 In January 1941 he was appointed gunnery officer of the battleship in the Mediterranean Fleet when it was flagship of the Commander-in-Chief, Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham (soon to be First Sea Lord himself).Begg was in charge of "Warspite"s main guns during the Battle of Cape Matapan on the night of 28 March 1941.It was an engagement in which the ships , and caught the Italian heavy cruisers and by surprise, with their guns still trained fore and aft, and sank them both in a brutally short action of less than two minutes.