Qualla: Attack on Convoy BN 7

Attack on Convoy BN 7: Introduction

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit An unknown serviceman of the Regia Marina, Public domain. At 06:35 on the morning of 21 October 1940, off the Eritrean coast near Harmil Island, a torpedo from the British destroyer HMS Kimberley struck the Italian destroyer Francesco Nullo amidships and broke it in two. Most of the Italian crew had already abandoned ship on the orders of their commander, Lieutenant Commander Costantino Borsini. Borsini himself refused to leave. His young assistant, Seaman Vincenzo Ciaravolo, watched from a lifeboat, then made a decision that seaman have been making about their captains since the age of sail: he jumped back aboard to accompany his commander. Both men drowned when the ship went down. The Attack on Convoy BN 7 was a small action in an overlooked theater of the Second World War, but it came to stand for what the Red Sea campaign was actually like - confused, mismanaged, personally costly, and decided in the dark.

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Image: An unknown serviceman of the Regia Marina | Public domain

Attack on Convoy BN 7: The Red Sea Problem

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit David Stanley from Nanaimo, Canada, CC BY 2.0. When Italy entered the war in June 1940, Mussolini's East African empire sat astride one of the most important sea lanes on earth. The Red Sea is a narrow, hot corridor between Africa and Arabia, walled by desert to the west and mountain to the east, and shipping funnels through ...

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Image: David Stanley from Nanaimo, Canada | CC BY 2.0

Attack on Convoy BN 7: Convoy BN 7

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit David Stanley from Nanaimo, Canada, CC BY 2.0. The convoy was northbound through the Red Sea in mid-October 1940: thirty-two Norwegian, French, Greek, and Turkish merchant ships escorted by the light cruiser HMS Leander (New Zealand Division), the destroyer HMS Kimberley, the Australian sloop HMAS Yarra, the sloop HMS Aucklan...

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Image: David Stanley from Nanaimo, Canada | CC BY 2.0

Attack on Convoy BN 7: A Night of Torpedoes

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Uwe Dedering, CC BY-SA 4.0. On the evening of 20 October four Italian destroyers sortied from Massawa - Sauro and Francesco Nullo as the fast pair, Pantera and Leone as the slower, more heavily armed pair. The plan was for one section to draw off the escorts while the other hit the merchants. At 02:19 on 21...

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Image: Uwe Dedering | CC BY-SA 4.0

Attack on Convoy BN 7: Off Harmil Island

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit David Stanley from Nanaimo, Canada, CC BY 2.0. Kimberley, pursuing alone, caught Nullo at 05:40 off Harmil Island, where the Italians had installed four 120mm shore batteries. At 05:53 Kimberley opened fire. Nullo, mistaking the British destroyer for its companion Sauro, took four minutes to return fire. Nullo's commander Bor...

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Image: David Stanley from Nanaimo, Canada | CC BY 2.0

Attack on Convoy BN 7: The Men Who Died

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. The Italian survivors of Nullo were pulled from the water by sailors from the Harmil Island coastal battery. Borsini and Seaman Ciaravolo did not survive. Italy later recognized Ciaravolo's decision to rejoin his captain in the sinking ship as an act of exceptional devotion. The ...

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Image: Public domain