How a Mediterranean coverage gap helped Operation Sonnenblume

What about Operation Sonnenblume's transport of the Afrika Korps in 1941?

It was a largely successful naval transport operation, helped by Britain's difficulty replacing the French contribution in the western Mediterranean.

Moving the Afrika Korps to North Africa was itself a naval operation requiring a series of convoys. Operation Sonnenblume suffered relatively little disruption from British surface ships and aircraft in this account. Before France's defeat, responsibility for the Mediterranean had been divided between British forces in the east and French forces in the west. Britain subsequently tried to cover the missing French contribution with insufficient forces and information to intercept every movement. Submarines inflicted some losses, but the German and Italian transport operation largely succeeded.