Malta and the Mediterranean Fleet, 1940-1943: A Dissenting Perspective

Malta and the Mediterranean Fleet, 1940-1943: A Dissenting Perspective

18 Jun 23
Posted by: ROGER PLUMTREE
16 minutes, 53 seconds read
Message from the Editor

In his analysis of strategic lessons to be drawn from the Second World War [40/4. p. 432], Captain S. W. Roskill, RN, wrote, “It took much ‘sad experience’ to show that Malta could have been properly defended and could have been kept in use as a base.” Roger Plumtree reconsiders the Maltese narrow margin with the question in mind: was Roskill wrong? A 15 minute read.

Admiralty concerns over enemy airpower potential against Malta In an earlier book, Captain Roskill had written, “unfortunately the foundations of our policy to limit, and if need be, defeat the aggressively expansionist tendencies of Fascist Italy were gravely vitiated by the British Government having accepted the Army and Air Force view that Malta could not be defended against Italian air power, and by the numerical superiority of the Italian land and air forces in Libya and Abyssinia.”[1] The 1935 Abyssinian crisis with Italy concentrated Admiralty minds. As a consequence, the Fleet evacuate…

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