In 1942, Great Britain was waging war against Italian forces in North Africa and their allies, Rommel's Afrika Korps. Malta was critical to this campaign During this stage of the war, Malta was critically short on munitions, food and aviation fuel. Attempts to run the blockade and resupply Malta proved to be a failure; previous convoys such as Harpoon (from Gibraltar) and Vigorous (from Alexandria, Egypt) had lost most of their merchantmen and their escorts had been damaged. A new convoy was hence planned for mid-August, and named Pedestal.