Sinking of HMS York

Sinking of HMS York (1941) Part of the Mediterranean Theater of World War II HMS York's hull boarded by the Italian Torpedo Boat Sirio Date 26 March 1941 Location Souda Bay, Mediterranean Sea Result Italian victory Belligerents United Kingdom Italy Commanders Capt. Reginald Henry Portal, DSC, RN Lieutenant Luigi Faggioni Strength Fleet in harbour 2 Destroyers 6 motor assault boats Casualties and losses 1 heavy cruiser 1 tanker 2 killed 6 prisoners

v • d • e Battle of the Mediterranean Espero¹² – Mers-el-Kébir – Calabria¹² – Spada – Cape Passero¹ – Taranto – Strait of Otranto² – Spartivento¹ – Excess¹ – Abstention – Souda Bay – Matapan – Tarigo² – Crete – Substance¹ – Halberd¹ – Duisburg² – Bon² – 1st Sirte¹² – Alexandria raid – 2nd Sirte¹ – Harpoon¹ – Vigorous¹ – Pedestal¹ – Agreement – Torch – Stone Age¹ – Toulon – Skerki² – Algiers¹ – Cigno² – Sicily – Olterra's campaign¹ – Sinking of Roma ¹ - Involved an Allied convoy • ² - Involved an Axis convoy

The sinking of HMS York was the main consequence of an Italian Navy's small craft assault on Souda Bay, Crete, during the first hours of 26 March 1941.

Preliminary

On March 25, 1941 the Italian destroyers Crispi and Sella departed from Leros island in the Aegean at night, each carrying 3 small (2-ton) MTM motor assault boats of the Decima Flottiglia MAS.^[1]

Air recce had spotted a number of naval and auxiliary steamers at anchor in Souda Bay, Crete. Souda is a naturally protected harbor on the northwest coast of the island. It had been chosen as a target by the Decima months before because of the almost continuous Allied naval activity there.^[1]

Each MTM or Motoscafo da Turismo Modificato (nicknamed barchini or "little boats") carried a 300 kilograms (660 lb) explosive charge inside their bow.^[2]

The MTMs were specially equipped to make their way through obstacles such as torpedo nets; the pilot would steer the assault craft on a collision course at his target ship, and then would jump from his boat before impact and warhead detonation.^[3]

The attack

At 23:30, the one-pilot craft were released by the destroyers 10 miles off Souda. Once inside the bay, the six boats, under the command of Lieutenant Luigi Faggioni, pintpointed their targets: the heavy cruiser HMS York, a large tanker (the Norwegian Pericles of 8,300 tons), another tanker and a cargo ship.^[3] At 4:46, two MTMs hit the York amidships, flooding her aft boilers and magazines. Two seamen were killed by the explosions.^[4] The oiler Pericles was severely damaged and settled on the bottom, while the other tanker and the cargo ship were sunk, according to Italian sources.^[5] According to the British, the other barchini apparently missed their intended targets, and one of them ended stranded on the beach.^[6] The antiaircraft defences of the base opened fire randomly, believing that the base was under air attack.^[7]

Aftermath

All six of the Italian sailors, Luigi Faggioni, Alessio de Vito, Emilio Barberi, Angelo Cabrini, Tullio Tedeschi and Lino Beccati, were captured. The disabled York was later scuttled with demolition charges by her crew before the German capture of Crete,^[8] while Pericles, taken in tow by destroyers, sank on 14 April 1941 en route to Alexandria amid a storm.^[9]

The sinking of HMS York was the source of a controversy between the Regia Marina and the Luftwaffe over credit for her sinking. The matter was resolved by British war records and by the ship's own war log, captured by Italian naval officers who boarded the half-sunk cruiser.^[10]

After the war, the hull of HMS York was towed to Bari and scrapped there by an Italian shipbreaker in March 1952.^[11]

Notes

References

• "Frogmen First Battles" by retired U.S Captain William Schofield's book. ISBN 0-8283-2088-8
• "The Naval War in the Mediterranean, 1940-1943 by Jack Greene & Alessandro Massignani, Chatam Publishing, London, 1998. ISBN 1861760574
• "Sea Devils" by J. Valerio Borghese, translated into English by James Cleugh, with introduction by the United States Naval Institute ISBN 1-55750-072-X
• The Italian Navy in World War II by Marc'Antonio Bragadin, United States Naval Institute, Annapolis, 1957. ISBN 0405130317
• The Italian Navy in World War II by Sadkovich, James, Greenwood Press, Westport, 1994. ISBN 031328797X

External links

• "Attack to Suda Bay" - RegiaMarina.net (English)
• HMS York at Uboat.net
• HMS York at Naval History.Net

Coordinates: 35°29′0″N 24°08′17″E / 35.48333°N 24.13806°E / 35.48333; 24.13806