The Australian cruiser HMAS Sydney and the British destroyers HMS Hasty, HMS Havock, HMS Hero, HMS Hyperion and HMS Ilex were on a sweep into the Aegean Sea. They were sent to intercept two reported Italian cruisers. In the action that followed, the Italian light cruiser Bartolomeo Colleoni is halted off Cape Spada, at the north west tip of Crete, by Sydney's gunfire. Later she was finished off with torpedoes from the destroyers. The Italian light cruiser Giovanni delle Bande Nere manages to escape.

23 Dec, 1941
The German submarine U-79 was sunk in the Mediterranean north of Sollum, in position 32.15N, 25.19E, by depth charges from the British destroyers HMS Hasty and HMS Hotspur.