Operation Pedestal

Part of the Battle of the Mediterranean of World War II

The merchantship SS Waimarama explodes after being bombed.

Date	3–15 August 1942
Location	Mediterranean Sea 35°N 18°E / 35°N 18°E / 35; 18Coordinates: 35°N 18°E / 35°N 18°E / 35; 18
Result	See Aftermath section

Belligerents

United Kingdom

Italy

Germany

Commanders and leaders

Strength

4 aircraft carriers
2 battleships
7 light cruisers
32 destroyers
14 merchant ships
74 fighters, 28 torpedo bombers embarked

3 heavy cruisers
3 light cruisers
15 motor torpedo boats
11 submarines
285 bombers
304 fighters

Casualties and losses

Human losses: 350–550+ killed
Sunk (Royal Navy):
1 aircraft carrier
2 light cruisers
1 destroyer
(Merchant Navy): 9
Damaged (Royal Navy):
1 aircraft carrier
2 light cruisers
(Merchant Navy): 3
Aircraft losses: 34

Human losses: c. 100 killed or missing
Sunk (Regia Marina):
2 Submarines
Damaged:
1 heavy cruiser
1 light cruiser
1 submarine
Axis aircraft losses: 48–60

One of the British aircraft carriers sailed on the concurrent Operation Bellows. The two damaged Italian cruisers were out of action for the rest of the war.

Operation Pedestal (Italian: Battaglia di Mezzo Agosto, "Battle of mid-August"), known in Malta as the Santa Marija Convoy (Maltese: Il-Konvoj ta' Santa Marija), was a British operation to carry supplies to the island of Malta in August 1942, during the Second World War. Malta was a base from which British ships, submarines and aircraft attacked Axis convoys to the Axis forces in Libya and Egypt, during the North African Campaign (1940–1943). From 1940 to 1942, the Axis conducted the Siege of Malta, with air and naval forces. Despite many losses, enough supplies were delivered by the British for the population and military forces on Malta to resist, although it ceased to be an offensive base for much of 1942. The most crucial supply item in Operation Pedestal was fuel, carried by SS Ohio, an American tanker with a British crew. The convoy sailed from Britain on 3 August 1942 and passed through the Strait of Gibraltar into the Mediterranean on the night of 9/10 August.

The Axis attempt to prevent the fifty ships of the convoy reaching Malta, using bombers, German E-boats, Italian MAS and MS boats, minefields and submarine ambushes, was the last Axis Mediterranean victory. While a costly tactical defeat for the Allies, it was also one of the greatest British strategic victories of the war. More than 500 Merchant and Royal Navy sailors and airmen were killed and only five of the 14 merchant ships reached Grand Harbour. The arrival of Ohio justified the decision to hazard so many warships, its cargo of aviation fuel revitalising the Maltese air offensive against Axis shipping. Submarines returned to Malta and Supermarine Spitfires flown from the aircraft-carrier HMS Furious enabled a maximum effort to be made against Axis ships. Italian convoys had to detour further away from the island, lengthening the journey and increasing the time during which air and naval attacks could be mounted. The Siege of Malta was broken by the Allied reconquest of Egypt and Libya after the Second Battle of El Alamein (23 October – 11 November) and by Operation Torch (8–16 November) in the western Mediterranean, which enabled land-based aircraft to escort merchant ships to the island.

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Wikipedia