The Armed Rovers

Book excerpt: The little-known story of how the Royal Air Force kept supplies from reaching Rommel’s Afrika Korps, by an RAF veteran and renowned aviation historian. By far the most dangerous of the RAF operations during the Second World War were daylight attacks on enemy shipping, yet little has been written about this aerial campaign and the brave airmen who took part. In particular, the intense air-sea battles that were fought in the Mediterranean have been neglected in histories of the war in North Africa and Italy. Roy Nesbit, in this classic account, sets the record straight by describing in vivid detail how a few RAF squadrons were successful in destroying supplies vital to the Italian and German armies during the fighting in Libya, Egypt, and Tunisia. At critical moments during the land battles, during the dramatic advances and retreats that characterized the fighting in the desert, the failure of supplies to get through to Rommel’s Afrika Korps was decisive. But the casualties suffered by the airmen in these low-level attacks were daunting, as were those among the naval and merchant seamen whose vessels were targeted. This is their dramatic true story, by the author of The Royal Air Force: An Illustrated History From 1918 and Arctic Airmen.