Not to denigrate wasps contribution to Malta’s survival but her Part in the Pedistal Convoy was confined to delivery of Spitfires in operation Bowery in May, During Pedastal Wasp was bombing Guadalcanal.
No Spitfires via WASP.. No Malta. So runs the propaganda. Why Wasp at all? She had a deck edge lift and an air group/division that was probably the best trained on earth at the time.
Plus the British had no carriers of their own available to do the job required at the moment besides Eagle.
HMS Ark Royal was sunk. HMS Argus was too slow (fly-off) and small (only 30 planes at the time and no ability to provide CAP and ferry.), and the other British carriers had no lifts that could handle the Spitfire VBs. Their wings could not fold to fit. Wasp with the deck edge lift did not have that problem. So she set off for
Operation Calendar.
I believe the British managed to bungle the results of Operation Calendar by allowing the majority (40) or the (52) Spitfires the Wasp ferried at such peril to be caught on the ground and bombed to destruction as soon as they reached Malta. Only 48 could fly off the carrier. 4 had to be pushed off as useless non flight worthy.
But that is not the worst of it... The 48 Spitfires, as delivered, were assembled and serviced in England in such an appalling state that the following faults were present in many of them:
The radios did not work, the external belly tanks that provided the extra fly off range for the short ranged Spitfires leaked and were essentially bombs. Aboard many of the Spitfires, the guns were improperly installed and could not function at all. This was American discovered at sea just passing Gibraltar and was not repairable because the Americans had not the equipment at the time. More on this fiasco below.
The mission was carried forward anyway. Wildcats provided cover to the Spitfires as they made the Club Run.
The British needed a fall guy for the resultant disaster. They fired Lt. General Sir William Dobbie for allowing the Spitfires to be caught on the ground (again, this happened before.). One mistake too many (officially). Actually something of a competent Fudd, for apparently he had managed his parlous posting as Malta's governor well enough for 2 years under these trying circumstances. He was convenient to blame. He should not have been relieved and scapegoated for it; though at his age he should have rotated out for health. He was simply exhausted. The blame for which Churchill impugned him
properly belongs to the blokes who serviced the Spitfires in Britain before they were craned aboard Wasp.
So... WASP had to try again. That one was
Operation Bowery and
this one is the operation for which Wasp is famous. Notably when the Spitfire VCs were delivered in the same appalling condition as the previous Spitfires when Wasp arrived at Glasgow Scotland;
the infuriated Captain Reeves of Wasp took matters into his own hands and this time the Spitfires were serviced by the USN crew with parts requisitioned from RAF stocks before sortie.
Even USN mechanics cannot fix everything. A Canadian pilot (a very good one) named Jerry Smith found that he had some kind of issue with his fuel lines, when he flow off for his club run to Malta.
He was the first pilot to make a Spitfire landing on an American carrier. He would not be the last.
Meanwhile the new governor, Lord Gort, had managed to do the necessary turnaround and dispersal measures to receive and protect the Spitfires the Wasp (~47)
and HMS Eagle (~17) flew off. Again Wildcats provided CAP and escort. Gort at his end was aided by the speed run of RAF ground crew specially trained for this mission and Spitfire spare parts aboard the HMS Welshman; a fast minelayer that masqueraded as a Vichy French destroyer, Leopard. She reached Malta just ahead of the Spitfires. Apparently the Luftwaffe was lousy at ship recognition. She got through unscathed, though she was spotted twice.
The upshot was when Axis air showed up this time to catch the RAF on the ground, the Spitfires were aloft. The Germans and Italians were massacred and that was the end of that nonsense, once and for all.
Woodman, Richard (2000).
Malta Convoys 1940-1943. London: John Murray. p. 320. ISBN 0-7195-6408-5.
Woodman, Richard (2003).
Malta Convoys 1940–1943. London: John Murray. pp. 322–324. ISBN 0-7195-6408-5.