(This headline was pure propaganda. There are only two words I can think of that describes what happened to the convoys, complete disaster. There were two convoys, Harpoon, from Gibraltar to Malta and Vigorous, from Alexandria to Malta. The British were desperate to resupply the island, which had been under German and Italian attack for some time. Without going to deeply into this, here are the raw numbers.

Convoy Harpoon consisted of 6 merchantmen, an escort of 1 anti-aircraft cruiser, 10 destroyers, 4 minesweepers and 6 motor gunboats. There was also a covering force of 1 battleship, 2 aircraft carriers, 3 cruisers and 8 destroyers. Of this, 4 merchantmen were sunk, 1 was damaged and had to be towed to Malta, only 1 made it undamaged. The escort lost 3 destroyers and a further 2 destroyers and 1 minesweeper were damaged.

Convoy Vigorous consisted of 11merchantmen with an escort of 8 cruisers, 22 destroyers, a dummy battleship for AA support, 2 rescue ships, 4 corvettes, 3 minesweepers and several towed motor torpedo boats. The British also had a screen of no less than 13 submarines hunting for enemy warships. Of this convoy, 2 merchantmen were sunk, 2 were damaged, none made it to Malta, the convoy was turned around due to heavy enemy attacks. Two merchantmen diverted to Tobruk. [The references to a Tobruk convoy in the press reports are incorrect, there was no Tobruk convoy, only the two ships that diverted from Vigorous went to Tobruk out of necessity. The escort and covering force lost 4 destroyers and one MTB. Two cruisers and one corvette were damaged. Of all the losses, only one was due to a U-boat, and one due to surface forces, the remaining losses were caused by Italian torpedo aircraft and German dive bombers.

Italian losses were one cruiser sunk, Trento [damaged by an air attack, torpedoed and sunk by HM submarine Umbra] and one battleship, Littorio, slightly damaged. Two other ships, a cruiser and destroyer may have also received slight damage. The British public would not be made aware of the fate of these convoys for some time. While reports hinted at the fact that there were heavy losses, many statements from the Admiralty claimed that Malta had been resupplied, which was false.)

(Princess Elizabeth seen in her roll as Commander-in-Chief of the Grenadier Guards.)

(Captain Davis Kerr's ship was the 3,910-ton freighter Castilla and Captain Martin Strandly's ship was the 4,536 ton freighter Bushranger. Both were sunk by U-107.)

(England lost 55 ships in the Mediterranean.)

[As usual the German state press over stated the success against the convoys.]