posed a potential threat to Allied shipping crossing the Red Sea between the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. This threat increased in August 1940 with the Italian conquest of British Somaliland, which allowed the Italians the use of the port of Berbera; in January 1941, however, British and Commonwealth forces launched a successful counterattack in East Africa and the threat posed by the Red Sea Flotilla disappeared. Much of the Red Sea Flotilla was destroyed by hostile action during the first months of war or when the port of Massawa fell in April 1941. However, there were a few survivors. In February 1941, prior to the fall of Massawa, the colonial ship and the auxiliary cruisers and broke out and sailed to Kobe, Japan. While Ramb I was sunk by the Royal New Zealand Navy cruiser off the Maldives, Eritrea and Ramb II made it to Kobe. As the port of Massawa was falling, four submarines — , , , and —sailed south from Massawa, rounded the Cape of Good Hope and ultimately sailed to German occupied Bordeaux, France. One or two Italian merchant ships from the Red Sea Flotilla made it to Vichy French-controlled Madagascar. On 10 June 1941 the British launched Operation Chronometer, landing a battalion of troops from the British Indian Army at Assab, the last Italian-held harbour on the Red Sea. By 11 June, Assab had fallen. Two days later, on 13 June, the Indian trawler Parvati became the last naval casualty of the East African Campaign when it struck a moored mine near Assab. Black Sea In May 1942, at German request, the Regia Marina deployed four 24-ton torpedo motorboats (Motoscafo Armato Silurante, MAS), six s, five torpedo motorboats, and five explosive motorboats to the Black Sea. The vessels were transported overland to the Danube River at Vienna, Austria, and then transported by water to Constanța, Romania. The flotilla had an active and successful campaign, based at Yalta and Feodosia. After Italy quit the war, most of the Italian vessels on the Black Sea were transferred to Nazi Germany's Kriegsmarine. In early 1944, six MAS boats were transferred to the Royal Romanian Navy. By August 1944, they were ultimately captured by Soviet forces when Constanța was captured. The five surviving midget submarines were transferred to the Royal Romanian Navy.W.M. Thornton, Submarine Insignia and Submarine Services of the World, Pen and Sword Publishing, 1996, p.