坎宁安怒喷地中海舰队的轻巡洋舰追击意大利驱逐舰时，在一小时内打光了整个东地中海的6寸炮弹库存，坎宁安钦点：地中海舰队上至战列舰，下至潜艇，都应该在直射距离上开火，这样哪怕是炮术军官也不会打偏
1940年6月28日的"埃斯佩罗"号行动。尽管"城"级巡洋舰的6英寸炮塔实现了高射速，但在对抗德意部队的早期水面作战中，远距离取得决定性命中仍然困难，同时快速耗尽了弹药库。
在皇家海军舰艇中，只有"利物浦"号在交战中受损。"埃斯佩罗"号发射的一枚4.7英寸炮弹击中了其装甲带，位于水线上方3英尺的180号站位处。弹头仅在装甲上崩出小缺口，破片击穿了两枚邻近的鱼雷战斗部并切断了消磁电缆。这一损伤直到该舰返回港口才被发现。更严重的是此次交战消耗的弹药量惊人，为击沉一艘小型驱逐舰发射了近5000发6英寸炮弹。当时战区弹药供应有限，多支护航行动不得不推迟，直到完成补给。
most probably a reference to the Espero action of 28 June 1940. Early surface actions against German and Italian forces demonstrated the difficulty of scoring decisive hits at long ranges in spite of the achievement of high rates of fire by the ‘Town’ class’s 6in turrets that rapidly depleted their magazines.
Of the Royal Navy ships, only Liverpool was hit during the engagement. A single 4.7in shell from Espero struck the armour belt 3ft above the waterline at Station 180. The point of the shell knocked a small chip off the armour and splinters penetrated two neighbouring torpedo warheads and cut the degaussing cable. The hit was not even noted until she returned to harbour.6 More significant was the prodigious amount of ammunition expended in the engagement, nearly 5,000 6in shells being shot away to sink one small destroyer. Supplies of ammunition in the theatre were limited at the time and a number of convoy operations had to be postponed until they could be replenished