World War Two Showdown in the Mediterranean

Dan Snow's History Hit

History Hit

History

4.7 • 12.9K Ratings

🗓️ 13 July 2021

⏱️ 32 minutes

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Summary

By the summer of 1942 Malta had been under siege by Axis forces for over a year and the situation on the island was bleak with food and fuel almost exhausted. This vital allied foothold in the Mediterranean had to be held at all cost in order to prevent the collapse of the allied effort in North Africa where Rommel's forces were finding much success. In a desperate bid to prevent the loss of Malta, Winston Churchill ordered that a convoy like no other be dispatched to run the air and sea gauntlet in the Mediterranean. In August 1942 4 aircraft carriers, 2 battleships, 7 light cruisers, 32 destroyers, 11 submarines and a host of smaller vessels and aircraft accompanied 14 merchant ships as they attempted to battle their way to the beleaguered island fortress. The legendary Max Hastings joins Dan to tell the story of the incredible bravery and tenacity of the men who took part in Operation Pedestal.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, well, welcome to Dance in History here. I'm just sitting in Horstgarts Parade in Central London,
0:06.0	Whitehall Horstgarts, once the tilt yard for Henry the Eighth Way, practice jousting more recently
0:11.6	in Parade Ground, then slightly undamourously a car park for civil servants. So my right, I've
0:17.2	got the back garden of 10 Downing Street, the prime minister's residence. So my left and the reason
0:21.8	that I'm sitting here talking to you now is the vast admulti building, the biggest office
0:27.0	blocks ever built when it was finished in the 19th century. A huge, huge headquarters for the Royal
0:33.2	Navy, the most potent maritime force ever assembled to that point in history. I'm here because I
0:39.2	filmed a TV show for History Hit. You all know that I've started the world's best history channel,
0:44.3	History Hit, you get a History Hit.com.com to sign up for the press subscription. You're going to
0:48.6	love it. Very timely last week we had the English battling the Danes and then we had the clash
0:54.1	of Budicat against the Romans. So, you know, historical resonance for both the two big football
0:58.4	matches. So please head over to History Hit.tv to subscribe. But I'm here to make a show which
1:03.2	will be out later in the summer history. And it is actually coincidentally a perfect place and
1:06.8	she's this podcast because this is a podcast about an operation in 1942 that was dreamed up by the
1:13.5	planners sitting in that building opposite me now. A massive lunge into the Mediterranean to
1:18.5	relieve the island fortress of Maltese which was being besieged by Axis forces. Maltese was
1:24.4	inconveniently placed. It was stuck between Italian mainland between Mussolini's base and then
1:29.6	the Italian Axis armies and air forces and surface vessels in North Africa and the Chinasyn
1:35.8	and Libyan coasts. So it was a very easy place for the Axis to apply pressure on what had been a
1:42.0	nodal point of key point of Britain's maritime empire. Things were very rough by 1942. The population
1:48.1	faced starvation. And Churchill decided that he would not abandon Malta to its fate. Instead,
1:54.0	he would strike deep into the Mediterranean and risk substantial losses in order to bring
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