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PERTH,
AJAX, ORION at Matapan |
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The
Battle of Matapan took place off the Western coast of
Crete on 29th March 1941.
Under the command of Vice Admiral Pridham-Wippell, the
cruisers PERTH, ORION, AJAX, and GLOUCESTER
, then patrolling in the Aegean Sea, were ordered
to a point off Gavdhos Island south of Crete.
Here they would protect troop convoys bound for Greece,
from attacks by the Italian Navy.
The Italian Fleet, comprising one 15" battleship,
six 8" and two 6" cruisers, plus
destroyers, was conducting sweeps west of Crete trying
to find the convoys. The Italians cancelled these
sweeps and sent the cruisers to also rendezvous off
Gavdhos Island. Unknowingly, our ships were sailing
into a potential disaster.
At 6am PERTH and company were sighted by Italian
aircraft and reported. At the same time aircraft from
the carrier HMS FORMIDABLE sighted the Italians.
This sighting was discounted by Admiral Cunningham who
thought they had sighted our ships and mistaken them
for Italians.
At 7.45am PERTH sighted the 8" Italian cruisers,
BOLZANO, TRIESTE, and TRENTO. At
8.12am the Italians opened fire . Our 6" cruisers
were outranged and outgunned. The Italian fire
was very accurate and they were closing rapidly.
GLOUCESTER, who had received most of the shelling,
opened fire and at 8.53 ORION started to make
smoke to try and attract our battlefleet. At 9am
the Italians broke off the engagement so our cruisers
turned to shadow them.
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Unfortunately, at 10.58am they ran into the new 15"
Italian battleship, VITTORIO VENETO. They
were now caught between the battleship and three Italian
cruisers. VITTORIO VENETO commenced very
accurate fire on our ships, firing ninety four 15"
shells. However because the spread of shots was too wide,
only slight damage was done to PERTH and ORION.
Hopelessly outgunned ,our cruisers set up a huge
smokescreen and turned south at full speed to try to escape.
Our cruisers were now in a very dangerous position as
the Italian battleship was driving them towards the Italian
cruisers. At 11.27, just as disaster seemed about
to strike, aircraft from HMS FORMIDABLE attacked
VITTORIO VENETO and she broke off the pursuit.
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| GORIZIA, POLA, FIUME, ZARA at Naples 1938 |
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15"
Shell falls between
HMAS PERTH and HMS GLOUCESTER |
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Smokescreen from the cruisers at Matapan. HMAS PERTH in foreground |
HMAS
Perth gets near-misses |
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| PERTH, ORION, AJAX seen from GLOUCESTER's aircraft catapult |
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PERTH
and the others now turned to follow VENETO and,
until the close of the battle later that night, acted in a
shadowing capacity for the main battlefleet. An
attack by FORMIDABLE's aircraft stopped the Italian
cruiser POLA. The Italian admiral, not realizing
the British Fleet was so close, ordered her sisters ships,
ZARA and FIUME to go to her assistance.
At 22.10 the radar on HMS VALIANT detected the three
cruisers at a range of only six miles. Illuminated by searchlights,
the ships were pounded by 15" salvos from HMS WARSPITE
and VALIANT at point blank range. The Italians
lost the three cruisers and the destroyers, ALFIERI
and CARDUCCI plus 2400 men. PERTH
then returned to Piraeus and then resumed patrols of the Aegean
sea.
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Admiral
Sir A.B.CUNNINGHAM |
Vice
Admiral H.Pridham Wippell
Survivor of the sinking of HMS BARHAM
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