 On 11 June 1940, Italy began the Siege of Malta, the first step in their plan to gain control of the Mediterranean.Their plan was to bomb or starve Malta into submission, by attacking its ports, towns, cities, and Allied shipping supplying the island.After over a month of bombardment, the troops on Malta were beginning to run low on supplies -including aircraft- to help fight off the attackers, and some doubt was expressed whether Malta was worth the supplies it required, and some even planned on letting Malta work on the few supplies it had left.