On the night of 19/20 January, the British destroyers HMS Kelvin and Javelin patrolled off Zuwarah, Libya, to cut off the escape of the last Italian ships from Tripoli.

[3] On the night of 19/20 January, the British destroyers Kelvin and Javelin patrolled off Zuwarah, Libya to cut off the escape of the last Italian ships from Tripoli.

The ships were the Tripoli minesweeping flotilla (Lieutenant Giuseppe Di Bartolo), which had been ordered to leave the city for Tunisia and then to Italy, to avoid capture.

The flotilla was made up of four small minesweeping tugs (RD 31, RD 36, RD 37 and RD 39, of which RD 36 and 37 had Italian Guardia di Finanza crews); the trawler Scorfano (the largest ship in the convoy); the small tanker Irma; the auxiliary minesweepers DM 12 Guglielmo Marconi (a requisitioned brigantine); R 26 Angelo Musco and R 224 Cinzia (two former fishing vessels); the auxiliary patrol vessel V 66 Astrea (a motor sailing vessel) and the pump boat S. Barbara (towed by Scorfano).

RD 37 and Scorfano were sunk with no survivors; Marconi was set on fire but all of her crew escaped before she sank and Irma was finished off with a torpedo.