Short answers, pulled from the story.
Operation Pedestal was a British convoy operation in August 1942 carrying food, fuel, and ammunition to the besieged island of Malta. Fourteen merchant ships were protected by two battleships, three aircraft carriers, seven cruisers, and thirty-two destroyers, making it the largest convoy escort yet assembled. Only five of those fourteen ships reached Grand Harbour, and more than 500 sailors and airmen were killed.
Five of the fourteen merchant ships reached Grand Harbour. More than 500 Merchant and Royal Navy sailors and airmen were killed during the operation.
Malta served as a base for attacking Axis supply routes to North Africa; between June and October 1941, Malta-based forces sank about 220,000 long tons of Axis shipping there, with Malta-based squadrons accounting for roughly 75 per cent of all Axis ships destroyed from the air. By August 1942, the Axis siege had cut Malta's civilian ration to 14 ounces of sugar and 14 ounces of corned beef per person per fortnight, and aviation fuel was nearly exhausted. Without a successful convoy before September 1942, Malta would have been forced to surrender.
HMS Eagle was torpedoed on the 11th of August 1942 and sank in eight minutes, 70 nautical miles south of Cape Salinas. A submarine had manoeuvred within 400 yards to fire four torpedoes. Two hundred and thirty-one men were lost along with all but four of Eagle's Sea Hurricanes, stripping the convoy of roughly 20 per cent of its fighter cover.
Ohio carried 12,000 long tons of aviation fuel, the most critical supply in the convoy. The tanker survived a torpedo hit that blew a 23-by-26-foot hole in its side, a Stuka crash onto its deck, and repeated bombing attacks before reaching Grand Harbour at 09:30 on the 15th of August 1942. Ohio settled on the harbour bottom just as its fuel was fully discharged.
HMS Unbroken torpedoed the Italian heavy cruiser Bolzano and the light cruiser Muzio Attendolo on the morning of the 13th of August 1942, preventing those ships from attacking the convoy's remnants. Eighty-two feet of Muzio Attendolo's bow was blown open, and Bolzano burned until the following day. The Italian destroyers dropped 105 depth charges on Unbroken in 45 minutes but at too shallow a depth to sink it.