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|combatant2 = |commander1 = Andrew Cunningham William Dobbie Keith Park Hugh Lloyd | commander2 = Hans Geisler Albert Kesselring Martin Harlinghausen Francesco Pricolo |strength1 = 716 fighters over the course of the campaign |strength2 = circa. 2,000 aircraft over the course of the campaign |casualties1 = 369 fighters (air) 64 fighters (ground) 1 Battleship 2 aircraft carriers 4 cruisers 19 destroyers 38 submarines 2,301 airmen killed or wounded 30,000 buildings destroyed or damaged 1,300 civilians killed |casualties2 = 357 German aircraft 175 Italian aircraft 72% of the Italian Navy's transport fleet lost 23% of the Axis merchant fleet lost 2,304 merchant ships sunk 17,240 killed at sea ~50 German U-Boats (in entire MTO) Italian submarine losses ~16 |campaignbox = }} The Siege of Malta was a military campaign in the Mediterranean Theatre of the Second World War. From 1940–42, the fight for the control of the strategically important island of Malta pitted the air forces and navies of Italy and Germany against the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy. The opening of a new front in North Africa in mid-1940 increased Malta's already considerable value. British air and sea forces based on the island could attack Axis ships transporting vital supplies and reinforcements from Europe. General Erwin Rommel, in de facto field command of Axis forces 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, 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 ''Luftwaffe'' (German Air Force) and the ''Regia Aeronautica'' (Italian Royal Air Force) flew a total of 3,000 bombing raids over a period of two years in an effort to destroy RAF defences and the ports. Success would have made possible a combined German—Italian amphibious landing (Operation Herkules) supported by German airborne forces (''Fallschirmjäger''). It was never carried out. In the event, Allied convoys were able to supply and reinforce Malta, while the RAF defended its airspace, though at great cost in material and lives. By November 1942, the Axis had lost the Second Battle of El Alamein and the Allies had landed forces in Vichy French Morocco and Algeria under Operation Torch. The Axis diverted their forces to the Battle of Tunisia, and attacks on Malta were rapidly reduced. The siege effectively ended in November 1942. In December 1942, air and sea forces operating from Malta went over to the offensive. By May 1943, they had sunk 230 Axis ships in 164 days, the highest Allied sinking rate of the war. The Allied victory played a major role in the eventual Allied success in North Africa. ==Background== Malta was an important military and naval fortress, being the only Allied base between Gibraltar and Alexandria, Egypt. It became a linchpin in the British Empire overseas—a vital way station along Britain's lifeline, through Egypt and the Suez Canal to India and the Far East. It offered a haven for British shipping to and from those places, but it also gave the British an excellent staging platform for offensive thrusts against ships and land and air targets in the central Mediterranean. Owing to its exposed position, close to a potentially hostile Italy, the British had moved the headquarters of the Royal Navy Mediterranean Fleet from Valletta, Malta in the mid-1930s to Alexandria in October 1939. The island itself is 〔http://www.shadowservices.com/nature/Maltese/Geomorph/geog.htm〕 by and has an area of just under . It had a population of around 250,000 in June 1940, all but three or four per cent of them native Maltese. According to the 1937 census, most of the inhabitants lived within of the Grand Harbour, where the population density was more than six times that of the island as a whole. Amongst the most congested spots was Valletta, the capital and political, military and commercial centre. In this city, 23,000 people lived in an area of around . Across the Grand Harbour, in the so-called Three Cities, where the dockyards were located and the Admiralty had its headquarters, 28,000 more were packed into . It was these small areas that absorbed the heaviest, most sustained and concentrated of aerial bombing in history. The state of Malta's defences was poor, verging on non-existent. This stemmed from a pre-war conclusion that the island was indefensible. The Italian and British surface fleets were evenly matched in the region, but the Italians had far more submarines and aircraft. The British, in particular the Admiralty, had to protect the Suez Canal with the Mediterranean Fleet, under Admiral Andrew Cunningham, and Gibraltar with Force H, under Vice-Admiral James Somerville. In October 1939, the Mediterranean Fleet was moved east to Egypt, practically stripping the island of its naval protection. Just the monitor ''Terror'' and a few British submarines were left to defend the island from the sea. When the Maltese government questioned the British rationale, they were told that the island could be defended just as adequately from Alexandria as from Malta's Grand Harbour. This was not true, and the Maltese suspected Britain's commitment to defending the island was not as strong as it could have been. While there were concerns that the island, far from Britain and close to Italy, could not be defended, the British decided in July 1939 to increase the number of anti-aircraft guns and fighter aircraft on Malta. The British leadership had further doubts about whether to hold the island in May 1940 when French Prime Minister Paul Reynaud reported that the situation in France was dire, but that Italian dictator Benito Mussolini might be appeased by concessions, including Malta. After some discussion, Winston Churchill convinced the British War Cabinet that no concessions should be made. With Britain itself at risk, Malta was not the highest priority, so it was lightly protected. Only six obsolete Gloster Sea Gladiator biplanes were stationed on the island, with another six in crates, when on 10 June 1940, Mussolini declared war on the United Kingdom and France. In the 1930s, Italy had sought to expand in the Mediterranean and Africa, regions dominated by the British and French. The defeat of France in May–June 1940 removed the French Navy from the Allied order of battle and tilted the balance of naval and air power in Italy's favour. Upon declaring war, Mussolini called for an offensive throughout the Mediterranean. Within hours, the first bombs had dropped on Malta. After the French surrender on 25 June, Mussolini tried to take advantage of a Britain heavily engaged in the Battle of Britain by invading Egypt in September, but was heavily defeated in a counter-offensive. Adolf Hitler was forced to rescue his ally. In February 1941, the ''Deutsches Afrikakorps'' (German Africa Corps, or DAK) commanded by ''Generalfeldmarschall'' (Field Marshal) Erwin Rommel was sent to North Africa to prevent an Axis rout. RAF and Royal Navy anti-shipping squadrons and submarines posed a significant threat to Axis supply and communications between Europe and North Africa, and both sides soon recognised the importance of Malta in controlling the Mediterranean. In 1940, conditions were more than favourable for an assault on Malta. Such a move stood a reasonable chance of gaining control of the island, which would have given the Italians naval and air supremacy in the central Mediterranean. Such a turn of events would have split the area in two and the British could not have transported supplies between their strongholds in the east and west without severe risk. The reluctance of the Italians to act directly against Malta throughout 1940 was strengthened by the Battle of Taranto, in which the Italian surface fleet was moderately damaged by the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm. The Italians were willing to commit to an indirect approach, and cut off the island's sea communications. Five days after Taranto, Campioni sortied with two battleships, six cruisers and 14 destroyers to disrupt a supply convoy to Malta. The follow-up to this operation led to the Battle of Cape Spartivento on 27 November 1940. Two of the three battleships damaged at Taranto were repaired by mid-1941 and control of the Mediterranean continued to swing back and forth until August 1942, when the balance definitively swung in favour of the Allies. To the Italians (and later the Germans), air power was the key weapon against Malta. One immediate action the Italian navy would later take was the interdiction of submarine phone cables linking Malta to Gibraltar and Algeria. Several thousands of metres were removed by Italian small vessels from 11 June-16 August, effectively isolating Malta from communications with the outside world. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Siege of Malta (World War II)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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