ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the way in which two battles during the Second World War contributed to securing control of the Mediterranean. It also raises issues concerning the role of airpower, both land and sea based, in this process. The campaign reveals the interrelationship between the three services: army, navy and air force. The entire Mediterranean campaign was dependent upon seapower. If one or other side was able to achieve command of the sea then it would be able to utilise the sea for the transportation of military forces and war material and deny this to its opponent. The Mediterranean could be used as a medium to bring a nation's military power to bear upon the land washed by the sea.
