Malta's Tenth Flotilla and Axis supply losses

Between January 1941 and December 1942, Malta's Tenth Submarine Flotilla is credited here with 412,575 tons of Axis shipping, about one fifth of the two-million-ton Allied figure cited earlier. Most of its early boats were U-class submarines, including two British-built vessels transferred to the Polish Navy while under construction. Photographs of Oracle and Thunderbolt at Malta in 1943 show that visiting submarines also brought supplies or temporarily reinforced the base. The flotilla itself never had more than twelve boats. Its crews worked through continual bombing and had little rest in harbour. Cunningham's message to them acknowledges that strain. The tonnage record came from a small force whose base was itself under attack.