Chapter 313 Malta in Danger

Regarding the North African war, many military fans in later generations accused Rommel of "no strategic vision". One of the very important reasons is that after taking Tobruk, he marched eastward without waiting for the German and Italian troops to capture Malta, which resulted in the loss of El Alamein. If they waited until the German and Italian troops successfully conquered Malta before taking action, wouldn't they be able to defeat the British army and make Montgomery surrender? Wouldn't that be wonderful?

However, those who discuss this issue seem to have forgotten that is Malta really that easy to fight?

The Malta Islands are located in the central Mediterranean and consist of five islands. The main island covers an area of ​​245 square kilometers, accounting for 78% of the total area (total area of ​​316 square kilometers). The coastline is 180 kilometers long, with many excellent seaports and a population of about 280,000.

It looks like an unknown island, but it is a transit point in the Mediterranean with Italy to the north and its colony Libya to the south. Its strategic position is so important that it has always been a battleground for military strategists. It is called the "heart of the Mediterranean" and even determines the fate of the North African battlefield to a certain extent.

Churchill mentioned in his autobiography: "Since the time of Nelson, Malta has been like a loyal British sentinel, defending the narrow and important sea corridor in the central Mediterranean. In the recent war, its strategic importance is greater than before." It was under his suggestion that by the outbreak of World War II, there were already three military airfields on the island, and then three more were added, thus forming three Royal Fighter Squadrons and three Bomber Squadrons, and a 40,000-man garrison was stationed, which could attack enemy transport fleets heading south or protect their own transport fleets.

In the early days of the North African War after the arrival of the German army, the German Air Force under Marshal Catherine entered Italy, and together with the Italian naval and air forces, they bombed the British-stationed Malta Island, almost blowing up the military facilities on the island.

Soon after, the German Navy's U-boats secretly sneaked into the Mediterranean through the Strait of Gibraltar, and sank two large warships of the British Royal Navy in succession at the end of 1941-the battleship "Barham" and the aircraft carrier "Ark Royal". Although the British reinforced Malta from time to time, the newly arrived warships and aircraft were immediately crushed by the German and Italian naval and air forces. Therefore, throughout 1941, Malta was dead. When the supply of materials was most difficult, Malta even had to implement a strict food rationing system.

The German and Italian armies even drafted the "Hercules" operation, preparing to carry out an amphibious landing on Malta and completely occupy the island.

But the mustache never approved the implementation of the operation, mainly for two reasons: the development of the war in North Africa in the first half of 1942 made him think that it was unnecessary to launch this risky operation. Rommel's African Corps captured the Tobruk Fortress in June and entered Egypt. It seemed that it was only a matter of time before they could drink from the Nile River. Secondly, the painful memory of the Battle of Crete had a profound impact on the little mustache. He was very worried that the airborne operation in Malta would cause the paratroopers to suffer another heavy blow. Air Force Commander-in-Chief Goering also opposed Operation Hercules for the same reason, which eventually led to the suspension of Operation Hercules.

In July 1942, due to the outbreak of the Battle of Stalingrad on the Eastern Front, the front line urgently needed combat aircraft, so the German Air Force wing stationed in Italy withdrew and flew to the Soviet Union to fight, which gave the British a chance to breathe. Immediately afterwards, the Malta Island, which had been reinforced and restored to its vitality, dispatched a large number of aircraft and ships to cooperate with the British fleet coming from the Strait of Gibraltar to launch the "Battle of the Pedestal".

During the entire operation, although most of the merchant ships of the British fleet were sunk by the German and Italian naval and air forces, and the Royal Navy also lost a large aircraft carrier, the Eagle; the small number of merchant ships that arrived in North Africa still brought a large amount of supplies to the British army under Montgomery. This laid a good foundation for the future turning point of the North African battle "El Alamein".

The British army on the island of Malta also recovered its combat effectiveness astonishingly. It began to counterattack only two months later, sinking dozens of German and Italian transport ships and severely damaging the supply of the African Corps.

On October 23, 1942, the Battle of El Alamein broke out. Of the 10,000 tons of fuel that Rommel requested, only 600 tons arrived, and the rest were all sunk in the Mediterranean; the German army, which was short of oil and ammunition, could not stop the British army with its elite soldiers and sufficient food, and was defeated in just three months.

Then, the German army retreated all the way to the west. In order to save the situation, the Air Force attacked many times to cover the transport fleet, and finally transported a batch of urgently needed supplies to the African Corps. After resting, Rommel immediately commanded the German army, which had recovered a little vitality, to counterattack and severely damaged the British army in the Battle of Kasserine Pass. However, this was the last glimmer of light for the African Corps. At this time, its supply line was almost cut off by the British Royal Air Force on the island of Malta!

On March 23, 1943 alone, a ship of 40,048 tons was sunk by the Royal Air Force in the Mediterranean. On April 19, 1943, the Battle of Tunisia broke out. In line with the principle of not letting the German army receive a bullet or a drop of oil, in about a month, the Royal Air Force sank more than 20 German and Italian transport ships, completely cutting off the supply of the African Corps, which was tantamount to sentencing the African Corps to death.

On May 13, 250,000 German and Italian African Corps soldiers all surrendered, and the North African battlefield ended with the victory of the British army!

Subsequently, the British and American Allied Forces used the Malta Island as a springboard and, after sufficient preparation, launched the Battle of Sicily and landed on the Italian mainland, forcing Italy to withdraw from the Fascist camp first.

To sum up, the importance of Malta to the North African battlefield can be seen. However, the German-Italian coalition failed to completely flatten Malta at that time, which led to a resurgence. On the other hand, although the Allied forces suffered heavy losses in the early stages of the war, their reinforcements to Malta never stopped until the victory came.

And now, after easily taking Gibraltar, the "European Combined Fleet" did not stop, but sailed towards Malta in a mighty manner.

This also made Yannick really proud, thinking that such a configuration was like killing a chicken with a laser knife. He had the idea of ​​going straight to Alexandria to completely wipe out the British Mediterranean Fleet after defeating Malta, but he gave up in the end.

There was originally a garrison of 40,000 people stationed on Malta, but Churchill seemed to have a premonition of something, and urgently sent 5,000 soldiers from Alexandria to support Malta a few days ago.

The next morning, just after dawn, 40 Stuka bombers and 80 Mosquito bombers of the German Air Force visited this island in the Mediterranean under the cover of 50 BF-109s.

Because there was no radar warning and no depth, the British army's pitiful 20 old-fashioned aircraft were blown up on the ground before they had time to take off.

Then the Stuka bombers began to search for air defense positions on the ground and destroyed them one by one, while the Mosquito bombers carried out carpet bombing on those important facilities. Before these Mosquito bombers had time to drop all their bombs, Italy sent another 100 bombers over. Carry out more detailed destruction on the island that had already been devastated.

As these bombers carried out overwhelming bombing on Malta, one emergency telegram after another was sent to London.

"Malta is in danger, the German bombing is getting bigger and bigger..."

"100 German bombers attacked Valletta, causing thousands of civilian casualties!"

These telegrams were like steel needles, irritating the fragile hearts of the British. If Malta was lost, the German army would actually divide the Mediterranean in two.