Hello, and thank you for listening to The History of World War II podcast.

Episode 413, I was always grateful to Mussolini.

Last time, the final stage of Operation Pedestal was about to get underway.

The merchant ships scattered, but starting to come back together, thanks to Admiral Burrows

to shoyers were entering the narrows, where Italian subs and e-boats, what the Western

Allies called Italian fast attack craft, were waning.

And as they were based on the German Espoot, they were to be respected and feared.

Still, the ships of Pedestal came on.

As the various merchant ships and their escorts slowly came together, so too did Admiral

D'Azara's attack fleet, and its number of 17 vessels was worth worrying over.

Admiral D'Azara, with two light cruisers and three destroyers, was heading east from

Sardinia, making for the Torinian Sea.

Sailing west from Sicily, to meet them were two heavy cruisers and six destroyers.

This left, the battleship Tray Stey, with her own destroyer and e-boat escort, which

had departed northern Italy to also join up, but being a battleship, the rest of the Italian

crews felt better for having her around.

The last ship, the cruiser Atendolo, would put this fighting force over the top.

What should have been Pedestal's last hours, instead, were overshadowed by intense infighting

between the Italians and the Germans.

As covered last time, D'Azara and those representing him wanted air cover for his

force, as it destroyed Pedestal.

Their fear was that the multibased planes might sink some of them before, during or after,

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