This book explores the Mediterranean theater of the Second World War as the first truly modern war.It was a highly mobile conflict, in which logistics were a critical and often deciding factor, and from the very beginning a close relationship between the land, sea, and air elements was vital. Victory could not be achieved by either side unless the three services worked in intimate cooperation.In this concise volume, Paul Collier discusses the key conflicts within this theater, up until the Axis forces were decisively defeated at El Alamein in 1942.