Malta, siege of

Malta, siege of, British Mediterranean island colony with a civilian population of 270,000 which, by refusing to capitulate to intense air bombardment, played a critical role in the battle for the Mediterranean.

The island's governor ( Lt-General William Dobbie and, from May 1942, General Lord Gort) acted as its C-in-C. It possessed several airfields and the only British harbour between Gibraltar and Alexandria. It was therefore crucial to British air and sea operations against the convoys supplying Axis forces fighting in the Western Desert and subsequently in the North African campaigns. But its proximity to Sicily—95 km. (60 mi.)—and its distance from the nearest British base (1,600 km./1,000 mi.), made it difficult to defend and to supply. Though plans were formulated by the Axis to invade the island, neutralization from the air always appeared a more attractive option. That this was never permanently achieved proved fatal to their Mediterranean strategy.

Malta was first attacked by Italian aircraft on 11 June 1940 when only three obsolescent biplanes (see Faith, Hope, and Charity) and inadequate anti-aircraft defences were available to defend it. With the arrival of the Luftwaffe in Sicily, raids intensified between January and April 1941, and in July the Italian Tenth Light Flotilla launched a brave but unsuccessful attack on the island's Valetta harbour. Hitler's invasion of the USSR in June 1941 (see BARBAROSSA) diverted Luftwaffe units to the German–Soviet war, but raids were renewed in December with even greater intensity. During January 1942 there were 262, during February 236, and in March and April twice the tonnage of bombs that London had suffered during the Blitz was dropped on Malta. From 1 January to 24 July there was only one 24-hour period when no bombs fell and air raids became such a permanent feature of everyday life that the civil population led an underground existence. Health standards declined, malnutrition spread, scabies was rife, and that summer there was a typhoid epidemic (see also medicine). Civilian casualties alone from the bombing amounted to 1,493 dead and 3,764 wounded, a high proportion of them children.

Along with the fighter squadrons flown in to protect the island, it was convoys—and fast merchant ships which ran the Axis gauntlet alone—that saved Malta from capitulation (see Table ). But of the 86 supply ships sent to the island between August 1940 and August 1942, either in convoy or independently, 31 were sunk and many others were severely damaged. Mines also caused losses and by April 1942, when the island was awarded the George Cross (see decorations), Axis minefields had become almost impenetrable and had forced the withdrawal of Malta's one remaining offensive capability, a flotilla of submarines. Food, fuel, and ammunition were now all in desperately short supply and the island was virtually helpless.

On 10 May the German C-in-C South, Kesselring, reported that Malta had been neutralized, but this statement proved premature as was the diversion of Luftwaffe units to other theatres. Kesselring's misjudgement created a lull the island desperately needed and morale was lifted by the arrival of 61 Spitfire fighters which, unlike an earlier delivery, avoided instant destruction on the ground. These and later fighter reinforcements, combined with the diversion of the Luftwaffe units, brought about a marked decline in raids and by mid-July enough mines had been cleared for the submarine flotilla to return. But for the civilian population the situation remained critical and when a convoy (VIGOROUS) from Alexandria, in Egypt, was forced to turn back in June 1942 the daily calorie rate was cut to 1,500; it was not until the PEDESTAL convoy arrived in August that starvation and inevitable capitulation were once more avoided.

In October 1942 Kesselring, in a final attempt to bring the island to its knees, launched yet another series of intensive air raids. But again he failed and the capture of Cyrenaican airfields in Libya that November after the second El Alamein battle brought relief and a convoy (STONEHENGE) from Alexandria arrived intact when only twelve days' supply of food and five of aviation fuel remained. From that time conditions steadily improved, and in May 1943, when Axis forces in North Africa capitulated, the siege was completely lifted. See also Force K.

Malta, siege of: Major Malta conveys, 1941–2

Bibliography

Bradford, E. , Siege: Malta 1940–1943 (London, 1985).
Hogan, G. , Malta: The Triumphant Years 1940–1943 (London, 1978).