Australian external affairs minister Billy Hughes requested a statement of regret and financial compensation from the acting Italian consul-general in Australia.

[4] During the first stages of the war in the Mediterranean, she participated in the Battle of Punta Stilo, on 9 July 1940, and in December the cruiser shelled Greek army positions north of Corfu.

In April 1941, Raimondo Montecuccoli laid down an extensive minefield off Cape Bon, along with her sister Muzzio Attendolo and the cruisers Eugenio di Savoia and Duca D'Aosta.

Two Allied freighters from the convoy, the cargo ship Burdwan and the large tanker Kentucky, both of them brought to a standstill by previous air attacks and abandoned by their escorts, were finished off by the Italian squadron.

[5] While chasing off the escorting vessels of the crippled ships, and according to post-battle reports from both sides, Raimondo Montecuccoli scored a hit on the minesweeper HMS Hebe at "approx.

[9] Raimondo Montecuccoli was heavily damaged by USAAF bombers in Naples on 4 December 1942 with the loss of 44 of her crew, but having been repaired just weeks before the armistice in August 1943, she was operative again.