Ian Stanley Ord Playfair Libros

This, the third of eight volumes in the 18-volume official British History of the Second World War, dealing with the Mediterranean and Middle Eastern theatres, describes the nadir of British fortunes in the region. Covering the year from September 1941 to September 1942, the book opens with the latest round in the ding-dong battle in North Africa with Operation Crusader , Britain s bid to relieve the besieged port of Tobruk and chase Rommel from the western desert. The authors emphasise how Britain was hampered by obsolescent equpiment such as the Crusader tank. Despite this, British, Australian and South African forces relieved Tobruk and entered Benghazi on Christmas Day 1941 - only to evacuate it after Rommel s swift recovery the following month. At sea, the Royal Navy suffered serious blows with the loss of Ark Royal and Barham and a daring Italian human torpedo attack on British ships in Alexandria harbour. Axis air attacks on Malta and convoys supplying it reached their peak in April, and the island was awarded the George Cross for its gallant defence. Rommel counter-attacked in the desert in May, defeating the Eighth Army at Gazala, and on June 21st Tobruk was lost. But the Axis attempt to take Cairo was stalled at the battle of Alam el Halfa, and after General Auchinleck was replaced by General Montgomery, the Allies prepared to go back on the offensive. With 11 appendices, 40 maps and diagrams and 40 photographs.

The second ot the eight volumes dealing with the Mediterranean and Middle Eastern theatres in the 18-volume official British History of the Second World War, this book is largely concerned with the consequences of Germany’s decision to prop up its faltering Italian ally in North Africa in 1941. It opens with General Rommel reversing Britain’s conquest of Italian Cyrenaica, and increasing Axis air attacks on the fortress island of Malta. Britain’s naval victory against the Italians at Cape Matapan in March is swiftly followed by British reverses in the Balkans. A British-backed anti-Nazi coup d’etat in Yugoslavia results in April in Germany’.s occupation of that country and Britain’s retreat from Greece before a relentless German advance. Germany’s airbourne invasion of Crete sparks a fierce battle for the island, ending in a British evacuation. A pro-Axis coup in Iraq is followed by a successful British intervention, which deposes the pro-Nazi Rashid Ali regime in Baghdad. British and Free French forces also occupy Vichy French-ruled Syria. The book ends with more attacks on Malta, the building-up of Allied forces in the Middle East, and General Wavell’s replacement by General Auchinleck as British Commander in North Africa. The text is supported by 10 appendices, 29 maps and diagrams and 44 photographs.

The penultimate volume in the eight books of the 18-volume official British History of the Second World War on the war in the Mediterranean and Middle Eastern theatres, this work describes the Italian campaign from June to October 1944. This gruelling summer campaign, Operation Dragoon, cleared central Italy of German forces, pushing their Army Group C back on the Gothic Line, which ran across the Italian peninsula from Lucca on the western coast to Pesaro on the Adriatic. But after the Line was breached, the Allied advance bogged down again, despite strenuous attempts in the early autumn to break into the strategically vital Po valley. In the face of continued German resistance, and worsening allied morale, General Alexander in October decided on a second winter in Italy, limiting his objectives to capturing Ravenna and Bologna. He was constrained by the demands of simultaneous campaigns in Normandy and southern France. Meanwhile, as the Germans, hard-pressed on other fronts, began to withdraw from the Greek islands, British forces moved in to fill the vacuum. With three appendices, and 29 maps and diagrams.

Oto pierwszy z sześciu tomów opisujących kampanię na śródziemnomorskim i bliskowschodnim teatrze działań wojennych w latach 1939-1945. Tak więc średnio rzecz biorąc, każdy z nich przedstawi jeden z obfitujących w wydarzenia na morzu, lądzie i w powietrzu rok wojny. Opis zawiera wspólny dla wszystkich rodzajów sił zbrojnych obraz działań, co jest odpowiednie zwłaszcza dla tego rejonu operacji, na którym od samego początku były one ze sobą ściśle powiązane.