War came to the Mediterranean Sea in June 1940. After Italy’s declaration of war on Britain on June 10, British forces in Egypt attacked Italian-held Libya, starting a deadly back-and-forth that would eventually prompt Hitler to send Rommel (The Accomplishments and Legacy of the Desert Fox) and the Afrika Korps to aid Italy in early 1941. Italian (and later German) forces and their supplies had to be shipped across the Mediterranean – right past the tiny island of Malta, a part of the British Empire at the time, located just 60 miles (97 km) south of Sicily. Malta, a peacetime halfway point for east-west shipping between the Suez Canal and Gibraltar, suddenly found itself in the middle of hostile north-south traffic. Britain, pressed hard in Africa, could not allow Axis convoys to sail past unchallenged; Italy could not allow the island to interfere with the convoys. Malta became the center point of a battle it was unprepared for.

A small but important island
The island served as the headquarters of the Mediterranean Fleet of the Royal Navy before the war, but it was far too exposed to Italian aggression, and the fleet was moved east to Alexandria in Egypt in the second half of 1939. Malta was considered indefensible in war, and thus only had a token defensive force with a few anti-aircraft guns, one monitor, a few submarines and a mere six obsolete Sea Gladiator biplanes, with another six packed up in crates. During the Fall of France in May 1940, British leadership considered offering Malta to Mussolini to appease him, but Prime Minister Winston Churchill took a hard stand against the idea.
 
Mussolini was reluctant to invade Malta. The Italian navy had good ships, but their night-fighting equipment and the crew’s training was inferior to that of the Royal Navy, which would have steamed from Alexandria to defend the island. Additionally, most of the Axis crude oil, coming from Romania, was going to the Third Reich, leaving Italy too fuel-starved for a potential major naval campaign. Additionally, the late 1940 British attack on Taranto (The Pioneering Attack on Taranto) had put much of the Italian fleet out of action, leading Mussolini to double down on air power in an attempt to bomb Malta into submission.

The first bombing raids
The first Italian planes appeared the day after war was declared and dropped their bombs in what was the first of over 3,300 air raids over 2 and a half years – close to 4 raids a day on average. At least one of the Sea Gladiators took off to attack the incoming 55 bombers and 20 fighter escorts of the first raid, but achieved little. Nevertheless, the old biplanes became a symbol of Maltese resistance. Only three of them were flying at any time, named “Hope,” “Faith” and “Charity.”

Unexpected reinforcements arrived eight days later. 12 Fairey Swordfish torpedo bombers, also obsolete biplanes, took off from southern France after the fall of the country and flew first to French-held Tunisia then to Malta in search of safety. Though no good against enemy aircraft, these gave Malta its first taste of offensive capability against enemy shipping. Hawker Hurricane interceptors also started to be either ferried or flown in.
 
Britain started sending more offensive reinforcements: submarines, more Swordfishes, and a variety of aircraft including Wellington medium bombers, all to strike at the Italian convoys carrying supplies and reinforcements to North Africa. Every Italian transport ship sunk made it easier for British forces to fight Italy on the ground. Most of the submarines were of the U-class, a class originally designed only for training purposes: they were relatively small, slow, and the first version didn’t even have torpedo tubes. Nevertheless, they were cheap and easy to build, dependable and versatile, and were good enough. Unfortunately for the subs, Malta did not have any bomb-proof submarine pens, which forced the boats to spend most of their time submerged during certain phases of the siege.

Germany joins the fight
With Italy struggling in North Africa, Germany sent Rommel and the Afrika Korps to help them out. The reinforcements included Fliegerkorps (“Flying Corps”) X, stationed in Sicily and charged with suppressing Malta so the island could no longer interfere with Mediterranean convoys. The increased intensity of bombing prevented the island’s forces from interfering with the deployment of the Afrika Korps.
 
In early January, Britain sent a supply convoy to Malta, one of many. The escorting force included the carrier HMS Illustrious, which was at the top of the Axis target list for its role in the attack on Taranto. The mission should not have been canceled: Ultra, the British codebreaking effort, had already learned of the presence of Fliegerkorps X with many Ju 87 “Stuka” dive bombers, and knew Malta didn’t have nearly enough interceptors to protect the carrier. For some reason, however, the Royal Air Force (RAF) did not inform the Navy, and the convoy sailed directly into heavy German air attacks. The Illustrious received six direct hits that killed 126 men, wounded 91, destroyed two guns and several planes inside the hangar, caused fuel and ammunition explosions, and created a detonation deep inside the ship in the span of six minutes. Illustrious still managed to limp into Malta’s Grand Harbour, and was nursed back to sailing condition despite several more German attacks. It eventually sailed on to Alexandria, but had to spend an entire year in an American dockyard for full repairs.

The heavy German bombing of Malta continued, as did the British supply convoys that braved Axis interception attempts. A new type of ferry mission was invented, the “Club Run.” Land-based planes were loaded onto carriers at Gibraltar (the “Club”), and ferried part of the way; the planes then took off and flew to Malta on their own power. These were perilous operations: the planes were launched from the very limit of their range, so any detours or getting lost meant they’d have no fuel to reach the island. Since they were not designed for carrier landings, they couldn’t return to their carriers, either. And even if the planes made it to Malta, many were bombed on the ground shortly afterwards. One British carrier, the Ark Royal, was sunk by a German U-boat on one of the 28 club runs. One American carrier, the USS Wasp, lent a hand and participated in two operations.
 
The planes that made it still had to fight an uphill battle. Spare parts usually had to be scavenged from wrecks or cannibalized from still-operable planes. By June 1941, such basic tools as hammers and wrenches were almost impossible to find, refueling had to be done by hand-operated pumps, and there was no choice but to store planes on open runways without shelter. Electricity was cut everywhere on the island due to a lack of fuel for the generators, and the threat of starvation constantly loomed over the civilian population, who had to make do with reduced rations even at the best of times.
 
In April 1941, Germany had to step in and bail out Italy in the Balkans after Mussolini’s bungled invasion of Greece. (The Greco-Italian War) In June, Hitler invaded the Soviet Union. Fliegerkorps X was sent to the east to support Germany there, leaving the Regio Aeronautica, the Italian air force, to continue the siege of Malta alone, giving the defenders a relative reprieve. British offensive operations against Axis convoys could start up again; some 60% of Axis shipping was sunk in the second half of 1941, depriving German and Italian forces in Africa of 50,000 U.S. tons of supplies each month.

The Luftwaffe returned in force in December 1941, this time with Fliegerkorps II, commanded by Field Marshal Albert Kesselring, whose Luftflotte 2 (“Second Air Fleet”) had already fought in the Battle of Britain and in several other theater of the war. The intensity of bombing raids took another upswing, and German fighters rapidly took a heavy toll on British bombers going after Axis shipping. The British Hurricane interceptor, based on older design considerations, proved useless against the onslaught of Me 110 fighter-bombers, Ju 88 night fighters, and the newer models of the Bf 109 Messerschmitts (The Bf 109). Pilots stationed on Malta eventually managed to persuade Group Captain Basil Embry, sent to assess the situation, that only the newer Spitfire (Supermarine Spitfire) could save the island. Many of the pilots complained that Messerschmitts would deliberately fly in front of them as a taunt, only to effortlessly shake them off again. The newer planes started arriving in March 1942. Even with Spitfires protecting Malta, however, the island’s offensive operations were once again suppressed, allowing Axis convoys to cross the Mediterranean freely.
 
In late April 1942, Hitler and Mussolini agreed on an outright invasion of Malta to put an end to the island’s interference with their convoys for good. A joint German-Italian airborne assault was to be followed up by amphibious landings by two or three divisions. The plan was short-lived due to two individuals’ doubts. One was Rommel: even though he earlier stated that the Axis cannot win in Africa without taking Malta out of the equation, he now changed his mind and claimed that capturing Egypt and the Suez Canal should have priority. The other doubter was Hitler himself, who feared that German paratroopers would suffer near-catastrophic losses, just like they did in the earlier invasion of Crete. In the end, the plan was postponed indefinitely.

Convoys race for survival
In the second half of 1942, Axis attention shifted away from Malta itself and to the convoys bringing vital supplies. On June 12, the British launched to simultaneous convoys: Operation Harpoon sailed from Gibraltar in the west, Operation Vigorous from Haifa and Port Said in the east. The idea was to force the Italian navy and the Italo-German air forces to split up and attack each convoy with weaker forces. The attempt was largely a failure. The eastern convoy expended 80% of its ammunition in a series of engagements, and turned around as the commander didn’t think the remaining ammo would get them to Malta. The western convoy made it, but lost 4 of its 6 merchant ships on the way.
 
Operation Pedestal was a follow-up effort to bring supplies to the desperate island. The 14 merchant ships and two oilers were given the largest escort force of the war up to that point: 4 carriers, 2 battleships, 7 cruisers, 32 destroyers, 11 submarines and a number of smaller craft.

The Axis attack on the convoy was fierce: 6 cruisers, 12 destroyers, 23 motor torpedo boats and 21 submarines, supported by 285 bombers and 304 fighters. British losses were appalling: one carrier damaged, another sunk, two cruisers sunk and another two damaged, one destroyer lost. Nine of the 14 merchant ships were destroyed and another three damaged. One tanker, the American SS Ohio crewed by British sailors, almost disintegrated under the attacks: she reached Grand Harbour under tow and sinking. She discharged her precious cargo of oil, then settled on the bottom immediately afterwards and later broke into two pieces from the damage. The convoy suffered frightening losses, but enabled Malta to fight on.