The British success alleviated the pressure from Winston Churchill and the Admiralty in London on Admiral Andrew Cunningham to do more about Italian supply convoys.

On 4 April, the Admiralty pressed Admiral Andrew Cunningham, the commander of the Mediterranean Fleet to bombard Tripoli, the principal entrepôt of Italian Libya but Cunningham thought that a bombardment would not inflict serious damage and would expose the ships involved to air attacks from bases in Tripoli and Sicily which was too risky to contemplate.

Another scheme was to use the obsolete battleship HMS Centurion as a block ship but Cunningham doubted that it could be sailed from Britain through the narrows between Sicily and Tunisia then survive the 180 nmi (210 mi; 330 km) from Malta to Tripoli undetected.

Churchill sent a directive on 14 April that the main task of the Mediterranean Fleet was to cut the Axis supply link from Italy to Libya regardless of losses.

[1] The usual route for Italian convoys from Italy to Libya was round the west of Sicily and down the Tunisian coast to Tripoli with occasional excursions to Benghazi.

The route through Tunisian coastal waters was about 400 nmi (740 km; 460 mi) for which fighter escort in the central part of the journey was difficult to provide so it was usually traversed at night.

The move of the German 5th Light Motorised Division began at the start of February 1941 and by March fifteen convoys had arrived carrying 25,000 men, 8,500 vehicles and 26,000 long tons (26,000 t) of supplies and equipment.

In the afternoon of 11 April an Axis convoy of four freighters and thee torpedo boats, which had sailed from Palermo for Tripoli, was spotted heading southwards between Lampione Island and the Kerkennah Banks, which extend about 30 nmi (35 mi; 56 km) east of Sfax, by a British reconnaissance aeroplane.

The 14th Destroyer Flotilla was ordered to attack the convoy in conjunction with Fairey Swordfish aircraft of the Fleet Air Arm (FAA).

The Italians now knew of the ships based at Malta and ninety minutes after dark, aware of the shadowing Swordfish aircraft, reversed course and sailed quickly north, going round the west of Pantellaria at 2:30 a.m. on 13 April.

The flotilla formed line ahead and increased speed to 26 kn (30 mph; 48 km/h) to get in front of the convoy near the Kerkennah Number 4 buoy.

[7] The bad weather led to the fighters being grounded and only one of two SM.79 bombers managing to take off from Syracuse at 5:15 p.m. before returning early at 6:45 p.m. without seeing the British destroyers.

At 0:44 a.m. early on 16 April, about 6 nmi (11 km; 6.9 mi) off the Kerkennah Number 4 buoy, Mack altered course to 310° with another change at 1:00 a.m. to bring the destroyers onto the opposite course of the convoy.

Jervis commenced firing at 2:20 a.m. at Baleno which was to starboard at 2,400 yd (2,200 m) achieving hits with its main guns and pom-poms.

[10] Tarigo passed down the starboard side of the British destroyers, suffering severe damage from the fire of Jervis and Mohawk.

The gun-crews on Janus could not train the main armament on Tarigo due to its speed but the pom-pom gunners obtained hits.

At 2:41 a.m. Janus turned to port and engaged Sabaudia to the east, which disappeared in a big explosion, smoke and flames towering 2,000 ft (610 m) above the sea.

Janus closed to 2,000 yd (1,800 m) to finish off Tarigo, which suffered an explosion amidships, followed by a fire and developed a list to starboard, obviously sinking.

Nubian, having reported to Mack that Mohawk had been torpedoed, spotted Lampo to port and engaged, soon leaving it on fire and sinking.

Just after 4:00 a.m. the three remaining British destroyers sailed for Malta, low cloud preventing air attacks, the ships reaching harbour at 10:00 a.m. on 16 April.

[5] Commander Pietro de Cristofaro was posthumously awarded the Medaglia d'Oro, the highest Italian military decoration.

Adana sank several hours after the engagement and the wreck of Arta was destroyed by the crew of the submarine Upholder, using explosive charges, on the night of 26 April 1941.