Why didn't Hitler just invade Malta

[Torretta13]

Why couldn't he have just focused on invading Malta by land, air and sea? If he had done that, the British would have had to abandon their foothold in the Meditteranean...the sea would have been an Axis lake. Is anyone here goint to tell me that the British could have held on to Malta if Hitler had REALLY wanted it???

[Ironmachine]

Invading Malta by land can be a little difficult...

[Delta Tank]

Why couldn't he have just focused on invading Malta by land, air and sea? If he had done that, the British would have had to abandon their foothold in the Meditteranean...the sea would have been an Axis lake. Is anyone here goint to tell me that the British could have held on to Malta if Hitler had REALLY wanted it???

Torretta13,
Agree with IronMachine, and IIRC that operation was discussed, but I can not remember why it was never carried out. I believe Field Marshall Kesselring wanted to capture Malta.

Mike

[Jon G.]

To my mind, this thread is every bit as poorly thought out as Torretta13's last stab at the Axis Mediterranean as this one http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic. ... 1&t=178671 and promises to be every bit as acrimonious.

BTW, a search for 'malta' in the what-if section, which is where this thread was originally located, yields 2,230 hits. Surely there are open threads about the same subject, by people who put more effort into their thread opener than Torretta13 does here.

[Delta Tank]

Found this on line on Wiki, and it jives with what I recall reading in a book long time ago.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Kes ... rth_Africa

In the wake of the victory at Tobruk, Rommel persuaded Hitler to authorise an attack on Egypt instead of Malta, over Kesselring's objections.[57]

Mike

[mescal]

Here is a 44 pages thread on a Malta invasion
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic. ... 1&t=168777

If he had done that [invading Malta], the British would have had to abandon their foothold in the Meditteranean...

This inference is incorrect.

Is anyone here goint to tell me that the British could have held on to Malta if Hitler had REALLY wanted it???

The problem is not only a problem of Adolf's volition.
There is also a guy named Benito who had a say in an Axis Mediterranean strategy.

[Andy H]

Hi

As stated there are numerous threads on this elsewhere and I suggest any 'new' information or ideas are added to them.

Andy H