Seizing Malta would not have opened a straightforward Axis route to victory. A combined German airborne and Luftwaffe effort with Italian forces would still face an exceptionally difficult defended island, and success itself is doubtful. Even a successful attack would probably be pyrrhic, consuming forces whose loss could not be justified by treating one Mediterranean objective as a solution to the coalition's larger industrial and logistical problems.
Notable Point · 3:09:47-3:10:14
Taking Malta was not an Axis path to winning the war
A combined assault on Malta is treated as doubtful and, even if successful, too costly to transform the wider war.