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.
