Today in World War II History—August 15, 1942: Allied “Pedestal” convoy arrives in Malta—only 5 of 14 cargo ships have survived (including tanker Ohio lashed to destroyers HMS Penn and HMS Ledbury).
From Sarah Sundin's blog.
The Pedestal convoy was a major saga in 1942. Even now, historians debate whether the huge convoy losses made the matter an Axis victory or the fact that some ships did get through, including the Ohio, made it an Allied one. At the end of the day, the arrival of the Ohio was in fact materially important, and the supplies allowed Malta to carry on.
Malta was in truth very near to being starved out of the war at this point and therefore, from my prospective, this was in fact a British naval victory, albeit one at a high cost. The British could not afford to lose the island, however, and Pedestal prevented that and allowed it to go on to be used as an air and naval base to disrupt supplies going to the Afrika Korps.
Also on this day, the British submarine HMS Porpoise sank the Italian MV Lerici. The U-705 sank the SS Balladier off of Ireland. The Finnish patrol boat VMV 5 sank the Soviet submarine M-97 in the Gulf of Finland.
The Germans attacked Grozny.
The Marines, now suffering from short supplies, opened the captured Japanese airfield at Lunga Point, naming it Henderson Field. On the same day, four ships arrived with much-needed supplies.
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