A Deadly Trap The Italian Navy Massacre at the Battle of Cape Matapan

The Italians knew that the British were coming after them. They knew it all too well. But the thought of backing down was humiliating. If they went the easy way, the Germans would mock them. The Regia Marina had to prove to the Kriegsmarine that it could handle itself in combat. What the Italian sailors did not know, however, was that the British had read the Italian naval Enigma and were following their every move. Then, at 8:12am on March 28, 1941, Admiral Angelo Iachino s task force spotted several Royal Navy warships off Cape Matapan in Greece and went after them.