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
Mediterranean and Middle East theatre of World War II
The Mediterranean and Middle East Theatre was a major theatre of operations during the Second World War. The vast size of the Mediterranean and Middle East theatre saw interconnected naval, land, and air campaigns fought for control of the Mediterranean, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, the Middle East and Southern Europe. The fighting lasted from 10 June 1940, when Italy entered the war on the side of Germany, until 2 May 1945 when all Axis forces in Italy surrendered. However, fighting would continue in Greece – where British troops had been dispatched to aid the Greek government – during the early stages of the Greek Civil War.
Middle East Command
British soldiers looking at Baghdad, 11 June 1941
Australian troops in Lebanon, 1941
Five Malta-based RAF pilots sitting in front of a Beaufighter and a Spitfire at RAF Luqa, January 1943