Red Sea Flotilla

Red Sea Flotilla
Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, with modern boundaries
Active	to June 1940
Country	Italy
Branch	Regia Marina
Size	7 destroyers, 8 submarines, 5 motor torpedo boats and auxiliary ships
Disbanded	April 1941
Commanders
Commander	Carlo Balsamo di Specchia Normandia (1939-December 1940) Mario Bonetti (December 1940-April 1941)

The Red Sea Flotilla was a unit of the Italian Royal Navy (Regia Marina Italia) based in Massawa, Eritrea, when Massawa was part of Italian East Africa. In World War II, the Red Sea Flotilla was active against the British Royal Navy East Indies Station from Italy's declaration of war on 10 June 1940 until the fall of Massawa on 8 April 1941.

The location of the squadron meant it was isolated from the main Italian bases in the Mediterranean by distance and British dispositions. The British capture of Massawa and other Italian ports in the region ended the Italian naval presence in the region in April 1941.

While, in general, the Red Sea Flotilla was not used aggressively by the Italians, the British viewed it as a potential threat to Allied convoys travelling East African waters between the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian Ocean. This was a vital route for British forces operating from Egypt. The Red Sea Flotilla was especially well situated to attack convoys headed from the Gulf of Aden through the Red Sea and to the Suez Canal, after the Mediterranean was closed to Allied merchant ships, which had to take a much longer passage around the Cape of Good Hope.

On 10 June 1940, the day Italy declared war, the Italian Red Sea Flotilla had seven destroyers organized into two squadrons, a squadron of five Motor Torpedo Boats (Motoscafo Armato Silurante, or MAS) and eight submarines organized into two squadrons. The main base was at Massawa, with other bases at Assab (also in Eritrea) and Kismayu, in southern Italian Somaliland.