Indeed, a letter written during the siege by the liaison with Sicily, Captain Vincenzo Anastagi , states the enemy force was only 22, and several other letters of the time give similar numbers.

Before the Turks arrived, de Valette ordered the harvesting of all the crops, including unripened grain, to deprive the enemy of any local food supplies.

Furthermore, the Knights poisoned all wells with bitter herbs and dead animals. The Turkish armada arrived at dawn on Friday, 18 May, but did not at once make land.

Piyale wished to shelter it at Marsamxett Harbour , just north of the Grand Harbour, in order to avoid the sirocco and be nearer the action, but Mustafa disagreed, because to anchor the fleet there would require first reducing Fort St.

Elmo, which guarded the entrance to the harbour. Mustafa intended, according to these accounts, to attack the poorly defended former capital Mdina , which stood in the centre of the island, then attack Forts St.

Angelo and Michael by land. If so, an attack on Fort St. Elmo would have been entirely unnecessary. Nevertheless, Mustafa relented, apparently believing only a few days would be necessary to destroy St.

After the Turks were able to emplace their guns, at the end of May they commenced a bombardment.

It certainly seems true that Suleiman had seriously blundered in splitting the command three ways. He not only split command between Piyale and Mustafa, but he ordered both of them to defer to Dragut when he arrived from Tripoli.

Contemporary letters from spies in Constantinople, however, suggest that the plan had always been to take Fort St. Elmo first.

While the Ottomans were landing, the knights and Maltese made some last-minute improvements to the defences of Birgu and Senglea. The Ottomans set up their main camp in Marsa , which was close to the Knights' fortifications.

The darkness of the night then became as bright as day, due to the vast quantity of artificial fires. So bright was it indeed that we could see St Elmo quite clearly.

The gunners of St Angelo Having correctly calculated that the Turks would seek to secure a disembarkation point for their fleet and would thus begin the campaign by attempting to capture Fort St Elmo, de Valette sent reinforcements and concentrated half of his heavy artillery within the fort.

The unremitting bombardment of the fort from three dozen guns on the higher ground of Mt. Sciberras began on 27 May, [31] and reduced the fort to rubble within a week, but de Valette evacuated the wounded nightly and resupplied the fort from across the harbour.

After arriving in May, Dragut set up new batteries to imperil the ferry lifeline. On 3 June, a party of Janissaries managed to seize the fort's ravelin and ditch.

The Turks attacked the damaged walls on June 10 and 15, and made an all out assault on June 16, during which even the slave and hired galley oarsmen housed in St Elmo, as well as the native Maltese soldiers, reportedly fought and died "almost as bravely as the Knights themselves.

At Dragut's insistence a cannon's aim was lowered, but the aim was too low, and when fired its ball detached part of the trench which hit Dragut in the head, killing him, [33] although according to Bosio, it was a lucky shot from Fort St.

Angelo that mortally wounded him. Finally, on 23 June, the Turks seized what was left of Fort St. A small number of Maltese managed to escape by swimming across the harbour.

Although the Turks did succeed in capturing St. Elmo, allowing Piyale to anchor his fleet in Marsamxett, the siege of Fort St. Elmo had cost the Turks at least 6, men, including half of their Janissaries.

Mustafa had the bodies of the knights decapitated and their bodies floated across the bay on mock crucifixes. In response, de Valette beheaded all his Turkish prisoners, loaded their heads into his cannons and fired them into the Turkish camp.

By this time, word of the siege was spreading. As soldiers and adventurers gathered in Sicily for Don Garcia's relief, panic spread as well.

There can be little doubt that the stakes were high, perhaps higher than at any other time in the contest between the Ottoman Empire and Europe.

Queen Elizabeth I of England wrote: [35]. If the Turks should prevail against the Isle of Malta, it is uncertain what further peril might follow to the rest of Christendom.

All contemporary sources indicate the Turks intended to proceed to the Tunisian fortress of La Goletta and wrest it from the Spaniards, and Suleiman had also spoken of invading Europe through Italy.

However, modern scholars tend to disagree with this interpretation of the siege's importance. Sire, a historian who has written a history of the Order, is of the opinion that the siege represented an overextension of Ottoman forces, and argues that if the island had fallen, it would have quickly been retaken by a massive Spanish counterattack.

Although Don Garcia did not at once send the promised relief troops were still being levied , he was persuaded to release an advance force of some men under the command of Don Melchior de Robles, a Spanish knight.

After several attempts, this piccolo soccorso Italian : small relief managed to land on Malta in early July and sneak into Birgu, raising the spirits of the besieged garrison immensely.

On 15 July, Mustafa ordered a double attack against the Senglea peninsula. He had transported small vessels across Mt.

Sciberras to the Grand Harbour, thus avoiding the strong cannons of Fort St. Angelo, in order to launch a sea attack against the promontory using about 1, Janissaries, while the Corsairs attacked Fort St.

For other military actions on Malta, see Siege of Malta. For other uses, see Battle of Malta disambiguation. War of the Sicilian Vespers. Categories :.

Cancel Save. Fan Feed 0 Main Page. Universal Conquest Wiki. Part of War of the Sicilian Vespers. The ship was sunk by an attack led by Gibbs. The Beauforts were having a devastating impact on Axis fuel supplies which were now nearly used up.

On 1 September, Rommel was forced to retreat. Kesselring handed over Luftwaffe fuel, but this merely denied the German air units the means to protect the ground forces, thereby increasing the effectiveness of British air superiority over the frontline.

In August, Malta's strike forces had contributed to the Axis' difficulties in trying to force an advance into Egypt.

Many of these supplies had to be brought in via Tripoli, many kilometres behind the battle front. Two fuel-carrying ships were sunk, and another lost its cargo despite the crew managing to salvage the ship.

As the British offensive at El Alamein began on 23 October , Ultra intelligence was gaining a clear picture of the desperate Axis fuel situation.

On 25 October, three tankers and one cargo ship carrying fuel and ammunition were sent under heavy air and sea escort, and were likely to be the last ships to reach Rommel while he was at El Alamein.

Ultra intelligence intercepted the planned convoy route, and alerted Malta's air units. The three fuel-carrying vessels were sunk by 28 October.

By August , Spitfires were on hand to defend Malta; were serviceable. Despite the success of Allied convoys in getting through, the month was as bad as any other, combining bombing with food shortages.

In response to the threat Malta was now posing to Axis supply lines, the Luftwaffe renewed its attacks on Malta in October RAF losses amounted to 23 Spitfires shot down and 20 crash-landed.

The British lost 12 pilots killed. He called off the offensive. The situation in North Africa required German air support, so the October offensive marked the last major effort by the Luftwaffe against Malta.

The losses left the Axis air forces in a depleted state. They could not offer the air support needed at the frontline. The situation on the island was still stringent going into November, but Park's victory in the air battle was soon followed by news of a major success at the front.

At El Alamein in North Africa the British had broken through on land, and by 5 November were advancing rapidly westward.

Some 11 days later, news of the Soviet counterattack during the Battle of Stalingrad increased morale even more. The extent to which the success in North Africa benefited Malta was apparent when a convoy Operation Stoneage reached Malta from Alexandria on 20 November virtually unscathed.

This convoy is seen as the end of the two-year siege of Malta. On 6 December, another supply convoy under the codename Operation Portcullis reached Malta without suffering any losses.

After that, ships sailed to Malta without joining convoys. The last air raid over Malta occurred on 20 July It was the 3,th alert since 11 June In the densely populated island, 5, private dwellings were destroyed, 9, were damaged but repairable and 14, damaged by bomb blast.

In addition churches , 50 hospitals , institutions or colleges , 36 theatres , clubs, government offices, banks , factories, flour mills and other commercial buildings suffered destruction or damage, a total of 30, buildings in all.

A War Damage Commission was set up to compensate those whose property was destroyed or damaged during the war.

Total Axis losses in the Mediterranean were moderate. Human casualties amounted to 17, personnel at sea. In supplies, the Axis lost , tons.

This was more than reached Malta. Mines sank another ships of , tons in total. The navies and air forces shared in the destruction of 25 ships for , tons and aircraft sank 1, ships, for a total of 1,, tons.

Mines and naval craft shared a further ship destroyed between them, of 1, tons. In all, 2, Axis ships were sunk, with a combined tonnage of 3,, Table of Axis ships escorted to Libya , June — January In his novel Everyone Brave is Forgiven, Chris Cleave presents the misery and horror of the siege through the eyes of British officers whose experiences are loosely based on those of his grandfather David Hill, who served in the Royal Artillery.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. For other uses, see Siege of Malta disambiguation. Naval support:.

Mediterranean and Middle East Theatre. Battle of the Mediterranean. Radius of action of Allied aircraft operating from Malta in relation to Axis shipping routes, summer and autumn, Main article: Operation Herkules.

World War II portal. The Washington Post. Retrieved 6 July Retrieved Times of Malta. Archived from the original on 29 August Bradford, Ernle [].

Siege: Malta — Bragadin, Marc'Antonio Aurum Press. Irondale, AL: Avalanche Press. Retrieved 20 March Summer Naval War College Review.

Newport, RI. Cocchia, Aldo The Hunters and the Hunted. Navies and Men. Delve, Ken London: Greenhill books. London: Ian Allan.

Halley, James J. Tonbridge: Air Britain Historians. Malta: The Triumphant Years, — London: Robert Hale.

Hurricane Aces — Aircraft of the Aces. Oxford: Osprey. London: Miramax Books. Hooton, E. Eagle in Flames: The Fall of the Luftwaffe. Jellision, Charles Albert Levine, Alan Stackpole Books.

The Italian Navy and Fascist Expansionism, — London: Frank Cass. Nichols, Steve Malta Spitfire Aces.

War and Economy in the Third Reich. London: Oxford University Press. Spitfire Mark V Aces — Oxford: Osprey Aerospace. Malta and Gozo.

Bradt Travel Guides. London: Spellmount. Jan Journal of Contemporary History. London: Sage. European History Quarterly.

Scutts, Jerry B. Bf Aces of North Africa and the Mediterranean. London: Osprey. Malta: The Hurricane Years. London: Grub Street.

Smith, Peter C. The Battles of the Malta Striking Forces. Spooner, Tony Mayer, S. London: Octopus Books. Terraine, John London: Sceptre.

Ward, John Eagles of War. Junkers Ju 87 Stukageschwader — Wingate, John Malta Convoys — pbk. London: John Murray. External Websites.

Tony Bunting Tony Bunting is a historian who has recently completed a research project at the University of Central Lancashire on the evolution of nineteenth-century British imperialism.

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Ottoman Empire , empire created by Turkish tribes in Anatolia Asia Minor that grew to be one of the most powerful states in the world during the 15th and 16th centuries.

The Ottoman period spanned more than years and came to an end only in , when it was replaced…. Battle of Djerba , May Victory for the Ottomans marked the pinnacle of their naval superiority in the Mediterranean.