Operation Pedestal

The Second World War
	Part of the Siege of Malta in the Battle of the Mediterranean
	; The column of smoke from Waimarama just after she exploded
Date	3–15 August 1942
Location	Mediterranean Sea35°N 18°E / 35°N 18°E
Result	See Aftermath section
Belligerents
United Kingdom	Italy; Germany;
Commanders and leaders
Neville Syfret; Harold Burrough;	Alberto Da Zara; Albert Kesselring;
Strength
4* aircraft carriers; 2 battleships; 7 light cruisers; 32 destroyers; 4 corvettes; 4 minesweepers; 11 submarines; 7 Motor Launches; 14 merchant ships; 2 fleet oilers; 74 fighters; 28 torpedo bombers; land-based RAF aircraft;	3 heavy cruisers; 3 light cruisers; 12 destroyers; 23 motor torpedo boats; 21 submarines; 285 bombers; 304 fighters;
Casualties and losses
1 aircraft carrier sunk; 2 light cruisers sunk; 1 destroyer sunk; 9 merchant ships sunk; 1 aircraft carrier damaged; 2 light cruisers damaged; 3 merchant ships damaged; 34 aircraft destroyed; 350–550+ killed;	2 submarines sunk; 1 heavy cruiser damaged; 1 light cruiser damaged; 1 submarine damaged; 48–60 aircraft destroyed; c. 100 killed or missing;
	One of the British aircraft carriers sailed on the concurrent Operation Bellows. Italian heavy surface forces were withdrawn early. 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 Il-Konvoj ta' Santa Marija (Santa Maria Convoy), was a British operation to carry supplies to the island of Malta in August 1942, during the Second World War.^[a]

Malta was a base from which British ships, submarines and aircraft attacked Axis convoys to Libya, 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 Ohio, an American-owned 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 sizeable Axis success in the Mediterranean. More than 500 Merchant and Royal Navy sailors and airmen were killed and only five of the fourteen merchant ships reached Grand Harbour. While costly for the Allies, it was a strategic victory; the arrival of Ohio justified the decision to hazard so many warships; its cargo of aviation fuel revitalised the Maltese air offensive against Axis shipping. Submarines returned to Malta and 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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