For the most part, the campaign was fought between the Italian Royal Navy (Regia Marina), supported by other Axis naval and air forces, those of Nazi Germany and Vichy France, and the British Royal Navy, supported by other Allied naval forces, such as those of Australia, the Netherlands, Poland, and Greece.

Outnumbered by the forces of the Regia Marina, the British plan was to hold the three key strategic points of Gibraltar, Malta, and the Suez Canal.

[7] Italian dictator Benito Mussolini saw the control of the Mediterranean as an essential prerequisite for expanding his "New Roman Empire" into Nice, Corsica, Tunis and the Balkans.

Only by the spring of 1943, barely five months before the armistice, twelve Italian warships were equipped with Italian-designed EC-3 ter Gufo radar devices.

Tripoli was the largest port in Libya and it could accommodate a maximum of five large cargo vessels or four troop transports.

If the Italians had a fault in respect to logistics during the Battle of the Mediterranean, it was that they failed to increase the capacity of Tripoli and the other ports before the war.

In contrast, a British ultimatum to place the bulk of the remainder of the French fleet out of German reach was refused.

The fleet was located at Mers-el-Kebir in Algeria, so on 3 July 1940 it was largely destroyed by bombardment by the British "Force H" from Gibraltar (Admiral James Somerville).

In 1942, as part of the occupation of Vichy France during "Case Anton", the Germans intended to capture the French fleet at Toulon.

Germany's Kriegsmarine aimed at isolating Gibraltar, Malta, and the Suez Canal so as to break Britain's trade route to the far east.

More than 60 U-boats were sent to disrupt shipping in the sea, although many were attacked in the Strait of Gibraltar, which was controlled by Britain (nine boats were sunk while attempting the passage and ten more were damaged).

France's Marine Nationale shelled a number of targets on the northwestern coast of Italy, in particular the port of Genoa.

When France surrendered on 24 June, the Axis leaders allowed the new Vichy French government to retain its navy.

To reduce the threat posed by the Italian fleet, which was based in the port of Taranto, to convoys sailing to Malta, Admiral Cunningham organised an attack code-named Operation Judgement.

British Fleet Air Arm aircraft badly damaged two Italian battleships and a third was forced to run aground to prevent her sinking, putting half of the Regia Marina's major ships out of action for several months.

Only five days after Taranto, Inigo Campioni sortied with two battleships, six cruisers and 14 destroyers to disrupt a British aircraft delivery operation to Malta.

The British lost one torpedo plane and suffered light splinter damage to some cruisers from Vittorio Veneto's salvoes.

The factors in the Allied victory were the effectiveness of aircraft carriers, the use of Ultra intercepts and the lack of radar on the Italian ships.

Two attempts were carried out to transport German troops by sea in caïques, but both of them were disrupted by Royal Navy intervention.

The invasion took a fearful toll of the German paratroops, who were dropped without their major weapons, which were delivered separately in containers.

The Axis recognised this and made great efforts to neutralise the island as a British base, either by air attacks or by starving it of its own supplies.

Malta's air defence was repeatedly reinforced by Hawker Hurricane and Supermarine Spitfire fighters flown to the island from HMS Furious and other Allied aircraft carriers.

With the aid of Ultra, Malta's garrison was able to disrupt Axis supplies to North Africa immediately before the Second Battle of El Alamein.

A new Italian government, led by King Victor Emmanuel III and Marshal Pietro Badoglio, immediately began secret negotiations with the Allies to end the fighting.

In southern Italy, the "Co-Belligerent Navy of the South" (Marina Cobelligerante del Sud) fought for the King and Badoglio.