A History of the Mediterranean Air War 1940–1945 By Christopher Shores
This series is the definitive source of information about the aerial war over and around the Mediterranean Sea throughout WWII. Tactics, aircraft and operations - it's all there in enormous detail.
Volume One: North Africa, June 1940 - January 1942
The first volume of this series deals with the initial 19 months of the air war over the Western Desert of North Africa.
Volume Two: North African Desert, February 1942 – March 1943
Picks up the story as the 8th Army, following its hard-fought success in Operation Crusader, was forced back to the Gazala area, roughly mid-way between the Cyrenaican/Tripolitanian border of Libya and the frontier with Egypt.
Volume Three: Tunisia and the end in Africa, November 1942 – May 1943
The third volume in this series returns to November 1942 to explain the background to the first major Anglo-American venture – Operation Torch, the invasion of French North Africa. It deals with the fratricidal combats which followed the initial landings in Morocco and Algeria for several days. It then considers the efforts made – unsuccessfully in the event – to reach northern Tunisia before the Germans and Italians could get there to forestall the possibility of an attack from the west on the rear of the Afrika Korps forces, then beginning their retreat from El Alamein.
Volume Four: Sicily and Italy to the fall of Rome 14 May, 1943 – 5 June, 1944
The fourth volume in this momentous series commences with the attacks on the Italian island fortress of Pantellaria which led to its surrender and occupation achieved almost by air attack alone. The account continues with the ultimately successful, but at times very hard fought, invasions of Sicily and southern Italy as burgeoning Allied air power, now with full US involvement, increasingly dominated the skies. The successive occupations of Sardinia and Corsica are also covered in detail.
Volume Five: From the fall of Rome to the end of the war 1944-1945 During the final year of World War II, the defending Axis forces were steadily driven from southern skies by burgeoning Anglo-American power. This was despite the steady withdrawal of units to more demanding areas. In this fifth volume of the series the activities of the Allied tactical air forces in support of the armies on the ground – as their opponents were steadily extracted from northern Italy and the Balkans for the final defence of the central European homeland – are described in detail. The book commences with coverage of the final fierce air-sea battles over the Aegean which preceded the advance northwards to Rome and the ill-conceived British attempt to secure the Dodecanese islands following the armistice with Italy
Praise for previous editions
‘The start of a long-awaited, comprehensive and definitive set of books.’ Flypast
‘It is a valuable addition for the libraries of those with a serious interest in wartime military aviation.’ Air-Britain Aeromilitaria
‘A monumental book. This is only the first volume of the Mediterranean Air War and when the series is completed it will constitute the most complete record of this theatre of war to have been compiled. It is unlikely to be surpassed.’ Britain at War
‘Given the excellence of the History of the Mediterranean Air War series, and volume three in particular, readers should be clamouring for the next instalment. Highly recommended and quite likely to be nominated as one of the best new books of the year.’ Stone & Stone
N.B. There may be a short delay in supplying these excellent books.
