A bomb narrowly misses MS Glenorchy, a British cargo ship, during Operation Pedestal in August 1942; the Glenorchy was later sunk by additional attacks. Of the 14 supply vessels attached to the Allied task force in Operation Pedestal, nine were lost. (Royal Navy)

‘Operation Pedestal’: How the Royal Navy Clung to Malta During World War II

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In the first years of World War II, Malta was stranded in the center of the Mediterranean—yet managed to keep a German invasion at bay for more than three years.

In August 1942, the British-held island of Malta in the central Mediterranean Sea faced a severe supply crisis. The island was cut off from the rest of the United Kingdom by hostile geography; it was surrounded by the Italian island of Sicily, a mere 60 miles to the north, and Axis-occupied Tunisia and Libya to the west and south—with the only friendly territory nearby being British-held Egypt, hundreds of miles to the east.

At the start of World War II, the British made the monumental decision to attempt to hold Malta in spite of these hurdles. With German and Italian aircraft and submarines devastating Allied convoys to the island, Malta suffered from shortages of food, fuel, ammunition, and aviation gasoline throughout the war’s early years—with the civilian population bearing the brunt of these shortages. To prevent the island from falling into complete obsolescence, the British launched “Operation Pedestal,” a heavily escorted convoy that became........

© The National Interest