Fate
A date near mid-July 1942 was set for the invasion, partly to allow time to bring troops from other frontline positions and partly because Hitler believed the Italian Navy was no match for the Royal Navy.
Field Marshal Erwin Rommel supported the idea of seizing Malta, to the point that he personally asked Hitler to allow him to command the invasion forces. His reasons for supporting an invasion were to hinder the Allied troops fighting in Africa, as well as remove the threat to the convoys heading to Rommel with supplies, oil, and men, of all which he was desperately low on. He put the emphasis on the attack to such an extreme that he was willing to move units from his front for the attack. The head of the German Luftwaffe, Hermann Göring, opposed the invasion, fearing it would turn into another near-disaster for his paratroops, as had happened on Crete.
General Field Marshal Albert Kesselring tirelessly promoted Operation Herkules but even he was eventually dissuaded when it became apparent that too many air and ground units had been siphoned off to support Rommel's drive into Egypt, thereby significantly diminishing any chance of Herkules' success. This, along with Hitler's lack of faith in the paratrooper divisions as a result of the Invasion of Crete and in the Italian Navy's ability to protect the invasion fleet from British naval attacks, led to scrapping of the plan.
Read more about this topic: Operation Herkules
Famous quotes containing the word fate:
“That’s life. Whichever way you turn, fate sticks out a foot to trip you.”
—Martin Goldsmith, and Edgar G. Ulmer. Al Roberts (Tom Neal)
“Professor Fate: My apologies. There’s a polar bear in our car.”
—Arthur Ross. Professor Fate (Jack Lemmon)
“This generation is very sure to plant corn and beans each new year precisely as the Indians did centuries ago and taught the first settlers to do, as if there were a fate in it.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)