BAD SOUND - An Introduction to Making Mare Nostrum a Hollow Jest Part 2 of 2

The map shows how Crete, Malta, Cyprus and Alexandria made sea control central to Mediterranean supply and air cover.

A counterfactual considers whether Axis bombers and Italian battleships could have neutralized Malta's coastal batteries and opened an assault on the island.

After France and Crete fell, British Mediterranean bases sat far from their supply sources, leaving convoys to sail around Africa or fight through contested waters.

S-class submarines based at Gibraltar faced a heavily defended entrance where each side tried to control movement into and out of the Mediterranean.

A force never larger than twelve boats made Malta an offensive submarine base and struck the shipping route that sustained Axis armies in North Africa.

The command roster in Periscope Patrol puts names to Malta's submarine campaign and includes the headquarters officers who kept the flotilla operating ashore.

Boat-by-boat totals for Upholder, Urge, Utmost and the other submarines show how a very small force inflicted major losses on Axis shipping.

British submarines receive less attention in broad wartime accounts than German U-boats, while destroyers and the Fleet Air Arm usually secure at least a passing mention.

Malta endured siege while its submarines, destroyers and aircraft attacked the Axis supply routes to North Africa.

Wartime news priorities kept major land battles and Atlantic losses in public view while repeated Mediterranean submarine patrols faded from memory.

Redeploying larger Far East submarines to Alexandria shows how commerce raiding changed escort demand and wider fleet options.

T-class submarines from Alexandria found unusually favourable targets in the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean's narrow, heavily used routes.

British submariners treated French boats in the war zone as potential Axis-controlled threats because nationality no longer guaranteed allegiance.

The Mediterranean forced submarines into a hazardous contest of ambush and counter-ambush, with far less room than the Atlantic or Pacific offered.

Comparing sinking totals by submarines deployed changes how Malta's U-class and Alexandria's T-class operations look beside the Battle of the Atlantic.

Torch, Husky and Avalanche dominate many Mediterranean narratives, while continuous submarine attacks on Axis supply helped make those operations possible.

Submarines, Force K and Malta-based aircraft weakened Axis logistics together, but rapid wartime expansion made their coordination difficult.