On the evening of July 25th, the Italian Navy left Sicily with a plan to blow a gap in the steel net which hung across the viaduct connecting the breakwater to the shore at the mouth of Grand Harbour. This was so that Italian E-boats could enter at night to torpedo and sink the ships that were anchored in the port of Malta.

Yet, this early morning attack of the 26th of July failed thanks to the Maltese defending gun-crews when the E-boats were detected and most of them were destroyed within a few minutes.