Operation Pedestal, known in Malta as 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.
The Second Battle of Sirte was a naval engagement in the Mediterranean Sea, north of the Gulf of Sidra and south-east of Malta, during the Second World War. The escorting warships of a British convoy to Malta held off a much more powerful squadron of the Regia Marina. The British convoy was composed of four merchant ships, escorted by four light cruisers, one anti-aircraft cruiser and 17 destroyers. The Italian force comprised a battleship, two heavy cruisers, one light cruiser and ten destroyers. Despite the British success at warding off the Italian squadron, the Italian fleet attack delayed the convoy's planned arrival before dawn, which exposed it to intense air attacks that sank all four merchant ships and one of the escorting destroyers in the following days.
SS Ohio was an oil tanker built for The Texas Company. The ship was launched on 20 April 1940 at the Sun Shipbuilding & Drydock Co. in Chester, Pennsylvania. The United Kingdom requisitioned it to re-supply the island fortress of Malta during the Second World War.
The Malta convoys were Allied supply convoys of the Second World War. The convoys took place during the Siege of Malta in the Mediterranean Theatre. Malta was a base from which British sea and air forces could attack ships carrying supplies from Europe to Italian Libya. Britain fought the Western Desert Campaign against Axis armies in North Africa to keep the Suez Canal and to control Middle Eastern oil. The strategic value of Malta was so great the British risked many merchant vessels and warships to supply the island and the Axis made determined efforts to neutralise the island as an offensive base.
Operation Harpoon was one of two simultaneous Allied convoys sent to supply Malta in the Axis-dominated central Mediterranean Sea in mid-June 1942, during the Second World War. Operation Vigorous was a west-bound convoy from Alexandria and Operation Harpoon was an east-bound convoy operation from Gibraltar.
Operation Vigorous was a British operation during the Second World War, to escort supply convoy MW11 from the eastern Mediterranean to Malta, which took place from 11 to 16 June 1942. Vigorous was part of Operation Julius, a simultaneous operation with Operation Harpoon from Gibraltar and supporting operations. Sub-convoy MW11c sailed from Port Said (Egypt) on 11 June, to tempt the Italian battlefleet to sail early, use up fuel and be exposed to submarine and air attack. MW11a and MW11b sailed next day from Haifa, Port Said and Alexandria; one ship was sent back because of defects. Italian and German (Axis) aircraft attacked MW11c on 12 June and a damaged ship was diverted to Tobruk, just east of Gazala. The merchant ships and escorts rendezvoused on 13 June. The British plans were revealed unwittingly to the Axis by the US Military Attaché in Egypt, Colonel Bonner Fellers, who reported to Washington, D.C. in "Black"-coded wireless messages; it was later discovered that the Black Code had been broken by the Servizio Informazioni Militare.
Operation Halberd was a British naval operation that took place on 27 September 1941, during the Second World War. The British were attempting to deliver a convoy from Gibraltar to Malta. The convoy was escorted by several battleships and an aircraft carrier, to deter interference from the Italian surface fleet, while a close escort of cruisers and destroyers provided an anti-aircraft screen.
Operation Substance was a British naval operation in July 1941 during the Second World War to escort Convoy GM 1, the first of the series from Gibraltar to Malta. The convoy, escorted by Force H, was attacked by Italian submarines, aircraft and MAS boats.
The Battle of the Duisburg Convoy was fought on the night of 8/9 November 1941 between an Italian convoy, its escorts and four British ships. The convoy was named BETA by the Italian naval authorities and carried supplies for the Italian Army civilian colonists and the Afrika Korps in Italian Libya.
The Battle of the Espero Convoy on 28 June 1940, was the first surface engagement between Italian and Allied warships of the Second World War. Three 36 kn Italian destroyers made a dash from Taranto for Tobruk in Libya to transport Blackshirt anti-tank units, in case of an armoured attack from Egypt by the British.
The Action off Cape Passero, was a naval engagement in the Second World War between the British light cruiser HMS Ajax, three torpedo boats and seven destroyers of the Italian Regia Marina, in the central Mediterranean, to the south-east of Sicily, on the night of 11/12 October 1940.
SS Carsbreck was a British cargo steamship. She was sunk while carrying supplies to the UK in the Second World War.
The Action in the Strait of Otranto [also the Battle of the Strait of Otranto (1940)] was the destruction of an Italian convoy on 12 November 1940 during the Battle of the Mediterranean in the Second World War. It took place in the Strait of Otranto in the Adriatic Sea, between the Royal Navy and the Italian Royal Navy.
Almeria Lykes was a 7,773 GRT Type C3 cargo ship that was built in 1940 by Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock Company, Kearny, New Jersey for the Lykes Brother Steamship Co. She was transferred to the Ministry of War Transport (MoWT) and renamed Empire Condor. In 1942, she was transferred to the United States Maritime Commission (USMC) and renamed Almeria Lykes. She was torpedoed by Axis motor torpedo boats on 13 August 1942 and later scuttled.
Operation Bowery was an Anglo-American operation during the Second World War to deliver fighter aircraft to Malta, an operation known informally as a Club Run. Spitfires were needed to replace the remaining obsolete Hurricane fighters, to defend Malta from Axis air raids.
Francis Alonzo Dales was a cadet midshipman in the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy who served on the freighter SS Santa Elisa, and subsequently the tanker SS Ohio, during Operation Pedestal, a convoy to the besieged island of Malta in the Second World War. For his actions defending the convoy, considered one of the most important British strategic victories of the war, he was awarded the Merchant Marine Distinguished Service Medal.
SS Loreto, formerly Astrée, was a 1,069 GRT cargo steamship that was built in England in 1912 for French owners and bought in 1933 by Italian owners who renamed her Loreto. In 1942 a Royal Navy submarine sank her in the Tyrrhenian Sea, killing 130 British Indian Army prisoners of war who were aboard.
HMS Dunvegan Castle was a UK ocean liner that was converted into an armed merchant cruiser (AMC) in the Second World War. Harland and Wolff built her and her sister ship Dunnottar Castle in Belfast in 1936.
MV Waimarama was a UK refrigerated cargo liner. She was built in Northern Ireland for Shaw, Savill & Albion Line and launched in 1938. She carried perishable foods, particularly meat, from New Zealand to the United Kingdom.
The Italian torpedo boat Sagittario was a Spica-class torpedo boat built for the Regia Marina in 1936. During the Battle of the Mediterranean, in the Second World War, Sagittario was involved in several convoy missions, the most notable that known as the "Sagittario convoy", in the course of the Battle of Crete, for which her commander, Giuseppe Cigala Fulgosi, was awarded the Gold Medal of Military Valour. Sagittario survived the war. Re-classified as corvette in 1949, she was scrapped in 1964.
Wilmington, Delaware [2] 
