Operation Herkules was the codename used by the Germans to refer to an Italian-German assault of Malta that was planned but never carried out during World War II (the Italian code-name was Operazione C3). The Axis powers wanted to destroy Malta as a British air and naval base and ensure a continuous flow of supplies over the Mediterranean Sea to their forces fighting in Libya and Egypt through combined air and sea landings. Although both German and Italian armed forces made substantial preparations, the plan was abandoned in November 1942 as a result of the quickly shifting North African combat scenario.
Italian military research done in the middle of the 1930s during Italy's conquest of Ethiopia served as the inspiration for the Axis plan to conquer Malta.
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