The Malta convoys were Allied supply convoys of the Second World War. The convoys took place during the Siege of Malta in the Mediterranean Theatre. Malta was a base from which British sea and air forces could attack ships carrying supplies from Europe to Italian Libya. Britain fought the Western Desert Campaign against Axis armies in North Africa to keep the Suez Canal and to control Middle Eastern oil. The strategic value of Malta was so great the British risked many merchant vessels and warships to supply the island and the Axis made determined efforts to neutralise the island as an offensive base.
La Valletta Harbour
An Italian Savoia-Marchetti SM.79 during an attack
Three British cruisers during Operation Halberd
HMS Dido at anchor in the Firth of Forth
Siege of Malta (World War II)
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.
Service personnel and civilians clear bombing debris from Kingsway in Valletta in 1942
The armed trawler HMS Coral within a bomb-damaged Dry Dock No 3 during World War II
An Italian Savoia-Marchetti S.M.79 bomber
Italian bombing of the Grand Harbor