The Naval War in the Mediterranean 1940-1943 [Hardcover]

Jack Greene (Author), Alessandro Massignani (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1999

A superbly-researched work that provides a complete account of WWII in the Mediterranean, on, above and below the sea, up until the fall of Mussolini. Includes thundering battles between the Italian and British navies, the reinforcement of the theater with German airpower and U-boats, and America coming to Britain's aid to finally swing the balance of power. Surface, air, airborne, commando and U-boat clashes are described. Contains illustrations and maps.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Jack Greene has written on a wide range of naval and military subjects for such publications as Warship International, Command and Strategy and Tactics. Alessandro Massignani has been specializing in Italian military history for over two decades. With Jack Greene, he is co-founder of Military History Workshop International.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Sarpedon Pub; US Ed edition (January 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1885119615
• ISBN-13: 978-1885119612
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.4 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,692,217 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent and superbly documented account. Well done!, September 8, 2000

By 

Anthony J. Simeone (Pittsburgh, PA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Naval War in the Mediterranean 1940-1943 (Hardcover)

This book was thoroughly and well researched on the subject of the naval war in the Mediterranean Sea. A wealth of footnoted referrence materials and books have been provided for further reading. The authors set the stage for the conflict in the Mediterranean theater by briefly describing the circumstances of Italy, Great Britain, and France during the 1930's, the Spanish Civil war and roles that all the major European powers played in that war, and the arms race that took place by these countries up to the beginning of conflict. Every battle is thoroughly covered ... with numerous detailed maps of how the fleets were laid out, when and how they engaged in conflict, and the outcome of those battles. The authors gave an almost hour by hour break down of each battle, and provided detailed information on the breakdown of each fleet, including the exact number of ships, numbers and sizes of guns, numbers of aircraft involved on both sides, and why the engagements ended the way they did. The book was very well balanced, providing a point of view from the Italian side, as well as the English and French (when ever France was involved). If you want to read about classic naval warfare in World War II, the Mediterranean Sea was where it happened the most; where major fleets collided and gunned it out, where submarines, mines, torpedo boats, convoys, aircraft and aircraft carriers all played a major role in combat. I couldn't think of a better book to bring this to you than this book. A must read!!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Valuable Survey of the Med in WW2 from Italian Perspective, September 5, 2006

By 

B. Musler "History Gamer" (New York, New York USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Naval War in the Mediterranean 1940-1943 (Paperback)

This book is valuable for any number of reasons. First, it's a quite well written and accessible survey of the struggle for control of the Mediterranean during WW2. Second, it offers a convincing portrait of events specifically from the Italian perspective by going into considerable detail about not just relative weapon quality but also training, command structure, diplomatic relationships, industrial capacity and logistics.

While the book does focus on "The Naval War" it also offers a compelling picture of what the struggle looked like to Italy (aside from Russia and Greece.) It is of exceptional value to naval miniatures players and wargamers because Greene, having been a noted creator of simulations like "Iron Bottom Sound," "Norway 1940," "Royal Navy" and "Destroyer Captain," provides lots of helpful information (including convoy diagrams and maps) for tactical and operation scenario design.

All in all however this work is just a great narrative. I couldn't wait to get back and read more. One note about the research. I've been reading about the Second World War for 30+ years, with a particular interest in naval aspects, and I learned a great deal from this book. I'll leave it to those with a PHD on the topic to carp about insufficient primary research -- I don't know -- but since I don't read Italian myself this book was invaluable to my understanding of the theatre and Italy's challenges in general. You will find yourself reassessing a lot of what you thought you "knew" if you read this book. Personally when a book does that for me, I don't worry about misplaced commas!

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Comprehensive, May 12, 2000

By 

J. Urban "urbanbooks" (Iowa) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Naval War in the Mediterranean 1940-1943 (Hardcover)

If you have been looking for the definitive book of naval operations in the Mediterranean during World War II, you've found it. All of the major naval actions are here - British convoys to Matla, German and Italian convoys to North Africa, torpedo boat actions, sorties of the big Italian battleships, conflicts between the Italian Navy and Air Force, the sinking of the Britsh battleship Barham and aircraft carriers Eagle and Ark Royal, submarines, mines, Italian frogmen, and a chapter which looks at the proposed airborne invasion of Malta.

The book is written in an easy to read narrative style and explains many of the actions (or lack of action) on the part of the navies involved. Discussions of why the Italians usually avoided combat even when they outnumbered the enemy and why wasn't Malta ever invaded to secure the German-Italian convoy route to North Africa? This book offers insight to these and other questions as well as providing gripping descriptions of naval actions which have, until now, been mostly overlooked. This is a book which can be referred to time and again.