A Midshipman's Tale

At the beginning of 1942, more than two years after the start of the Second World War, much of mainland Europe and North Africa was under the control of Nazi Germany. Despite this great damage had been inflicted on German and Italian (Axis) shipping from the island of Malta, a vital British base in the Mediterranean. Malta had suffered massive bombing since June 1940 and was running out of food, fuel and ammunition. By 1942 the siege seemed to be bringing Malta to the verge of surrender, a potentially decisive blow to the British Empire's prestige.

In a desperate attempt to save the island a convoy of fourteen merchant ships was dispatched, escorted by the largest naval force protecting any convoy in the war. In the face of constant attack, five of the merchant ships made it to Malta. Their arrival changed the fortunes of the island and the course of the war.

On board HMS Rodney, one of the battleships, was a 17-year-old midshipman called Michael MccGwire. This is the account of Operation 'Pedestal' from his Midshipman's Journal.

Michael MccGwire was born in 1924, and in August 1942 joined the naval force that escorted a convoy of merchant ships to beleaguered Malta. When the Second World War ended he studied Russian at Cambridge and later worked in intelligence in GCHQ, was assistant naval attaché at the British Embassy in Moscow, and a war-planner with the NATO's Supreme Allied Command Atlantic (SACLANT) in Norfolk, Virginia. At the end of his naval career he became Head of the Soviet Naval section of the Defence Intelligence Staff, and received an OBE in the 1968 for his contribution to British naval intelligence. Michael retired from the Navy at the age of 42 and took a degree in Economics and International Politics. He went on to become Professor of Maritime and Strategic Studies at Dalhousie University in Canada and a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington DC. As a highly respected strategic analyst he was best known for the 'MccGwire Thesis' - the idea that the Soviet naval build-up from the 1960s onwards was largely a reaction to the fear of Western maritime superiority. For over 50 years he was also a critic of nuclear deterrence. Michael died in March 2016, aged 91.