Italian defences fired 13,489 shells from the land batteries, while several thousand were fired from the ships. The anti-aircraft barrage was formidable, having 101 guns and 193 machine-guns. There were also 87 balloons, but strong winds caused the loss of 60 of them. Only of anti-torpedo nets were actually fielded around the ships, up to in depth, while the need was for . There were also 13 aerophonic stations and 22 searchlights (the ships had two searchlights each). Denis Boyd, Commanding Officer HMS "Illustrious", stated in his after-action report, "It is notable that the enemy did not use the searchlights at all during either of the attacks."