Italians in Crete (part 3): another day, another struggle

In part 2 of this series I have described a failed German landing attempt to at Crete despite the brave actions of the Italian torpedo boat Lupo.
There was a second troop transport flottilla that should have departed from Milos island the 20th of May but that did not happen until the 22th due to the vessels poor state and quality.
The role of escorting this time was taken by the Sagittario, another Spica -class torpedo boat like Lupo.

Tp-Sagittario
Italian torpedo boat Sagittario

The ships took off from Milos during the night but in the morning the Italian navy command ordered to go back to where they came, probably due to heavy British activity reported in the area.
After a few minutes from this message the Sagittario sighted anti aerial activity ahead: a British fleet composed by the cruisers Naiad, Perth, Calcutta and Carlisle and the destroyers Kandahar, Kingston and Nubian was being attacked by German Stukas.
The torpedo boat immediately started laying a smoke screen to protect the convoy while steering towards East at the same time, in order to draw the British units away.
The Sagittario came close to the enemy until a distance of 12Km was reached between them, exchanging fire in the meantime.
This fight lasted about half an hour, after that the British fleet disangaged, uncertain wheter the smoke screen was concealing other units and under constant threat from the Luftwaffe.
The latter mistakenly targeted Sagittario as well after this encounter, German Stukas tried to bomb the torpedo boat several times until it was finally able to properly identify itself.
The Sagittario (along with the British ships) sustained only minor damages during the clash and was able to safely return to Milos accomapanying the convoy, its commander received the Gold Medal of Military Valour for his actions.

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