0922, the C.-in-C. decided to hold back the Formidable’s striking force until the situation cleared and a signal was accordingly sent (0925) to R.A.F. 201 Group to send his flying boats to locate and shadow the enemy fleet in the Crete-Africa area between 25° and 23° E.
Plan 3, detail Battle of Matapan, action off Gavdo
Plan 4
HMS Formidable’s First Striking Force Takes Off
In order to relieve the pressure on our cruisers, at 0939 the C.-in-C. ordered the Formidable to fly off a torpedo striking force to attack cruisers in sight of VALF or other squadron of enemy cruisers if sighted. This order was carried out at 0956 by 5 Albacores (826 Sqdn.) and 1 Albacore (829 Sqdn.) with an escort of two Fulmars (803 Sqdn.). A Swordfish (826 Sqdn.) also took off for “Action Observation, Duty J”. The striking force was armed with Mark 12 torpedoes with duplex pistols, set to 400 yards safety range, 40 knots speed and a depth setting of 34 ft. This setting the observers in three planes succeeding in altering to 28 feet when it was known that cruisers were the target of attack.
Meanwhile the Orion and cruisers of Force B were following hard (course 310°) in the wake of the enemy cruisers (Force X) which were barely in sight 16 miles away. A number of aircraft were sighted and Force B between 1045 and 1100 fired on several, including some of our own.
About 1045 the enemy was again visible from the Orion’s director, but nothing more had been heard of the three battleships reported by aircraft, ‘5F’ to the northward and the VALF came to the conclusion that they were in reality his own cruisers.
Plan 5
Action with the Italian Battleship
The enemy’s motive in breaking off action and retiring to the north-west was revealed in dramatic fashion at 1058 when the Orion sighted an enemy battleship (later known to be the Vittorio Veneto), bearing 002° (Force Y in Plan 3). Her appearance “put a very different complexion on affairs”. The enemy was fast and the Gloucester’s maximum safe speed was expected to be 24 knots. It looked as if the British cruisers might be “sandwiched” between the Vittorio Veneto to the north and the Italian cruisers (Force X) to the north-west (see Fig. 1). The battleship quickly opened fire and the VALF at once altered course together to the southward in order to disengage, increasing speed to 30 knots, a speed which fortunately the Gloucester successfully achieved. It was then 1059. For ten minutes the enemy concentrated on the Orion which suffered only minor damage from a near miss. The enemy’s shooting at 32,000 yards was remarkably accurate; the Veneto fired 94 rounds in 29 salvoes out of which there were 11 mis-fires. Force B was ordered to make smoke, the wind at the time being about E.N.E., Force 2 and the smoke soon became effective, though the Gloucester, the only ship remaining visible to the enemy, was repeatedly straddled until the Hasty was able to reach a position where it was possible to cover her with smoke. The Italian battleship on the port quarter of our cruisers possessed an equal turn of speed, and at 1100 the 3rd Division of 8-in. cruisers reversed course to engage from the starboard quarter, a situation that might have become serious if the Formidable’s striking force had not at this critical moment opportunely intervened.
The First Attack on the Vittorio Veneto
Flying at 9,000 ft. the aircraft sighted the Vittorio Veneto at 1058 steering in a south-easterly direction24 and shortly afterwards observed her salvoes straddling our cruisers. The planes proceeded to manoeuvre to reach a position off her starboard bow on the opposite side of the destroyer escort.
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