This is the account of machines of war pitted against each other and the combatants who operated them. Step onto the battlefield and immerse yourself in the experience of real historic combat. Control of the seas was crucial to the Allies in the early years of World. War II. The Atlantic was key to keeping Britain supplied, while the Mediterranean naval war aimed to prevent Axis powers from neutralising Malta, severing the link to Allied forces in North Africa and seizing vital oilfields in the Middle East. Critical to a force spread as thinly as the Royal Navy in 1939-41 was a relatively small number of obsolescent biplane torpedo-bombers, which were at times all that stood between the Axis navies and their objectives. In this book, Fleet Air Arm expert Matthew Willis examines the duel between the Royal Navy's torpedo-bombers and Axis warships, chiefly the battleships of the Regia Marina and Kriegsmarine, including the key attributes and drawbacks of both the aircraft and the warships they went up against. Despite their powerful weaponry and heavy-armour protection, these mighty vessels proved vulnerable to a skillfully and audaciously flown torpedo-bomber.

Using rare photographs, original records and specially commissioned artwork, this study explores every facet of this dramatic and fierce marine conflict. Book jacket.