Resolution
Well-known member
I. Have been enjoying watching the recent TV series SAS Rogues, all action and drama. As ever, one questions how accurately real events have been represented. A fair bit of googling on related subjects with some thread drift led me to Malta. Having spent part of one summer sailing based in Malta, tales of the desperate defence and constant bombing struck a chord with me. The heroic efforts 80 years ago to replenish supplies , such as the crucial convoy with the tanker SS Ohio, were something I had read about with schoolboy awe.
But I had no idea of the scale of the conflict, summed up in this extract from Wikipedia:
Analysis[edit]
There were 35 large supply operations to Malta from 1940 to 1942. Operations White, Tiger, Halberd, MF5, MG1, Harpoon, Vigorous and Pedestal were turned back or suffered severe losses from Axis forces. There were long periods when no convoy runs were even attempted and only a trickle of supplies reached Malta by submarine or fast warship. The worst period for Malta was from December 1941 to October 1942, when Axis forces had air and naval supremacy in the central Mediterranean.[97]
Casualties[edit]
From June 1940 to December 1943, about 1,600 civilians and 700 soldiers were killed on Malta. The RAF lost about 900 men killed, 547 aircraft on operations and 160 on the ground and Royal Navy losses were 1,700 submariners and 2,200 sailors; about 200 merchant navy men died. Of 110 voyages by merchant ships to Malta 79 arrived, three to be sunk soon after reaching the island and one ship was sunk on a return voyage. Six of seven independent sailings failed, three ships being sunk, two were interned by Vichy authorities and one ship turned back. The Mediterranean Fleet lost a battleship, two aircraft carriers, four cruisers, a fast minelayer, twenty destroyers and minesweepers and forty submarines. Many small ships were sunk and many surviving ships were damaged.[98]
If you are still following this rambling post, here is a question for you knowledgable merchant marine guys:
Who owned the merchant ships on these convoys, who was paid for successful deliveries, who lost when ships were sunk or damaged? Was there any insurance market still operating?
But I had no idea of the scale of the conflict, summed up in this extract from Wikipedia:
Analysis[edit]
There were 35 large supply operations to Malta from 1940 to 1942. Operations White, Tiger, Halberd, MF5, MG1, Harpoon, Vigorous and Pedestal were turned back or suffered severe losses from Axis forces. There were long periods when no convoy runs were even attempted and only a trickle of supplies reached Malta by submarine or fast warship. The worst period for Malta was from December 1941 to October 1942, when Axis forces had air and naval supremacy in the central Mediterranean.[97]
Casualties[edit]
From June 1940 to December 1943, about 1,600 civilians and 700 soldiers were killed on Malta. The RAF lost about 900 men killed, 547 aircraft on operations and 160 on the ground and Royal Navy losses were 1,700 submariners and 2,200 sailors; about 200 merchant navy men died. Of 110 voyages by merchant ships to Malta 79 arrived, three to be sunk soon after reaching the island and one ship was sunk on a return voyage. Six of seven independent sailings failed, three ships being sunk, two were interned by Vichy authorities and one ship turned back. The Mediterranean Fleet lost a battleship, two aircraft carriers, four cruisers, a fast minelayer, twenty destroyers and minesweepers and forty submarines. Many small ships were sunk and many surviving ships were damaged.[98]
If you are still following this rambling post, here is a question for you knowledgable merchant marine guys:
Who owned the merchant ships on these convoys, who was paid for successful deliveries, who lost when ships were sunk or damaged? Was there any insurance market still operating?
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