Mediterranean Fleet

The British Mediterranean Fleet was part of the Royal Navy. The Fleet was one of the most prestigious commands in the navy for the majority of its history, defending the vital sea link between the United Kingdom and the majority of the British Empire in the Eastern Hemisphere. The first Commander-in-Chief for the Mediterranean Fleet may have been named as early as 1665, and the Fleet was in existence until 1967.

Pre-Second World War
The Royal Navy gained a foothold in the Mediterranean Sea when Gibraltar was captured by the British in 1704 during the War of Spanish Succession, and formally allocated to Britain in the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht. Though the British had maintained a naval presence in the Mediterranean before, the capture of Gibraltar allowed the British to establish their first naval base there. The British also used Port Mahon, on the island of Minorca, as a naval base. However, British control there was only temporary; Minorca changed hands numerous times, and was permanently ceded to Spain in 1802 under the Treaty of Amiens. In 1800, the British took Malta, which was to be handed over to the Knights of Malta under the Treaty of Amiens. When the Napoleonic Wars resumed in 1803, the British kept Malta for use as a naval base. Following Napoleon's defeat, the British continued their presence in Malta, and turned it into the main base for the Mediterranean Fleet. Between the 1860s and 1900s, the British undertook a number of projects to improve the harbours and dockyard facilities, and Malta's harbours were sufficient enough to allow the entire fleet to be safely moored there.

In the last decade of the nineteenth century, the Mediterranean Fleet was the largest single squadron of the Royal Navy, with ten first-class battleships - double the number in the Channel Fleet - and a large number of smaller warships. The Mediterranean was considered a vital trade route between Britain and India. The shortest route to and from India for British merchant ships was to pass through the Suez Canal, which required access to the Mediterranean. Malta also served as an important stop-off for ships on the way to India. Britain saw this sea link as under constant threat from the navies of France and Italy, and thus concentrated a large force in it, turning the Mediterranean Fleet into one of the largest fleets in the world.

On 22 June 1893, the bulk of the fleet, eight battleships and three large cruisers, were conducting their annual summer exercises off Tripoli, Lebanon, when the fleet's flagship, the battleship HMS Victoria (1887), collided with the battleship HMS Camperdown (1885). Victoria sank within fifteen minutes, taking 358 crew with her. Vice-Admiral Sir George Tryon, commander of the Mediterranean Fleet, was among the dead.

Of the three original s which entered service in the first half of 1908, two (HMS Inflexible (1907) and HMS Indomitable (1907)) joined the Mediterranean Fleet in 1914. They and HMS Indefatigable (1909) formed the nucleus of the fleet at the start of the First World War when British forces pursued the German ships Goeben and Breslau.

A recently modernised HMS Warspite (03) became the flagship of the Commander-in-Chief and Second-in-Command, Mediterranean Fleet in 1926.

The Mediterranean Fleet achieved an especially high degree of professional excellence under the leadership of Admiral Roger Keyes from 1926 to 1929. He had under his command such strong figures as Dudley Pound as Chief of Staff, Ginger Boyle, commanding a cruiser squadron and Augustus Agar, V.C. commanding a destroyer flotilla.

Second World War
Malta, as part of the British Empire from 1814, was a shipping station and was the headquarters for the Mediterranean Fleet until the mid-1930s. Due to the perceived threat of air-attack from the Italian mainland, the fleet was moved to Alexandria, Egypt shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War. This decision contributed to the continuing ability of the Fleet to sustainably fight against the Axis forces.

Sir Andrew Cunningham took command of the fleet from HMS Warspite (03) on 3 September 1939, and under him the major formations of the Fleet were the 1st Battle Squadron (HMS Warspite (03), HMS Barham (04), and HMS Malaya) 1st Cruiser Squadron (HMS Devonshire (39), HMS Shropshire (73), and HMS Sussex (96)), 3rd Cruiser Squadron (HMS Arethusa (26), HMS Penelope (97), HMS Galatea (71)), Rear Admiral, Destroyers, Rear Admiral John Tovey, with the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th Destroyer Flotillas, and the aircraft carrier HMS Glorious (77).

In 1940, the Mediterranean Fleet successfully attacked the Italian Fleet at Taranto by air. Other major actions included the Battle of Cape Matapan, and the Battle of Crete. The Fleet had to block Italian and later German reinforcements and supplies for the North African Campaign.

Post war
In October 1946, HMS Saumarez (G12) hit a mine in the Corfu Channel, starting a series of events known as the Corfu Channel Incident. The channel was cleared in 'Operation Recoil' the next month, involving 11 minesweepers under the guidance of HMS Ocean (R68), two cruisers, three destroyers, and three frigates.

In May 1948, Sir Arthur Power took over as Commander-in-Chief Mediterranean, and in his first act arranged a show of force to discourage the crossing of Jewish refugees into Palestine. When later that year Britain pulled out of the British Mandate of Palestine, HMS Ocean, four destroyers, and two frigates escorted the departing High Commissioner, aboard the cruiser HMS Euryalus (42). The force stayed to cover the evacuation of British troops into the Haifa enclave and south via Gaza. In July 1947, after the main force, headed by two carriers, Ocean and Triumph, had visited Istanbul, HMS Liverpool (C11), HMS Chequers (R61), and HMS Chaplet (R52) visited Sevastopol.

The battleship HMS Vanguard (23) briefly served with the Fleet in 1949 for six months. Vanguard was back in the Mediterranean briefly in 1954 during combined exercises with the Home Fleet.

From 1952 until 1967, the post of Commander in Chief Mediterranean Fleet was given a dual-hatted role as NATO Commander in Chief of Allied Forces Mediterranean in charge of all forces assigned to NATO in the Mediterranean Area. The British made strong representations within NATO in discussions regarding the development of the Mediterranean NATO command structure, wishing to retain their direction of NATO naval command in the Mediterranean to protect their sea lines of communication running through the Mediterranean to the Middle East and Far East. When a NATO naval commander, Admiral Robert B. Carney, C-in-C Allied Forces Southern Europe, was appointed, relations with the incumbent British C-in-C, Admiral Sir John Edelsten, were frosty. Edlesten, on making an apparently friendly offer of the use of communications facilities to Carney, who initially lacked secure communications facilities, was met with 'I'm not about to play Faust to your Mephistopheles through the medium of communications!'

In 1956, ships of the fleet, together with the French Navy, took part in the Suez War against Egypt.

From 1957 to 1959, Rear Admiral Charles Madden held the post of Flag Officer Malta, with responsibilities for three squadrons of minesweepers, an amphibious warfare squadron, and a flotilla of submarines stationed at the bases around Valletta Harbour. In this capacity, he had to employ considerable diplomatic skill to maintain good relations with Dom Mintoff, the nationalistic prime minister of Malta.

In the 1960s, as the importance of maintaining the link between the United Kingdom and British territories and commitments East of Suez decreased as the Empire dismantled, and the focus of Cold War naval responsibilities moved to the North Atlantic, the Mediterranean Fleet was gradually drawn down, finally disbanding in June 1967. Eric Groves, in Vanguard to Trident, details how by the mid-1960s the permanent strength of the Fleet was 'reduced to a single small escort squadron [appears to have been 30th Escort Squadron with HMS Brighton (F106), HMS Cassandra (R62), HMS Aisne (D22) plus another ship] and a coastal minesweeper squadron.' Deployments to the Beira Patrol and elsewhere reduced the escort total in 1966 from four to two ships, and then to no frigates at all. The Fleet's assets and area of responsibility were given to the new Western Fleet. As a result of this change, the UK relinquished the NATO post of Commander in Chief Mediterranean, which was disbanded.

The Royal Navy often deploys a warship to the NATO multi-national squadron Standing NATO Maritime Group 2, the NATO successor to Standing Naval Force Mediterranean.

Commanders in Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet




Commanders-in-Chief have included: