The Sunday Times bestseller-One of the most dramatic forgotten chapters of the war, as told in a new book by the incomparable Max Hastings- DAILY MAILIn August 1942, beleaguered Malta was within weeks of surrender to the Axis, because its 300,000 people could no longer be fed. Churchill made a personal decision that at all costs, the -island fortress- must be saved. This was not merely a matter of strategy, but of national prestige, when Britain-s fortunes and morale had fallen to their lowest ebb.The largest fleet the Royal Navy committed to any operation of the western war was assembled to escort fourteen fast merchantmen across a thousand of miles of sea defended by six hundred German and Italian aircraft, together with packs of U-boats and torpedo craft. The Mediterranean battles that ensued between 11 and 15 August were the most brutal of Britain-s war at sea, embracing four aircraft-carriers, two battleships, seven cruisers, scores of destroyers and smaller craft. The losses were
