The Path to Victory: The Mediterranean Theater in World War II

Porch, Douglas

ISBN 10: 0374205183 / ISBN 13: 9780374205188

Published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2004

About this Item

Fast Free Shipping â Very Good condition book with a firm cover and clean pages. Shows normal use and some light wear or limited notes markings. A solid, nice copy to enjoy.

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Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Path to Victory: The Mediterranean Theater in World War II
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
• Publication Date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0374205183
• ISBN 13: 9780374205188
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: very_good

About this title

Synopsis

The Mediterranean theater in World War II has long been overlooked by historians who believe it was little more than a string of small-scale battles-sideshows that were of minor importance in a war whose outcome was decided in the clashes of mammoth tank armies in northern Europe. But in this ground-breaking new book, one of our finest military historians argues that the Mediterranean was World War II's pivotal theater.

Douglas Porch examines the Mediterranean as an integrated arena, one in which events in Syria and Suez influenced the survival of Gibraltar. The Middle Sea constituted a strategic piece of a global war where crucial military decisions were made: it was a passage that linked far-flung theaters; saved scarce Allied shipping; became an essential conduit for lend-lease aid to the USSR; offered France a testing ground for its rehabilitation as a military power; and provided an entry point into southern Germany for two Allied armies. Without a Mediterranean alternative, the Western Allies would probably have committed to a premature cross-Channel invasion in 1943 that might well have cost them the war.

Brilliantly argued, with vivid portraits of Churchill, Montgomery, FDR, Rommel, and Mussolini, this original, accessible, and compelling account of a little-known theater emphasizes the importance of the Mediterranean in the ultimate Allied victory in Europe in World War II.

About the Author

Douglas Porch is a military historian and the author of five previous books, including The French Secret Services: From the Dreyfus Affair to the Gulf War (FSG, 1995). He is a professor of national security affairs at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California.