Submarine warfare as North African logistics pressure

Up to 1943, the campaign's losses included roughly two million tons of Axis merchant shipping, as well as Italian, German, and Vichy warships and submarines. Malta-based boats accounted for a substantial part of the merchant tonnage. Allied merchant losses are harder to isolate within the same geography because much traffic took the route around Africa, where the dangers belonged to the Atlantic and Indian Ocean campaigns. The Allies could replace lost carrying capacity through Liberty and Victory ship construction, while the Axis had no comparable program. Each sunk freighter cost the Axis its immediate cargo and every future load that hull could have carried. The cumulative loss of carrying capacity helped strangle the Axis supply line to North Africa.