Siege of Malta (World War II) 1940
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate. Wikidata lists more than one location for this battle; the first is shown.
Key facts
| Date | 11 June 1940 – 20 November 1942 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1940 | Wikidata P580 (start time) |
| Era | World War II era (1939–1945) | derived from year |
| Location | Malta | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Europe | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | Mediterranean and Middle East Theater of World War II, World War II | Wikidata P361 |
| Coordinates | 35.8833, 14.4500 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Siege of Malta (or Battle of Malta) in World War II was a military campaign in the Mediterranean theatre. From June 1940 to November 1942, the fight for the control of the strategically important island of the British Crown Colony of Malta pitted the air and naval forces of the Kingdom of Italy and Nazi Germany against the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Royal Navy.
The opening of a new front in North Africa in June 1940 increased Malta's already considerable value. British air and sea forces based on the island could attack Axis ships transporting supplies and reinforcements from Europe. General Erwin Rommel, de facto field commander of Panzerarmee Afrika in North Africa, recognised its importance quickly. In May 1941, he warned that "Without Malta the Axis will end by losing control of North Africa".
The Axis resolved to bomb or starve Malta into submission, to soften it up for invasion, by attacking its ports, towns, cities, and Allied shipping supplying the island. Malta was one of the most intensively bombed areas during the war. The German Luftwaffe and Italian Regia Aeronautica flew a total of 3,000 bombing raids over two years, dropping 6,700 tons of bombs on the Grand Harbour area alone.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Siege of Malta (World War II) (revision 1377814565), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
Nearby battles
- Siege of Malta (1429) 1429 · 4 km
- Siege of Medina (1053–1054) 1053 · 4 km
- Siege of Melite (870) 870 · 5 km
- Siege of Malta (1798–1800) 1798 · 6 km
- Battle of the Malta Convoy 1800 · 6 km
- Great Siege of Malta 1565 · 6 km
Other battles of the World War II
- Battle of Tomaszów Lubelski 1939
- Battle of Wilno (1939) 1939
- Battle of Władypol 1939
- Defense of Ochota and Wola (1939) 1939
- Siege of Warsaw (1939) 1939
- Action in the Strait of Otranto 1940
- Altmark incident 1940
- Attack on Convoy BN 7 1940
- Battle of Abbeville 1940
- Battle of Arras (1940) 1940
All 178 battles of the World War II →
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