Operation Harpoon (1942)

Operation Harpoon and the Battle of Pantelleria
Part of the Battle of the Mediterranean of the Second World War

Italian destroyers heading towards the stragglers of the Allied convoy
Date12–15 June 1942
Location
Western Mediterranean, towards Malta
36°12′0″N 11°38′0″E / 36.20000°N 11.63333°E / 36.20000; 11.63333
Result Italian–German victory
Belligerents
 United Kingdom
Poland
 Italy
 Germany
Commanders and leaders
Alban Curteis
Cecil Hardy
Alberto da Zara
Strength
2 aircraft carriers
1 battleship
4 light cruisers
1 minelayer
17 destroyers
4 minesweepers
6 motor launches
6 merchant ships
2 light cruisers
5 destroyers
aircraft
Casualties and losses
2 destroyers sunk
4 merchant ships sunk
2 light cruisers damaged
3 destroyers damaged
1 minesweeper damaged
1 merchant ship damaged
101+ personnel killed
20+ wounded
217  (POW)
1 destroyer damaged
29 aircraft destroyed
12 killed
Pantelleria is located in Mediterranean
Pantelleria
Pantelleria
The Island of Pantelleria in the Strait of Sicily, central Mediterranean

Operation Harpoon was one of two simultaneous Allied convoys sent to supply Malta in the Axis-dominated central Mediterranean Sea in mid-June 1942, during the Second World War. Operation Vigorous was a west-bound convoy from Alexandria and Operation Harpoon was an east-bound convoy operation from Gibraltar.

Vigorous convoy was driven back by the Italian fleet after being badly damaged by Axis aircraft. Two of the six ships in the Harpoon convoy completed the journey, at the cost of several Allied warships. The naval action fought on 15 June between an Italian naval squadron and the escort of the Harpoon convoy is known as the Battle of Pantelleria (Battaglia di Mezzo Giugno [Battle of mid-June]).

News of the two operations had been unwittingly revealed to the Axis by the US Military Attaché in Egypt, Colonel Bonner Fellers, who had been submitting detailed military reports on British activities to Washington. The American code was later revealed by Ultra intercepts to have been broken by Italian military intelligence (Servizio Informazioni Militare).