"furious" spent the next three months after her return working up. in august, she was detailed to accompany the convoy bound for malta in operation pedestal, but she was only to sail far enough with them to allow her 38 supermarine spitfires to reach malta. this she did, just as "eagle" was torpedoed, but "furious" turned around after flying off her fighters and reached gibraltar successfully. she loaded another batch of 32 spitfires on 16 august and they were flown off the following day southeast of the balearic islands. after this mission, "furious" was sent back to the home fleet for training. one last mission was necessary to reinforce the defences of malta before operation torch and the ship arrived at gibraltar on 27 october. she loaded 32 spitfires and launched them on 29 august before returning to gibraltar and being assigned to force h.