After five weeks working up, Eagle escorted convoy WS6 to Gibraltar and joined Force H with Swordfish and Sea Hurricane fighters. The Sea Hurricane Mk IBs could not fold their wings, so they had to remain on the flight deck, a concrete stowage limit aboard a carrier with an already modest air group. Eagle and Furious then undertook repeated fighter-delivery operations toward Malta, sometimes under capital-ship escort, and Eagle also worked with USS Wasp on a major Spitfire reinforcement. One attempted delivery had to be cancelled when long-range Spitfire fuel tanks proved defective, exposing how wartime production pressure could undermine quality control. Recurrent engine repairs and continued demand through Operation Harpoon strained a battleship conversion whose machinery and piping were regularly driven beyond their original design assumptions.
Chapter · 1:14:19-1:17:48
Malta fighter ferry operations meet stowage and quality-control limits
After joining Force H, Eagle repeatedly carried fighters toward Malta, but non-folding Sea Hurricanes, defective Spitfire drop tanks, and recurring machinery repairs exposed the logistical limits behind those reinforcement missions.