Strangling the Axis: The Fight for Control of the Mediterranean during the Second World War

[edwest2]

Scheduled for August.


https://www.cambridge.org/us/academi...-war?format=HB


Usual disclaimer,
Ed

[Edward]

Strangling the Axis: The Fight for Control of the Mediterranean during the Second World War
Cambridge Military Histories
(Cambridge University Press - August 2020)
by Richard Hammond
304 pages - hardback
$53.75

"This is a major reassessment of the causes of Allied victory in the Second World War in the Mediterranean region. Drawing on a unique range of multinational source material, Richard Hammond demonstrates how the Allies' ability to gain control of the key routes across the sea and sink large quantities of enemy shipping denied the Axis forces in North Africa crucial supplies and proved vital to securing ultimate victory there. Furthermore, the sheer scale of attrition to Axis shipping outstripped their industrial capacity to compensate, leading to the collapse of the Axis position across key territories maintained by seaborne supply, such as Sardinia, Corsica and the Aegean islands. As such, Hammond demonstrates how the anti-shipping campaign in the Mediterranean was the fulcrum about which strategy in the theatre pivoted, and the vital enabling factor ultimately leading to Allied victory in the region."

Review blurb - John Gooch, University of Leeds
"Charting the interplay of means, methods and measures, and resting on meticulous research, Richard Hammond's authoritative account of a neglected but decisive campaign explains for the first time exactly how air and sea power throttled the Axis forces in North Africa, laying the foundations for victory in the Mediterranean."

Table of Contents
Introduction
1. The descent to war in the Mediterranean
2. Resisting Mare Nostrum: the early anti-shipping
3. Enter Germany: January–July 1941
4. Progress: August–December 1941
5. Axis ascendency, January–August 1942
6. The end of the beginning, Alam Halfa and El Alamein
7. The end in North Africa and the shipping
8. After North Africa
Conclusion.

About the author
"Richard Hammond is a Lecturer at Brunel University and is Vice-President of the Second World War Research Group. He is the recipient of the Society for Military History's Moncado Prize and the Corbett Prize in Modern Naval History (Proxime Accessit).

https://www.cambridge.org/us/academi...-war?format=HB

[edwest2]

Hopefully this will serve as a supplement to the Mediterranean Air War series.

Ed

[chinesefox]

Originally Posted by Edward

Strangling the Axis: The Fight for Control of the Mediterranean during the Second World War
Cambridge Military Histories
(Cambridge University Press - August 2020)
by Richard Hammond
304 pages - hardback
$53.75

"This is a major reassessment of the causes of Allied victory in the Second World War in the Mediterranean region. Drawing on a unique range of multinational source material, Richard Hammond demonstrates how the Allies' ability to gain control of the key routes across the sea and sink large quantities of enemy shipping denied the Axis forces in North Africa crucial supplies and proved vital to securing ultimate victory there. Furthermore, the sheer scale of attrition to Axis shipping outstripped their industrial capacity to compensate, leading to the collapse of the Axis position across key territories maintained by seaborne supply, such as Sardinia, Corsica and the Aegean islands. As such, Hammond demonstrates how the anti-shipping campaign in the Mediterranean was the fulcrum about which strategy in the theatre pivoted, and the vital enabling factor ultimately leading to Allied victory in the region."

Review blurb - John Gooch, University of Leeds
"Charting the interplay of means, methods and measures, and resting on meticulous research, Richard Hammond's authoritative account of a neglected but decisive campaign explains for the first time exactly how air and sea power throttled the Axis forces in North Africa, laying the foundations for victory in the Mediterranean."

Table of Contents
Introduction
1. The descent to war in the Mediterranean
2. Resisting Mare Nostrum: the early anti-shipping
3. Enter Germany: January–July 1941
4. Progress: August–December 1941
5. Axis ascendency, January–August 1942
6. The end of the beginning, Alam Halfa and El Alamein
7. The end in North Africa and the shipping
8. After North Africa
Conclusion.

About the author
"Richard Hammond is a Lecturer at Brunel University and is Vice-President of the Second World War Research Group. He is the recipient of the Society for Military History's Moncado Prize and the Corbett Prize in Modern Naval History (Proxime Accessit).

https://www.cambridge.org/us/academi...-war?format=HB

so it doesn't have Bibliography list/Reference list ?

[Edward]

chinesefox wrote:
so it doesn't have Bibliography list/Reference list ?

Considering the reputation of the publisher, I'm sure it will.

[Pierre Renier]

To back Edward up, a quick look at the contents https://assets.cambridge.org/9781108...478212_toc.pdf shows extensive notes from pages 205 - 251.

Kind regards
Pierre

[Edward]

Thanks Pierre. It will be interesting to see to what degree Hammond makes use of the wealth of material from Christopher Shores & team's revised Mediterranean Air War series.

[Nick Beale]

Originally Posted by Pierre Renier

To back Edward up, a quick look at the contents https://assets.cambridge.org/9781108...478212_toc.pdf shows extensive notes from pages 205 - 251.

Kind regards
Pierre

It's based on a doctoral thesis hewrote some years ago. This is archived at the University of Exeter but it seems like you need a university i/d to read the whole thing. You can read the contents here: https://ore.exeter.ac.uk/repository/...=1&isAllowed=y

The abstract of his thesis is:

From the Italian declaration of war on 10 June 1940 through to the end of December 1944, the British and their allies waged a major campaign against Axis shipping in the Mediterranean. Uniquely for the British, this campaign took the form of a combined arms offensive throughout its conduct, and utilized all four methods of attacking shipping; surface vessels, submarines, aircraft and mine warfare. This thesis approaches the campaign thematically, examining each of the four methods individually.

The priority given to the campaign, the forces and equipment available throughout, the tactics used and their development, the successes achieved in numbers and tonnage of merchant vessels sunk and the losses in numbers and casualties are all considered for each method. By examining these factors and the relevant quantitative data, the efficacy of each form of attack is determined and a final comparison of the four different methods made. The thesis concludes that overall, torpedo aircraft were the most effective method due to their ratio of high success and low number of personnel casualties, despite considerable losses of aircraft. Submarines were also very successful but ultimately more costly. The thesis demonstrates that mine warfare might well have achieved significant results had a greater priority been placed on it and that surface vessels no longer retained the ability to operate successfully for sustained periods in an anti-shipping role unless in an area of aerial and naval superiority.

[AndreasB]

Yes it is based on his thesis. There is also an article in Air Power Review Vol. 16 No. 1


All the best


Andreas

[Edward]

Thanks for posting Andreas.

"Air Power and the British Anti-Shipping Campaign in the Mediterranean, 1940-1944"
by Dr. Richard Hammond
Air Power Review Vol. 16 No. 1 (Spring 2013)
pages 50-69 [pages 52-71 of pdf]

https://www.raf.mod.uk/what-we-do/ce...olume-16-no-1/