This is the first book to focus on the Fleet Air Arm's contribution
to naval operations in the Mediterranean after the Italian
declaration of war in June 1940\. The Royal Navy found itself
facing a larger and better-equipped Italian surface fleet, large
Italian and German air forces equipped with modern aircraft and
both Italian and German submarines. Its own aircraft were a
critical element of an unprecedented fight on, over and under the
sea surface. The best-known action was the crippling of the Italian
fleet at Taranto, which demonstrated how aircraft carriers and
their aircraft had replaced the dominance of battleships, but every
subsequent operation is covered from the perspective of naval
aviation. Some of these, like Matapan or the defence of the
'Pedestal' convoy to Malta, are famous but others in support of
land campaigns and in the Aegean after the Italian surrender are
less well recorded. In all these, the ingenuity and innovation of
the Fleet Air Arm shines through - Taranto pointed the way to what
the Japanese would achieve at Pearl Harbor, while air cover for the
Salerno landings demonstrated the effectiveness of carrier-borne
fighters in amphibious operations, a tactic adopted by the US Navy.
The author's years of archival research together with his
experience as a carrier pilot allow him to describe and analyse the
operations of naval aircraft in the Mediterranean with
unprecedented authority. This provides the book with novel insights
into many familiar facets of the Mediterranean war while for the
first time doing full justice to the Fleet Air Arm's lesser known
achievements.
General
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