from https://www.naval-history.net/
MARCH 1941
Greece - In the space of three weeks in March, 60,000 British and Dominion troops were carried from North Africa to Greece, escorted by the Royal Navy (Operation ‘Lustre’).
6th March - Italian submarine “ANFITRITE” attacked a troop convoy east of Crete and was sunk by escorting destroyer HMS Greyhound.
26th March - At anchor in Suda Bay, northern Crete, heavy cruiser HMS York was badly damaged by Italian explosive motor boats and beached. She was later wrecked by bombing and abandoned when Crete was evacuated in May.
28th March - Mines laid by Royal Navy submarine HMS Rorqual west of Sicily on the 25th, sank two Italian supply ships the next day and Italian torpedo boat “CHINOTTO” on the 28th.
28th March - Battle of Cape Matapan - As ships of the Mediterranean Fleet covered troop movements to Greece, ‘Ultra’ intelligence was received reporting the sailing of an Italian battlefleet with one battleship, six heavy and two light cruisers plus destroyers to attack the convoy routes. On the 27th March , Vice-Adm Pridham-Wippell with cruisers HMS Ajax, HMS Gloucester , HMS Orion and the Australian HMAS Perth and eight destroyers sailed from Greek waters for a position south of Crete. Adm Cunningham with carrier hms Formidable and battleships HMS Warspite, HMS Barham and HMS Valiant left Alexandria on the same day to meet the cruisers. Around 08.30 on the 28th March , south of Crete, Adm Pridham-Wippell was in action with an Italian cruiser squadron. Just before noon he found himself between them and the Italian battleship “Vittorio Veneto” which had now come up. An attack by torpedo carrying Swordfish aircraft from Royal Navy carrier HMS Formidable failed to hit the Italian battleship, but enabled the British cruisers to extricate themselves. Mediterranean Fleet heavy units arrived, but their only chance of action was to slow down the Italians before they could reach Italy.
A second torpedo carrying Swordfish and Albacore strike at around 15.00 hit “Vittori Veneto” with one torpedo and slowed down Italian battleship, but only for a short while. At 19.30 a third strike southwest of Cape Matapan hit stopped Italian heavy cruiser Pola which was badly damaged with one torpedo. All this time, RAF aircraft were attacking but without success. Later that evening (still on the 28th), two more Italian heavy cruisers - Fiume and Zara with four destroyers were detached to help Pola. Before reaching her, Adm Cunningham’s ships detected them by radar and “FIUME”, “ZARA” and destroyers “ALFIERI” and “CARDUCCI” were crippled by the close range gunfire of HMS Barham , HMS Valiant and HMS Warspite. All four Italians were finished off by four destroyers led by the Australian destroyer HMAS Stuart. Early next morning on the 29th , POLA was found, partly abandoned. A Royal Navy boarding party entered the Pola , took Italian equipment , documents and two Italian Breda guns for intelligence analysis. After taking off the remaining crew, destroyers HMS Jervis and HMS Nubian sank her with torpedoes. The Royal Navy just lost one aircraft during entire battle. (an Albacore torpedo aircraft that hit battleship Vittorio Veneto. Damaged Italian battleship barely reached Taranto that day)
28th March - Mines laid by R class minelaying submarine HMS Rorqual west of Sicily on the 25th, sank two Italian supply ships the next day and torpedo boat “CHINOTTO” on the 28th.
31 March - Continuing her successes, Royal Navy submarine HMS Rorqual torpedoed and sank Italian submarine “CAPPONI” off northeast Sicily.
**31st March - Royal Navy Cruiser HMS BONAVENTURE with a Mediterranean Fleet cruiser force escorting a convoy from Greece to Egypt, was torpedoed and sunk to the southeast of Crete by Italian submarine Ambra.
Yugoslavia - On the 25th Yugoslavia joined the Tripartite Pact, but two days later an anti-Nazi coup toppled the Government.
North Africa - In command of German and Italian troops, Gen Rommel started his first offensive with the capture of El Agheila on the 24th. Within three weeks the British and Dominion forces were back in Sollum on the Egyptian side of the border.
Malta - Late in the month a small Malta convoy sailed from the east covered by the Mediterranean Fleet. These were the first supplies to arrive since the January ‘Excess’ operation. In the intervening two months Malta had been heavily attacked by the Axis air forces hoping to neutralise the island as a base for air and sea attacks against the supply routes to Libya.
Monthly Loss Summary
2 British or Allied merchant ships of 12,000 tons.