Malta sits pretty in the Mediterranean sea lanes between Gibraltar and the Suez Canal. This island has been colonised by successive empires including the Normans, the Arabs and the British but it was during the Roman occupation that a famous event took place. 

The Bible pinpoints this as the location where the Apostle Paul came ashore after a shipwreck. Definitely the reason why this tiny island has its very own St Paul’s Cathedral along with over 300 other churches.

This is the story of a wartime rescue of almost Biblical proportions. In WW2, Malta was of the greatest strategic importance to both sides. From here, the British could halt Rommel’s tanks at the gates of Egypt, but if it fell into enemy hands, control of the entire region would be secured.

It became a beacon of resistance in the Mediterranean and one of the most bombed places on earth. Its brave garrison withstood two years of constant bombardment from both air and sea and its people faced starvation and chronic shortages of medicines and essential supplies.

By the summer of 1942, the island was on the brink of collapse. In response to the escalating crisis, British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill stood up in Parliament and announced “Malta must be relieved whatever the cost”

And so it was that on Sunday 9th August 1942, 14 merchant vessels, accompanied by a vast armada of Royal Navy warships entered the heavily defended Mediterranean Sea via the Gibraltar Strait in, what would prove to be, one of the most heroic operations of the WW2.

Never in maritime history had a civilian fleet been so heavily guarded as it embarked on the voyage of Operation Pedestal. Among the array of ships that flew the White Ensign of the Royal Navy escort were four aircraft carriers, two battleships, seven cruisers and thirty-two destroyers.

Every captain was handed a sealed envelope containing a letter from the First Lord of the Admiralty thanking them for their willingness to go. He signed off with these heart felt words “Malta’s courage is worthy of yours. Godspeed”

Positioned at the centre of the 6-mile wide mass of floating steel, was the start-of-the-art American tanker, SS Ohio. She would carry thousands of tons of aviation fuel destined to replenish the RAF Spitfire squadrons, vital to Malta’s defense in the sky.

After navigating the U-boat wolfpacks of the North Atlantic, Ohio arrived in Scotland for modifications ahead of her perilous journey through the Mediterranean’s submarine infested waters and the deadly minefields of the Sicilian Narrows. 

The mighty tanker was armour-plated and equipped with anti-aircraft guns, at the world-renowned shipyards of the Clyde, to give her a fighting chance against the dive bomber and torpedo attacks that would inevitably come her way.

In the searing heat of summer, the convoy ran a deadly gauntlet of high speed gunships, submarines andfighter-bombers. Even the immense firepower of the Royal Navy shield around Ohio could not fend off everyattack and she was struck multiple times above and below the waterline.

The relentless assault on the Pedestal fleet ultimately condemned nine merchant vessels and four warships to the seabed including the disastrous loss of the aircraft carrier HMS Eagle off the coast of Majorca. In total, 350 men would drown or die from horrific burns.

Midway through the sea passage, HMS Nigeria, flagship of the close escort was torpedoed and 52 men were killed instantly. The remainder of the crew looked to Rear-Admiral Burrough on the bridge for reassurance. He shared this private prayer with his men.

“Most merciful God, we pray that we may never forget that as followers of Christ, we are the observed of all men and that our failures might cause others to stumble. That in the measure you place your honour in our hands, grant to us the gift of courage to do our duty at once however disagreeable it may be”

Max Hastings, in his brilliant work on this story writes “In an increasingly irreligious 21st century, it is easy to make light of such sentiments. They mattered deeply, however, to such a man as Burrough at such a crisis as his command now faced”

As the battered convoy closed in on Malta’s shores, the crippled SS Ohio was kept afloat by two cruisers tethered to her sides. Many other badly damaged warships helped tow the tangled mess of burning steel into Grand Harbour on August 15th.

The valiant tanker’s back was broken and her hull torn apart but, miraculously, her cargo had made it through the fire. The aviation fuel was pumped out and into Malta’s Spitfires that quickly took the skies to protect thesurviving ships and their crews.

Other surviving merchant vessels, including the Brisbane Star, were secured to the quayside as dock workers moved quickly to offload thousands of tons of desperately needed food and supplies.

Stories emerged of men, who like Rear-Admiral Burrough, were sustained by their personal faith. Many found strength singing Christian hymns, as the ships’ chaplains conducted services uniting terrified young sailors in prayer. 

Operation Pedestal now belongs in the pages of maritime history. That combined merchant and Royal Navy fleet that endured hell on the high seas to bring salvation to this ancient Biblical island of Malta and its population.

Church-going and God-fearing islanders lined the harbour walls in humble gratitude to the men of the convoy. Many saw great parallels between their own deliverance and those that appear in the pages of the Bible.

It seems no coincidence that August 15th is the Feast of Santa Maria, the most important Christian festival in the island’s calendar. It now, also, marks the day when the Maltese people thank God for a miraculous sacrificial mission that was carried out to save them.

A war correspondent put it very well when he wrote these words “When this war is a misty memory in the minds of old men, they will still talk of the convoy for Malta which entered the Mediterranean in August 1942”