Battle of the Ligurian Sea which struck "TA24". "Meteor"s commander, Richard Pankhurst, saw a "geyser of flame and metal" and "TA24" sank just after 04:00, losing 30 men in 13 minutes. This was the German "Kriegsmarine"'s last surface action of the war. The British destroyers ended any possibility of German deep water offensive operations in the Ligurian Sea, let alone anywhere else in the Mediterranean. The engagement was also the last surface naval action the British fought in the western theatre and the last substantial surface action fought on the Mediterranean Sea. "TA32" was damaged but managed to escape; she was scuttled by her crew
Ligurian language (ancient) Ligurian language (ancient) The Ligurian language was spoken in pre-Roman times and into the Roman era by an ancient people of north-western Italy and south-eastern France known as the Ligures. Very little is known about it (mainly place names and personal names in modern Liguria remain), but it is generally believed to have been Indo-European; it appears to have shared many features with other Indo-European languages, primarily Celtic (Gaulish) and Italic (Latin and the Osco-Umbrian languages). Xavier Delamarre argues that Ligurian was a Celtic language, similar to, but not the same as Gaulish. His argument hinges on two points: firstly,