Operation Pedestal

Operation Pedestal: The Fleet That Battled to Malta, 1942 by Max Hastings

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


A thorough treatment of the vital, brutal convoy of fourteen merchantmen which set out to relieve Malta with the strongest escort Britain could scrape together. Just five arrived, the most important one in sinking condition. It was enough - just.
The book combines Hastings' usual thorough research and propulsive writing. Surprisingly, for someone who frequently claims the RN was Britain's outstanding contribution to the conflict, this is is first naval work on WW2.
A popular historian needs an element of revisionism - it attracts reviews and comment, and sells books. With this thought in mind I wonder if, for example, his claims about the inferiority of the escorts' Hurricane and Martlet fighters to their opposition are really justified (not so sure about the Fulmar). There certainly weren't enough of them and they didn't have the control resources to put them in the right place at the right time - but a year or two earlier the pilots would have been in Gladiators and Skuas!
The cost of this enterprise, in blood and steel, should be an urgent reminder to those of us who live on an island whose survival (never mind prosperity) depends on unrestricted maritime trade.



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