Once again, the book range for a Wellington or ANY bomber is neither the burdened range or the time aloft after climb, form up, flight to target, combat maneuvers at maximum speed, and egress from target. Take the Wellington's 1000 mile book radius and knock off 1/3 for the TRUE COMBAT RADIUS burdened.
Runways on Malta are too short.
IOTL Wellingtons were flying bombing missions from Malta from 9th November 1940. See the following quote from Post 26.You just proved what I pointed out about fuel-bomb ratios. Those Wellingtons were not fueled or bombed up to max burden capacity for a long endurance mission. More like 60% for a very short mission.
This map from the British official history proves that a Wellington loaded with 4,500lbs of bombs could fly from Malta to Taranto and back.The Wellington Flight, Malta was formed in 1940 by merging elements of 49 and 79 Squadrons (Mildenhall) and 38 and 115 Squadrons (at Marham). The flight was operating from Luqa, Malta from 9th November 1940. It was disbanded on 1st December 1940 at Luqa to become 148 Squadron. (Source: Flying Units of the RAF)
I've tried to post the map into the thread, but the file is too large.