 The operation , carried out on 7 March 1942 , was largely successful and 15 of the 16 Spitfires reached Malta . Plagis and Leggo arrived to find a third Rhodesian , Flight Officer George " Buck " Buchanan , already attached to the squadron . A further delivery of 16 Spitfires , Operation Picket I , was attempted on 21 March , but this was less successful ; only nine of the planes arrived . Thirteen Spitfire reinforcement operations were ultimately launched between March and October 1942 , playing a key role in the siege . The Luftwaffe and the Italian Regia Aeronautica meanwhile attempted to bomb Malta into submission , turning the airfields into " a wilderness of craters , the docks ... a shambles , Valletta a mass of broken limestone ... " 
