For this air raid, Italy had prepared dozens of transport planes, each capable of carrying more than 2,000 soldiers at a time.
Because Sicily and Malta were not far apart, the Italians planned to transport an entire division to Malta in several batches.
As long as they could seize Malta, even if the British reacted, retaking it would not be easy.
After all, the Italian Air Force was no weaker than the British and French air forces in the Mediterranean Sea. Without air superiority, landing on Malta would become extremely difficult.
Once it was confirmed that the British Air Force had fled, Italy immediately began bombing Malta's important facilities.
The main targets, naturally, were the military bases where the troops on Malta were stationed.
Italy also knew how many British troops were stationed on Malta. If the air raids could wipe out part of them, the paratroopers' assault would become much easier.
As for Malta's airfields, they were temporarily outside the Italian Air Force's bombing range.
In the Italians' eyes, if their air raid succeeded, the airfields would become theirs anyway, so there was naturally no need to bomb them.
What was more, the relatively well-developed military airfields built by the British could be used by Italy and become important facilities for resisting a British attack.
After the bombing was completed, the transport planes at the rear began approaching Malta and started dropping the Italian Paratrooper Unit that had long been prepared.
About 2,000 paratroopers were deployed this time. They would first seize Malta's military airfield, then rely on its military facilities to fight the British troops stationed on Malta.
As long as they could hold out until the next batch of paratroopers arrived, the Italian Army would have established a foothold on Malta.
By the same logic, if these