On the night of 29/30 April, the destroyers made a sweep along the south coast of Sicily and encountered the merchant ship Fauna (575 GRT) escorted by German E-boats.

The Italian merchant ship Campobasso (3,566 GRT) had left Pantelleria island at 19:00 on 3 May, loaded with bombs, land-mines, motor transport and other supplies to the Axis forces in Tunisia.

[3] Perseo, equipped with a Metox radar detector, was alerted to the transmissions from the British destroyers and signalled a warning to Supermarina, the headquarters of the Regia Marina, that the convoy had been found.

[4] At 23:35, star shells burst overhead when the Italian ships were about 7 nmi (13 km; 8.1 mi) east of Kelibia (Cape Bon) and Campobasso was hit soon after and caught fire.

After the action a crewman on Perseo wrote Remembering the previous 15 January everyone knew what would happen; immediately the torpedo boat turned towards the enemy to launch.

[5] A second convoy, led by the Ciclone-class torpedo boat escort Tifone, loaded with aviation spirit, sailed with the merchant ship Belluno to Tunis from Trapani and managed to evade the British destroyers, after witnessing the destruction of Campobasso.

[8] From the night of 8/9 May, Paladin, with Jervis, Petard and Nubian, from Force K bombarded Kelibia and maintained a daylight blockade off Cape Bon with Force Q based at Bône (now Annaba), which comprised HMS Laforey, Loyal, Tartar and ORP Błyskawica with the Hunt-class destroyers HMS Zetland, Lamerton, Aldenham, Hursley, Wilton, Dulverton, Lauderdale and the Greek destroyer RHS Kanaris but had to paint their superstructures red to avoid attacks by friendly aircraft.