In 1942, on this day the Kriegsmarine's double aircraft carrier group spearheaded "Operation Herkules", the Italo-German invasion of the island of Malta.

Flugzeugträger Part 7:
Operation HerculesThe mission had been approved at a meeting between Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini on 29-30 April. Through combined air and sea landings, the Axis powers hoped to eliminate Malta as a British air and naval base and secure an uninterrupted flow of supplies across the Mediterranean Sea to their forces fighting in Libya and Egypt.

The Axis plan to invade Malta had its origin in Italian military studies conducted in the mid-1930s during Italy's conquest of Ethiopia. By 1938, the Italian army command had estimated the amount of sea transport it would require to move significant military forces into North Africa and identified the seizure of Malta as a necessary prerequisite. The Regia Marina (Italian Navy) had initially showed little interest in the seabourne plan, but the mission priority had been radically changed by the pre-emptive strike of Operation Zhukov, the Soviet invasion of Northern Germany and Romania. Due to the existence of a fleet in being, resupply through the Arctic had been considered impossible; instead the Western allies were delivering huge quantities of armanents through Persia which was the ultimate target of General Rommel's drive through the North Africa/Middle East theatre.
This post shares some commonality with the sister articles in the Flugzeugträger thread.