Strangling the Axis

The Fight for Control of the Mediterranean during the Second World War

Richard Hammond

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN:
  9781108478212
• eBook ISBN:
  9781108802918
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Military & Maritime History
• Index: History

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.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-title
• Series information
• Title page
• Copyright information
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• List of Maps
• List of Tables
• Acknowledgements
• A Note on Terminology: 'British' and 'Allied'
• List of Abbreviations
• Maps
• Introduction
• 1 The Descent to War in the Mediterranean
• 2 Resisting Mare Nostrum: The Early Anti-shipping Campaign, June–December 1940
• 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 Crisis: December 1942–May 1943
• 8 After North Africa
• Conclusion
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index