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Top of the pile
87
/100
I Index Overall Rating
Readers
80/100Critics
94/100Scholars
Author:
Max Hastings
Publisher:
Harper
Date:
June 1, 2021
Veteran historian Hastings recounts the British action during World War II to save its troops from starvation on Malta, where the British lost their advantage in 1942. Over twelve days in August, German and Italian forces faced off against British air and naval fleets in one of the fiercest battles of the war, while ships packed with supplies were painstakingly divided and dispersed.
What The Reviewers Say
Crosscuts between London and the convoy are thankfully kept to a minimum as Mr. Hastings focuses on the hazards, mundane and terrifying, of naval warfare.
The immediacy of this book obliterates the cold detachment that time’s passage usually allows. We feel in our bones torpedoes hitting home. Hastings takes his readers into the bomb-blasted wardroom of the carrier Indomitable.
... [a] white-knuckle ride.
The very word 'convoy' conjures an image of lumbering merchant ships ferrying food and supplies. It’s hardly the stuff to set the pulse racing. The veteran historian Max Hastings wants to redress this misconception with his latest book, Operation Pedestal.
