Giovanni Acerbi was the second of four Giuseppe Sirtori-class destroyers built for the Italian Regia Marina (Royal Navy) during World War I.

Reclassified as a torpedo boat in 1929, she was serving in the Red Sea Flotilla when Italy entered World War II in June 1940.

News of the attacks reached Brindisi at 04:10, and at 04:50 the British Royal Navy light cruiser HMS Bristol — limited by mechanical problems to a maximum speed of 24 knots (44 km/h; 28 mph) — and the Italian destroyers Antonio Mosto and Rosolino Pilo departed Brindisi, heading northeast to intercept the Austro-Hungarian naval formation.

[3]}[4] Dartmouth, Giovanni Acerbi, and Simone Schiaffino rendezvoused with Bristol, Rosolino Pilo, and Antonio Mosto and combined into a single formation under Acton′s command between 06:56 and 07:12, limiting all the ships to Bristol′s maximum speed of 24 knots (44 km/h; 28 mph).

[3][4] While making 24 knots (44 km/h; 28 mph) on a course of 035º at 07:45, the Allied ships sighted smoke astern , which they soon identified as Balaton and Csepel, returning from their attack on the convoy.

[3] At either 07:50 or 8:00, according to different sources, Acton ordered Aquila and the destroyers to attack Balaton and Cespel while the larger ships maneuvered to cut off their escape route toward the Austro-Hungarian naval base at Cattaro.

Antonio Mosto and Giovanni Acerbi joined the two British light cruisers, moving into formation aft of Bristol, and at around 09:05, with Dartmouth in the lead, Dartmouth, Bristol, Antonio Mosto, and Giovanni Acerbi positioned themselves between Aquila and the three Austro-Hungarian scout cruisers.

[4] Giovanni Acerbi opened fire at a range of 9,500 metres (10,400 yards), then, acting on the initiative of her commanding officer, passed the lagging Bristol and took position behind Dartmouth.

During the voyage, while the Allied ships were making 20 to 25 knots (37 to 46 km/h; 23 to 29 mph), the Imperial German Navy submarine UC-25, operating under the Austro-Hungarian flag as "U-89," attacked them, hitting Dartmouth with a torpedo on her port side under her bridge.

[3] On 29 September 1917, Giovanni Acerbi put to sea with the rest of her destroyer squadron (Franceco Stocco, Giuseppe Cesare Abba, and Vincenzo Giordano Orsini), the scout cruiser Sparviero (flagship of Prince Ferdinando of Udine, who had overall command of the formation), and a destroyer squadron made up of Ardente, Ardito, and Audace to support a bombing attack by 10 Italian Royal Army Caproni aircraft against Pola, Austria-Hungary.

Giovanni Acerbi departed Venice with Animoso, Ardente, Audace, Francesco Stocco, Giuseppe Cesare Abba, and Vincenzo Giordano Orsini to counter the bombardment.

[3] On 10 February 1918 Giovanni Acerbi, Ardito, Aquila, Ardente, Francesco Stocco, and Giuseppe Sirtori — and, according to some sources, the motor torpedo boat MAS 18 — steamed to Porto Levante, now a part of Porto Viro, in case they were needed to support an incursion into the harbor at Bakar (known to the Italians as Buccari) by MAS motor torpedo boats.

Sources disagree on whether they remained in port or put to sea to operate in distant support,[6] but in any event, their intervention was unnecessary.

[3] While Giovanni Acerbi remained behind to assist Francesco Stocco, the Austro-Hungarians withdrew toward Pola and the Italians resumed operations in support of their own torpedo boats.

On the morning of 4 November, Giovanni Acerbi, Giuseppe Sirtori, Francesco Stocco, and Vincenzo Giordano Orsini got underway from Venice with the battleship Emanuele Filiberto, flagship of Contrammiraglio (Counter Admiral) Guglielmo Rainer, in command of the operation, to take possession of Fiume.

Giovanni Acerbi, under the command of Capitano di corvetta (Corvette Captain) Po, arrived at Opatija at 12:00 on 4 November, where she disembarked a platoon of sailors with a machine gun and raised an Italian flag.

[7] On 8 November, Giovanni Acerbi joined Vincenzo Giordano Orsini at Lošinj, an island with an Italian majority as well as numerous Yugoslavian soldiers, where there were strong tensions.

[7] At Lošinj, tensions were not resolved until 20 November, when Italian fores definitively occupied the island, disarmed the Yugoslavian soldiers and evacuated them to Fiume, and seized war material, a yacht, and some merchant ships.

[8] In 1935 her commanding officer was Tenente di vascello (Ship-of-the-Line Lieutenant) Adriano Foscari, a future recipient of the Gold Medal of Military Valor.

On the morning of 27 June 1940 Giovanni Acerbi got underway from Massawa with the destroyers Leone and Pantera to assist the Italian submarine Perla, which had run aground after methyl chloride fumes poisoned a large part of her crew.

[13][14] Leone returned to Massawa almost immediately due to damage, and the rest of the formation subsequently had to reverse course when it received a warning that a larger Allied naval force composed of the Royal New Zealand Navy light cruiser HMNZS Leander and the British destroyers HMS Kandahar and HMS Kingston had put to sea to destroy Perla.

[13][14] The Italian Regia Aeronautica (Royal Air Force) intervened and saved Perla, which then underwent temporary repairs and was towed to Massawa on 20 July 1940.

According to one account, British aircraft — either Royal Air Force bombers or Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm Fairey Swordfish torpedo bombers from the aircraft carrier HMS Eagle,[21] according to different sources — sank her in the harbor at Massawa on 4 April 1941,[1] a few days before the British occupation of the city.

[12][15][22] According to other sources, however, Giovanni Acerbi, still floating, was towed to the mouth of the military port at Massawa and scuttled there with the steamers Impero, Moncalieri, Oliva, and XXIII Marzobefore the fall of the city to the Allies in order to block access to the port as part of the plan the Italians drew up to render the port of Massawa unusable before Allied forces conquered it, and papers drawn up by the British occupation authorities state that the wreck of Giovanni Acerbi was in fact found in that position.