The approaches to the Red Sea through the Gulf of Aden and the Strait (Gate of Tears) is wide. With the Italy declaration of war on 10 June and the loss of French naval support in the Mediterranean after the Armistice, the Red Sea passage to Suez became the main British sea route to the Middle East. South of Suez the British held Port Sudan, about halfway down on the Sudan coast and the base at Aden, east of Bab-el-Mandeb on the Arabian Peninsula. The principal Italian naval force ( [Rear-Admiral] Mario Bonetti) was based at Massawa in Eritrea, about north of the Bab-el-Mandeb, well placed for the Red Sea Flotilla to attack Allied convoys.