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For Today’s History Lesson, let’s talk about the island of Malta. If you can find Italy on a map, you can find Malta. Sicily is the big island off the toe of Italy, and Malta is tiny island that lies about 60 miles off the southeast corner of Sicily. Actually, it’s not just one island, but one major island and a handful of very small islands.
With the German invasion of France in May of 1940, Italy decided to ”come to Germany’s aid” and declared war on both France and Britain, but not until June 10th, when the outcome in France and the Low Countries was no longer in doubt. As a first act, the Italian air force sent 10 bombers to attack Malta on June 11, 1940. Success was minimal, but for them it was a start.
On the other side, the British had not dedicated a lot of resources to Malta because, frankly, they didn’t think they could adequately defend it. So it become something of a backwater fortress. But the British did not want the Maltese government to capitulate to the Germans because of Malta’s strategic location. And that, coupled with initial success against Italian air attacks, began to change British thought. Soon supplies, reinforcements, aircraft, and anti-air weaponry began pouring into Malta.
And then British carriers arrived. And the Italian attacks became more intense. And the British called in more forces. And then the Luftwaffe, flying from Sicily and North Africa, were brought into the picture, including the famed Jg26 Squadron, known as the Abbeville Boys. And the German Navy imposed a blockade on Malta, and the island was nearly starved into submission…but not quite.
During the course of the war, Malta would become the most heavily bombed piece of real estate on the planet, but the British forces held through two and a half years of relentless poundings, siege, and starvation. Eventually the Germans, thinking Malta had been put out of commission, turned their attentions elsewhere, which allowed the British to at least partially resupply the island again. And then the war in the Mediterranean and North Africa began to turn against the Axis, and supplying Malta became easier.
But the most concentrated bombing campaign of the war began on this day in very simple manner.
Recommended Reading: Fortress Malta: An Island Under Siege, 1940-43
