# Operation Pedestal Exhibition



## Tony Selman (Mar 8, 2006)

Through the Radio Officers' Association I have received the following press release from HQS Wellington. This looks like a most interesting exhibition and will, I am sure, be of great interest to not only our WW2 veterans but those of us with an interest in Merchant Navy history during the Second World War. Well worth a visit if you can make it. I for one will be there.

To moderators: I am not entirely sure I have posted this in the right section. Please move if necessary.

PRESS RELEASE
AN EXHIBITION TO COMMEMORATE OPERATION PEDESTAL, THE CONVOY TO RELIEVE MALTA, AUGUST 1942
By the middle of 1942, General Rommel and his Afrika Corps were at the gates of Alexandria and the Suez Canal, preparing for the final knock-out blow to the British Eighth Army. The plan then was to move onwards to sever Britain from its vital strategic oil fields in Persia and perhaps link with German forces to the north in the Soviet Union and Japanese forces in the east. It was imperative that Rommel was held up until the Eighth Army could be massively reinforced and prepared. The tiny island of Malta alone stood astride Rommel’s sea supply route from Italy to North Africa and only from Malta could the Royal Navy submarines and RAF anti-ship aircraft, keep up the vital continuous and damaging attacks on the German and Italian shipping attempting to keep Rommel supplied. But due to massive German Luftwaffe aircraft and submarine deployments to the Mediterranean, Allied resupply ships became unable to force the passage to the island with ammunition, fuel and stores for the garrison forces and the Maltese people. By July the brave island was daily suffering violent and heavy Axis air raids and was on the verge of starvation and no longer able to interfere with Rommel’s supply convoys. Winston Churchill personally directed the Admiralty that Malta had to be relieved at any cost.
During the first week of August 1942 the merchant ships and escorts of Operation Pedestal sailed from the Clyde for Grand Harbour, Valetta. On 8 August, the Malta relief convoy of thirteen of our fastest cargo ships and one large oil tanker, escorted by 56 warships (battleships, aircraft carriers, cruisers, destroyers and fleet auxiliaries), the most heavily defended convoy ever to leave UK shores, passed through the Straits of Gibraltar into the Mediterranean. Air and submarine attacks began on 10 August and the aircraft carrier “Eagle” was torpedoed and sunk, the Blue Funnel ship “Deucalion” bombed and subsequently abandoned the next day.
Over the next four days, the convoy suffered continuous attack; cruisers were torpedoed and sunk; merchant ships were sunk, others were damaged and disabled. Of the 14 merchant ships, nine were sunk by enemy action or so badly damaged that they had to be sunk by their own forces. However, despite the murderous attacks, four cargo ships and the oil tanker “Ohio” eventually made it through to Malta and were able to discharge their cargoes, saving the island from certain capitulation and, vitally, ensuring that the Afrika Corp’s supply route would continue to be decimated.
An exhibition to commemorate the part played by the Merchant Navy in the relief of Malta, organised by the WELLINGTON Trust, the charity which owns WELLINGTON, will be open to the public from 11.00am to 5.00pm on Sundays and Mondays from 19 August to 17 September. The individual ships will be covered in detail, as will some of the Merchant Navy personnel who were in those ships, such as Captain Dudley Mason of “Ohio”, who was awarded the George Cross for his part in getting his ship into Malta. Original artefacts from “Ohio” will be on display. Entrance will cost £3 per person, with all proceeds going to the WELLINGTON Trust Education Fund for the furtherance of knowledge about the history of the Merchant Navy and sea trade amongst the British public and young people in particular.
For further details contact: [email protected] HQS Wellington, Temple Stairs, Victoria Embankment, London WC2R 2PN – 0207 836 8179


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