were made without result. Badly damaged, but with her main engines still intact, she steered for Malta. Warspite was also damaged. The attack lasted six minutes; killed 126 crew members and wounded 91. Within sight of Malta, Italian torpedo bombers also attacked the carrier, but were driven off by intense anti-aircraft fire. Cunningham remarked of the Stukas;There was no doubt we were watching complete experts. Formed roughly in a large circle over the fleet, they peeled off one by one when reaching attacking position. We could not but admire the skill and precision of it all. The attacks were pressed home to point-blank range, and as they pulled out of the dives some were seen to fly along the flight deck of the Illustrious below the level of the funnel. On 11 January 1941, 10 more Ju 87s were sent by Enneccerus to sink Illustrious. They chanced upon the light cruisers and . Hits were scored on both; Southampton was so badly damaged her navy escorts scuttled her. Over the next 12 days, the workers at the shipyard in the Grand Harbour repaired the carrier under determined air attack so that she might make Alexandria. On 13 January, the Ju 87s, now equipped with SC 1000 bombs failed to achieve a hit. On 14 January, 44 Ju 87s scored a hit on the ill-fated after lift. On 18 January, the Germans switched to attacking the airfields at Hal Far and RAF Luqa in an attempt to win air superiority before returning to Illustrious. On 20 January, two near misses breached the hull below the water line and hurled her hull against the wharf. Nevertheless, the engineers won the battle. On 23 January, she slipped out of Grand Harbour, and arrived in Alexandria two days later. The carrier later sailed to America where she was kept out of action for a year. I./StG 1 and II./StG 2 had failed in their mission to sink the aircraft carrier. Albeit the cost was minimal; three aircraft on 10 January and four aircraft until the carrier departed. By 5 February II./StG 2 was based at Trapani. The Italian invasion of Egypt in September 1940 failed. A British Army counter-attack, Operation Compass, drove the Italian African Army back into Libya. Erwin Rommel and the German Africa Corps were dispatched to prevent an Axis collapse in North Africa. The 60 Ju 87s of I./StG 1 and