| ID | Description | Categories | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 502 | SMITH, Peter C. Action Imminent. 352p., bibliog., illus., index. London: Kimber, 1980. ISBN: 071830277X.
A detailed review of three actions in the Mediterranean in 1940 and of Churchill’s intervention in each case; the Battle of Calabria; the passage through the Straits by a French cruiser squadron and the Battle of Spartivento. Republished by Seaforth in 2011 as Critical Conflict (ISBN: 9781848845138.) |
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| 503 | STRABOLGI, [J. M. K.], Lord. From Gibraltar to Suez: The Battle of the Middle Sea. xi, 263p., illus., index. London: Hutchinson, [1941].
The first year of the Mediterranean sea war. |
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| 504 | PACK, S. W. C. The Battle of Matapan (British Battles Series). 183p., illus. London: Batsford; New York: Macmillan, 1961.
The author was present at the battle and gives an excellent and clear account of this famous victory. |
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| 505 | PACK, S. W. C. Night Action off Cape Matapan (Sea Battles in Close Up, 2). 146p., illus., index. London: Ian Allan, 1972. ISBN: 0711002576.
One of the first in this excellent series, it has full technical details of the British victory. |
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| 506 | SETH, Ronald. Two Fleets Surprised: The Story of the Battle of Cape Matapan, Mediterranean March 1941. xxii, 201p., bibliog., illus., index. London: Bles, 1960.
Matapan, largely from the Italian point of view. |
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| 507 | SIMMONS, Mark. The Battle of Matapan 1941: The Trafalgar of the Mediterranean. 192p., bibliog.,illus., index. Stroud: History Press, 2011. ISBN: 9780752458298.
Explores the battles of Taranto and Matapan, as seen through the eyes of the men who manned the ships and flew the aircraft of the Mediterranean Fleet. |
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| 508 | WINGATE, John. Torpedo Strike: With Cunningham in the Mediterranean: At Taranto and Matapan with the Fleet Air Arm. 192p. London: Macdonald, 1964.
A dramatised account of Fleet Air Arm operations in the Mediterranean in 1940 and the spring of 1941. |
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| 509 | LOWRY, Thomas P., & WELLHAM, John W. G. The Attack on Taranto: Blueprint for Pearl Harbor. xiii, 143p., bibliog., illus., index. London: Greenhill; Mechanicsburg, Pa.: Stackpole, 1995. ISBN: 0811717267.
A useful American view which is very supportive of the RN and its role in developing carrier borne warfare. A new edition was published in 2001. |
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| 510 | NEWTON, Don, & HAMPSHIRE, A. Cecil. Taranto. 204p., illus. London: Kimber, 1959.
The first full account of the raid by planes from Illustrious in 1940. Gives a detailed if dramatised account of this crippling attack on the Italian fleet, with most of the book concentrating on the experiences of the individual Swordfish used in the attack. |
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| 511 | SCHOFIELD, B. B. The Attack on Taranto (Sea Battles in Close Up, 6). 94p., bibliog., illus., index. London: Ian Allan; Annapolis: NIP, 1973. ISBN: 0711004218.
In the usual excellent format of this series, an account of the Fleet Air Arm attack on the Italian Fleet. Republished in 2011 by Pen & Sword with Schofield's account of the attack on Bismarck as Stringbags in Action. ISBN: 9781848843882. |
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| 512 | SMITHERS, A. J. Taranto 1940: 'A Glorious Episode'. x, 150p., bibliog., illus., index. London: Cooper; Annapolis: NIP, 1995. ISBN: 0850524911.
A military historian gives a brief account for the general reader. American edition subtitled Prelude to Pearl Harbor. |
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| 513 | WRAGG, David. Swordfish: The Story of the Taranto Raid. xv, 224p., bibliog., illus., index. London: Weidenfeld, 2003. ISBN: 0297846671.
A good account which focuses on the personalities and looks at the implications for Pearl Harbor. |
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| 514 | DANNREUTHER, Raymond. Somerville's Force H: The Royal Navy's Gibraltar-Based Fleet, June 1940 To March 1942. xv, 174 p., bibliog., illus., index. London: Aurum, 2005. ISBN: 1845130200. Force H began its history with the task of disabling the French fleet at Mers-el-Kebir. It had two vital missions: to maintain supplies to Malta and carry the war to the Italian fleet, and to protect British shipping in the Atlantic. |
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| 515 | ANSEL, Walter. Hitler and the Middle Sea. x, 514p., bibliog., illus., index. Durham: Duke UP, 1972. ISBN: 0822302241.
Admiral Ansel makes extensive use of German primary sources to describe German activity in the Mediterranean up to the end of 1941. The capture of Crete is examined in detail. |
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| 516 | BUCKLEY, Christopher. Five Ventures: Iraq-Syria-Persia-Madagascar-Dodecanese (The Second World War, 1939-1945. A Popular Military History by Various Authors). ix, 257p., illus., index. London: HMSO, 1954.
The Royal Navy was more or less involved in all of these small campaigns. |
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| 517 | GLENTON, George. No Safe Haven: Told for the First Time - An Epic Story of Endurance by the Allied Merchant Fleet in the Mediterranean from the Barbary Coast to Bari 1942 to 1944. [iv], 200p., illus., index. Ringwood: Navigator, 1995. ISBN: 0902830473.
Glenton served on the Dutch flagged fuel carrier Odysseus and after the war became a well-known journalist. His autobiographical story is used as a metaphor for the tribulations of the Merchant Marine. |
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| 518 | GREAT BRITAIN. Ministry of Information. The Mediterranean Fleet Greece to Tripoli: The Admiralty Account of Naval Operations, April 1941 to January 1943. 95p., illus. London: HMSO, 1944.
A sequel to East of Malta, West of Suez, recording the virtual regaining of control of the Mediterranean. |
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| 519 | HECKSTALL-SMITH, Anthony. Tobruk. 255p., bibliog., illus., index. London: Blond, 1959; New York: Norton, 1960.
A workmanlike account of the role of Tobruk in the Desert War. The naval contribution to the successful defence is fully described. |
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| 520 | HODGKINSON, Hugh. Before the Tide Turned: The Mediterranean Experiences of a British Destroyer Officer in 1941. 242p., illus. London: Harrap,1944. Memoir of a first lieutenant and later captain of destroyers in the Mediterranean. Gives a vivid picture of the strain of combat. The author served in Hotspur in convoys, battles, and evacuations in one of the most hard-fought campaigns of the war at sea. |
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| 521 | LANDSBOROUGH, Gordon. Tobruk Commando. [viii], 216p., illus. London: Cassell, 1956. Describes the attempt to destroy Rommel's oil storage tanks at Tobruk in 1942. Operation Agreement proved a disaster for the Mediterranean Fleet, which lost the A/A cruiser Coventry and the two Tribal class destroyers Sikh and Zulu. Reprinted by Greenhill in 1989 and by Frontline in 2015. |
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