Category: Battle of the Mediterranean: German Involvement

An excellent and full early account of operations in the area.

MACE, Martin & GREHAN, John. The War at Sea in the Mediterranean 1940-1944. xvi, 256p., illus., index. Barnsley: Pen & Sword Maritime, 2014. ISBN: 1783462221.

Reprints nine despatches from the London Gazette with a brief introduction, namely 38273, the Action off Calabria; 38023, the attack on Taranto; 38281, the Battle of Cape Spartivento; 38031, the Battle of Matapan; 38287, action against an Italian convoy in April 1941; 38377, the major Malta convoys of 1941-42; 38073, the Battle of Sirte; 38432, Coastal Force Actions in the Levant in 1942-3; 38426, Actions in the Aegean in late 1943.

HARRISON, Frank. Tobruk: The Great Siege Reassessed. 352p., bibliog., illus., index. London: Arms & Armour, 1996. ISBN: 1854093614.

Tobruk was the longest siege in British military history and this offers an analytical reassessment by a veteran of the campaign. The volume has three parts: the siege, in which the Australian 9th Division held out against Rommel's Afrika Korps: the breakout, where the British 70th Division created a corridor towards the Eighth Army; and an appraisal of "the Desert Fox," Erwin Rommel. The naval contribution is made clear.A new edition was published by Brockhampton Press in 1999, ISBN: 1860199860.

MORTIMER, Gavin. Kill Rommel! Operation Flipper 1941. 80p., bibliog., illus., index. Oxford: Osprey, 2014. ISBN: 9781472801098.

In November 1941 a mixed party of Commandos and SBS men were landed by submarine to assassinate Erwin Rommel on the eve of Operation Crusader intended to drive the Germans and Italians back across the Western Desert. The operation proved a fiasco, but lessons were learned.

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.

GREGORY-SMITH, FRANK. Red Tobruk: Memoirs of a World War II Destroyer Commander. viii, 200p., illus., index. Barnsley: Pen & Sword Military, 2008. ISBN: 1844158624.

An autobiography. He went to Dartmouth in 1922 and by 1939 was First Lieutenant of Jaguar. After Norway and Dunkirk he stood by Eridge as her new captain. On completion she moved to the Mediterranean and a hectic war with eighteen months of convoys to Tobruk and Malta. In August 1942 she was torpedoed by an Italian MTB. Under constant air attack, she was towed to Alexandria, but was irreparable. This Mediterranean period forms the heart of the book. A brief coda describes his role as a D-Day Beachmaster.

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.

ATKINSON, Rick. The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy 1943-1944 (The Liberation Trilogy, Volume 2). xiv, 791 p., bibliog., illus., index. London: Little Brown; New York: Holt, 2007. ISBN: 0316725609.

An American view, with some relevant naval coverage.

Outlines the basic facts.

The tale of the famous defence, with a fair coverage of the naval contribution.

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.

A daring raid which turned into a catastrophic failure.

The author's autobiography from February 1942 to April 1944. For 19 months he served in the Mediterranean on Euryalus, one of Vian’s "Fighting Fifteenth" Cruiser Squadron. He was then drafted to Laforey in which he was later sunk. Based on his wartime diary it is a full but strangely characterless account.

The autobiography of one of the last of the adventurers, renowned for his exploits with the Inshore Squadron in the Mediterranean. His career and interests ranged much wider as evidenced by such memorable index entries as "Daughter, ruining of." Substantially the same text was published in 1994 by the Naval Institute Press as The Pirate of Tobruk (ISBN: 1557506671).

Presents the campaign as seen through the eyes of an accomplished sailor-author-artist, recording events in watercolours.

A workmanlike account of the role of Tobruk in the Desert War. The naval contribution to the successful defence is fully described.

A sequel to East of Malta, West of Suez, recording the virtual regaining of control of the Mediterranean.

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.

The Royal Navy was more or less involved in all of these small campaigns.