Wavell has been in so much trouble lately that it's a far cry from what he had envisioned when he first started Operation Tomahawk.

Just after all three of his attacks had been dismantled, Wavell received news that Italy's new Prime Minister Rossi had ordered the navy to attack and occupy the island of Malta, relieving Britain of the last big nail left by Britain in the Mediterranean.

In fact, the Maltese archipelago is located between Sicily in Italy and the Libyan region of North Africa, and consists of five islands, the largest of which is Malta.

Although even the largest island of Malta is small and insignificant, it is of great strategic value. Located at the intersection of the Italy-Libya and Egypt-Gibraltar routes, the island is the hub of Mediterranean shipping and is known as the "heart of the Mediterranean". And on this island, the British army has a naval and air base to ensure the smooth passage of the Mediterranean route. In addition, the small sea area in this area is conducive to the activities of the British Air Force, and the British Air Force uses it as a base as a nail to support its own operations in North Africa.

Originally, in the beginning, weapons, ammunition, food, and reinforcements from both sides of the North African war were basically transported from the Mediterranean. In this way, the British army undoubtedly had a unique advantage in occupying the Maltese islands.

But thanks to the alliance of the Italian Navy with the German Navy, the British Royal Navy Mediterranean Fleet, which had just attacked the French Navy during Operation Ballista, was severely damaged.

As a result, the strategic value of the island of Malta was initially weakened.

Without the navy, the air base on the island of Malta would not be able to find a target to cover. And the small port of naval supply on the island of Malta has also lost its effect as a transit point.

Although the air force on the island of Malta can still strike the Mediterranean routes of the Allies. However, since the Italian Navy, which was in charge of transport, no longer worried about the maritime threat of the British Mediterranean fleet, it turned to air defense affairs. On the one hand, the Italian Navy used the captured aircraft carrier Ark Royal to have a mobile maritime air force airfield, which further strengthened the Italian Navy's air-to-air defense force.

In this way, the threat of the British Air Force to the Allies on the island of Malta was once again reduced.

Originally, the British army did not have many air forces deployed on the island of Malta, and at its peak, the total number of fighters did not exceed 20. And due to the heavy losses of the British Mediterranean fleet, there was no destroyer fleet to defend the island of Malta. Even the Army, because Wavell in North Africa was in dire need of a large number of troops to launch Operation Tomahawk, was massively withdrawn as a reinforcement, and eventually only one company of infantry was left to defend the island of Malta.

When the Italian Navy attacked Malta Island on Rossi's orders, the British combatants on duty at that time had at most only a reinforced platoon, and the rest of the soldiers were still on rotation.

It stands to reason that the Italian naval position, for the sake of ease and convenience, chose to launch an attack at 10 a.m. in broad daylight. This time period is not picky, compared to the middle of the night or the early morning, the British army can already free up enough manpower for defense.

However, after all, there was only a total of infantry on the island of Malta. In addition, people are not iron-beaten, and many of the infantry in this company are on night duty and need to rest during the day. It is also impossible for all the other personnel to reach the combat post without any mistakes.

As a result of various factors, when the Italian army attacked, it was faced with only a reinforced platoon of British troops. At this point, the manpower is not even as strong as the gun-matched sailors on the battleships of the Italian Navy.

In addition, the Italian Navy also had a large number of naval guns for fire support. For this small-scale landing battle alone, the Italian navy, under the command of Admiral Lefel, mobilized 2 cruisers and 5 destroyers to jointly suppress artillery fire.

Against the British soldiers on the island of Malta, who had been drained of most of their forces due to the North African campaign, all their heavy artillery was transferred, and there was a lack of shore defense artillery, the naval artillery firepower provided by the Italian Navy could be said to be hellish suppression.

Sure enough, the entire shelling process lasted less than 30 minutes, and the British troops on the island of Malta could not wait to initiate a surrender. Fearing that the Italian side would not be able to see the white flag of surrender signaled by the Italian side, many British soldiers even made a special trip to drop their weapons and run to the periphery to kneel down to convey the message of wanting to surrender.

At this time, the Italian navy had not even sent sailors to land with weapons, they were only cautiously trying to weaken the British army on the island with naval guns on the periphery, and in the end they actually surrendered directly to the opposite side.

In fact, the British on the island of Malta had little choice but to surrender.

Although as early as the end of 1939, the British Defense Committee approved the establishment of three airfields on the island of Malta, Halfar, Lucca and Takali, as well as the establishment of a seaplane base and radar station in Calafurana, and at the same time, the planned plan to deploy four fighter squadrons and 172 anti-aircraft guns on the island.

But with the exception of three airfields and an improvised radar station that were set up in the first few months, none of the other defensive deployments called for in the plan were in place.

Not to mention the 4 fighter squadrons given by the Air Force, even when the Malta Island has the most fighters (including a large number of temporary fighters), it barely reaches the size of a fighter squadron.

Of the 172 anti-aircraft guns mentioned in the plan, none of them are now left on the island of Malta.

Just three months before Wavell launched Operation Tomahawk, the British command in North Africa withdrew the last 14 anti-aircraft guns left on the island of Malta, resulting in the island of Malta in the past three months, in fact, it has been in an embarrassing situation where not a single anti-aircraft artillery can be found.

As for the Air Force, there is only one shelf left.

Rossi's red man, the Italian admiral Angelo Taune di Lefell (full name typed, distinguishing from the other Italian Lefehr), who defeated the British Mediterranean Fleet, learned that the British Air Force on the island was only one reconnaissance plane and one fighter after he accepted the formal surrender of one of the highest-ranking British colonels on the island of Malta.

These two British planes, which did not even take off, became trophies of the Italian Navy. Of course, the British pilots on the island also knew that if they took off the fighters, then they should become a cloud of fireworks in the sky along with the planes.

This time, the Italians were kind of arrogant. Thirty years in Hedong and thirty years in Hexi, and now it is finally their turn to form a formation and capture the British army.

Looking back, Leffel put Wavell's sentence of "capturing an Italian officer on five acres of land." The "reproduction became" the capture of all the British Air Force and Army in the entire Maltese Islands. ", triumphantly told the Italian reporter to report.