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9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An excellent and highly readable source book., 20 Dec 2000
With the fall of Crete, Malta appeared indefensible, yet to lose it would have dealt a winning hand to Axis forces in North Africa and made the capture of Gibraltar inevitable. In fact, the German High Command - the OKW - wanted to take Malta in preference to Crete, but was overruled by Hitler. While Crete fell to airborne assault, it proved of little enduring value to the Axis cause.Malta, snuggled so close to the Italian mainland, seemed doomed. However, while many in Britain wrote it off, the islanders were gripped with a determination to resist. And the Navy grasped that in Malta it had an unsinkable aircraft carrier. Woodman details the deadly chess game of submarines, shipping and aircraft, mines and weather, soldiers, sailors, airmen and civilians, as both sides sought to protect or sever one another's supply lines. Possession of Malta was crucial to the warfare raging in North Africa. Whoever controlled the island could dominate the Mediterranean, and hence the oil of the Middle East, and the entry to the Suez Canal. Failing to seize it ahead of Crete was one of Hitler's major errors of the war. That Britain maintained a garrison there was almost an accident - a fortunate happenstance which probably dictated the outcome of the North African conflict and eventually exposed the Axis Powers to a third Front in Italy. Densely packed with information, this is an excellent source book for anyone interested in the North African campaign or naval/convoy warfare in WW2. Malta's role has always been understated: this book goes some way to restoring it to strategic importance, and does so without ignoring the human dimension of its determined population and defenders.
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