During the summer and autumn of 1941, Malta held the balance of the war in the Mediterranean region.

Royal Air Force and Fleet Air Arm aircraft ranged far and wide in their hunt for the Axis convoys replenishing the Afrika Korps in North Africa with troops and supplies.

Surface ships and submarines from the island inflicted such heavy losses on enemy ships that at one stage the Axis contemplated stopping convoys and started ferrying troops and military equipment by air and by submarines.

This is the incredible story that the current issue of Malta at War recounts with text, photographs and diagrams - a flashback of history that few, apart from the wartime leaders of both sides, knew at the time because of the secrecy of the operations.

The carriers of the Royal Navy ferried fighters to the island from the western Mediterranean and light bombers flew in direct from the United Kingdom.

Two convoys were sent to Malta: Operation Substance, with the order "The convoy must get through" (and it did), and Operation Halberd, with a massive naval escort protecting merchant ships with vital supplies and troops.

Despite the courageous attacks of the low-flying Italian torpedo-bombers and the E-boats and submarines, eight of the merchantmen reached Malta unscathed. On the other hand the Axis ships were being sunk regularly.

Photographs taken during these operations by British and Italian sources bring the drama to life and special diagrams explain the development of the battles, as never narrated before.

The publication carries spectacular photographs of the many events which took place in September 1941 and covers various fields of activity, including the daring Italian frogmen attack at Gibraltar, from where the convoys to Malta sailed.

The current issue is the first of volume four, 13 issues being bound to form one volume. Malta at War is published by wise Owl Publications and sells at Lm1.85c.