On the fifteenth of August 1942, a lifetime ago, the tanker SS Ohio entered Grand Harbour, Malta, for the last time. As part of Operation PEDESTAL, a last gasp effort to save the island of Malta, and with it, the attempt to alter the course of the war in the Mediterranean.
The operation involved a fast convoy of merchant ships and warships, which had to run the gauntlet of axis forces from Gibraltar in the west, all the way to the little island of Malta. In the process losing the aircraft carrier HMS Eagle, cruisers HMS Manchester and HMS Cairo, the destroyer HMS Forsight. Merchant ship losses were high, Empire Hope, Waimarama, Clan Ferguson, Glenorchy, Deucalion, Santa Eliza, Dorset, Wairangi and Almeria Lykes were all lost. Only five merchant vessels arrived at Valletta Harbour, Brisbane Star and Rochester Castle, despite both having been torpedoed, Melbourne Star, Port Chalmers and the tanker SS Ohio, barely afloat and being supported by two destroyers strapped to her sides.
These ships delivered well over thirty two thousand tons of supplies, plus the invaluable oil held in the tanks of SS Ohio, totalling about eleven thousand tons.
With this stay of execution, the forces on Malta were able to both defend the island and disrupt the supply of food, fuel and ammunition to Rommels army in North Africa, leading to their defeat at El Alamein three months later.
Seventy Five years ago, on August 15th 1942, the Texas Oil Company Tanker SS Ohio, with a mainly British crew, sailed into Valletta Harbour, to the sound of cheers from the people of Malta. One small moment in a far greater conflict.
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