Book description
" Nineteen months before the D-day invasion of Normandy, Allied
assault forces landed in North Africa in Operation TORCH, the first
major amphibious operation of the war in Europe. Under the direction
of Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, AUS, Adm. Andrew B. Cunningham, RN,
Admiral H. Kent Hewitt, USN, and others, the Allies kept pressure on
the Axis by attacking what Winston Churchill dubbed "the soft
underbelly of Europe." The Allies seized the island of Sicily,
landed at Salerno and Anzio, and established a presence along the
coast of southern France. With Utmost Spirit takes a fresh look at
this crucial naval theater of the Second World War. Barbara Brooks
Tomblin tells of the U. S. Navy's and the Royal Navy's struggles to
wrest control of the Mediterranean Sea from Axis submarines and
aircraft, to lift the siege of Malta, and to open a through convoy
route to Suez while providing ships, carrier air support, and landing
craft for five successful amphibious operations. Examining official
action reports, diaries, interviews, and oral histories, Tomblin
describes each of these operations in terms of ship to shore
movements, air and naval gunfire support, logistics, countermine
measures, antisubmarine warfare, and the establishment of ports and
training bases in the Mediterranean. Firsthand accounts from the young
officers and men who manned the ships provide essential details about
Mediterranean operations and draw a vivid picture of the war at sea
and off the beaches. Barbara Brooks Tomblin taught military history at
Rutgers University and is the author of several articles and G. I.
Nightingales: The Army Nurse Corps in World War II. She lives in California.
"Tomblin's lifetime study of the naval war in the
Mediterranean culminates in this definitive account of an important
World War II campaign the tends to be neglected." -- Dean C.
Allard, Former Director of Naval History, U. S. Navy
