Siege of Malta (World War II)

Siege of Malta
Part of the Mediterranean and Middle East theatre of the Second World War
Service personnel and civilians clear bombing debris from Kingsway in Valletta in 1942
Date 11 June 1940 – 20 November 1942 (2 years, 5 months, 1 week and 2 days)[1] Location Malta Result Allied victory
Belligerents
United Kingdom Malta  Southern Rhodesia  Canada  South Africa  Australia  New Zealand Naval support:  Free France Greece Poland Norway  United States	Italy  Germany
Commanders and leaders
Andrew Cunningham Henry Harwood William Dobbie Hugh Lloyd Keith Park	Francesco Pricolo Rino Corso Fougier Inigo Campioni Angelo Iachino Alberto da Zara Hans Geisler Albert Kesselring Martin Harlinghausen
Strength
716 fighter aircraft over the course of the campaign[2]	c. 2,000 aircraft over the course of the campaign
Casualties and losses
369 fighters (air) 64 fighters (ground)[2] 1 battleship[3] 2 aircraft carriers[3] 4 cruisers[4] 19 destroyers[4] 38 submarines[3] 2,301 airmen killed or wounded[5] 30,000 buildings destroyed or damaged[6] 1,300 civilians killed[6]	357 German aircraft 175 Italian aircraft[2] 72 percent of the Italian Navy transport fleet lost 23 percent of the Axis merchant fleet lost[7] 2,304 merchant ships sunk[8] 17,240 killed at sea[9] ~50 German U-boats (in entire MTO)[3] Italian submarine losses ~16[3]

The siege of Malta in World War II was a military campaign in the Mediterranean theatre. From June 1940 to November 1942, the fight for the control of the strategically important island of the British Crown Colony of Malta pitted the air and naval forces of Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany against the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Royal Navy.

The opening of a new front in North Africa in June 1940 increased Malta's already considerable value. British air and sea forces based on the island could attack Axis ships transporting supplies and reinforcements from Europe. General Erwin Rommel, de facto field commander of Panzerarmee Afrika in North Africa, recognised its importance quickly. In May 1941, he warned that "Without Malta the Axis will end by losing control of North Africa".^[1]

The Axis resolved to bomb or starve Malta into submission, to soften it up for invasion, by attacking its ports, towns, cities, and Allied shipping supplying the island. Malta was one of the most intensively bombed areas during the war. The Luftwaffe (German Air Force) and the Regia Aeronautica (Italian Royal Air Force) flew a total of 3,000 bombing raids, dropping 6,700 tons of bombs on the Grand Harbour area alone over two years.^[10] Success would have made possible a combined German–Italian amphibious landing (Operation Herkules) supported by German airborne forces (Fallschirmjäger) but this did not happen.

Allied convoys were able to supply and reinforce Malta, while the RAF defended its airspace, though at great cost in materiel and lives. In November 1942 the Axis lost the Second Battle of El Alamein and the Allies landed forces in French Morocco and French Algeria in Operation Torch. The Axis diverted their forces to the Tunisia campaign, and attacks on Malta were rapidly reduced, ending the siege.^[1] In December 1942, air and sea forces operating from Malta went over to the offensive. By May 1943, they had sunk 230 Axis ships in 164 days, the highest Allied sinking rate of the war.^[11] The Allied victory in Malta played a major role in the eventual Allied success in North Africa.