The convoy of 19 landing craft, which was expected to be escorted by the three vessels sunk by the Royal Navy, was not intercepted and it reached its destination by 2 November.

After the Italian capitulation of 8 September 1943, following the Allied invasion of Italy, the Yugoslav Partisans captured most of the eastern Adriatic coast in the region of Dalmatia.

[3] In the second half of 1944 the Royal Navy sent a flotilla into the Adriatic, both to secure the area and to attack German coastal shipping.

The coastal shipping became increasingly significant for the German forces deployed in the Independent State of Croatia, and especially Dalmatia—as road and rail routes became unsafe for use because of activity of the Yugoslav Partisans.

[1] To deny that option, the Royal Navy initiated Operation Exterminate, primarily aimed at destruction of German corvettes.

[10] At the time, the only operational vessels of the 2nd Escort Flotilla were Torpedoboot Ausland destroyer TA20 (ex-Italian Urakaze-class destroyer Audace),[11] with a crew of 113,[4] and U-Boot Jäger corvettes UJ 202 and UJ 208 These were ex-Italian Gabbiano-class corvettes Melpómene and Spingarda,[5] with crews of about 110 each,[9] and fast minesweeper R 187.

[5] The coast watchers landed at 19:50,[5] the same time the MTBs reported sighting of two enemy "destroyers" sailing south—in fact the two corvettes.

Using radar, the corvettes detected the destroyers on their port side at 20:15 and ordered general quarters, while UJ 202 fired two star shells.

Her crew managed to put out fire on her stern, but another blaze amidships blocked all communications between the forward and aft sections of the vessel.

The combat engineer landing craft reached Kraljevica, except for two which made port in Senj due to poor weather conditions.

The Kriegsmarine sortied TA40 and TA45 corvettes as well as S 33 and S 154 E-boats to look for survivors, finding seventeen TA20 crew members on the islet of Trstenik on 3 November.

Dwindling German naval assets in the area resulted in limited action, while the last recorded loss was TA45 torpedoed by Royal Navy MTBs in April.

[16] The shipwreck of TA20 was found by Italian wreck divers in 1999: she lies on a part of sea floor near a commercial trawling zone, and is regularly obscured by large quantities of silt.

[14] The northern corvette rests on her keel, with her bow pointing to Rab and her stern partially destroyed, either from hostile fire or secondary explosions from her own depth charges.

Several depth charges are still found on her stern in Gatteschi-type racks indicating that the southern corvette is the wreck of UJ 208.