italian naval force to spot them at last. Iachino took in the Distant Covering Force and opened fire at about 32,000 m (35,000 yd), well out of range of the British guns. Vian immediately laid smoke and moved to the attack while Breconshire moved away, escorted by the destroyers, HMS Decoy and Havock.

Lacking radar and mindful of their defeat in the night action at Matapan, the Italians wished to avoid night combat. Expecting an attack, Iachino fired for only 15 minutes before disengaging and returning westward to protect his convoy. Only two British destroyers suffered the effects of Italian gunfire. HMS Kipling suffered the loss of one seaman to a near-miss from a 8 in (200 mm) shell, presumably fired by the Italian cruiser Gorizia. The Australian destroyer HMAS Nizam was also damaged by near-misses from the Italian destroyer Maestrale.