ipl-logo

Battle Of The Mediterranean Case Study

1910 Words8 Pages

Background: The Battle of the Mediterranean took place from the 10th of June 1940 to the 2nd of May 1945, it was fought between the Italian Royal Navy allied with German forces and the British Royal Navy allied with Australia, Netherlands and Greece. The Italians and British had three components in mind that influenced the Battle of the Mediterranean. The first component was to destroy enemy communication and supply lines, the second component was to keep open communication and supply lines and the final component was to destroy their enemies ability to wage war in the Mediterranean. Aim: The aim of this essay is to discuss and learn about the strategic importance of Mediterranean sea lines of communication for both the Axis and Allied …show more content…

A perfect example of when intelligence can be extremely useful was in the Battle of Cape Matapan that involved Britain and Australia pitted up against Italy and Germany. In late March a young cryptographer called Mavis Batey made a breakthrough at Bletchley Park by intercepting a reading the first Italian naval enigma message that contained the size of a battle fleet that was meant to attack British merchant ships. The fleet comprised of one battleship, six heavy and two light cruisers, plus 17 destroyers. This gave the British and Australians an edge in the battle which lead to an Allied victory with very minimal losses while the Axis forces had heavy losses with one battleship damaged, three heavy cruisers sunk, two destroyers sunk, one destroyer heavily damaged and over 2,300 killed, while the Allies only had a few lightly damaged ships and three killed. A key part of gathering intelligence was the operation codenamed Ultra. The Ultra operation was essentially breaking the German and Italian enigma machine messages by using machines to cipher through the message and decoding it. “The Ultra played its most important role in the field of supplies, helping to obliterate the Italian Merchant fleet, , which ultimately led to victory in the North African theatre.” (http://www.topedge.com/panels/ww2/na/intelligence.html 15/03/18) This quote from a Topedge article shows how important intellegnce gathering was in the Battle of the Mediterranean, which lead to the Allies being able to target Italian merchant ships carrying supplies that were feed the Axis campaign in North Africa thus helping the Allies win the North African

Show More
Related

  • Battle Of Wanat Case Study

    1542 Words  | 7 Pages

    On July 30, 2008, a bloody battle involving Coalition forces took place in the mountainous eastern Afghan province of Nuristan. This was the Battle of Wanat and the devastating amount of Coalition casualties began a vigorous investigation by the United States Army. The village of Wanat, defended by Second Platoon, Chosen Company, Second Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team would fall victim to numerous bad decision made by higher command. Although the men of Chosen Company fought hard, they ended up surrounded, vastly outnumbered, and without any Battalion assets. This paper will argue the reasons for the disastrous outcome of the Battle of Wanat; examining the effective company leadership exploiting effective

    Read More

  • Operation Anaconda Battle Analysis

    747 Words  | 3 Pages

    Starting in mid-January to mid-February, there was interest in assaulting the Shahikot Valley in the Paktia province of Afghanistan by employing U.S. ground combat forces as part as an operation due to intelligence reports suggesting that enemy forces, which included al Qaeda and the Taliban where in the stages of reoccupying the area to regroup its forces after its sustaining defeats during the early stages of Operation Enduring Freedom. A debate between intelligence agencies on whether the enemy troops would be on the valley floor or on the hills. Well before the battle, early intelligence estimates, which drew on HUMINT and other sources, claimed that nearly 1,000 al Qaeda and Taliban forces might be present in the Shahikot Valley but then were lowered to about 200 to 300 personnel (Baranick, Binnendijk , Kuglar, 2009). They also concluded that they were mostly living in the valley’s villages, rather than deployed in the surrounding mountains and ridgelines as they thought they would be from the more tactical

    Read More

  • Battle Of Antietam Research Paper

    383 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Battle of Antietam is viewed as the bloodiest day ever, with more than 23,000 warriors injured, killed, or missing. The Battle of Antietam occurred close Antietam Creek in Sharpsburg, Maryland. The fight was battled on September 17 1862. A large portion of the war had been battled in Virginia, as of right now.

    Read More

  • Winston Churchill's Role In World War

    641 Words  | 3 Pages

    Winston worked with his allies Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin to defeat Hitler and the axis powers. Winston’s main strategy that his army from Great Britain and Franklin D. Roosevelt’s army from the United States would attack western Europe and northern Africa. Joseph Stalin's army would attack on the eastern front and try to stop the Nazi’s from invading their home of country of the U.S.S.R.. This plan successfully worked when the German army made one fatal mistake they tried to invade Russia and failed badly when they lost the battle Stalingrad losing many troops and supplies. This battle turned the outcome of the war as Churchill and Roosevelt made a invasion of the normandy coast in France which we now call D day. After that invasion the leaders met one last time at the Potsdam conference to decide what would happen after the allies won the war which at that point they knew they

    Read More

  • Spy In The Revolutionary War

    1195 Words  | 5 Pages

    Going behind enemy lines and gathering intelligence is an extremely dangerous task, but during the Revolutionary War, the use of spies was critical to winning the war. Through several battles, both the Americans and British employ spies to risk their lives and collect enemy intelligence. Spies intercepted secret messages at the Battle of Saratoga and West Point and gathered crucial information at the Battle of Yorktown to prepare for the battle. Winning the battles of Saratoga and Yorktown and holding West Point severely impacted the outcome of the war. At Saratoga, they were able to gain French alliance.

    Read More

  • Africa's Natural Geography Dbq

    582 Words  | 3 Pages

    Boats could travel through the Arabian, Mediterranean, and Red seas, along with

    Read More

  • Essay On Espionage During The Revolutionary War

    592 Words  | 3 Pages

    Washington most likely wouldn’t have won the battle without Espionage. Espionage (spying) during the Revolutionary War was important because they used the Culper Spy Ring, both sides used it, and there are a lot of famous spies. In the Revolutionary War, they had spies that used the Culper Spy Ring. The ring was used for sending private messages to Washington about the British army.

    Read More

  • Cause And Effect Essay On D Day Normandy

    508 Words  | 3 Pages

    This was great for the allied powers because they could strike at anytime and not have to face the whole Axis army full

    Read More

  • The D-Day Invasion: The Battle Of Normandy

    323 Words  | 2 Pages

    On June 6, 1944, the Battle of Normandy began. This day, also known as D-Day, would go down in history for making a tremendous impact on the war. The German and American forces fought hard, inflicting injuries beyond compare (G1). Many people were highly dedicated to fighting for their country, resulting in many lost lives (C1). Many Americans were so determined that they actually swam into German fire to fight on the coast of France (F1).

    Read More

  • European Theater Vs Pacific Theater Essay

    560 Words  | 3 Pages

    Comparative Essay In World War II, there are many differences and similarities between the European Theater and the Pacific Theater. The European Theater involved many countries, including Germany, The Soviet Union and many more smaller countries. While the Pacific Theater mainly focused on Japan and The United States. The differences span from government styles to types of warfare, while similarities did arise between the two theaters.

    Read More

  • Operation Anaconda Essay

    850 Words  | 4 Pages

    Joint Planning for Operation Anaconda SFC Spurlock, Matthew MLC Class 005-18 Joint Planning for Operation Anaconda Since the beginning of the Global War on Terrorism, there have been numerous battles. One of the most important battles that shaped future joint planning of operations was Operation Anaconda. The outcome of this operation was ultimately successful, however, the original intent from the commanders were not met due to errors in the joint planning process. Joint planning during Operation Anaconda proved ineffective because of inaccurate intelligence about the terrain and weather, the exemption of Air Force and Navy during the initial planning phase, and false assumptions about the enemy. Intelligence Intelligence Preparation

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Outliers By Malcolm Gladwell

    1073 Words  | 5 Pages

    Intrinsic factors critically considered when people think about the main components of success. However, Malcolm Gladwell, a famous writer, contradicts this tendency through the book, Outliers. The book, Outliers insists that extrinsic factors define success rather than the intrinsic ones. Nonetheless, Gladwell himself goes against the topic of Outliers in his assertion: “if you work hard enough and assert yourself, and use your mind and imagination, you can shape the world to your desires (Gladwell, 2008).” The assertion implies that individuals could achieve success only with those intrinsic factors.

    Read More

  • Why Did The Mediterranean Sea Promote Trade

    95 Words  | 1 Pages

    The Mediterranean Sea caused the Romans to spread out the army and guard more than one territory. They had to spread the army out evenly because of the range. If one territory got attacked, even though roads were built for the traveling ease of the men, they still could not be at the attack very quickly. Because of the location, a variety of cultures would have promoted trade. The Mediterranean Sea was the main sea to navigate for trade.

    Read More

  • Summary Of Robin Prior's When Britain Saved The West

    1186 Words  | 5 Pages

    The primary objective of the Luftwaffe Air Force was to force the British into a peace settlement, or even more ideally an outright surrender. Once the Nazis had diminished the air defence of Britain, it could launch an invasion of Britain from both the water and the sky which could have potentially been the first successful invasion of Britain since 1066. In Prior’s opinion however, a successful German invasion could never have occurred. Prior cites the strength of both the Royal Navy and Air Force as reasons for his confidence in Britain. He says that despite some losses to naval vessels at Dunkirk, there were more than enough resources within the Royal Navy to bring more ships in to fight the Nazis should it be necessary, and that despite how it may have looked, the British were actually in control of the aerial fighting throughout the battle, with still more aircrafts simply waiting in reserve.

    Read More

  • World War II Argumentative Analysis

    1271 Words  | 6 Pages

    in January 1943 was important because it confirmed that Sicily would be the next invasion after North Africa. During the conference the British and U.S. planners had many debates about the next phase of the war. The U.S. had committed to the “Germany First” policy, but also felt strongly that they needed to press the Japanese in the Pacific. The British wanted to invade Sicily and focus their operations and resources on the Mediterranean. The U.S. was concerned that a large Mediterranean commitment would consume assets and slow down operations in the Pacific.

    Read More

More about Battle Of The Mediterranean Case Study

Open Document