The Navy

In the early months of the war Malta, inadequately defended against air attack, could not be used as a naval base except for submarines, of which at that time there were only six. Offensive operations in the Mediterranean and the convoy of supply ships were conducted from Alexandria and Gibraltar. In April 1941, however, a surface force of four destroyers was sent to work from Malta against the enemy’s convoy for Italy and on the night of 15th/16th April they annihilated an outward bound convoy off Sfax, sinking five merchantmen and three destroyers for the loss of the destroyer Mohawk.

From June 1941 to the end of the year there were on average only ten or twelve submarines working from Malta but they reaped a rich harvest in transport, tankers and other supply ships sunk or damaged. Casualties were inevitable and eight submarines were lost.

At the beginning of November 1941 another surface force comprising two cruisers and two destroyers was sent to Malta to harass still further the cross-Mediterranean shipping and on 8th November scored a resounding initial success by destroying all ten ships of the Brindisi-Benghazi convoy and sinking two of the four escorting destroyers. A third destroyer was sunk the next morning by the submarine Upholder which had arrived on the scene during the night.

In the early part of 1942 when the air onslaught on Malta was at its height and convoys could not get through, the position for surface forces was too hazardous and adequate maintenance was no longer possible. They were therefore withdrawn to Alexandria or Gibraltar. Only the submarines remained, and with the constant need for them to submerge during the day it was increasingly difficult to keep them efficient. At the end of April they too had to withdraw to Alexandria. Three had been sunk during air raids and another, the last to leave, was sunk by a mine off the harbour mouth. In the lull following Rommel’s success in North Africa, which gained him Tobruk and made Malta less of a menace to his communications, the submarines returned and once more patrolled the Mediterranean. From that time onwards, despite another heavy air bombardment in October 1942, Malta was successfully re-provisioned and surface forces could once more be based there. By the end of November the 15th Cruiser Squadron and two destroyer flotillas had been transferred from Egyptian waters and proceeded to thwart the enemy’s efforts to reinforce and supply his hard-pressed army in North Africa.

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