Malta The Last Great Siege
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| Author | : Ernle Bradford |
| Publisher | : Open Road Media |
| Total Pages | : 278 |
| Release | : 2014-04-01 |
| Genre | : History |
| ISBN | : 1497617308 |
The indispensable account of the Ottoman Empire’s Siege of Malta from the author of Hannibal and Gibraltar. In the first half of the sixteenth century, the Ottoman Empire was thought to be invincible. Suleiman the Magnificent, the Ottoman sultan, had expanded his empire from western Asia to southeastern Europe and North Africa. To secure control of the Mediterranean between these territories and launch an offensive into western Europe, Suleiman needed the small but strategically crucial island of Malta. But Suleiman’s attempt to take the island from the Holy Roman Empire’s Knights of St. John would emerge as one of the most famous and brutal military defeats in history. Forty-two years earlier, Suleiman had been victorious against the Knights of St. John when he drove them out of their island fortress at Rhodes. Believing he would repeat this victory, the sultan sent an armada to Malta. When they captured Fort St. Elmo, the Ottoman forces ruthlessly took no prisoners. The Roman grand master La Vallette responded by having his Ottoman captives beheaded. Then the battle for Malta began in earnest: no quarter asked, none given. Ernle Bradford’s compelling and thoroughly researched account of the Great Siege of Malta recalls not just an epic battle, but a clash of civilizations unlike anything since the time of Alexander the Great. It is “a superior, readable treatment of an important but little-discussed epic from the Renaissance past . . . An astonishing tale” (Kirkus Reviews).
| Author | : Bruce Ware Allen |
| Publisher | : University Press of New England |
| Total Pages | : 354 |
| Release | : 2015-10-22 |
| Genre | : History |
| ISBN | : 1611688434 |
In the spring of 1565, a massive fleet of Ottoman ships descended on Malta, a small island centrally located between North Africa and Sicily, home and headquarters of the crusading Knights of St. John and their charismatic Grand Master, Jean de Valette. The Knights had been expelled from Rhodes by the Ottoman sultan, Suleiman the Magnificent, and now stood as the last bastion against a Muslim invasion of Sicily, southern Italy, and beyond. The siege force of Turks, Arabs, and Barbary corsairs from across the Muslim world outnumbered the defenders of Malta many times over, and its arrival began a long hot summer of bloody combat, often hand to hand, embroiling knights and mercenaries, civilians and slaves, in a desperate struggle for this pivotal point in the Mediterranean. Bruce Ware Allen's The Great Siege of Malta describes the siege's geopolitical context, explains its strategies and tactics, and reveals how the all-too-human personalities of both Muslim and Christian leaders shaped the course of events. The siege of Malta was the Ottoman empire's high-water mark in the war between the Christian West and the Muslim East for control of the Mediterranean. Drawing on copious research and new source material, Allen stirringly recreates the two factions' heroism and chivalry, while simultaneously tracing the barbarism, severity, and indifference to suffering of sixteenth-century warfare. The Great Siege of Malta is a fresh, vivid retelling of one of the most famous battles of the early modern world - a battle whose echoes are still felt today.
| Author | : David W. Wragg |
| Publisher | : Casemate Publishers |
| Total Pages | : 257 |
| Release | : 2003-01-01 |
| Genre | : History |
| ISBN | : 0850529905 |
The strategic importance of Malta sitting astride both the Axis and Allied supply routes in the Mediterranean was obvious to both sides during WW2. As a result the Island became the focal point in a prolonged and dreadful struggle that cost the lives of thousands of servicemen and civilians. After setting the scene for the action, this book tells the story of the Island's stand against the might of the Axis powers that led to the unprecedented award of the George Cross to the whole island by King George VI. It not only covers the struggle by the British and Maltese forces on the ground but the vicious fighting in the skies above. This was indeed a siege involving every man and woman on the Island. David Wragg tells the story using many first -hand accounts and yet skillfully explains the strategic situation. The result is an inspiring book worthy of the courage shown by the Islanders and their defenders.
| Author | : Francesco Balbi |
| Publisher | : Boydell Press |
| Total Pages | : 226 |
| Release | : 2005 |
| Genre | : Malta |
| ISBN | : 9781843831402 |
"The story of one of the greatest-ever battles, a few men under the Knights of St John against a huge Turkish armada, written as witnessed by a participating soldier"--Provided by publisher.
| Author | : Roger Crowley |
| Publisher | : Random House |
| Total Pages | : 378 |
| Release | : 2008-07-01 |
| Genre | : History |
| ISBN | : 1588367339 |
In 1521, Suleiman the Magnificent, Muslim ruler of the Ottoman Empire at the height of its power, dispatched an invasion fleet to the Christian island of Rhodes. This would prove to be the opening shot in an epic struggle between rival empires and faiths for control of the Mediterranean and the center of the world. In Empires of the Sea, acclaimed historian Roger Crowley has written his most mesmerizing work to date–a thrilling account of this brutal decades-long battle between Christendom and Islam for the soul of Europe, a fast-paced tale of spiraling intensity that ranges from Istanbul to the Gates of Gibraltar and features a cast of extraordinary characters: Barbarossa, “The King of Evil,” the pirate who terrified Europe; the risk-taking Emperor Charles V; the Knights of St. John, the last crusading order after the passing of the Templars; the messianic Pope Pius V; and the brilliant Christian admiral Don Juan of Austria. This struggle’s brutal climax came between 1565 and 1571, seven years that witnessed a fight to the finish decided in a series of bloody set pieces: the epic siege of Malta, in which a tiny band of Christian defenders defied the might of the Ottoman army; the savage battle for Cyprus; and the apocalyptic last-ditch defense of southern Europe at Lepanto–one of the single most shocking days in world history. At the close of this cataclysmic naval encounter, the carnage was so great that the victors could barely sail away “because of the countless corpses floating in the sea.” Lepanto fixed the frontiers of the Mediterranean world that we know today. Roger Crowley conjures up a wild cast of pirates, crusaders, and religious warriors struggling for supremacy and survival in a tale of slavery and galley warfare, desperate bravery and utter brutality, technology and Inca gold. Empires of the Sea is page-turning narrative history at its best–a story of extraordinary color and incident, rich in detail, full of surprises, and backed by a wealth of eyewitness accounts. It provides a crucial context for our own clash of civilizations.
| Author | : William Napier |
| Publisher | : Orion |
| Total Pages | : 487 |
| Release | : 2013-06-06 |
| Genre | : Fiction |
| ISBN | : 1409147649 |
The siege of Malta: A brutal combat. A test of courage. A battle that will change history. Previously published as CLASH OF EMPIRES: THE GREAT SIEGE. 1565: a small island in the middle of the Mediterranean stands gatekeeper between East and West. It is about to become the scene for one of the most powerful stories of bravery, battle and bloodlust: the siege of Malta. Formed in the Holy Land in the 11th century, a small band of knights had long sought a home. Driven from their lands by Ottoman might, they came to rest in Malta from where they watched the Turks and corsairs raid the Spanish empire. As word came from Constantinople that Malta was in the sights of the Ottoman Empire, all of Europe watched a force of over 30,000 men besieged the island - peopled by 500 knights and a few thousand local soldiers. On that small rock an epic struggle will be played out - the story of individual men, warriors and slaves, but also the story of two worlds colliding.
| Author | : James Holland |
| Publisher | : Weidenfeld & Nicolson |
| Total Pages | : 497 |
| Release | : 2013-01-31 |
| Genre | : History |
| ISBN | : 1780225970 |
The extraordinary drama of Malta's WWII victory against impossible odds told through the eyes of the people who were there. In March and April 1942, more explosives were dropped on the tiny Mediterranean island of Malta - smaller than the Isle of Wight - than on the whole of Britain during the first year of the Blitz. Malta had become one of the most strategically important places in the world. From there, the Allies could attack Axis supply lines to North Africa; without it, Rommel would be able to march unchecked into Egypt, Suez and the Middle East. For the Allies this would have been catastrophic. As Churchill said, Malta had to be held 'at all costs'. FORTRESS MALTA follows the story through the eyes of those who were there: young men such as twenty-year-old fighter pilot Raoul Daddo-Langlois, anti-aircraft gunner Ken Griffiths, American Art Roscoe and submariner Tubby Crawford - who served on the most successful Allied submarine of the Second World War; cabaret dancer-turned RAF plotter Christina Ratcliffe, and her lover, the brilliant and irrepressible reconnaissance pilot, Adrian Warburton. Their stories and others provide extraordinary first-hand accounts of heroism, resilience, love, and loss, highlighting one of the most remarkable stories of World War II.
| Author | : Ernie Bradford |
| Publisher | : Pen and Sword |
| Total Pages | : 263 |
| Release | : 2011-11-17 |
| Genre | : Crafts & Hobbies |
| ISBN | : 1848845847 |
Situated midway between Europe and Africa, Malta played a central role in the battles for the mastery of North Africa. The island was the vital supply base for British and Imperial troops in the to-and-fro desert campaigns against, first, Italy and then Germany and Rommels Afrika Korps. The three-year siege of Malta was one of the longest in history. In this thrilling account the author, who first came to know and love Malta whilst serving with the Royal Navy during the Second World War, paints a vivid picture of the suffering of the island and its population. He draws on personal accounts and reminiscences of the participants; he tells of the occasional despair that turned to joy when the convoys got through with much-needed supplies and of the bravery of both the civilians and the armed forces stationed there that uniquely won for Malta the George Cross. Ernle Bradford was born in Norfolk in 1922 and joined the Royal Navy at eighteen. He served with distinction throughout the Second World War. After the war he based himself in Malta, sailing the Mediterranean in a number of small boats and writing prolifically about its history. Among his other books are The Great Siege: Malta 1565, Ulysses Found, Mediterranean: Portrait of a Sea, Cleopatra, Hannibal, The Shield and the Sword and Christopher Columbus. He died in 1986.
| Author | : Walter Scott |
| Publisher | : Wildside Press LLC |
| Total Pages | : 842 |
| Release | : 2011-11 |
| Genre | : Fiction |
| ISBN | : 9781434435965 |
The island of Malta is key to the control of the central Mediterranean Sea. For five months in 1561 a Turkish force attacked Malta--and was defied, in a great epic of endurance, by the Knights of St. John. Sir Walter Scott visited the island a year before his death, and gathered material to write a novel about it, dying before it was complete. Now S. Fowler Wright has finished Scott's last great historical romance. This is a story of high courage and deep faith. At its centre stands the old Grand Master of the Order, La Vallette (after whom Valetta was named), grim and unshakeable. But it is also a story of love undaunted amid fearful perils; of a girl who, rather than be separated from the man she loves, learns to wield a sword, and, escaping by a hairsbreadth from the clutches of the infidel, finally wins even the Grand Master's grudging admiration. Here is a novel to stir the blood and stimulate the imagination.
| Author | : Joe L Caruana MBE |
| Publisher | : Author House |
| Total Pages | : 327 |
| Release | : 2013-05 |
| Genre | : Fiction |
| ISBN | : 1481788450 |
The author has written this novel with a sentimental feeling about the land of his ancestors, the Maltese people. A people who have shown remarkable courage and faith on many occasions in the history of the Mediterranean. The story of this book tells of their courage during the Great Siege of 1565, just as Voltaire said, "No siege is better known than that of the Great Siege of Malta." The five-century-old religious fight between Christians and Muslims, known as the battle between the Cross and the Koran, drifted to the shores of Malta where the Order of St. John of Jerusalem had their headquarters. It produced many heroes and tyrants, several of these are the subject of our novel. The great Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, unchallenged emperor of the Great Ottoman Empire, tries to impose Islam over Christian Europe. During five centuries, the Christian Crusaders were slowly expelled from the Holy Land, and now the great Sultan drives out the Order of St. John of Jerusalem from their last stronghold, the fortress in the island of Rhodes. Then the battle shifts to the brave Island of Malta where its people play an important role in helping La Valette and the Order fight the Turks. Jean De La Valette, commander of the Order's Christian navy, knight-adventurer, and defender of the faith, engages famous Muslim pirates, like Barbarossa and Dragut Reis, and harasses on the huge Turkish navy. He seeks to recover the Holy Cross taken by the Saracens. The secret of a forbidden romance in the paradise island of Rhodes haunts this warrior monk of eighty-four battles--a unique man enslaved by the Saracens and then escapes. He is later elevated to the position of grand master of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem and Rhodes. He was considered by his peers to be "the man for the moment" restoring the order to its former glory. One man, Jean De La Valette, the greatest of the grand masters, "the rarest of human beings," defeats the Sultan's Ottoman army in the Great Siege of Malta in 1565. La Valette became known as the Scourge of Africa and Asia, the Shield of Europe, fearless and indomitable, by his Holy Arms. With only seven hundred Knights and several thousand Spanish, Italian, Portuguese soldiers and fifteen thousand Maltese civilians (men, women, and children alike), he repels the great Turkish army of over forty thousand troops. A great historical novel of a great man and a valiant and victorious people, the people of Malta.
