Operation Harpoon (1942)

Operation Harpoon and 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
2 destroyers sunk; 4 merchant ships sunk; 2 light cruisers damaged; 3 destroyers damaged; 1 minesweeper damaged; 1 merchant ship damaged; 101+ personnel killed; 20+ wounded; 217 (POW)	1 destroyer damaged; 29 aircraft destroyed; 12 killed
	Pantelleria class=notpageimage\| The Island of Pantelleria in the Strait of Sicily, central Mediterranean

Operation Harpoon was one of 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 operation from Gibraltar.

Vigorous convoy was driven back by the Italian fleet after being badly damaged by Axis aircraft. Two of the six ships in the Harpoon convoy completed the journey, at the cost of several Allied warships. The naval action fought on 15 June between an Italian naval squadron and the escort of the Harpoon convoy is known as the Battle of Pantelleria (Battaglia di Mezzo Giugno [Battle of mid-June]).

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 (Servizio Informazioni Militare).