Page 406 - Lanzarotto Malocello from Italy to the Canary Islands

406 from Italy to the Canary Islands

Medal from the “L. Malocello” destroyer.

and damaging the Vivaldi; the Malocello tried to protect it by spreading
an artificial smokescreen and responding to fire. Commander Alberto
Leoni fired more than four hundred shots in an hour and twenty minutes
of fire (alone against four British destroyers!), managing to scare away the
enemy; for this action, he was awarded the silver medal for military valour.
The rest of Admiral Da Zara’s force had better luck, because by the
end of operation “Harpoon”, the British had lost four steamers (only two
reached Malta) and two destroyers (Bedouin and Ithuriel), while both
cruisers (Liverpool and Cairo), four of the seven destroyers left, and a
minesweeper had suffered damage.
This was one of the few Italian victories of World War II and the
destroyer Malocello was lucky enough to take part in it.
th
Its luck changed on 24 March 1943, when it ran into a mine north
of Cape Bon as it was leaving the harbour of Pozzuoli; along with the
destroyers Pancaldo, Camicia Nera, and Ascari, it was headed for Tunis
to land troops there for the Afrika korps of Field Marshal Rommel, but
it broke into two pieces at 7:28am and sank rapidly at 8:45am. Twenty-
eight-year-old aiming officer Lieutenant Adolfo Gregoretti earned a gold