 In 1948, Marc' Antonio Bragadin wrote that the battle was a serious Italian defeat, in which individuals had shown exemplary bravery but the escorts had lacked coordination and made mistakes because of the confusion caused by the surprise and speed of the British attack and mistaken identity.The Italians had no answer to the superior British night-fighting equipment and tactics which had revolutionised maritime night fighting.Technical obsolescence made an Italian attempt to counter the British at night a useless sacrifice of crews and ships.