'BQ' was the British part of a Anglo-French unrealised major naval sweep against Italian shipping and naval forces in the central part of the Mediterranean Sea and to undertake a gunfire bombardment of Augusta on the island of Sicily (22/27 June 1940).

Planned by Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham’s Mediterranean Fleet in the days following Italy’s entry into the war on the Axis side, the operation was based on the use of the elderly fleet carrier Eagle, the old battleships Ramillies and Royal Sovereign, and the destroyers Hasty, Havock, Hereward, Hero, Hostile, Hyperion, Ilex and Imperial.

The ships of this Force 'C' departed Alexandria at 20.00 on 22 June to rendezvous with a French force, the object being an offensive sweep which would include a gunfire bombardment of Augusta on the island of Sicily, a search for merchant shipping and warships in the Messina area of the same island, and a sweep between the coasts of Libya and southern Italy. News of France’s impending armistice with Germany then reached Cunningham and this Force 'C', under the command of Rear Admiral H. D. Pridham-Whippell, on the following day, the operation was cancelled at 21.53 on 26 June, and the ships returned to base on 27 June.