The Hornets' Nest: Malta and the Mediterranean air war, 1940-1942

By David Stubbs

In this fully comprehensive but accessible revisionist history of Malta's air war, David Stubbs describes the malign effect a relatively small number of pro-Italian Maltese citizens had on British reaction to the rising tension across in the Mediterranean in the 1930s. As the story unfolds it argues that the development of radar brought into question the assertions made by several senior Royal Air Force (RAF) officers about the ability of the British to provide the island with a viable air defence. It then shows that the widely accepted prophecies about bombing's catastrophic effect on civilian morale were based on a combination of false assumptions and erroneously contrived data. This backdrop provides the context for the main body of the book, which examines the operational conduct of Malta's air war between 1940 and 1942 and how the strategic desire to sink Italian merchant ships transporting Axis logistic supplies to North Africa conflicted with the need to gain and maintain air superiority over the island to enable this activity. The book also examines the nature of the British-Maltese colonial arrangement and explores the reasons why the island's political elite conspired with their well-placed friends in the British establishment to remove the island's governor. One of the main messages of the book is that it was only possible to win the air campaign when the RAF sent enough first-rate fighter aircraft to the island to operate under a leader with the skill-set necessary to command a radar-informed air defence battle.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0F6CQKQFN
• ISBN13: 9798317064761
• Release Date: April 2025
• Publisher: Independently published
• Length: 254 Pages
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.6" x 6.0"