Operation Harpoon (1942)

Operation Harpoon/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
Date	12–15 June 1942
Location	Western Mediterranean, towards Malta36°12′0″N 11°38′0″E / 36.20000°N 11.63333°E
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
101+ killed; 20+ wounded; 217 (POW); 2 destroyers sunk; 4 merchant ships sunk; 2 light cruisers damaged; 3 destroyers damaged; 1 minesweeper damaged; 1 merchant ship damaged;	12 killed; 1 destroyer damaged; 29 aircraft destroyed;
	Pantelleria The Island of Pantelleria in the Strait of Sicily, central Mediterranean

Operation Harpoon (Battle of Pantelleria (Battaglia di Mezzo Giugno [Battle of mid-June]) was part of Operation Julius, 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 from Gibraltar. Vigorous was driven back by the battle fleet of the Regia Marina after massed attacks by Axis aircraft. Two of the six ships in the Harpoon convoy completed the journey, at the cost of several Allied warships.

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 (the Servizio Informazioni Militare).