Introduction

Abstract

This book looks at the record of the Anglo-American relationship in the Mediterranean during the Second World War. It concentrates on the problems generated by efforts at cooperation, and the controversies surrounding the roles of ‘senior’ or ‘junior’ partner in the wartime alliance. The British were particularly concerned with such matters of status, having to cope with the dilemmas of a deteriorating material position compared to their transatlantic ally. Relations between the two states are best summed up by the phrase ‘competitive cooperation’, used in the work of David Reynolds on the formation of the alliance.¹ One British wartime official based in the United States wrote: ‘Britain and America are partners, but they are also rivals, each anxious to prove that its views on policy, indeed its way of life, is superior to that of the other. It is this element of competition which distinguishes the partnership…’² In this sense, the present study follows a body of work that is sceptical regarding any idea that harmony was the dominant and pervasive tone of the alliance, and delves into areas where discord and conflict were prevalent.³