Operation Stoneage
Operation Stoneage or Operation Stone Age was an Allied convoy operation to the Mediterranean island of Malta in the Second World War. To disguise the destination of the ships, some took on their cargo at Port Sudan in the Red Sea. The four ships of Convoy MW 13 sailed from Alexandria on 16 November, escorted by cruisers, destroyers and round-the-clock air cover from captured airfields in Egypt and Cyrenaica.
A complementary convoy from Gibraltar was cancelled when the British and Allied First Army, landed in Morocco and Algeria in Operation Torch and made less progress along the Algerian coast than expected. MW 13 sailed about from the African coast as far west as Benghazi, then turned north for Malta. The Axis retreat along the Libyan coast was monitored by the Bletchley Park code-breakers of the German Enigma coding machine, which revealed the inability of Panzerarmee Afrika to counter-attack the Allies.
At dusk on 18 November, an attack by Axis torpedo-bombers hit the 6-inch cruiser forward of the bridge and killed 156 members of the crew. Arethusa made a slow voyage back to Alexandria, being towed backwards at first and then continuing backwards on one engine. MW 13 arrived at Malta at on 20 November, breaking the Axis Siege of Malta.
Background
Battle of the Mediterranean
Despite many naval losses and the Axis gaining control over the central Mediterranean in the summer of 1942, the British had held on to Malta. The surviving ships of Operation Pedestal including the tanker, had delivered sufficient fuel, stores and military equipment to revive British submarine and aircraft operations from the island. Submarines and Bristol Beaufort torpedo-bombers escorted by Bristol Beaufighters, regularly attacked Axis supply ships, concentrating on tankers known to the Allies through Ultra intercepts from Bletchley Park. In September, the Axis Panzerarmee Afrika in Egypt was denied of supplies, including of fuel.Axis shipping losses contributed to the decline of mobility that constrained Panzerarmee Afrika at the Battle of Alam Halfa and the Second Battle of El Alamein. As the Panzerarmee retreated, the Axis air forces had to keep pace by changing airfields frequently. The Regia Marina was expected to be the most serious threat to another Malta convoy, with six battleships, three of them the modern Littorio class, available, with two heavy-, five light-cruisers and at least twenty destroyers. The three Littorio class battleships moved to Naples on 11 November but this still left them close enough to sortie against a Malta convoy; five of the cruiser were at Messina in Sicily.
Malta
In October, the submarines Parthian and Clyde from Gibraltar and Rorqual, in two trips from Beirut in the eastern Mediterranean, carried aircraft fuel, food, oils and torpedoes to Malta; Operation Train delivered 27 Supermarine Spitfire fighters to Malta. From 1 to 3 November, Parthian and Clyde delivered more stores and two attempts were made to get unescorted ships to Malta by ruse. Empire Patrol departed Alexandria on 1 November, loaded with fuel and food, escorted by to destroyers, to be disguised as a Turkish ship when east of Cyprus, then under an Italian flag when heading for Malta. Around noon on 2 November, when sailing alone, a Dornier Do 217 bomber circled the ship, a submarine periscope was seen and the commander ordered a return to Famagusta.Operation Crupper began when two ships in civilian guise sailed from Britain with Convoy KMS 1 to Gibraltar, then detached for Malta in the hope that the Vichy French authorities would be incapable of preventing their passage. The ships were fired on by coastal artillery at Cap Bon and boarded; both captains tried to bluff their way through but the ships were interned at Bizerta. After the ruses failed, the fast Abdiel-class minelayer sailed from Alexandria on 10 November and arrived two days later with powdered milk, cereals and meat, leaving for Gibraltar the same day, to collect mines and lay them off Cape Bon. left from a convoy bringing supplies to North Africa for Operation Torch and arrived at Malta on 18 November.
Prelude
Allied air forces
A combined Navy and RAF operations room was set up at the HQ of 201 Naval Co-operation Group, which had three reconnaissance squadrons, three squadrons of anti-submarine aircraft, four of torpedo-bombers and a long-range squadron with twin-engined fighters. AHQ Egypt and the Desert Air Force were to contribute single-engined fighters to a north–south line west of Benghazi, where they would hand over to aircraft from Malta; US B-24 heavy bombers were also ready at Gambut in support. At Malta, the RAF maintained a composite photographic, reconnaissance and Air to Surface Vessel reconnaissance squadron, just under two squadrons of torpedo-bombers, three long-range twin-engined and five single-engined fighter squadrons for convoy protection and a night bomber squadron, which was due to raid Axis airfields on Sicily during the night of 19/20 October. Air defence of the convoy had to contend with threats from Crete and then Sicily but the threat of attack from Cyrenaica was much reduced after the Second Battle of El Alamein. As Panzerarmee Afrika withdrew westward, the DAF was to take over the Axis air bases from which the Luftwaffe and Regia Aeronautica had attacked Malta convoys. Before sunrise on the third day of the voyage, the convoy was expected to be in range of Malta-based fighters.Axis command
The Axis command structure in the Mediterranean was centralised at the top and fragmented at the lower levels. Benito Mussolini had monopolised authority over the Italian armed forces since 1933, by taking the offices of Minister of War, Minister of the Navy and Minister of the Air Force. Feldmarschall Albert Kesselring of the Luftwaffe commanded German ground forces in the theatre as Commander-in-Chief South but had no authority over Axis operations in North Africa or the organisation of convoys to Libya. Fliegerkorps II and Fliegerkorps X were subordinate to the usual Luftwaffe chain of command. Since November 1941, Kesselring had exercised some influence over the conduct of the German naval operations in the Mediterranean as the nominal head of Naval Command Italy but this was subordinate to the Kriegsmarine chain of command. German service rivalries obstructed co-operation and there was little unity of effort between German and the Italian forces in the Mediterranean. Kesselring had the authority only to co-ordinate plans for combined operations by German and Italian forces and some influence on the use of the Regia Aeronautica for the protection of convoys to North Africa. The Italian Navy resisted all German attempts to integrate its operations; ships in different squadrons never trained together and Supermarina constantly over-ruled lower-level commanders.Convoy plan
Convoy MW 13 consisted of the British Denbighshire, Dutch Bantam, the US Robin Locksley and Mormacmoon. The escort was provided by the 15th Cruiser Squadron with the Arethusa-class cruisers and, with the Dido-class cruisers, and. The cruisers were accompanied by the 14th Destroyer Flotilla with,,,,, and. The ten Hunt-class destroyers of the 12th Destroyer Flotilla, comprising,,,,,,,, and the Greek provided support. For security reasons, Bantam and Denbighshire loaded cargo at Port Sudan and their bridges and gun positions were given extra sandbag protection. The ships met at Suez Bay and entered the Suez Canal on 15 November, touched at Port Said on 16 November to embark more ammunition and entered the Mediterranean at The ships were to follow the Cyrenaican shore, about out, within the range of Allied single-engined fighters for two days after leaving Port Said, until north of Benghazi at dusk for a turn north and a run for Malta.Land campaign
The Eighth Army recaptured Mersa Matruh on 8 November, the day that Torch began; a convoy set sail from Alexandria to Matruh the same day. Convoy MW 13 was not due to sail until the landing grounds at Tobruk had been recaptured and it was hoped that Martuba Air Base, near Derna, would be operational by 17 November. On 11 November, DAF reconnaissance aircraft uncovered Axis evacuations of Bardia and Tobruk, which were captured on 12 and 13 November; the first Allied convoy reached Tobruk on 19 November. Axis fuel shortages and the stocks available at Benghazi made it likely that the retreat would continue along the Via Balbia north of the Jebel Akhdar and Ultra intercepts of Axis Enigma machine cyphers by 11 November revealed that the Axis forces had only four or five days' fuel left. There was considerable apprehension among the Axis of a British outflanking move south of the Jebel Akhdar, made worse by the loss of a fuel tanker en route to Benghazi. The landing grounds at Gazala were open by 17 November and Martuba was operational on 19 November, from which land-based aircraft escorted the convoy.Convoy MW 13
16–18 November
MW 13 began passage through the Suez Canal and on 16 November reached Port Said in the afternoon. During the evening, the convoy left Port Said with the 15th Cruiser Squadron and the 14th Destroyer Flotilla. Off Alexandria on 17 November, the ten Hunt-class destroyers of the 12th Destroyer Flotilla joined the convoy and the cruisers and fleet destroyers refuelled at Alexandria. Anti-submarine sorties were flown around-the-clock by Bristol Bisleys of 15 Squadron South African Air Force, Lockheed Hudsons of 439 Squadron Royal Australian Air Force and the Fairey Swordfish of 815 Squadron Fleet Air Arm. The twin-engined Beaufighters of 252 Squadron Royal Air Force patrolled nearby at dawn and twilight.Just before noon, a formation of Junkers Ju 88 bombers attacked the convoy but was seen off by the Curtiss Kittyhawks of 450 Squadron RAAF; no more attacks were made on the convoy for the rest of the day. As dark fell and the cruisers and fleet destroyers, except for Euryalus, separated from the convoy for the night, both groups of ships were attacked by torpedo-bombers. No damage was done to the convoy but the cruiser Arethusa was torpedoed forward of the bridge and took a list to port under a plume of smoke. The crew suffered 156 men killed and more wounded, many badly burned. Petard took the ship in tow from the stern, watched over by Jervis and Javelin and began the voyage back to Alexandria.