Allied operations in North Africa, Sicily, Italy and elsewhere in the region. A huge number of Allied troops and ships travelled this route; between November 1942 and August 1945, 11,119 ships travelled in 189 convoys between Gibraltar and the United States and vice versa, and between December 1942 and March 1945, 536,134 troops were transported from the United States to Gibraltar. Gibraltar was directly attacked, both overtly and covertly, on several occasions during the war. Vichy French aircraft carried out bombing attacks in 1940 after the surprise attack on their fleet by the royal navy and there were sporadic raids from Italian and German long-range aircraft, though the damage caused was not significant. Franco's position changed subtly from one of neutrality to "non-belligerence", which in practice meant allowing the Axis powers to operate covertly against Gibraltar from Spanish territory. Despite Franco's willingness to overlook German and Italian activities in and around the Bay of Gibraltar, he decided not to join Hitler's planned Operation Felix to seize the territory. A major factor influencing his decision was the vulnerability of Spain's food supplies, as the country was unable to feed itself after the destruction of the Civil War. It relied on grain imports from the Americas, which would certainly have been cut off had Franco gone to war with the Allies. Hitler eventually abandoned Felix to pursue other priorities such as the invasions of Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union. German and Italian spies kept a constant watch on Gibraltar and sought to carry out sabotage operations, sometimes successfully. The Italians repeatedly carried out raids on Gibraltar's harbour using human torpedoes and divers operating from the Spanish shore, damaging a number of merchant ships and sinking one. Three Spaniards being run as spies and saboteurs by the German Abwehr were caught in Gibraltar in 1942–43 and hanged. The threat to Gibraltar was greatly reduced after the collapse of Italy in September 1943. Post-war Gibraltar Although Gibraltar's civilian inhabitants had started to return as early as April 1944, the last evacuees did not arrive back home until as late as February 1951. The immediate problem after VJ Day was a lack of shipping, as all available vessels were needed to bring troops home, but the longer-term problem was a lack of civilian housing. The garrison was relocated to the southern end of the peninsula to free up space and military accommodation was temporarily reused