Evening star., 1941-01-12
British, Holding Mediterranean
Trumps, May Knock Out Italy
Coup de Grace in 1941 Distinct Possibility;
Eventual Carrying of War to Germany
Then Would Be Much Nearer
By Arthur J. Marder.


Mr.. Marder is a naval historian end
author of "The Anatomy of British
Sea PoUer,D based on researches IN
tnis country and in England, notdolg
in the hitherto unused materials IN
the British Admiralty archtUes.
The fall of Bardia and the spectacular
British offensive in Libya have fastened
attention again on the Mediterranean
area. The great inland sea remains very
much in the forefront of axis policy, for
the principal problem of Germany and
Italy is to find the means of covering
occupied Europe's deficiency in raw ma
terials and foodstuffs. Should the axis
come to dominate the Mediterranean it
will have broken one of the most impor-
tant links in the British blockade. The
cotton of Egypt, the oil of Iraq and ac-
cess to the valuable raw materials in
Africa would be theirs.
Italy, by the nature of her geographic
cal position. was destined to make the
major axis effort to wrest control of the
Mediterranean from Britain. She
pinned her hopes on three-point pol
icy. In the first place, she planned an
advance from Libya into Egypt, the
seizure of the Suez Canal, the invasion
of Palestine, and the occupation of Brit
ish naval bases in the Levant. The pur-
pose of this drive was to make the east
ern Mediterranean untenable for the
British fleet. The function Of the 1tal-
ian Navy was to assure through convoy
the supplies and reinforcements of the
Libyan Army. This was not possible so
long as British naval power in the Medi-
terranean was unimpaired.
Italian Ship Speedy.
In the second place, the italian high
command put its trust in fast craft
cruisers, submarines, destroyers, motor
torpedo boats-which specialized in hit
British battle feet (the same strategy,
incidentally. as that employed by the
Germans at the outbreak of World
War d. Speed was the essential in Ital-
ian warships. The story is told of the
proud young Italian officer who was
showing of one of Italy's latest heavy
ships to an English naval officer. When
they reached the engine room the italian
almost burst with pride. You see" he
said nothing can catch U.S." In word,
Italy had no intention of contesting the
command of the Mediterranean before
the British feet had been very mate
rally whitfield down.
Finally, the pressure of superior naval
strength was to be lifted by air power
The Italians had for years based their
naval strategy and building policy on
the belief that the whole Mediterranean
was within effective range of Italian air
bases. According to the theory, masses
Of planes, operating from Italy, the
Dodecanese Islands and Libya, would
make the Mediterranean too hot for the
British fleet. For this reason no air.
craft carriers were ever built for the
Italian Navy. Mussolini boasted that
his air force forbade any operations by
enemy warships anywhere near the
Italian coasts. and that it protected
conveys to Libya.
Defective Strategy.
This was Italy's strategy. There was
one difficulty-it did not work. Harass-
ing fleet tactics were not effective Skir-
mishes with British units revealed the
marked inferiority of the underarmored
Italian ships. Protected by the fleet
air arm operating from aircraft car
riers, Britains Mediterranean fleet was
able to navigate freely the Aegean and
the entire Eastern Mediterranean. Brit
ish cruisers on several occasions steamed
through the Dodecanese with impudence.
1t was only when the British Mediter-
ranean fleet came within three or four
hundred miles of the italian mainland
that it ran into trouble, for at that
range it came under heavy air attack
from the metropolitan air squadrons.
Realizing this fact at an early stage of
the Mediterranean hostilities, the Ital-
ian naval policy became one of enticing
the British fleet within range of the
home air force, so that it could be at
tackled by swarms of bombers. For ex-
ample, on July 9, the British fleet pur-
sued an Italian naval squadron to within
a few miles of the Calabrian coast,
whereupon it was attacked by waves of
metropolitan bombers Hundreds of
bombs were dropped over every British