Download or read book The Royal Navy and the Mediterranean Convoys written by Malcolm Llewellyn-Jones and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-09-05 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book contains the Naval Staff History originally issued by the Admiralty in 1957 as a confidential book for use within the Royal Navy. It has since been declassified and is published here for the first time, along with an extended preface. This volume describes the dangerous convoy operations in the Mediterranean which were necessary to relieve the garrison and people of Malta, covering the period from the beginning of 1941 until the end of 1942. These convoys had to be fought through against determined attack by German and Italian surface, submarine and, particularly, air forces. Although casualties were proportionately higher than in Atlantic convoys, Malta was successfully re-supplied and remained a considerable impediment to enemy’s attempts to supply their armies in North Africa. These operations reveal the dedication, courage and professionalism of the sailors (of both naval and merchant services) as well as the airmen who supported them. A new preface sets the scene for the Staff History. The Royal Navy and the Mediterranean Convoys will be of great interest for students interested in the Mediterranean Convoys, Second World War and naval and military history.
Download or read book The British Navy in the Mediterranean written by John D. Grainger and published by Boydell & Brewer. This book was released on 2017 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive overview of the activities of the British navy in the Mediterranean from the earliest times until the present.
Download or read book The Royal Navy and the Mediterranean written by G. A. Titterton and published by Psychology Press. This book was released on 2002 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Royal Navy and the Mediterranean written by David Brown and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-07-04 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume deals with the first 15 months of the Mediterranean Campaign including the preparations for war, the effect of the entry of Italy into the war in June, 1940, the tragic actions against the French Fleet, and the achievement of British command of the sea, which was the defining factor for all subsequent Mediterranean operations. It ends with the first Mediterranean convoy battle to run supplies from Gibraltar to Alexandria - Operation Hat.
Download or read book The Royal Navy and the Arctic Convoys written by Malcolm Llewellyn-Jones and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-05-13 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book is a masterpiece of operational history, and is written with surprising candour, given that the author was a member of the Naval Staff. The men who took part in these operations were drawn from Britain, Canada, America (particularly for the merchant service). This book provides a detailed account of naval actions (with maps) based on close examination of all relevant documentation and interviews with principal participants.
Download or read book Naval Battles of the Second World War written by Leo Marriott and published by Pen and Sword Maritime. This book was released on 2022-05-31 with total page 167 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Second World War was a truly global conflict and maritime power played a major role in every theatre of operations. Land campaigns depended on supplies transported by sea, and victory or defeat depended on the outcome of naval battles. So Leo Marriott’s highly illustrated two-volume account of the struggle sets naval actions in the wider strategic context as well as giving graphic accounts of what happened in each engagement. This first volume concentrates on the Royal Navy’s confrontation with the ships and submarines of the German Kriegsmarine during the Battle of the Atlantic, the Arctic convoys and the struggle across the Mediterranean against the Italian navy to supply the opposing armies in North Africa. The Battle of the River Plate, the pursuit of the Bismarck, the PQ17 convoy to the Soviet Union and Operation Pedestal, the most famous convoy sent to relieve Malta, are among the episodes described in vivid detail and illustrated with a selection of striking photographs. This concise but wide-ranging introduction to the naval war emphasizes the sheer scale of the conflict in every sea and shows the direct impact of each naval battle on the course of the war .
Download or read book In Passage Perilous written by Vincent P. O'Hara and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2012-11-05 with total page 404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An invaluable account of one of the most overlooked sea battles of World War II. By mid-1942 the Allies were losing the Mediterranean war: Malta was isolated and its civilian population faced starvation. In June 1942 the British Royal Navy made a stupendous effort to break the Axis stranglehold. The British dispatched armed convoys from Gibraltar and Egypt toward Malta. In a complex battle lasting more than a week, Italian and German forces defeated Operation Vigorous, the larger eastern effort, and ravaged the western convoy, Operation Harpoon, in a series of air, submarine, and surface attacks culminating in the Battle of Pantelleria. Just two of seventeen merchant ships that set out for Malta reached their destination. In Passage Perilous presents a detailed description of the operations and assesses the actual impact Malta had on the fight to deny supplies to Rommel’s army in North Africa. The book’s discussion of the battle’s operational aspects highlights the complex relationships between air and naval power and the influence of geography on littoral operations. “An important and highly recommended addition to the literature on World War II in the Mediterranean.” —IPP Naval Maritime History
Download or read book Malta Convoys 1940 42 written by David A. Thomas and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 1999-12-31 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Malta Convoys David Thomas, the distinguished naval historian, gives a fascinating account of the vital battles fought by sea and air to ensure that essential supplies got through. He vividly describes the appalling cost in men and ships. Here is an important contribution to naval history in the Second World War and, at the same time, a rattling good read.
Download or read book Malta Convoys 1940 1943 written by Richard Woodman and published by John Murray Pubs Limited. This book was released on 2003-02-01 with total page 560 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the day Mussolini's Italy declared war on Britain in June 1940, the island of Malta was under siege. Its strategic importance was obvious to both sides, blocking as it did the supply route across the Mediterranean from Italy to the Axis armies in North Africa. It had to be bombed out of existence by the Axis powers and preserved at all costs by the British. That Malta survived was due to the courage and fortitude of her people and to the dauntless determination of the Royal Navy and the Merchant Navy. Here Richard Woodman tells the full, terrifying story of how - at fearsome cost - the impossible was achieved.
Download or read book The War at Sea in the Mediterranean 1940 1944 written by John Grehan and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2014-04-30 with total page 423 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Despatches in this volume include those covering the Battle of Matapan in 1941, Fleet Air Arm operations in 1940, the Battle of Sirte in 1942, the action with the Italian Fleet off Calabria (Central Mediterranean) in 1940, the engagement between British and Italian forces off Cape Spartivento (Central Mediterranean) in 1940, the Mediterranean convoys between January 1941 and August 1942 which includes the famous Operation Pedestal, operations in the Aegean in 1943, the engagement with an Italian convoy in 1941, and the despatch covering Coastal Force actions, including those in the Mediterranean.This unique collection of original documents will prove to be an invaluable resource for historians, students and all those interested in what was one of the most significant periods in British military history.The Coastal Forces despatch also includes those vessels assigned to the Levant, Dover and Nore stations i.e. outside of the Mediterranean theatre.
Download or read book The Royal Navy and the Mediterranean written by David Brown and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-01-11 with total page 547 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work covers a difficult period of the war for the Royal Navy's Mediterranean Fleet. It covers the destruction of the Italian Fleet at Taranto by naval aircraft from the carrier Illustrious, and the entry of the German Luftwaffe into the theatre with their attack on Illustrious in 1941.
Download or read book The Royal Navy s Home Fleet in World War 2 written by J. Levy and published by Springer. This book was released on 2003-10-23 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book marks the first comprehensive history of Britain's naval bulwark, the Home Fleet. It illuminates the vital role that fleet played in preserving Britain as a base of operations against Hitler. We see portrayed the hard days of blockade, patrol, and battle that encompassed the Home Fleet's war. And we see how that war was made harder by weaknesses at the Admiralty and by the damaging interference of the Minister of Defence - Winston Churchill.
Download or read book Struggle for the Middle Sea written by Vincent O'Hara and published by Naval Institute Press. This book was released on 2009-06-01 with total page 362 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Mediterranean is the maritime crossroads where Europe, Asia, and Africa meet. More major naval actions were fought there than in the Atlantic or Pacific yet remarkably little has been written about the subject. Th is fresh study of the Mediterranean’s naval war analyzes the actions and performances of the five major navies—British, Italian, French, German, and American—during the entire five-year campaign and examines the national imperatives that drove each nation’s maritime strategy. Struggle for the Middle Sea provides a history of the entire campaign from all perspectives and covers Germany’s largely unknown—and remarkably successful—struggle to employ sea power in the Mediterranean after the Italian armistice. Defense & Foreign Affairs Strategic Policy (August 2009) has called it “a new and stunningly important view of World War II” and “a fabulously readable and important book.”
Download or read book The Royal Navy in World War II written by Robert Jackson and published by US Naval Institute Press. This book was released on 1997 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Nazi Germany struck out from her borders in 1939, the untold force and efficiency of its land and air forces cut an unstoppable swath through mainland Europe. It was only at sea that their newfound might was tamed. Hitler's fear of the Royal Navy kept his most lethal ships hidden in bolt-holes, he was frightened to confront the British fleet in battle - an action the Kriegsmarine most probably would have won through superior ships and guns had they confronted their enemy. It was the dogged determination of British seafarers throughout the early part of the war that caused the final demise of the German big-ship fleet and left the U-boat and E-boat to fight Hitler's war at sea. This is the story of how, despite all odds, the RN helped Britain survive during the critical times of the Battle of the Atlantic, the Siege of Malta, the convoys to northern Russia and the D-Day landings. It also tells why their fully-stretched forces could not play the part they wished in the Eastern and Pacific war.
Download or read book Very Special Ships written by Arthur Nicholson and published by Seaforth Publishing. This book was released on 2015-10-30 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Very Special Ships is the first full-length book about the six Abdiel-class fast minelayers, the fastest and most versatile ships to serve in the Royal Navy in the Second World War. They operated not only as offensive minelayers dashing into enemy waters under cover of darkness but in many other roles, most famously as blockade runners to Malta. In lieu of mines, they transported items as diverse as ammunition, condensed milk, gold, and VIPs. Distinguished by their three funnels, the Abdiels were attractive, well-designed ships, and they were also unique no other navy had such ships, and so they were sought-after commands and blessed with fine captains. To give the fullest picture of this important class of ships, the book details the origins and history of mines, minelayers, and minelaying; covers the origins and design of the class; describes the construction of each of the six ships, and the modified design of the last two; tells in detail of the operational careers of the ships in the second World War, when they played vital roles in the battle of Crete and the siege of Malta, plied the hazardous route to Tobruk, and laid mines off the Italian coast. The post-war careers of the surviving ships is also documented. Written to appeal to naval enthusiasts, students of World War II and modelmakers, the author tells the story of these ships through first-hand accounts, official sources, and specially- commissioned drawings and photographs.
Download or read book Six Victories written by Vincent O'Hara and published by Naval Institute Press. This book was released on 2019-10-15 with total page 341 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Six Victories examines one of the most interesting and instructive naval campaigns of World War II: the war on traffic in the Mediterranean during the fall and winter of 1941-42. It is a cautionary tale of how sea power was practiced, and how it shifted 180 degrees overnight. Based on British and Italian archival sources, the book emphasizes strategic context, the role of intelligence, and the campaign's logistics. In October 1941 the British Admiralty based a surface strike force in Malta to attack Axis sea lanes between Italy and Africa. Aided by Ultra intelligence, submarines, and bombers based in Malta, this force dominated the Central Mediterranean. From the end of October through the middle of December 1941, less than a third of the supplies shipped from Italian ports arrived in Libya. Shortages of ammunition and fuel finally compelled the Afrika Korps to retreat four hundred miles. Then, in the space of thirty hours, this all changed. First, Italian naval forces broke the blockade by fighting through a major convoy that arrived in time to blunt the British advance; next, the strike force plowed into a minefield laid by Italian cruisers; and finally, in a daring attack, Italian commandos crippled the Mediterranean Fleet's battleships in port. The swing in fortune was immediate and dramatic. Six Victories breaks new ground in the historiography of World War II. A compelling story, it relates lessons that are relevant today and should be required reading for all who practice the art of power at sea and for those who want to understand the intricate and interrelated factors that are the foundations of military success.
Download or read book HMS London written by Iain Ballantyne and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2002-06-06 with total page 505 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fascinating and lively account of the lives of British warships named London, looking at history from the perspective of the men who were there. There is no current warship in the Royal Navy called HMS London, but vessels carrying the name have featured in some of the most controversial episodes of British naval history. For example, the wooden wall battleship HMS London of the late 18th century could be called “the ship that lost America” while the heavy cruiser of WW2 was command vessel for the escort force that failed to safeguard the controversial convoy PQ17. Examining the stories of HMS Londons all the way from the English Civil War, through the Battle of Copenhagen in 1801—where Nelson famously ignored signals to break off the action displayed by HMS London—we also learn of the pre-dreadnought London’s participation in the ill-fated Dardanelles campaign of WW1. Among the people Iain Ballantyne interviewed for this book were veterans of the Arctic convoys of WW2, the Yangtse Incident and warriors of the Cold War and 1991 Gulf War. It all adds up to a thoroughly researched and exciting narrative of naval history. Adding to the authenticity of the tale, Iain even sailed to Russia in the last HMS London, a Type 22 guided-missile frigate, in August 1991. During a WW2 convoy re-enactment the ship was almost hit by a practice torpedo launched from a Soviet submarine and had to take evasive action.
