The initial encounter should have favored ships designed specifically to kill destroyers, yet the four British destroyers remained in action for nearly an hour. HMAS Sydney then joined with the same eight-gun broadside as a Giussano but with useful protection over machinery and magazines. A shell disabled Colleoni's boilers and guns, leaving it unable to maneuver before Ilex and Hyperion finished it with torpedoes. Bande Nere escaped only after Sydney ran short of ammunition, demonstrating that trial speed did not reliably create tactical disengagement. The surviving cruiser could then keep the much slower Warspite outside gun range, a useful contrast between escaping a battleship and escaping another light cruiser.
Chapter · 50:39-58:39
Cape Spada tests the destroyer-hunter claim
At Cape Spada, two Giussanos failed to dispose of four ordinary British destroyers and could not use their speed to escape when HMAS Sydney joined the action.