There are a lot of major naval battles that don't get a lot of attention. In WWII we all know about the Bismarck Chase or the Battles of Midway and the Coral Sea, but no naval battle in the European Theatre was more important than Operation Pedastal.
Long story short. In the Summer of 1942 it became apparent to the British that the Island of Malta, which was an important Brit base athwart the Axis supply lines to North Africa would fall. It had sustained aerial bombardment heavier than that sustained by London during the "Blitz" and was very effectively blockaded by the Germans and Italians. Without massive resupply, and soon, Malta would fall.
The British mounted a resupply convoy of thirteen fast merchant ships with probably the heaviest escort of any supply convoy in history. The escort included a reinforced aircraft carrier division, a battleship division, a heavy contingent of (mostly) anti aircraft cruisers and a large screen of destroyers. The carriers carried mostly fighters only so you can see what the major threat was seen as. The Axis mounted a maximum effort to prevent the relief effort. The convoy was attacked by submarines, surface craft and air raids in numbers sometimes approaching 100 aircraft of all types. The cost to the Brits was heavy, they lost an aircraft carrier, two light cruisers a destroyer, nine of the merchant ships and 34 aircraft. In addition one carrier, 2 light cruisers and three merchant ships were damaged; but the 55,000 tons of supplies delivered to Malta guaranteed that the island could hold out and defend itself for at least 10 weeks. This played a critical role in the defeat of the Axis in North Africa and later in the invasion of Sicily. In the movie Patton the general says he always wanted to command a lot of men in a desperate battle. No battle was more desperate than Operation Pestal.
The saga of the Texaco Tanker "Ohio" is one of the greatest feats of guts and endurance by any ships crew you'll ever hear of.
The link is for the first of a three part series on the battle through the eyes of the British combatants. I think it is excellent. If you like it just pull up parts 2 and 3 yourselves.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SjL0ZXwAhOI
