On 10 September 1942, the Italian hospital ship "Arno "was torpedoed and sunk by RAF torpedo bombers north-east of Ras el Tin, near Tobruk. The British claimed that a decoded German radio message intimated that the vessel was carrying supplies to the Axis troops. "Arno" was the third Italian hospital ship sunk by British aircraft since the loss of the "Po" in the Adriatic Sea to aerial torpedoes on 14 March 1941 and the bombing of the "California" off Syracuse on 11 August 1942.