Operation Hurry was the first British operation in a series that have come to be known as

Club Run Club Run was an informal name for aircraft ferry operations from Gibraltar to Malta during the Siege of Malta in the Second World War. Malta was half-way between Gibraltar to Alexandria and had the only harbour controlled by the British in the a ...

s. The goal of the operation was to fly twelve

Hawker Hurricane The Hawker Hurricane is a British single-seat fighter aircraft of the 1930s–40s which was designed and predominantly built by Hawker Aircraft Ltd. for service with the Royal Air Force (RAF). It was overshadowed in the public consciousness by ...

s from to

Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

, guided by two Blackburn Skuas.

Background

On 11 June 1940, Italy began the Siege of Malta, the first step in their plan to gain control of the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the e ...

. Their plan was to bomb or starve Malta into submission, by attacking its ports, towns, cities, and Allied shipping supplying the island. After over a month of bombardment, the troops on Malta were beginning to run low on supplies -including aircraft- to help fight off the attackers, and some doubt was expressed whether Malta was worth the supplies it required, and some even planned on letting Malta work on the few supplies it had left. The decision was made, however, to reinforce substantially the island air defences.

Movement

The troops were informed of their mission, and the mission began. Between 0800 and 0830 hours on 31 July 1940,

Force H Force H was a British naval formation during the Second World War. It was formed in 1940, to replace French naval power in the western Mediterranean removed by the French armistice with Nazi Germany. The force occupied an odd place within the ...

(including ) left

Gibraltar ) , anthem = " God Save the King" , song = " Gibraltar Anthem" , image_map = Gibraltar location in Europe.svg , map_alt = Location of Gibraltar in Europe , map_caption = United Kingdom shown in pale green , mapsize = , image_map2 = Gib ...

, heading for

. To hamper air resistance during the transportation, an air attack was planned on

Cagliari Cagliari (, also , , ; sc, Casteddu ; lat, Caralis) is an Italian municipality and the capital of the island of Sardinia, an autonomous region of Italy. Cagliari's Sardinian name ''Casteddu'' means ''castle''. It has about 155,000 inhabitant ...

, alongside Operation Spark, which was meant to distract the Italians by reporting a suspicious boat off the coast of

Menorca Menorca or Minorca (from la, Insula Minor, , smaller island, later ''Minorica'') is one of the Balearic Islands located in the Mediterranean Sea belonging to Spain. Its name derives from its size, contrasting it with nearby Majorca. Its capi ...

. On the way to make the attack, Force H was attacked by two waves of enemy aircraft. The attacks, which took place on 1 August at around 1800 hours, took place northwest of the coast of the

Gulf of Bougie A gulf is a large inlet from the ocean into the landmass, typically with a narrower opening than a bay (geography), bay, but that is not observable in all geographic areas so named. The term gulf was traditionally used for large highly-indented ...

. The attacks were successfully repelled. On 2 August, at around 0230 hours, nine torpedo bomber

Reconnaissance aircraft A reconnaissance aircraft (colloquially, a spy plane) is a military aircraft designed or adapted to perform aerial reconnaissance with roles including collection of imagery intelligence (including using photography), signals intelligence, as ...

armed with bombs, and three bombers with mines, took off from the ''Ark Royal'', however, due to inclement weather, one plane crashed, losing its entire crew. This problem forced the pilots to wait until full daylight to take off, when the weather was better. The attack was fought off with considerable anti-aircraft fire, however, the pilots still managed to hit four of the

hangar A hangar is a building or structure designed to hold aircraft or spacecraft. Hangars are built of metal, wood, or concrete. The word ''hangar'' comes from Middle French ''hanghart'' ("enclosure near a house"), of Germanic origin, from Frankish ...

s, and destroy or damage several aircraft. They also successfully laid three mines around the edge of the harbor. All but one aircraft returned from this mission, the sole loss being taken as prisoner after an emergency landing. Operation Spark was also reported as successful. After the operation, many of the forces of Force H, including , , ''Ark Royal'' and , left Force H to take part in the Battle of Dakar. All of the aircraft reached Malta.

Footnotes

References

* * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hurry, Operation Aerial operations and battles of World War II Battle of the Mediterranean Malta Convoys Aerial operations and battles of World War II involving the United Kingdom July 1940 events August 1940 events