Malta Convoy: Basutos Deal with the Overflow Mail on the Causeway, the Palace, Valletta

Malta’s strategic mid-Mediterranean position between North Africa and Italy made it vulnerable to attack. British efforts to re-supply Malta involved particular risk. During Operation Pedestal, a convoy bound for Malta from Gibraltar in August 1942, half the merchantmen were sunk by enemy attack. In 1943, when Leslie Cole visited Malta, the devastated island was still subject to air-raids and alerts as the Allied invasion of Sicily and the Italian mainland got underway. Cole's paintings of Malta show lively, sometimes frenzied activity as the once quiet island attempts to deal with overwhelming military needs.