This Day in WWII presents:
Join us to commemorate the Siege of Malta. March 7, 1942 was the date Spitfires first arrived to shore up the desperate British defense of Malta.
The small island of Malta played an extremely important role in WWII. It was an ideal base for British airpower to attack axis supply shipping headed to North Africa. The axis knew this, and there were ferocious battles for control of the island, with the Luftwaffe and Regia Aeronautica hurling their aerial might against tenacious, desperate RAF defense. It was a close thing, with the RAF defenders nearly being annihilated on several occasions. Had Malta fallen, the supply to and battles in North Africa could have gone quite differently.
On March 7, 1942, Spitfire reinforcements arrived from the carrier HMS Eagle. It marked the first overseas deployment of Spitfires and the beginning of a series of such vital aircraft-carrier reinfocements of Malta.
