Editing Hawker Hurricane (section)

===Defence of Malta===
The Hurricane played a significant role in the [[Siege of Malta (World War II)|defence of Malta]]. When Italy entered the war on 10 June 1940, Malta's air defence rested on [[Gloster Gladiator]]s, which managed to hold out against vastly superior numbers of the Italian air force during the following 17 days. Initially there were six Gladiators, though after a while, only three were able to be flown at any one time because of a shortage of spare parts, and for whatever reason (five different explanations have been given), they became known as "Faith, Hope and Charity".<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Raskin |first1=Richard |title=Five explanations as to who named Malta's Gloster Gladiators Faith, Hope and Charity in 1940–1941 |journal=Journal of Maltese History |date=2015 |volume=4 |issue=2 |pages=17–18 |issn=2077-4338}}</ref> Four Hurricanes joined them at the end of June, and together they faced attacks throughout July from the 200 enemy aircraft based in [[Sicily]], with the loss of one Gladiator and one Hurricane.<!---completely unnecessary to chronicle individual actions--- On 16 July, Flt Lt Peter Keeble in Hurricane P2623 and Flt Lt Burges in a Gladiator, scrambled to intercept a dozen C.R.42s from ''23° Gruppo''. Keeble attacked one CR.42 but then came under attack himself by the ''Falcos'' of ''Tenente'' Mario Pinna and ''Tenente'' Oscar Abello. Keeble started to dogfight with the biplanes, but he was hit and he dived into the ground near [[Fort Rinella]], perishing, while a CR.42, probably the aircraft that he had shot at, (MM4368), flown by ''Sottotenente'' Mario Benedetti of ''74a Squadrigllia'', crashed 100 yards far, killing his pilot. Keeble was the first pilot to be killed in action at Malta.<ref>Cull and Galea 2008, pp. 64–66, 118.</ref>----> Further reinforcements arrived on 2 August in the form of 12 more Hurricanes and two [[Blackburn Skua]]s.<ref>Shores et al. 1987, pp. 43–47.</ref>{{Refn|This was code-named Operation Hurry. These aircraft were flown off the carrier {{HMS|Argus|I49|6}}.|group=N}}

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| quote = For weeks a handful of Hurricane IIs, aided by Group Captain [[Alfred Woodhall|A.B. Woodhall]]'s masterly controlling, had been meeting, against all the odds, the rising crescendo of [[Albert Kesselring|Field Marshal Kesselring]]'s relentless attacks on [[Grand Harbour]] and the airfields. Outnumbered, usually, by 12 or 14 to one and, later&nbsp;– with the arrival of the [[Messerschmitt Bf 109|Bf 109]]Fs in Sicily&nbsp;– outperformed, the pilots of the few old aircraft which the ground crews struggled valiantly to keep serviceable, went on pressing their attacks, ploughing their way through the German fighter screens, and our flak, to close in with the [[Junkers Ju 87|Ju 87s]] and [[Junkers Ju 88|88s]] as they dived for their targets.
| source = Wing Commander [[Percy Lucas]]  quoted in Bader (2004)<ref name="bader 147-155">Bader 2004, pp. 147–155.</ref>
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The increasing number of British aircraft on the island, at last, prompted the Italians to employ German [[Junkers Ju 87]] dive bombers to try to destroy the airfields. Finally, in an attempt to overcome the stiff resistance put up by these few aircraft, the Luftwaffe took up base on the Sicilian airfields, only to find that Malta was not an easy target. After numerous attacks on the island over the following months, and the arrival of an extra 23 Hurricanes at the end of April 1941, and a further delivery a month later, the Luftwaffe left Sicily for the [[Eastern Front (World War II)|Russian Front]] in June that year.<ref>Bader 2004, pp. 125–127.</ref>

As Malta was situated on the increasingly important sea supply route for the [[North African campaign]], the Luftwaffe returned with a vengeance for a second assault on the island at the beginning of 1942. It was not until March, when the onslaught was at its height, that 15 Spitfires arrived from the carrier {{HMS|Eagle|1918|6}} to bolster the defence, but many of the new aircraft were lost on the ground and the Hurricane bore the brunt of the early fighting until further reinforcements arrived.<ref name="bader 147-155" />