Scipione Africano fought a night engagement against four British motor torpedo boats (MTBs) during its passage of the Strait of Messina.

At least two MTBs launched their torpedoes, whilst the cruiser fired its main and secondary guns while sailing at maximum speed.

[3] When the Allied invasion of Sicily began, anticipating a blockade of the Strait of Messina by American and British naval forces, the Regia Marina ordered Scipione Africano (Captain Ernesto Pellegrini) to sail from La Spezia down the west coast of Italy to Taranto in Apulia, to remedy the lack of fast cruisers in the Ionian Sea.

Some days before, on the night of 12/13 July, British motor torpedo boat MTB 81 had sunk the German submarine U-561 in the northern approaches of the straits.

[5] As she reached the straits, Scipione detected four small vessels on its Gufo set, lying 10,000 m (10 km; 6.2 mi) ahead, between Reggio di Calabria and Cape Pellaro.

We were lying with engines stopped two miles south of Messina, in a flat calm with a full moon silhouetting us nicely.

The Italian report claims that the engagement lasted no more than three minutes and that the first Allied craft to be hit by 13.5 cm (5.3 in) rounds was the closest boat to starboard, which was left in a "sinking condition".

The analysis of these remains produced some controversy, when Italian sources claimed to have sunk MTB 305, which was not in the Mediterranean, because of an inscription from a recovered wooden panel.

[10][7] At the end of the action, Scipione was bombarded by German and Italian coastal artillery, which caused splinter damage and wounded two seamen.

[16] About an hour after Scipione passed the straits, the Italian submarine Ambra, escorted by the torpedo boat Partenope, reached Messina, also from La Spezia.

[18] The following night MTB 75 was hit and seriously damaged by shore batteries in the Straits of Messina, while on the evening of 19 July, an unidentified U-boat was depth-charged by British small units and had a narrow escape off Reggio di Calabria.

[19] The day after the Cassibile armistice was made public, Scipione escorted the corvette Baionetta, transporting the Italian royal family from Pescara to Brindisi where she came under German air attack.