Struggle for the Middle Sea: The Great Navies at War in the Mediterranean Theater, 1940-1945

Vincent O'Hara

Jun 2009 · Naval Institute Press

About this ebook

The Mediterranean is the maritime crossroads where Europe, Asia, and Africa meet. More major naval actions were fought there than in the Atlantic or Pacific yet remarkably little has been written about the subject. Th is fresh study of the Mediterranean’s naval war analyzes the actions and performances of the five major navies—British, Italian, French, German, and American—during the entire five-year campaign and examines the national imperatives that drove each nation’s maritime strategy. Struggle for the Middle Sea provides a history of the entire campaign from all perspectives and covers Germany’s largely unknown—and remarkably successful—struggle to employ sea power in the Mediterranean after the Italian armistice. Defense & Foreign Affairs Strategic Policy (August 2009) has called it “a new and stunningly important view of World War II” and “a fabulously readable and important book.”

About the author

Vincent P. O’Hara is a naval historian and the author of The German Fleet at War and The U.S. Navy Against the Axis both published by Naval Institute Press. His work has also appeared in periodicals and annuals including Warship, MHQ. World War II Quarterly, World War II Magazine and Storia Militare. He holds a history degree from the University of California, Berkeley.