The preparatory bombing of the previous weeks had greatly weakened the Axis air capability and the heavy Allied presence of aircraft operating from Malta, Gozo, and Pantelleria kept most of the Axis attempts at air attack at bay. Some attacks on the first day of the invasion got through, and German aircraft sank the landing ship "LST-313" and minesweeper . Italian Stukas sank the destroyer and the Indian hospital ship "Talamba", and in the following days Axis aircraft damaged or sank several more warships, transport vessels and landing craft starting with the Allied troopship hit and damaged by an Italian bomber formation on the morning of 11 July. Italian Stukas (named "Picchiatello" in Italian service) and Savoia-Marchetti SM.79 torpedo-bombers coordinated their attacks with German Stuka and Ju 88 bomber units. As part of the seaborne landings south at Agnone, some 400 men of Lieutenant Colonel John Durnford-Slater's No. 3 Commando captured Malati Bridge on 13 July, only to lose possession of it when the 4th Self-Propelled Artillery Battalion and the Italian 53rd Motorcycle Company counter-attacked. The Commandos lost 28 killed, 66 wounded and 59 captured or missing.