Operation Pedestal: The Fleet that Battled to Malta, 1942

"In August 1942 the island of Malta was under siege and the inhabitants on the verge of starvation. The only way to re-supply the island was by convoy, the route of which would either take the long passage around the horn of Africa and into the Mediterranean via the Suez canal, or a more expedient route from west to east via Gibraltar. The latter, whilst quicker was far more dangerous, due to the German Luftwaffe and the Italian Regia Aeronautica. Max Hastings normally writes about the large campaigns, such as the D-Day landings and the Battle for Normandy in Overlord , or the conflict in Vietnam between 1945 and 1975 in Vietnam . In Operation Pedestal he concentrates on a pivotal moment in World War II. The Royal Navy provided a powerful escort force that included aircraft carriers, battleships, cruisers and destroyers to look after fourteen merchant ships during their passage to Malta. Only a handful of the merchant ships made it, the remainder sunk by bombs or were torpedoed. The Royal Navy suffered too, losing one carrier and several cruisers. Operation Pedestal is an epic tale of heroism, fortitude and sacrifice—and in my mind it is the most comprehensive and readable account of this operation. Hastings does not confine his narrative to the warships alone; he deals with the immense bravery of the merchant ship crews, of which some were sailing in ships laden with highly volatile fuel. The narrative does not let up from the first page to the last, capturing the intense fight over four days in August 1942."