Paul G. Halpern - The Naval War in the Mediterranean: 1914-1918

ROUTLEDGE LIBRARY EDITIONS: MILITARY AND NAVAL HISTORY

Volume 15

THE NAVAL WAR IN THE MEDITERRANEAN

THE NAVAL WAR IN THE MEDITERRANEAN

1914 1918

PAUL G. HALPERN

First published in 1987

This edition first published in 2016

by Routledge

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and by Routledge

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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

1987 Paul G. Halpern

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-138-90784-3 (Set)

ISBN: 978-1-315-67905-1 (Set) (ebk)

ISBN: 978-1-138-93319-4 (Volume 15) (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-315-67866-5 (Volume 15) (ebk)

Publishers Note

The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but points out that some imperfections in the original copies may be apparent.

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The publisher has made every effort to trace copyright holders and would welcome correspondence from those they have been unable to trace.

THE NAVAL WAR IN THE MEDITERRANEAN

1914 1918

by

Paul G. Halpern

Paul G. Halpern, 1987

This book is copyright under the Berne Convention. No reproduction without permission. All rights reserved.

Allen & Unwin, the academic imprint of

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Allen & Unwin (New Zealand) Ltd in association with the Port

Nicholson Press Ltd,

Private Bag, Wellington, New Zealand

First published in 1987

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

Halpern, Paul G.

The naval war in the Mediterranean,

19141918.

1. World War, 19141918 Mediterranean Region Naval operations

1. Title

940.45 D580

ISBN 0049400886

Set in 10 on 11 point Bembo by Oxford Print Associates Ltd, Oxford and printed in Great Britain by Oxford University Press

Captain Stephen W. Roskill, CBE, DSC, Litt.D, FBA, RN,

who set such a high standard and helped so many in the field.

Glossary of Abbreviations

Preface

The novelist Nicholas Monsarrat, renowned for his evocative works with naval backgrounds, included a passage in The Kappillan of Malta in which the Kappillan recalls arriving at Malta in 1917 in A. B. Cunninghams destroyer Scorpion and glimpsing the Mediterranean Fleet. There was supposedly line on line of warships with five battleships, attendant cruisers, and at least twenty destroyers. The general impression is of a southern version of the Grand Fleet at Scapa Flow. Unfortunately, the author who had such a marvellous grasp of the Royal Navy in the Second World War has gone astray, for Malta in 1917 would probably have reminded him more of his experiences in the Second World War. Most warships in port would have been small anti-submarine craft, generally sloops bearing the same names of flowers as the corvettes Monsarrat immortalized. Any battleships at Malta would probably have been there in the earlier part of the war and until the spring of 1916 they would have been just as likely to have been French. The mistake is perhaps symbolic for outside of the