The Italian Naval Command goal was a small, high speed two-seat motor torpedo boat based on the Motoscafo da Turismo Modificato (MTM), itself an improved version of the MT motorboat which used an explosive charge as the warhead.

They were propelled by two 95 hp (71 kW) Alfa Romeo AR 6c outboard motors and developed a maximum speed of 34 kn (63 km/h; 39 mph) at full load.

Each MTSM was armed with a single 450 mm (18 in) torpedo amidships, behind the crew cockpit, and carried two 50 kg (110 lb) depth charges.

Little was achieved due to Allied air superiority, but the nighttime shelling by British destroyers gave an opportunity for the MTSMs.

Eridge was towed to Alexandria by HMS Aldenham, where she was declared a constructive total loss and was used as a base ship for the rest of the war and scrapped in 1946.

The next morning, the small craft was still adrift and the Italians attempted to take her to the coast, but a German Junkers Ju 87 "Stuka" strafed the boat by mistake and blew her to pieces.

Italian reports claim that in the night of 6 June 1942 a 4,000 ton Soviet freighter was torpedoed and crippled by an MTSM and later destroyed by German aircraft.