The only modern study of a half-forgotten campaign Wide use of firsthand accounts Unfamiliar illustrations The campaign waged by German U-boats in the Mediterranean in the Second World War was one of the hardest-fought of the war at sea. In confined waters, facing often overwhelming Allied naval and air superiority, a relatively small number of submarines caused considerable losses to the Royal Navy and its allies. In this new book, Lawrence Paterson puts the U-boat campaign in the Mediterranean into its strategic context, showing how it both affected and was affected by the fortunes of Rommel's Afrika Korps in the Western Desert and the U-boat battle in the Atlantic, as well as describing the unique difficulties faced by the U-boats operating in the clear, shallow waters of the Mediterranean and how they tried to overcome them with new weapons and new tactics, and how increasing Allied dominance of the air further restricted their operations as the war went on. The U-boats' successes are described in detail, such as the sinking of HMS Ark Royal, and the torpedoing of the battleship HMS Barham, which provided one of the best-known images of the Second World War at sea.
Full use has been made of first-hand accounts by veterans, official German records and Allied archives to present the most comprehensive account of U-boats in the Mediterranean yet published. A unique account of a unique campaign, this book sheds new light on a neglected aspect of the U-boat war, and shows the courage and fortitude of the men on both sides of this savage conflict. The author of a number of accounts of U-boats, LAWRENCE PATERSON'S most recent book is Weapons of Desperation.