Strategic Situation
There were
three main
theatres - the Mediterranean itself, the
oil production regions of the Near East,
and the Red Sea area.
Mediterranean
- In the western half, Britain and
France between them controlled Gibraltar
at the
narrow entrance from the Atlantic,
southern France,
Corsica, Algeria and Tunisia. Malta at
the centre was a
British colony.
In the
eastern half, Britain maintained a hold
on Egypt and
the Suez Canal, Palestine and Cyprus. In
the Levant,
Lebanon and Syria were French.
Italy stood
astride the central basin,
with Italy itself, Sardinia and Sicily
to the north and
Libya with its provinces of Tripolitania
and Cyrenaica to
the south. Albania on the Adriatic Sea
and the Dodecanese
Islands in the southern Aegean off
Turkey were
Italian. The Neutral countries in the
western
Mediterranean were Spain, and in the
east, Greece and
Crete, Yugoslavia and Turkey.
Near
East - Iraq,
Persia (Iran) and the Persian Gulf area
were within the British sphere of
influence and surrounded
by Allied or neutral countries.
Red Sea
Area –
To the east Saudi Arabia had close ties
with Britain, and at the southern end of
the
Red Sea, Aden was a British colony. On
the west shore
were Egypt and the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan,
and further
south French and British Somaliland.
In between
the Sudan
and Somaliland were the linked Italian
colonies of Eritrea, Ethiopia
(Abyssinia) and Italian Somaliland.
Bordering them to
the south was British Kenya.
Military and Maritime Circumstances
Even allied
to France, Britain's position in the Mediterranean
was
not guaranteed. Gibraltar might
have been
secure, assuming Spain's continued
neutrality, but Malta
was considered indefensible in the
face of the
Italian Air Force based in Sicily. As it
happened only
the later arrival of the German
Luftwaffe turned this
threat into a near reality. However,
Malta's
well-equipped base had to be abandoned
by the
Mediterranean Fleet for the poorer
facilities at Alexandria
in Egypt.
A large
Italian army in Libya (Tripolitania
and
Cyrenaica) threatened Alexandria and the
Suez
Canal, against which only a
relatively small British
and Dominion force could be fielded.
Fortunately this had
been reinforced earlier in the year by
Australian and New Zealand troops.
From bases in
Italian East Africa the Italian Air
Force and Navy
were capable of cutting Allied supply
routes to Suez
through the Red Sea. The Italian
army was also
powerful enough to conquer British and
French Somaliland
and posed a threat to the Sudan and
Kenya. The Italians'
one major problem was the impossibility
of supplying
these forces other than by air from
Libya.
These threats
to Malta,
Suez and the Red Sea depended on Italy
taking and holding
the initiative. She did not.
Malta became
a
thorn in the side of Axis supply routes
to Libya. And
Libya and Italian East Africa in fact
became endangered
from the very Allied territories they
threatened. Over
the next three years, Malta above all
became the pivot
about which the whole Mediterranean
campaign revolved -
both the problems of its supply and its
effectiveness as
an offensive base. Later Axis plans to
invade the island
so invaluable to the Allied cause came
to nothing.
Major Naval Strengths
The Royal
Navy maintained a small force of
destroyers at Gibraltar, largely
for Atlantic
convoy work, but the Western
Mediterranean was primarily
the responsibility of the French Navy -
although British reinforcements could
soon be dispatched from the Home Fleet
as shortly
happened. The Eastern Mediterranean was
in the hands of
the Mediterranean Fleet and a small
French squadron based
at Alexandria. It was up to
strength in major
units but still weak in cruisers,
destroyers and
submarines when compared with the
Italian Navy. This was
partly offset by the presence of carrier
“Eagle” to accompany battleships
“Malaya”, “Ramillies”, “Royal
Sovereign” and “Warspite”.
What the
Mediterranean Fleet lacked in numbers
was more than
made up by the aggressive fighting
spirit of its
Commander-in-Chief, Adm Sir Andrew B.
Cunningham and his
officers and men and their training.
The Italian
Navy maintained a small but useful force
in the Red Sea. Against these
could be deployed
ships of the East lndies Command based
at Trincomalee in
Ceylon. But the Italian’s overwhelming
strength was
in the Mediterranean.
|
Major
Warship
types
|
Western
Med
FRENCH NAVY
|
Mediterranean
ITALIAN NAVY
|
Eastern
Med
ROYAL NAVY
|
Eastern
Med
FRENCH NAVY
|
Mediterranean
ALLIED TOTAL
|
|
Battleships
|
4
|
6
(b)
|
4
|
1
|
9
|
|
Carriers
|
-
|
-
|
1
|
-
|
1
|
|
Cruisers
|
10
|
21
|
9
|
4
|
23
|
|
Destroyers
|
37(a)
|
52(c)
|
25
|
3
|
65
|
|
Submarines
|
36
|
106
|
10
|
-
|
46
|
|
TOTALS
|
87
|
185(d)
|
49
|
8
|
144
|
Notes:
(a) Plus
10
British destroyers at Gibraltar.
(b)
Included 2 new
battleships completing.
(c) Plus
over 60
large torpedo boots.
(d) Based
at
Massawa in the Red Sea were another
7 destroyers,
8 submarines and 2 torpedo boats.
