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World War II in the Mediterranean theater Date: 1940–1944 From: An Encyclopedia of Naval History. Italy's entry into World War II, 1939–45, on June 10, 1940 marked the beginning of the naval war in the Mediterranean, which was to continue for some three years until the Axis powers had been defeated. With the fall of France ten days later, initially the battle for control in this theater was fought between the Italians and the British, although the Germans and the Americans were to intervene later. The Italian fleet was larger and more modern than the Royal Navy's Mediterranean Fleet but had few other advantages. The first task facing Admiral Andrew Cunningham, the British commander in chief, was to prevent French naval units from falling into German hands. Action at Alexandria, Mers-El-Kebir and elsewhere quickly achieved this objective. Early successes were also secured against the Italian surface fleet, which British naval forces first met at the Battle of Calabria, July 9, 1940. The notable night raid on Taranto, November 11, resulted in heavy damage to the Italian surface fleet, including three battle cruisers and two cruisers. The Italians suffered further losses at the Battle of Cape Matapan, March 1941. With Italy's naval forces on the defensive, the British had relatively little difficulty in resupplying the strategically positioned island of Malta. They were assisted by the fact that Italian ground forces also were performing badly in North Africa and Greece. However, these more favorable circumstances did not long survive the arrival of the Germans in the Mediterranean early in 1941. Land-based Luftwaffe squadrons operating from bases on Sicily and elsewhere soon placed the Royal Navy under considerable pressure. Several British warships were lost during the Battle of Crete, May–June 1941, and in other air attacks across the Mediterranean. As the Luftwaffe increasingly dominated the skies, Malta, which came under sustained air attack, could be supplied only by heavily protected convoys, which were to suffer considerable losses. British military and naval resources came under further pressure with German successes in Greece and North Africa. During 1941 the submarine was of growing importance, although it too was vulnerable to air attack and the shallow waters of the Mediterranean made operations more difficult than they were elsewhere. Despite these dangers, the U-boat caused serious damage to several Malta convoys, while Italian human torpedoes sank two British battleships at Alexandria. With supplies disrupted, Malta was close to collapse in the first few months of 1942 and its own flotilla of submarines had to be withdrawn from the island. The changing fortunes of the North African war eventually came to Malta's rescue, as Luftwaffe units were diverted in support of General Rommel's offensive, which had been brought to a halt at El Alamein in July 1942. With American support, Malta was resupplied with increasing regularity, and now Axis convoys were subject to frequent attack. Their positions was further weakened by the British victory at El Alamein, October 23–November 4, 1942, and the Torch landings, November 7–10, 1942, which disrupted Luftwaffe operations from bases on the North African coast. By the time the Axis forces in North Africa had been defeated in May 1943, the balance of air and naval power had moved clearly in favor of the Allies, who also had access to better intelligence, although German submarines and aircraft remained as a reduced threat for some time. The Italian navy surrendered at Malta in September 1943, although this action had little direct effect on the balance of power in the area. By this time the Mediterranean had been the scene of major amphibious landings in Italy, with Allied surface units providing support in the form of shore bombardments. The invasion of the south of France followed in August 1944. From late 1943 the Mediterranean had returned to a semblance of normality with Allied shipping traveling east once more using the route through the Suez Canal in preference to the much longer, but previously safer, journey around the Cape of Good Hope.