A sudden snowstorm forces some British units, engaged in a bombing of the Libyan coast, to abandon the mission and fall back. On the way back, the British cruiser Coventry it is intercepted and torpedoed by the Italian submarine Neghelli, which seriously damages it.
Of the other English ships that participated in the action in North Africa, the destroyer Hyperion 10 will sink days later off the coast of Pantelleria due to impact on a mine; the destroyer Hereward, in the following May, he is surprised by an Italian MAS squad while, badly damaged by an air attack, he tries to return to the base, and is scuttled by his crew.
In the course of the action, the MAS 536 he will go to the ship's boarding, capturing several important documents, as well as, as a war trophy, the crest and a pair of binoculars.
British castaways are saved by Italian torpedo boats.
