To disguise the destination of the ships, some took on their cargo at Port Sudan in the Red Sea. The four ships of Convoy MW 13 sailed from Alexandria on 16 November, escorted by cruisers, destroyers and round-the-clock air cover from captured airfields in Egypt and Cyrenaica eastern Libya. A complementary convoy from Gibraltar was cancelled when the British and Allied First Army , landed in Morocco and Algeria in Operation Torch 8โ16 November and made less progress along the Algerian coast than expected.
MW 13 sailed about 40 nmi 46 mi; 74 km from the African coast as far west as Benghazi, then turned north for Malta. The Axis retreat along the Libyan coast was monitored by the Bletchley Park code-breakers of the German Enigma coding machine, which revealed the inability of Panzerarmee Afrika to counter-attack the Allies.
At dusk on 18 November, an attack by Axis torpedo-bombers hit the 6 in mm cruiser HMS Arethusa forward of the bridge and killed members of the crew. Arethusa made a slow voyage back to Alexandria, being towed backwards at first and then continuing astern on one engine. MW 13 arrived at Malta at a.
Despite many naval losses and the Axis gaining control over the central Mediterranean in the summer of , the British had held on to Malta. The surviving ships of Operation Pedestal 3โ15 August including the tanker SS Ohio , had delivered sufficient fuel, stores and military equipment to revive British submarine and aircraft operations from the island. Submarines and Bristol Beaufort torpedo-bombers escorted by Bristol Beaufighters , regularly attacked Axis supply ships, concentrating on tankers known to the Allies through Ultra intercepts from Bletchley Park.
In September, the Axis Panzerarmee Afrika in Egypt was denied , short tons 90, t of supplies, including 24, long tons 24, t of fuel. The three Littorio class battleships moved to Naples on 11 November but this still left them close enough to sortie against a Malta convoy; five of the cruisers were at Messina in Sicily. In October, the submarines Parthian and Clyde from Gibraltar and Rorqual , in two trips from Beirut in the eastern Mediterranean, carried aircraft fuel, food, oils and torpedoes to Malta; Operation Train delivered 27 Supermarine Spitfire fighters to Malta 28โ30 October.
