Operation MAQ2

'MAQ2' was a British naval undertaking by Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham’s Mediterranean Fleet to cover the AN.5 convoy from Port Said to Piraeus and also to undertake air attack on Italian-held islands of Rhodes and Stampalia (Astypálaia in Greek) (25/28 October 1940).

On 25 October the battleships Malaya and Ramillies, the fleet carrier Eagle, the light cruiser Coventry and the destroyers Janus, Mohawk, Wryneck and Australian Vampire and Voyager departed Alexandria, and on 26 October reached the southern end of the Kásos Strait between the eastern end of Crete and the island of Scarpanto (Kárpathos in Greek). On the following day Fairey Swordfish bombers from Eagle attacked the airfield at Maritza on Rhodes and Maltezana on Stampalia, and all the ships returned safely to Alexandria on 28 October.

At the same time the cruisers Orion and Australian Sydney, escorted by the destroyers Jervis and Juno, undertook a sweep into the Aegean Sea as far to the north as the Dardanelles before being recalled as the Italians began their 'Emergenza G' invasion of Greece.