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.
