The Naval War in the Mediterranean - Hardcover

Halpern, Professor Paul G.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0049400886 ISBN 13: 9780049400887

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, 1987

Synopsis

Apart from the controversial Dardanelles campaign and the dramatic escape of the Goeben and Breslau in 1914, the Mediterranean during the First World War has been largely neglected by historians. This major study goes beyond a single campaign to look at the entire war in the area. It does not remain centred on one or two powers, but looks at the war from the viewpoint of all the important participants, making full use of archives and manuscript collections in Britain, France, Italy, Germany, Austria and the United States. The Royal Navy, preoccupied with the German threat in the North Sea, was only too happy at first to relinquish primary responsibility to the French. However, long before the end of the war the submarine threat to the substantial British interests in the Mediterranean forced the British to commit considerable resources and take over much of the anti-submarine campaign in the Mediterranean. The long-vanished Austro-Hungarian Navy remained a potent fleet-in-being and a potential threat to Allied communications, while the geographical configuration of the Adriatic and changed conditions of warfare coupled with rivalry between the French and the Italians prevented the Allies from using their superior strength effectively. A fascinating mosaic of campaigns emerges in the Adriatic, Straits of Otranto and the Eastern Aegean. The German assistance to the tribes of Libya, the threat that Germans would get their hands on the Russian Black Sea Fleet and use it in the Mediterranean, and the appearance and influence of the Americans in 1918 all took place against a background of rivalry between the Allies which frustrated the appointment of Jellicoe in 1918 as supreme command at sea in a role similar to that of Foch on land. This book will appeal to all students of the First World War as well as to those interested in relatively unfamiliar areas of naval history.

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
• Publication date: 1987
• ISBN 10: 0049400886
• ISBN 13: 9780049400887
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 656