ABSTRACT
Cunningham described the command of the Mediterranean Fleet as ‘the finest appointment the Royal Navy has to offer’, and he would have counted himself fortunate to achieve this goal.1 His journey to the Middle East was the happiest of homecomings; he remarked, truthfully, ‘I probably knew the Mediterranean as well as any naval officer of my generation’.2 He arrived in Alexandria on the light cruiser Penelope on 5 June, assuming command from Pound on the next day. He also took over the Pounds’ house in Alexandria. Visiting Malta early in July, he was joined there by his wife, who proceeded to refurbish the rather dowdy former auberge of the Knights of St John. The house, overshadowed by modern buildings, was an elegant if eclectic structure, but the interior was almost perfect for receptions, the rooms being light and airy, with a superb sweeping staircase, either side of which were great tablets inscribed with the names of successive Cs-in-C since 1792.3
However, more ominous shadows overhung the C-in-C’s official residence. Hitler, having seized the rump of Czechoslovakia in March 1939, now cast his eyes upon Poland, while the Japanese were about to tweak the lion’s tail in Tientsin. Mussolini, attempting to match Hitler in aggression, competed with him for domination of the Balkans. Moreover, the two Axis powers, now bound in a ‘Pact of Steel’, had ensured Franco’s victory in the Spanish Civil War.4 Allied policy on the eve of the Second World War could be little other than reactive.5 The British, however, were sceptical about the firmness and value of French assistance.6
