Battle of the Espero convoy. Part 2

PFilliputtiA16010004.jpg

Title

Battle of the Espero convoy. Part 2

Description

A fire is raging on the deck of the Espero. Explosions send large amounts of water shooting up into the sky. A second vessel, engulfed in flames and smoke, is visible in the background.

Label reads “8”; signed by the author; caption reads “(2) … S’udi [sic] il comando “ai posti di combattimento” gli inglesi vomitavano un fuoco intenso e preciso, l’Espero rispose tirando a diciottomila d’alzo, un tiro audace di sfida. I colpi si infittivano a dritta, e a mancina del caccia, a prora e a poppa. Un colpo arrivò sul deposito di munizioni a poppa, trà fumo e fiamme si videro balzare fuori i marina ustionati, un grido di allarme “si imbarca acqua”, i cannonieri dell‘Espero continuarono ad abbassare l’alzo nel tiro.
Quattrordicimila metri, tredicimila metri, diecimila, ottomila, un‘altro colpo giunse, e con immenso fragore, fece scoppiare una caldaia. La nave ormai era sbandata: vibrava, fumava, dava gli ultimi aneliti di disperazione…”

Caption translates as: “ (2)… The order was heard: ‘Battle stations!’, the British fire was intense and accurate; the Espero fired back at eighteen thousand elevation, a bold act of defiance. Fire intensified, port and starboard, bow and stern. One of the shots hit the aft magazine, we saw the burnt sailors running for their lives among smoke and flames; a cry of alarm: ‘inrush of water”, Espero gunners kept reducing the elevation; fourteen thousand metres, thirteen thousand metres, ten thousand, eight thousand, another shot hit the vessel making one of the boilers explode. The vessel was now listing: it vibrated, billowed out smoke, drew its last dying breath in despair...”

Temporal Coverage

Spatial Coverage

Language

Type

Format

One tempera on paper, pasted on mount board

Rights

This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.

Identifier

PFilliputtiA16010004

Citation

Angiolino Filiputti, “Battle of the Espero convoy. Part 2,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed March 28, 2024, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/94.

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