Malta Convoys [Illustrated] [Hardcover]

Richard Woodman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2000

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, standing as it did in the central Mediterranean, athwart the supply route between Italy and the Axis armies in North Africa. It had therefore to be bombed out of existence by the Axis powers, and preserved at all costs by the British. This is a review of the contest of air-power against sea-power, written by a professional sea-farer. It emphasizes the part played by the Merchant Navy.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'Malta became a central symbol of British tactical defiance...the sufferings of the Navy in supplying it make shocking reading' -- Max Hastings

About the Author

Richard Woodman is well known for his Nathaniel Drinkwater series, ten other sea stories, a "History of the Ship" and a work on sea-power in the Napoleonic Wars. In "Malta Convoys," he continues his study of British maritime services in the Second World War that he began in "Artic Convoys," published to wide critical acclaim in 1994. Born in London in 1944, Richard Woodman first went to sea in 1960. His maiden deep-water voyage, aboard the cargo liner Glenartney sparked an interest in the subject of this book. He spent over thirty years at sea and has extensive experience of command and operational planning. He now writes full-time and is a regular contriubtor to "Lloyd's List." --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 532 pages
• Publisher: John Murray (May 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0719557534
• ISBN-13: 978-0719557538
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 6.2 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,120,969 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good on convoys, bad on details, March 13, 2001

By 

Jack Greene (Baywood Park, California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Malta Convoys (Hardcover)

Woodman who is an ex-merchant seaman does very well on the story of the convoys as they plied there way to and from Malta during World War II. In this he is good and the book has real value. This includes interviews with some of the surviving sailors of these convoys.

However he essentially uses no German or Italian source material and has a great number of errors of detail. Nor does he use recent academic books in English filled with new information. For example, he has the wrong Italian general capturing Addis Ababa in the war with Ethiopia, he confuses hellcat with wildcat fighters (used on British carriers), he talks about lightly armored Italian heavy cruisers when four of their seven were one of the most heavily armored heavy cruisers in 1939 (the Zara class), and he is in error on Axis losses and Axis commanders and confuses bomb sizes. The list goes on. Written so long after the war he should have gotten the details better.