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Operation Pedestal de Max Hastings

Operation Pedestal

Autor Max Hastings
en Limba Engleză Paperback – 18 mar 2026

Remarcăm în Operation Pedestal o analiză riguroasă a punctului de inflexiune din Mediterana anului 1942, când soarta Maltei atârna de succesul unui convoi britanic masiv. Max Hastings se concentrează pe cele douăsprezece zile dramatice din august, când forțele germane și italiene au dezlănțuit un atac fără precedent asupra flotei de aprovizionare. Considerăm că forța acestui volum rezidă în capacitatea autorului de a alterna între deciziile de la nivel înalt ale comandamentului și experiența viscerală a marinarilor de pe nave precum SS Ohio, a cărui sosire în portul Grand Harbour a prevenit capitularea iminentă prin înfometare.

Apreciem modul în care Max Hastings demontează mitul invincibilității Axei în regiune, subliniind eroarea strategică a lui Hitler care a permis Maltei să rămână o bază activă pentru RAF și Royal Navy. Deși prețul plătit în vieți omenești și nave scufundate a fost enorm, autorul argumentează convingător că fără acest efort, campania din Africa de Nord ar fi avut un deznodământ diferit. Stilul narativ este alert, documentat din surse primare, oferind o perspectivă tehnică asupra logisticii navale și a luptei aeriene, fără a pierde din vedere dimensiunea umană a sacrificiului.

Alternativă la The Royal Navy and the Mediterranean Convoys pentru cursurile de istorie militară, cu avantajul unei scriituri mult mai dinamice și mai puțin axate strict pe documente oficiale, Operation Pedestal se poziționează ca o lucrare esențială în bibliografia autorului. Aceasta continuă explorarea realității brutale a războiului începută în Sword și Operation Biting, rafinând metoda lui Hastings de a prezenta conflictele mari prin prisma actelor individuale de curaj. Este o lectură necesară pentru a înțelege complexitatea teatrului de operațiuni mediteranean, unde logistica a dictat cursul istoriei.

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Specificații

ISBN-13: 9780062980144
ISBN-10: 0062980149
Pagini: 496
Dimensiuni: 150 x 221 x 30 mm
Greutate: 0.48 kg
Editura: HarperCollins Publishers

De ce să citești această carte

Recomandăm această carte pasionaților de istorie militară care doresc să înțeleagă importanța strategică a Maltei în Al Doilea Război Mondial. Cititorul va câștiga o imagine clară asupra modului în care o singură operațiune navală poate schimba soarta unui front întreg. Este o relatare despre reziliență și tactică, scrisă cu precizia unui istoric premiat și ritmul unui corespondent de război experimentat.

Despre autor

Sir Max Hugh Macdonald Hastings este un reputat jurnalist și istoric militar britanic, fost redactor-șef la The Daily Telegraph și Evening Standard. Cu o carieră începută ca corespondent de război pentru BBC, Hastings a publicat numeroase lucrări de referință despre apărare și conflicte armate, fiind distins cu premii prestigioase pentru acuratețea și calitatea scriiturii sale. Expertiza sa în analiza deciziilor strategice și a vieții soldatului de rând transpare în toate volumele sale, de la cele despre Criza Rachetelor din Cuba până la marile bătălii ale celui de-Al Doilea Război Mondial.

Descriere scurtă

“An eye-level view of mortal danger set against a major inflection point during World War II." -- Wall Street Journal
Now in paperback, renowned historian Max Hastings recreates one of the most thrilling events of World War II: Operation Pedestal, the British action to save its troops from starvation on Malta—an action-packed tale of courage, fortitude, loss, and triumph against all odds.
In 1940, Hitler had two choices when it came to the Mediterranean region: stay out, or commit sufficient forces to expel the British from the Middle East. Against his generals’ advice, the Fuhrer committed a major strategic blunder. He ordered the Wehrmacht to seize Crete, allowing the longtime British bastion of Malta to remain in Allied hands. Over the fall of 1941, the Royal Navy and RAF, aided by British intelligence, used the island to launch a punishing campaign against the Germans, sinking more than 75 percent of their supply ships destined for North Africa.
But by spring 1942, the British lost their advantage. In April and May, the Luftwaffe dropped more bombs on Malta than London received in the blitz. A succession of British attempts to supply and reinforce the island by convoy during the spring and summer of 1942 failed. British submarines and surface warships were withdrawn, and the remaining forces were on the brink of starvation.
Operation Pedestal chronicles the ensuing British mission to save those troops. Over twelve days in August, German and Italian forces faced off against British air and naval fleets in one of the fiercest battles of the war, while ships packed with supplies were painstakingly divided and dispersed. In the end only a handful of the Allied ships made it, most important among them the SS Ohio, carrying the much-needed fuel to the men on Malta.
As Hastings makes clear, while the Germans claimed victory, it was the British who ultimately prevailed, for Malta remained a crucial asset that helped lead to the Nazis’ eventual defeat. While the Royal Navy never again attempted an operation on such scale, Hasting argues that without that August convoy the British on Malta would not have survived. In the cruel accountancy of war, the price was worth paying.

Recenzii

“An eye-level view of mortal danger set against a major inflection point during World War II. . . . Operation Pedestal is the story of desperate warriors shepherding a frail cargo through all the fire and steel their enemy can hurl. Mr. Hastings paints a portrait of naval combat with an artist’s brush guided by more than a half-century of combat reportage. Compassionate toward men who braved bombs, torpedoes, fire and a cruel sea, he showcases the Royal Navy—along with the merchant vessels it guarded—at its finest hour.” — Wall Street Journal
"Vividly chronicling the sinking of the aircraft carrier Eagle, Hastings initiates 250 pages of gripping fireworks and insights that continue well past Aug. 15, when five battered merchantmen limped into Malta’s harbor. Real-world war is sloppier than the Hollywood version, even more so under the author’s gimlet eye. . . . Another enthralling Hastings must-read." — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“Those who read Hastings’ meticulously researched and clearly written account of Operation Pedestal will emerge with a greater appreciation of the dangers, continuous stress, and deprivations facing men who went to war at sea in WWII. . . . Hastings’ treatment of this important but not often remarked on campaign belongs on the bookshelf of readers interested in World War II in Europe and of those looking for a reminder of what men can and are willing to do when the need is great and the cause is just.” — American Spectator
“Military historian Hastings…delivers a sterling account of the August 1942 mission to bring food, oil, and other supplies to the besieged island of Malta…. Buoyed by prodigious research and vivid prose, this is a brilliant illumination of one of WWII’s most dramatic episodes.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Hastings, author of best sellers such as All Hell Let Loose and The Secret War, recalls an event that is often overlooked in World War II history: the four-day battle over a convoy relief mission that brought aviation fuel to besieged British forces in Malta. . . . the prolific Hastings weaves Allied and Axis participants’ remembered accounts (which he acknowledges are often contradictory or embellished) and official archival documents into a free-flowing narrative. . . . Hastings should please his current fans and attract new devotees with this lucidly limned account, suitable for general readers and specialists alike.” — Frederick J. Augustyn Jr., Lib. of Congress, Washington, DC
“[A] breathtakingly dramatic account . . . . Hastings details the violence and valor of that week with all the elegance for which he is famous. . . . The result is a history at once objective and sympathetic, written with a profound respect for the men—many of them civilians—who faced such immense peril. . . . In expertly recounting their courage and the horrors they faced, Max Hastings has helped ensure the well-deserved immortality of this band of heroes.” — The Objective Standard

Notă biografică

Max Hastings is the author of twenty-eight books, most about conflict, and between 1986 and 2002 served as editor in chief of the Daily Telegraph, then as edi­tor of the Evening Standard. He has won many prizes, for both his journalism and his books, the most recent of which are the bestsellers Vietnam, The Secret War, Catastrophe, and All Hell Let Loose. Knighted in 2002, Hastings is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, an Honorary Fellow of King's College London, and a Bloomberg Opinion colum­nist. He has two grown children, Charlotte and Harry, and lives with his wife, Penny, in West Berkshire, where they garden enthusiastically.

Descriere

Descriere de la o altă ediție sau format:

The Sunday Times bestseller 'One of the most dramatic forgotten chapters of the war, as told in a new book by the incomparable Max Hastings' DAILY MAIL In August 1942, beleaguered Malta was within weeks of surrender to the Axis, because its 300,000 people could no longer be fed. Churchill made a personal decision that at all costs, the 'island fortress' must be saved. This was not merely a matter of strategy, but of national prestige, when Britain's fortunes and morale had fallen to their lowest ebb.

The largest fleet the Royal Navy committed to any operation of the western war was assembled to escort fourteen fast merchantmen across a thousand of miles of sea defended by six hundred German and Italian aircraft, together with packs of U-boats and torpedo craft. The Mediterranean battles that ensued between 11 and 15 August were the most brutal of Britain's war at sea, embracing four aircraft-carriers, two battleships, seven cruisers, scores of destroyers and smaller craft. The losses were appalling: defeat seemed to beckon.

This is the saga Max Hastings unfolds in his first full length narrative of the Royal Navy, which he believes was the most successful of Britain's wartime services. As always, he blends the 'big picture' of statesmen and admirals with human stories of German U-boat men, Italian torpedo-plane crews, Hurricane pilots, destroyer and merchant-ship captains, ordinary but extraordinary seamen. Operation Pedestal describes catastrophic ship sinkings, including that of the aircraft-carrier Eagle, together with struggles to rescue survivors and salvage stricken ships.

Most moving of all is the story of the tanker Ohio, indispensable to Malta's survival, victim of countless Axis attacks. In the last days of the battle, the ravaged hulk was kept under way only by two destroyers, lashed to her sides. Max Hastings describes this as one of the most extraordinary tales he has ever recounted.

Until the very last hours, no participant on either side could tell what would be the outcome of an epic of wartime suspense and courage.