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

Richard Hammond offers a major reassessment of the role of the war at sea in Allied victory in the Mediterranean region.

Richard Hammond (Author)

9781108478212, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 25 June 2020

290 pages
23.5 x 15.8 x 2.1 cm, 0.55 kg

'This is an essential book for military historians, students as well as scholars who are interested in the Second World War. Readers, especially those focusing on the Mediterranean region or on naval warfare, will find Hammond's book highly interesting as it sheds light on many unknown aspects of the British antishipping warfare effort.' Marios Siammas, Journal of Military History and Historiography

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.

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.

Subject Areas: International relations [JPS], Military history [HBW]