Takali 1942 - British submarines and planes operating from the island fortress of Malta had sent thousands of tons of Axis ships to the bottom of the Mediterranean. Axis air forces were employed to neutralize the islandí«í´s defences to make way for an invasion under the code name Operation HERKULES. The Axis aerial attacks reached severe levels after 21 March 1942. Outnumbered and short of supplies, the islandí«í´s British defenders clung on, with a series of deliveries of new Spitfires coming at critical times. In the end it was the Spitfires who saved the day and turned the tide, with the German offensive faltering after mid-May. In total, 500 Axis planes were destroyed or severely damaged, most of these accounted for by the remarkable Spitfire. The Supermarine Spitfire was a single seat fighter used by the RAF and many Allied countries in World War II. It saw service during the whole of World War II, in all theatres of war, and in many different variants. More than 20,300 of all variants were built, and Spitfires remained in service well into the 1950s. In total there were 24 marks of Spitfire and many sub-variants within each mark. Late in 1940 the Mk. II started meeting a new German aircraft in combat. Essentially a cleaned up version of the Bf 109E that Spitfires and Hurricanes had bested the year before in the Battle of Britain, the new Franz (Friedrich) model was superior to the Mk. II Spitfire in many respects. The Mk. V was nothing more than a Mk. II with the newer Merlin 45 series engine. This engine delivered slightly more takeoff power at 1,440 hp (1074 kW), but greatly increased the power available at higher altitudes due to a new two-speed supercharger design. While it was no Mk. IV, the Mk. V was able to hold its own with the 109Fs it was meeting. The Mk. V proved so useful that it would go on to be the most produced version by far, with 94 Mk. VAs (eight-gun), 3,923 Mk. VBs (cannon) and 2,447 Mk.VCs