In this photo OHIO is seen entering the Grand Harbour"
During the first half of 1942 Malta was subjected to 1,655 Air Raids. Notwithstanding all that strain and the effects of undernourishment, the civilian population and the garrison put up a resistance that won universal admiration. However, the Axis were intent on annihilating the island and through a relentless and sustained aerial offensive, they came close to effectively blockading Malta.

In August 1942, Operation Pedestal was mounted from the United Kingdom as a determined attempt to relieve Malta. Protected by fifty-three units of the Royal Navy, the merchant ships Port Chalmers, Clan Ferguson, Melbourne Star, Brisbane Star, Ahneria Lykes, Santa Elisa, Rochester Castle, Empire Hope, Glenorchy, Dorset, Deucalion, Warangi and Wainarama, together with the tanker Ohio, entered the Mediterranean on August 10th, bound for Malta.

The scene was set for one of the most daring and dramatic actions enacted throughout the war, as the Axis deployed 20 submarines, 19 motor torpedo boats and over 850 aircraft to intercept the convoy. A gruelling five-day ordeal saw nine merchant ships succumbing to the relentless round-the-clock attacks.

Then on the afternoon of August 13, the Port Chalmers, Rochester Castle and Melbourne Star reached Malta to be followed a day later by the Brisbane Star. As the ships slid between the arms of the breakwater, the band of the Royal Malta Artillery, playing from the ramparts on St Elmo. was drowned by cheering people cramming every advantage point around the harbour area.

However, there was as yet no sign of the sturdy Ohio, which was loaded with vital oil, fuel and kerosene supplies and without which Malta could not hope to survive. Throughout the journey, she had been singled out for ferocious attacks and was lying crippled and smouldering some kilometres off Malta. Ship had been torpedoed and holed, a series of fires were started and controlled, her boilers blew up and her engines failed; twice abandoned and twice rebounded - the tanker would simply not sink - as if aware that Malta's survival depended on her!

A desperate effort was made to salvage the slowly sinking ship. Two destroyers were lashed against the hulk of the tanker, while another destroyer acted as an emergency rudder. Four minesweepers were dispatched to assist in towing and protecting the Ohio.

Early on the morning of August 15, the Ohio, with decks almost awash, was literally dragged into the Grand Harbour. The tanker was slowly manoeuvred to her berth at Parlatorio Wharf and no sooner were the 10,000 tons of precious fuel oil and kerosene extracted from her mangled hull that the Ohio sank and rested on the bottom.

Of the 85,000 tons of supplies loaded at Clyde, only 32,000 reached Malta, sufficient to stave off the dreaded "Target Day" when all supplies would have been exhausted. The margin of survival was indeed a narrow one!

This epic convoy is recorded in Malta Is National War Museum, where the following items are on display: Photographs of thefourteen ships; a graphic plan showing the route taken by the convoy and the locations where the ships were sunk; the helm and name-board of 'Ohio'- the ship 's bell of 'Port Chalmers'- a ventilatorfrom 'Melbourne Star'. The belts from 'HMS Eagle' and 'Rochester Castle'- a life-buoy of HMS Eagle and a silver Gozo boat presented on 9th September, 1942, to the captain of 'Port Chalmers' as a sign of appreciation.