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Originally Posted by Rob Romero
Thanks Graham IIRC Kesselring was actually strongly in favor of invading Malta -the main proponent of abandoning the landing and pressing on in Afrika instead was Rommel and the General Staff went along with the wishes of the Dessert Fox.
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Was it not also true that Hitler was not enthusiastic about another airborne operation after the very high casulties of the Crete operation? Also, I have read that when plans were pretty far advance for the Malta operation, the Italian Navy could not commit to the very heavy support operation which would be required to confront the RN. The operations off Crete had not added to the Italian Navy's reputation in the eyes of the Germans.
I think these factors, along with Rommel's desires were what made the Germans drop the operation.