While many battles at sea are well known, the Battle of the Duisburg Convoy (or convoy Beta) is one that is not. On the night of November 8/9 1941 HM ships Aurora, Penelope, Lively G-40 and Lance G-87 were directed to attack an Italian convoy about 150 miles west of Syracuse, Sicily. Convoy Beta of the 51st Transport Squadron had left Naples bound for Tripoli, it consisted of seven merchant ships under escort of six Italian destroyers. A further escort of two cruisers and four destroyers serving as a covering force were some distance away. The convoy was carrying troops and supplies for Generalleutnant (later Generalfeldmarschall) Erwin Rommel's Afrika Korps who would have used them during the siege of Tobruk.

However the British had learned of the convoy and its route though "Special Intelligence" (Ultra) decrypts intercepted from the Luftwaffe. After leaving Naples the convoy passed through the Straits of Messina then proceeded into the center of the Ionian Sea. They were using this end around to avoid passing too close to Malta and the strong British forces in the area. The unconventional route did not save the convoy.

On Nov. 8 when Flying Officer Adrian Warburton, D.F.C., Bar, R.A.F. in a Martin Maryland of 69 Squadron located the convoy and sent the position back to his base the fate of the convoy was sealed. After midnight on November 9, 1941 Force K approached the unsuspecting ships in the darkness. The British ships were equipped with radar and used this to great advantage, the Italian ships were not so equipped and had not seen the oncoming force until the flashes from their guns broke the night.

The Italian ships were picked off one by one while the British came under only withering and inaccurate fire. This is not to say that the Italians did not put up a courageous fight, especially Capitano di corvetta Milano, commanding officer of the destroyer Fulmine. His ship was closest to the British force and he turned straight for them and attacked. His ship immediately came under heavy fire and he had an arm shot away. Even though badly wounded he continued to command the ship until she capsized and sank.

Three other destroyers, Grecale, Euro and Maestrale were badly damaged and all seven merchant ships (Duisburg, Conti di Misurata, Maria, Minatitlan, Rina Corrado, San Marco and Sagitta) were sunk. The distant covering force apparently could not coordinate a counterattack because they could not correctly locate the British ships. The individual Italian commanders fought bravely, but the overall operation was chaotic and uncoordinated. The advantage held by the British in their radar allowed them to savage the convoy without suffering a single casualty. In one action they had sunk 39,787 tons of merchant shipping carrying almost 35,000 tons of munitions, almost 400 vehicles of various types, and about 18,000 tons of fuel for tanks and aircraft and one destroyer of 1,240 tons. I have been unable to find a credible source which gives the details of how many troops and crew were on these ships let alone how many were killed, one source states that at least 704 survivors were picked up by the escorting force.

The carnage was not over though for the next day HMS Upholder N-99 (Lt. Cdr. Malcolm D. Wanklyn) torpedoed the destroyer Libeccio while she was engaged in rescuing survivors from the disaster the night before. She was taken in tow by the damaged Euro, but capsized shortly after 11 a.m. and sank.

While completely outnumbered 12 ships to 4, but with the advantage of radar, superior tactics and "special intelligence" the British had won a tremendous victory. Force K retired and quickly returned to Malta, but by the end of the war three of the four ships involved would be lost.

HMS Lance G-87 was bombed and sunk while under repair at Malta on Apr. 9, 1942, HMS Lively G-40 fell to German aircraft 150 miles off Egypt on May 11, 1942 and HMS Penelope was sunk by U-410 on Feb. 18, 1944. Captain William Gladstone Agnew, RN, commanding officer of HMS Aurora and the man in overall command of the operation was made Companion of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath.