Hardback 2021 HarperCollins. The boards are very good with no visible rubs or corner bumps. The dust wrapper is good with just rub distortion on top and bottom edges. Endpapers and binding are very good and sound. The page block is clean and bright with 4 blocks of 8 pages of photographs. 428 pages. The book is signed by the author on the title page. August 1942, beleaguered Malta was within weeks of surrender to the Axis, because its 300,000 people could no longer be fed. Churchill made a personal decision that at all costs, the 'island fortress' must be saved. This was not merely a matter of strategy, but of national prestige, when Britain's fortunes and morale had fallen to their lowest ebb. The largest fleet the Royal Navy committed to any operation of the western war was assembled to escort fourteen fast merchantmen across a thousand of miles of sea defended by six hundred German and Italian aircraft, together with packs of U-boats and torpedo craft. The Mediterranean battles tha