Qualla: Battle of Cape Spada https://qualla.com/battle-of-cape-spada en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:30 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/2/g/battle-of-cape-spada-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Battle of Cape Spada https://qualla.com/battle-of-cape-spada Battle of Cape Spada: Introduction https://qualla.com/battle-of-cape-spada/ Photo credit Arthur Conry (digitised and edited by Wiki-Ed), Public domain. Bartolomeo Colleoni was built to outrun anything she could not outshoot. Italian designers stripped her armor to make room for engines that pushed her past 37 knots in trials, the kind of speed a heavyweight boxer fears in a smaller man. On the morning of 19 July 1940, that speed was supposed to carry her safely from Tripoli to the Dodecanese. Instead it carried her into a fight she could not survive, in waters most of her crew had never seen, ten miles north of Cape Spada on the rocky northwestern corner of Crete.

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Image: Arthur Conry (digitised and edited by Wiki-Ed) | Public domain

]]> Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/2/g/battle-of-cape-spada-wp/sw2g-battle-of-cape-spada-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Battle of Cape Spada: Encounter at 0730 https://qualla.com/battle-of-cape-spada/ Photo credit Arthur Conry (digitised and edited by Wiki-Ed), Public domain. A small Royal Navy squadron was sweeping the Aegean for submarines: the light cruiser HMAS Sydney under Royal Australian Navy Captain John Collins, and five destroyers - Ilex, Hyperion, Hero, Hasty, and Havock. At about 0730 the destroyers spotted two unfamiliar silhouettes in th...

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Image: Arthur Conry (digitised and edited by Wiki-Ed) | Public domain

]]> Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/2/g/battle-of-cape-spada-wp/sw2g-battle-of-cape-spada-encounter-at-0730.mp3 0:06 2 full Battle of Cape Spada: The Chase Closes https://qualla.com/battle-of-cape-spada/ Photo credit Arthur Conry (digitised and edited by Wiki-Ed), Public domain. Sydney saw the Italians at 0826 and opened fire three minutes later. The Italian cruisers wheeled southwest, hoping to break clear, but the Cretan coast pinned them - they could not turn south without running aground. Their speed advantage shrank with every mile. At 0923 a 6-inch...

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]]> Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/2/g/battle-of-cape-spada-wp/sw2g-battle-of-cape-spada-the-chase-closes.mp3 0:06 3 full Battle of Cape Spada: The Cost https://qualla.com/battle-of-cape-spada/ Photo credit Arthur Conry (digitised and edited by Wiki-Ed), Public domain. Of Bartolomeo Colleoni's roughly 670 men, 555 survived. One hundred and twenty-one did not. The British destroyers picked up Italian sailors from oil-streaked water all afternoon, the same destroyers that had hunted them an hour before. Captain Novaro, mortally wounded by a shell...

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]]> Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/2/g/battle-of-cape-spada-wp/sw2g-battle-of-cape-spada-the-cost.mp3 0:06 4 full Battle of Cape Spada: Crete Looks On https://qualla.com/battle-of-cape-spada/ Photo credit Arthur Conry (digitised and edited by Wiki-Ed), Public domain. Cape Spada is a finger of pale limestone cliff at the western end of the Rodopou peninsula, the northernmost point of western Crete. From the cape today you can see across the Gulf of Kissamos to the smaller Gramvousa peninsula, with the Aegean stretching to a flat blue horizon w...

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]]> Fri, 24 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/w/2/g/battle-of-cape-spada-wp/sw2g-battle-of-cape-spada-crete-looks-on.mp3 0:06 5 full