 On 16 June, Harwood reported that

In a later report, Harwood blamed the RAF for its inability to provide a sufficient number of aircraft capable of defeating the Italian battlefleet.The only success in Operation Julius was the arrival of two of the Harpoon ships at Malta; on land, Tobruk surrendered a few days after MW11 returned to port and by late June, the Eighth Army had retreated to El Alamein.The cruiser "Hermione", destroyers "Airedale", "Hasty" and "Nestor" and two merchant ships were sunk during Operation Vigorous; three cruisers, a destroyer and a corvette were damaged.