Gunnar Hámundarson and in close combat his weapon of choice was the "atgeir", which scholars consider to have been a halberd or glaive of some sort. He was said to have taken this famed weapon in battle from a man named Hallgrímur, while on a Viking raid to the island of Eysýsla (Saaremaa in present-day Estonia - see detailed account on that page). Gunnar was also a skilful stone-thrower, able to hit enemies between the eyes from meters away, and an excellent swimmer. There was supposedly no game at which he had an equal. His behaviour was always polite, but firm —
Operation Halberd vessels to be scuttled. The rest of the convoy arrived at Malta and discharged their cargo. Operation Halberd was at the time the largest Malta resupply effort of the war. Nine merchant ships carrying 81,000 tons of military equipment and supplies sailed from Liverpool on 16 September and from the Clyde on 17 September as part of convoy WS (Winston Specials) 11X, passing Gibraltar on 24 September 1941, with a close escort under the command of Rear-Admiral Harold Burrough. The nine ships were: Force H, under the command of Admiral James Somerville, accompanied the convoy as defence against Italian surface