Early in the Second World War, the Germans found themselves with a metaphorical pebble in their shoe.

The pebble was actually a rather large rock that happened to guard the entrance to the Mediterranean Sea.

And unfortunately for them, it happened to be controlled by the British.

If they could remove the British, they could solve their problem and maybe do something for Hitler's friend Francisco Franco.

Learn more about Operation Felix and the planned German invasion of Gibraltar via Spain on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. To understand what made the German so concerned about Gibraltar, we need to understand

what was happening in Europe in the summer of 1940.

Germany had invaded France and May, and to their own surprise they conquered all of France before the end of June.

The speed at which they were able to defeat the French army, an army that many people considered to be on a par with Germany astonished the entire world.

The British Expeditionary Force in continental Europe narrowly avoided a calamity when they were

encircled in Dunkirk, France.

It was only through a remarkable evacuation of over 330,000 soldiers on

civilian boats that disaster was averted. Early in July, Germany began the Battle of Britain,

which was the first major battle ever fought

solely by aircraft. Basically, Germany was on a roll and Britain was on the ropes.

In June, while the invasion of France was underway, Italy declared war in North Africa, which began the

Axis Mediterranean theater of the war.

Germany had plans to control the entire Mediterranean, as was evidenced by their invasion

of the Greek mainland, Crete, and North Africa in 1941.

However, if they were to control the Mediterranean, they needed to keep the British out.

The British held Malta, which Churchill called an unsinkable aircraft carrier.

The German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel realized that they could never really hold on to North Africa

so long as the British held Malta.

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