Zara versus Barham at Cape Matapan

[Antonio Bonomi]

Hello everybody,

somebody, as usual, changed/modified the events in order to provide a better story, ... like for the HMS Glorious sinking ... or at Denmark Strait ... and it happened also at Cape Matapan.

That fatal night, between March 28 and 29th 1941, the Zara reacted firing a 37/54 mm gun, hitting the Barham between the 2 projectors ( one on the funnel and one on the main tower ) that were illuminating the Italian heavy cruiser, ... causing casualties and 8 dead sailors, ...  forcing Barham out of the battle line, ... than the Valiant finished Zara off.

Here the truth :

http://www.leganavale.it/wps/wcm/connect/lni/0b9ee23b-e5d8-42d0-8104-c97c7e24598d/09_13art4.pdf?MOD=AJPERES&CACHEID=0b9ee23b-e5d8-42d0-8104-c97c7e24598d

The Barham 8 sailors loss was reported few days after, on April 3rd, 1941.

http://www.naval-history.net/xDKCas1941-04APR.htm

Here some more details :

http://www.kbismarck.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=33&p=65647#p65647

I have found this occurrence following the court martial request for Denmark Strait that Churchill asked on May/June 1941 but never happened, ... due to war propaganda needs.

Somebody was telling me that those cover up activities by Royal Navy Admiralty never happened, ... that I was following a word by a person suffering for dementia ( Adm Tovey ) and used Matapan as example.

Ironically, ... also in Cape Matapan battle, ... I have found the same approach and way to do things ... and Enrico Cernuschi article is just a confirmation ... even if he still missed the precise list of the 8 dead sailors of Barham I have found on that Royal Navy website.

            Bye / Gruss  Antonio 

[Platon Alexiades]

Hello Antonio,

I am afraid you are misinformed. The eight men killed you quote were from the drifter HMT BAHRAM (not the battleship HMS BARHAM) which was mined and sunk in the Humber estuary on 3 April 1941. This drifter of 72 GRT was built in 1924 and apparently  hit a German aerial mine. There was only one survivor.
So there was no conspiracy to cover-up casualties at Matapan. This does not mean that the British ships might not have been hit by a few small rounds of artillery. This is quite possible but they did not cause any significant damage or casualties.

Best regards,

Platon

[Antonio Bonomi]

Hello everybody,

thanks Platon, you are right and I have been informed about it already, I stand corrected here.

Still there is one problem about Cape Matapan official declarations :

Adm Cunningham declared no damages and no casualties.

The report ADM 223-89 declared damages by few direct hits received.

Why we do not have the damage report ?   
Who fired from the Italian side to which British warship ?
Where there casualties ?

Enrico Cernuschi article opens a very interesting possibility about Zara firing at Barham, and that is the reason why I looked in that direction at first.

Still we need to find out the truth here as well, ... I understand about war propaganda intentional cover up of the real events, ... it happened all over the seas on WW2, ...  but just like in the Denmark Strait case, ... on the HMS Glorious sinking ...and in many other occurrences ... we would like to know the truth 74 years after the events.

    Bye / Gruss   Antonio