Background
Malta was an island of 117 square miles with a population of 275,000. Malta's agricultural production could feed only one-third of its population. The island's geographical position close to the Sicilian Channel between Sicily and Tunis was at the crossroads of Italy's sea route to Libya and the United Kingdom Suez canal sea route to India, East Africa, the Far East, and the major oil producers, Iraq and Iran. Either Italy or the United Kingdom could use Malta as a base to intercept the other nation's military and commercial access to colonial possessions.
Malta had been a British colony since 1814 when Italy declared war on the Allies on 10 June 1940. Italy didn't immediately send the "Taranto Naval Squadron" to occupy Malta as suggested by Admiral Carlo Bergamini; but, with Italian bases in nearby Sicily, maintenance of British control was more difficult from more distant British bases in Gibraltar to the west and Cyprus, Egypt, and Palestine to the east. Only two weeks after the Italian declaration of war, the Second Armistice at Compiègne ended British access to French Mediterranean Sea bases; and the 3 July 1940 attack on Mers-el-Kébir hardened French antipathy towards Britain. Axis support of General Francisco Franco in the Spanish Civil War caused concern about security of British Gibraltar.
Italy, Sicily, Sardinia and Libya dominated the central Mediterranean, and Italian conquest of Egypt would link Abyssinia, Italian Somaliland, and Eritrea. The September 1940 Italian invasion of Egypt resulted in loss of Cyrenaica during Operation Compass in December. In January 1941 Germany sent the Afrika Korps to Libya in Operation Sonnenblume (English: Operation Sunflower) and the X. Fliegerkorps of the German Air Force (Luftwaffe) to Sicily in Operation Mittelmeer (English: Operation Mediterranean) to protect Afrika Korps supply lines past Malta.
X. Fliegerkorps moved to Greece in April 1941, and the 23rd U-boat Flotilla was based at Salamis in September. Resources available to sustain Malta were reduced when Japan declared war in December and raided the Indian Ocean in April, 1942. Malta ceased to be an effective anti-convoy base in early 1942. Several warships were sunk in harbour and others were withdrawn. Supplies dwindled with the loss of convoys. Axis invasion of Malta was planned as (Operation C3 and Operation Herkules) but never executed.
Read more about this topic: Malta Convoys
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