September 1st, 1940
For the Allies, Operation Ravenne ends in an undeniable failure, since their main objective, Pantelleria, has escaped them. The material losses are far from being negligible: a troop transport is sunk [1], a destroyer is seriously damaged, a heavy cruiser and a destroyer [2] damaged, as well as two other transports; 22 aircraft are lost: 18 shot down (15 French, 2 Belgian and 1 British) and 4 destroyed on the ground (3 French, 1 British). The human losses are heavy: in total, 554 killed and missing, 292 wounded and 4 prisoners. The landing forces have 432 killed and missing, 232 wounded, most of them caused by the loss of the Newhaven. It is the Legion (and especially the 4th REI) that suffers the heaviest blows: 424 killed and missing, 214 wounded, almost one battalion out of the four engaged lost. In addition, among the sailors, military and civilian, 111 are killed and 55 wounded (in particular the 59 killed and missing and 15 wounded from the HMS Gallant, the 31 dead and missing and 16 wounded from the Newhaven) and, among the airmen, 11 killed, 9 wounded and 4 prisoners.
On the other side, Italian losses are less. In material terms, apart from the two batteries of Lampedusa and the damage suffered by the defences and other installations of Pantelleria, there are above all the losses suffered by the Regia Aeronautica. Taking into account the bombing of Bizerte and Malta, it loses 45 aircraft: 22 fighters [3] and 23 bombers [4]. As for the Regia Marina, it only has to deplore two provisionally sunk MAS, one torpedo boat and three MAS damaged [5]. The human toll is 188 killed, 353 wounded and 460 prisoners. It is obviously increased by the fall of the Pelagie Islands, whose garrisons had been put out of action or captured (68 killed, 162 wounded, 439 prisoners). On Pantelleria, the garrison has 62 killed and 114 wounded (plus 25 dead and 58 wounded in the civilian population). The Regia Marina has only 13 killed and 49 wounded. The Regia Aeronautica suffers greatly: 45 killed, 28 wounded, 21 prisoners.
The Italian victory owes much to the Picchiatelli, the fact that their pilots are all highly trained in dive-bombing, which explains the very good results obtained [6]. In return, the Allies are now aware of their presence within the Regia Aeronautica. And the nine aircraft that were shot down or severely damaged will be missed in the following days...
It goes without saying that after many defeats, the victory of Pantelleria has in Italy the effect of a divine surprise, that hardly spoils the loss of the small Pelagies. Skillfully exploited by the propaganda, the circumstances of this success confirm the reputation of boldness and fighting spirit of the Regia Marina's torpedo boats, boosted the shaken prestige of the Regia Aeronautica and gives the MILMART its letters of nobility. We do not skimp on the decorations. If the CF Del Cima will have the right to a silver medal to the Military Valor and his two subordinates to a bronze medal, the greatest number of awards will naturally go to the MILMART gunners and the airmen, many of which were awarded posthumously in both cases.
The events of the next few days, however, somewhat disrupted these celebrations.
On the side of the Franco-British, the capture of Pelagies is a very poor consolation to the failure of Pantelleria. But this one, attributed to the bad luck, will hardly affect their morale. Some unhappy spirits will point out (on the one hand) that the infatuations of Winston Churchill do not necessarily rhyme with victory and (on the other hand) that the tactical flair of the Admiral of the Fleet seems to be seriously blunted - all of which will weigh more on Darlan's prestige than Churchill's, who will smile again with the operations in the Dodecanese.
Sir Roger Keyes was good enough to praise the conduct of Rear Admiral Derrien, before a French war council confirmed this opinion. We can leave to Edmond Derrien the
the last word, pronounced a few years later: "At the time, I cursed the bad luck that had made us fall on these Italian torpedo boats that were passing by. Now that I am better informed about Pantelleria's defenses, I am convinced that if they had passed us without seeing us, the affair would have ended in a massacre, our losses would have been much heavier and, occupied by operation Marignan, we would have had to give up". Who knows... It is today a popular wargame subject.
[1] Not to mention the oil barge MN Bitume and the minesweeper HMS Fermoy, which were not lost during Operation Ravenne.
[2] The Trombe. Despite having one less gun, L’Iphigénie was able to stay on the line.
[3] 10 Fiat CR.42 and 12 Fiat G.50.
[4] 11 SM.79, 5 Ju 87, 3 BR.20 and 4 SM.81.
[5] Two torpedo boats and four MAS were very slightly damaged.
[6] All of them came from the 96th First Way Group, with the calamitous SM.85. Nevertheless, they had had a training, especially anti-ship training.
