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It hosted aircraft of Air Headquarters Malta (AHQ Malta) during the Second World War. Particularly during the Siege of Malta from 1941 to 1943, RAF Luqa was a very important base for British Commonwealth forces fighting against Italy and Germany for naval control of the Mediterranean and for ground control of North Africa.
The submarine base at Manoel Island was a priority target for Axis aerial attacks [6] and was heavily bombed in 1942 which forced a temporary withdrawal of the flotilla from Malta to Alexandria where the ships of the Mediterranean Fleet had already moved.
The siege of Malta in World War II was a military campaign in the Mediterranean theatre.From June 1940 to November 1942, the fight for the control of the strategically important island of the British Crown Colony of Malta pitted the air and naval forces of Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany against the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Royal Navy.
Malta was a major naval base, being Britain's only port in the central Mediterranean on the crucial route between Gibraltar and Alexandria.During World War II it was also a forward base for the Royal Navy (RN) and the Royal Air Force (RAF) to launch attacks against the Axis Powers.
[8] Supervision of residual naval work in the dockyard would be carried out by personnel under the direction of the Flag Officer Malta. After Baileys were dispossessed by the Maltese Government, by February 1968, [9] the dockyard was closed as a naval base and the Royal Navy withdrew completely in 1979. [10]
At the beginning of the Second World War, the Royal Navy was the strongest navy in the world. It had 20 battleships and battlecruisers ready for service or under construction, twelve aircraft carriers, over 90 light and heavy cruisers, 70 submarines, over 100 destroyers as well as numerous escort ships, minelayers, minesweepers and 232 aircraft.
The Women's Royal Naval Service (WRNS; popularly and officially known as the Wrens) was the women's branch of the United Kingdom's Royal Navy. First formed in 1917 for the First World War , it was disbanded in 1919, then revived in 1939 at the beginning of the Second World War , remaining active until integrated into the Royal Navy in 1993.
HMS Sparrowhawk, Royal Naval Air Station Hatston, Kirkwall, Orkney, 1939 - 1948; HMS Tern, Twatt Orkney RNAS Twatt; HMS Urley, Second World War flying station on the Isle of Man, RNAS Ronaldsway. HMS Vulture Royal Naval Air Station St Merryn (later HMS Curlew 1952-56), Cornwall, 1937-1952