Operation Julius, a plan to supply Malta by simultaneous convoys from Gibraltar in Operation Harpoon and Alexandria by Operation Vigorous (12–15/16 June) was a costly failure. By late July, the 80 fighters on the island averaged wastage of 17 per week and the remaining aviation fuel was only sufficient for the fighters, making it impractical to send more bombers and torpedo-bombers for offensive operations. Military operations from Malta and using the island as a staging post, led to Axis air campaigns against the island in 19. Loaded ships sailing to Africa accounted for 90 percent of the ships sunk and Malta-based squadrons were responsible for about 75 percent of those ships sunk by aircraft. Malta was also a base for air, sea and submarine operations against Axis supply convoys and from 1 June to 31 October 1941, British forces sank about 220,000 long tons (220,000 t) of Axis shipping on the African convoy routes, 94,000 long tons (96,000 t) by the navy and 115,000 long tons (117,000 t) by the Royal Air Force (RAF) and Fleet Air Arm (FAA). Many other aircraft used Malta as a staging post for North Africa and the Desert Air Force. From August 1940 to the end of August 1942, 670 Hawker Hurricane and Supermarine Spitfire fighters had been flown off carriers in the western Mediterranean. Reinforcements for Malta included 19 costly and dangerous aircraft carrier ferry operations to deliver fighters. From January 1941 to August 1942, 46 ships had delivered 320,000 long tons (330,000 t) but 25 ships had been sunk and modern, efficient, merchant ships, naval and air forces had been diverted from other routes for long periods 31 supply runs by submarines had been conducted. Three convoys to Malta in 1941 suffered the loss of only one merchant ship. Up to the end of the year, 21 ships with 160,000 long tons (160,000 t) of cargo had reached Malta without loss and a reserve of seven months' supplies had been accumulated.
The Allies waged the Western Desert Campaign (1940–43) in North Africa, against the Axis forces of Italy aided by Germany, which sent the Deutsches Afrika Korps and substantial Luftwaffe detachments to the Mediterranean in late 1940. The Siege of Malta was broken by the Allied re-conquest of Egypt and Libya after the Second Battle of El Alamein (23 October – 11 November) and by Operation Torch (8–16 November) in the western Mediterranean, which enabled land-based aircraft to escort merchant ships to the island.īackground Allied operations Italian convoys had to detour further away from the island, lengthening the journey and increasing the time during which air and naval attacks could be mounted. Submarines returned to Malta and Supermarine Spitfires flown from the aircraft carrier HMS Furious enabled a maximum effort to be made against Axis ships. While costly for the Allies, it was a strategic victory the arrival of Ohio justified the decision to hazard so many warships its cargo of aviation fuel revitalised the Maltese air offensive against Axis shipping. More than 500 Merchant and Royal Navy sailors and airmen were killed and only five of the fourteen merchant ships reached Grand Harbour. The Axis attempt to prevent the fifty ships of the convoy reaching Malta, using bombers, German E-boats, Italian MAS and MS boats, minefields and submarine ambushes, was the last sizeable Axis success in the Mediterranean. The convoy sailed from Britain on 3 August 1942 and passed through the Strait of Gibraltar into the Mediterranean on the night of 9/10 August. The most crucial supply item in Operation Pedestal was fuel, carried by SS Ohio, an American tanker with a British crew. Despite many losses, enough supplies were delivered by the British for the population and military forces on Malta to resist, although it ceased to be an offensive base for much of 1942. From 1940 to 1942, the Axis conducted the Siege of Malta, with air and naval forces. Malta was a base from which British ships, submarines and aircraft attacked Axis convoys to Libya, during the North African Campaign (1940–1943). Operation Pedestal ( Italian: Battaglia di Mezzo Agosto, Battle of mid-August), known in Malta as Il-Konvoj ta' Santa Marija ( Santa Maria Convoy), was a British operation to carry supplies to the island of Malta in August 1942, during the Second World War. ² - Involved an Axis convoy or delivery mission ¹ - Involved an Allied convoy or delivery mission
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