![\"Bomb](\"https:\/\/secondbysecondworldwar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/Wmalta-e1398286680329.jpg\")
<\/a>Bomb damage along Kingsway in Valletta, Malta 1942 [Public domain, wiki]<\/p><\/div>Much had happened to the besieged island since the three\u00a0RAF Gloster Sea Gladiator<\/em> bi-planes, Faith, Hope, and Charity<\/a>\u00a0had taken to the skies of Malta in June 1940 to fight off attacks by Italian bombers. The island had been bombed repeatedly.<\/p>\n This week in the war, Malta was close to collapse and at risk of invasion.<\/p>\n In the latter half of April 1942, the German and Italian air forces raided Malta well over a hundred times with bomber strengths that were\u00a0typically in the hundreds.<\/p>\n On 20 April 1942, forty-six Spitfires were flown into Malta\u00a0from the aircraft carrier USS Wasp<\/em> but their arrival had been noted by the enemy. Almost all were badly damaged or destroyed while still on the ground.<\/p>\n Hemmed in by mines and with supply convoys failing to get through, Malta’s days seemed numbered. Field-Marshal Kesselring considered the island no longer a threat to Axis operations. His forces could invade and capture Malta whenever they chose.<\/p>\n Italian admiral Vittorio Tur was made commander-in-chief for Operation C3 (as the operation to invade Malta was called) and German general Kurt Student of Crete fame <\/a>would command the paratroop force. Mussolini was very much in favour of the idea but, in the end,\u00a0Hitler refused to give the order.<\/p>\n In early May 1942, sixty Spitfires were flown in from the aircraft carriers USS Wasp<\/em> and HMS Eagle<\/em> thereby tipping the balance of the air war over Malta. The enemy suffered such grievous losses that daytime air raids—at least around the heavily defended dockyards—became largely a thing of the past. Nonetheless, the supply situation remained critical and, for the island to survive, convoys would need to fight their way through.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Much had happened to the besieged island since the three\u00a0RAF Gloster Sea Gladiator bi-planes, Faith, Hope, and Charity\u00a0had taken to the skies of Malta in June 1940 to fight off attacks by Italian bombers. The island had been bombed repeatedly. … Continue reading