Two weeks before Spartivento, the Royal Navy had changed the war in the Mediterranean with a single night's work. On 11 November 1940, Swordfish torpedo bombers from the carrier Illustrious crippled half the Italian battleship fleet at anchor in Taranto harbor. The Italians, who had been keeping their capital ships in port as a fleet-in-being, now had even fewer reasons to risk their remaining battleships. But ships still needed to move. Britain had to resupply Malta, and Italy had to intercept those convoys. When the British planned Operation Collar -- a convoy from Gibraltar to Malta and Alexandria -- the Italian fleet sailed to stop it, setting the stage for a confrontation that neither side's commander particularly wanted.

Campioni had explicit orders to engage only if conditions were favorable. Somerville had a convoy to protect and could not afford to chase the Italians too far from his merchant ships. The result was a battle shaped by restraint. On the morning of 27 November, both forces detected each other through reconnaissance aircraft. Somerville organized his ships into two groups: five cruisers under Rear Admiral Lancelot Holland in the van, with two battleships and seven destroyers following. The Italians deployed six heavy cruisers and seven destroyers forward, with two battleships and seven more destroyers behind. When the lead cruiser groups came within range at 12:22, they opened fire at long distance.

The engagement was brief and frustrating for both sides. As the range closed, Italian firepower -- their heavy cruisers carried larger guns -- began to pressure the outgunned British cruiser line. The battleship Ramillies arrived to help but was too slow to keep up and dropped out after a few salvoes. Angelo Iachino, commanding the Italian cruiser group, was ordered to disengage just as his ships were gaining an edge. He laid smoke and withdrew at high speed. The British heavy cruiser Berwick took two hits, one knocking out a turret and killing seven men, the other cutting power to her aft section. Manchester was holed by splinter damage from the Italian battleship Vittorio Veneto. Eleven Swordfish from Ark Royal attacked Vittorio Veneto with torpedoes but scored no hits. When the British battlecruiser Renown closed the distance and straddled the Italian cruiser Trieste, it seemed the tables might turn, but Vittorio Veneto's long-range salvoes forced the British cruisers to retreat behind smoke.

The convoy reached Malta and Alexandria unharmed, making Spartivento a strategic British success. But the aftermath pleased nobody. Somerville was hauled before a board of inquiry for not pursuing the Italians, a move that infuriated the Mediterranean Fleet and Force H. Churchill himself was involved in the criticism. In the Italian navy, the mood was worse. Officers felt they had fled from an inferior opponent, and the failure to stop the convoy stung. Iachino called it "a minor military episode with no decisive results." Italian naval historian Giorgerini acidly noted that calling Spartivento a tactical Italian success required "a certain sense of humour." Campioni was relieved of command and sent to the Dodecanese. The vague directive to fight only "if the situation was favourable" was blamed for paralyzing his initiative, but the real problem ran deeper. The Regia Marina's failure at Spartivento -- like its failures at Cape Bon and Skerki Bank -- reflected an institutional inability to translate numerical strength into battlefield results.