From the Captain’s Report:. . . an Italian force of two heavy cruisers of the Bolzano type and four light cruisers of the Cadorna type and the Bande Nere type . . .
ANOTHER signal ran to the masthead of the flagship, fluttered to await acknowledgment, and then descended.
“Starboard ten,” said the Captain, with the Navigating Lieutenant repeating the order. “Midships.”
The squadron now was far ahead of the convoy, and lying a little way distant from a straight line drawn from the convoy astern to the telltale smoke ahead, ready at a moment’s notice, that was to say, to interpose as might be necessary either with a smoke screen or with gunfire. Italians and British were heading directly for each other now at a combined speed of more than fifty miles an hour. It could not be long before th
