 The turn order was given at a hazardous manoeuvre for a large group of ships out of position, full of tired crews and menaced by Axis torpedo-boats and U-boats.As the turn was made the cruisers fell back and were attacked by the 3rd "Schnellbootflottille" ("Leutnant-zur-See" Siegfried Wuppermann); first at and hit "Newcastle" with one torpedo head on, which was screened by destroyers as damage-control parties worked on the damage and "Newcastle" soon worked back up to The destroyer was hit at were killed and the ship was so badly damaged that it was sunk by "Hotspur".As the sun rose, MW11 was heading east and at four Wellington torpedo-bombers from Malta found the Italian fleet, dropped flares and attacked but the ships made smoke and only one Wellington dropped torpedoes.