At the beginning of World War II’s Mediterranean campaign, the British faced a number of challenges in the region.
At the beginning of World War II’s Mediterranean campaign, the British faced a number of challenges in the region. Amongst these was the arduous task of providing reinforcements and materiel support to their forces in Egypt and Palestine. Realizing the impracticality of conducting regular supply runs through the central Mediterranean given Italy’s dominance in this area, the British opted to route their logistical operations around the Cape of Good Hope and through the Red Sea. By doing this, the British bypassed the main areas of danger posed by the Regia Marina and Regia Aeronautica but added an additional 8,500 miles to each trip thus constituting a supply line stretching 11,608 miles from London to Alexandria. Other than perhaps the United States, no other combatant of the era could have carried out such an undertaking, but Britain, with its sizable merchant fleet of 3,535 ocean-going vessels worth 20,477,000 tons as of June 1940 and worldwide logistical infrastructure m...