| CITTA' DI PALERMO (January 5, 1942) Italian passenger ship (5,413 tons) built in 1930 and converted to an auxiliary cruiser, left Brindisi for Patras escorting the motor vessel Calino. On board the Palermo were around 600 Italian troops. At 08:00 hrs. when three miles north-west of Cape Dukato she was struck by two torpedoes launched from HMS Proteus. The Palermo took only six minutes to sink. There were a few survivors but almost all on board went down with the ship.
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On weald of Kent I watched once more
Again I heard that grumbling roar
Of fighter planes; yet none were near
And all around the sky was clear
Borne on the wind a whisper came
'Though men grow old, they stay the same'
And then I knew, unseen to eye
The ageless Few were sweeping by
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