New
AcquisitionsMalta Convoys: 1940-1943; Richard Woodman; John Murray, 1999; ISBN 0-7195-5753-4; £30; CA 15692
This massive volume is devoted to retelling the heroic
story of the convoys that sustained Malta during the prolonged Axis campaign
to drive the Allies from the Mediterranean.
They would undoubtedly have succeeded in doing so if Malta had
fallen. Saving it was a key strategy in the war in Europe and it is
astonishing to read that it was, yet again, Churchill who had the wisdom
and insight, and the sheer cussedness to insist on sustaining the island
when so many others had given it up for lost.
In
pursuing the strategy Churchill
had the help of Adsmiral Cunningham, the C-in-C Mediterranean, a man not
unlike Churchill in character. When
an aide commented during one particularly horrendous Mediterranean battle
that fighting the Luftwaffe was rather like butting one's head against a
brick wall, Cunningham replied; "What you have forgotten, you miserable
undertaker, is that you may be loosening a brick".
Richard
Woodman has a marvellous track record, both as an historian and as a fiction
writer - many members will have enjoyed his Drinkwater novels - and was a
professional seaman for many years. But
for this reviewer's taste he has covered too much ground and is too intent
on the detail to give the reader an overview.
Sometimes the narrative springs to life - the second battle of of
Sirte Gulf is a good example - but too often the reader gets bogged down in
minutiae. Also the book
contains almost nothing new about a subject already extensively covered,
from official histories to personal memoirs.
And, oh dear, he has practically ignored a vital element that is
relatively new, ULTRA intelligence. After
all, it was ULTRA which made the victory at Cape Matapan possible after
Bletchley Park broke the Italian Navy's C38M machine cipher in November
1940. - ID
Page prepared 9 October 2000
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