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The Royal Navy abandoned Malta as a major fleet base in 1939.

During the decade before that Malta was invested in as a major fleet base. It had the best repair facilities of any Royal Navy controlled port between the home islands and Singapore.

I always felt that the Mediterranean fleet suffered when it came to repairing ships.

After Crete HAS Warspite spent roughly a month in Alexandria being patched up and two months sailing to USA to repair damage from a single 500 lb bomb. She also received a refit at this time.

HMS Barham was sailed to Kenya where she received patching up and then sailed to Durban for repairs. She spent a third of the time she was out of action sailing.

HMS Valiant spent 25 days in Alexandria getting what was described as superficial bomb damage from Crete repaired.

After the attack by Italian frogmennin December 1941 HMS Queen Elizabeth spent 6 months being patched before sailing to the USA for a proper repair.

I feel that a lot of these are somewhat slow.

What if repair facilities in Malta wasn't invested in and Alexandria was initially intended to be the main fleet base in the Mediteranean. Would the Royal Navy have a better rate of repairing ships in Alexandria. If so would it result in them have higher combat readiness in the Mediterranean theater.
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