Action off Bastia

Part of the Battle of the Mediterranean of World War II

The Italian torpedo boat Aliseo

Date	9 September 1943
Location	Mediterranean sea near Bastia
Result	Italian victory

Belligerents

Kingdom of Italy

Germany

Commanders and leaders

Carlo Fecia di Cossato

Unknown

Strength

2 torpedo boats
1 corvette
coastal batteries

2 submarine chasers
5 MFPs
2 captured merchant ships

Casualties and losses

1 torpedo boat heavily damaged
1 torpedo boat slightly damaged
70 dead

2 submarine chasers sunk
5 MFPs sunk
1 motor boat sunk
2 cargo ships beached and recaptured
160 dead

The Action off Bastia (French: bataille navale de Pietracorbara) was a naval battle fought on 9 September 1943 off Bastia in the Mediterranean Sea. It was one of the few successful Italian reactions to Operation Achse, and one of the first acts of resistance by the Italian armed forces against Nazi Germany after the armistice of Cassibile.

When the armistice between Italy and the Allied forces was announced, on the evening of 8 September 1943, the harbour of Bastia, in Italian-occupied Corsica, was packed with both Italian and German vessels; moored in the harbour were the Italian Ciclone-class torpedo boat Ardito and Aliseo, the Italian merchant ships Sassari and Humanitas, and a small German flotilla which included the submarine chasers UJ 2203 (former French survey vessel Austral) and UJ 2219 (former Belgian yacht Insuma) and five Marinefährprahme (F 366, F 387, F 459, F 612 and F 623). The Gabbiano-class corvette Cormorano was on watch off Bastia.

The local Italian and German commanders soon reached a "gentlemen’s agreement" according to which the German forces would be allowed to safely retreat to mainland Italy. Meanwhile, however, the German forces secretly prepared to launch a surprise attack on the Italian ships moored inside the harbour, planning to capture them. The attack started at 23:45 on 8 September, when two groups of German soldiers, after hearing a whistle (the signal to attack), stormed Ardito; the torpedo boat was heavily damaged (70 of her 180 crew were killed) and captured, and the merchant ships Sassari and Humanitas also fell into German hands. On board Humanitas, German gunners manning the anti-aircraft guns turned their weapons on the Italian crew and soldiers aboard, and the Italian lookouts were stabbed or killed with hand grenades.

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Wikipedia