The Battle for the Mediterranean From El Alamein to the PO

The Mediterranean Sea became the scene of intense fighting in the air, on land and at sea during the Second World War. It witnessed at least a dozen major campaigns fought over its length and breadth in four-year period. The war was truly multi-national witnessing a clash of arms involving the armed forces of America, Britain, Germany, France and Italy. Despite many setbacks Britain held the keys to the Mediterranean, thanks to its dominance of Gibraltar, Malta, Alexandria and the Suez Canal. It took three long years to defeat the Axis forces in North Africa, followed by the invasion of Italy. Complete Allied control of the Mediterranean was finally secured with the Allied landings in the French Riviera in the summer of 1944. In this new text, Anthony Tucker-Jones looks at the way the war was fought across the whole Mediterranean, on its shores, islands, in the air above it and the sea below, to tell the story of an all-encompassing conflict.