alone in the sky, he made his way back across the Channel, joining up with Sgt Appleton mid-way. Counting all claims together, after Group revision, 3-1-2 Fw 190s were credited to the RAF FC pilots. When another pilot was posted overseas, Beurling offered to take his place. Ordered to board a ship, he did not know his destination until the vessel reached Gibraltar. He was destined for No. 249 Squadron RAF, at Malta. Malta (1942) Fighter pilots played a critical role in the defence of Malta during its siege. Beurling landed on the island on 9 June, after having flown off the deck of aboard his Spitfire, during Operation Salient. His nickname on Malta was "Screwball", an expletive he had a habit of using. Beurling had his baptism of fire in the mid-morning of 12 June when, flying a Spitfire, with three other pilots from 249, the formation intercepted eight Bf 109s. Beurling claimed to have blown the tail off a Bf 109, but nobody saw it hit the ground, so he was credited with a "damaged". After that, Beurling claimed a series of kills that had no equal on the Mediterranean island. On 6 July 1942, with other pilots from 249, he attacked a formation of three Cant Z1007bis, 14 Reggiane Re.2001s and more than two dozen Macchi C.202s. He almost certainly shot down Sergente Francesco Pecchiari from 352a Squadriglia. Then he claimed another Macchi that crashed near Zejtun, likely the Reggiane of Sottotenente Romano Pagliani, 152a Squadriglia. During this fight, the Italians claimed two Spitfires, one by Furio Niclot Doglio (that Beurling would kill three weeks later). RAF suffered no losses, but Beurling's aircraft was badly shot up. However he made a third claim that day, a Messerschmitt, hit from a distance of 800 yards. On 10 July, Beurling's Malta tally rose to five in just four days, making him an ace. That day, it seems likely that he shot down the C.202 of Sergente Maggiore Francesco Visentini, from 378a Squadriglia. On 12 July, Beurling, piloting a Spitfire and searching for Pilot Officer Berkeley-Hill, who was missing, spotted, at a lower altitude, Tenente Colonnello Aldo Quarantotti and Tenente Carlo Seganti, flying over Reggiane Re.2001, who in turn were looking for Lieutenant Francesco Vichi, who had disappeared while a Spitfire was chasing him. Beurling, with Flying Officer Erik Hetherington, dived on the tail of the second of the two