In 1940, Hitler ordered the Wehrmacht to seize Crete, allowing the British bastion of Malta to remain in Allied hands. Over the fall of 1941, the Royal Navy and RAF used the island to launch a campaign against the Germans. But a succession of British attempts to supply and reinforce the island by convoy during the spring and summer of 1942 failed. British submarines and surface warships were withdrawn, and the remaining forces were on the brink of starvation. Operation Pedestal chronicles the ensuing British mission to save those troops.