[.ca] The Great Siege: Malta 1565 (ISBN 1840222069)

The siege that halted the advancement of the Ottoman Empire:
In the spring of 1565, two great armies met on the battlefield of an island in the heart of the Mediterranean. This war came to be known as the Great Siege of Malta. I consider it to be the great battle of the Cross and the Koran, and a victory for either side would preserve Christianity or open Europe to the infidels of Islam. It was an encounter that saw a fierce three-month battle with the greatest military force in the history of mankind, the Ottoman Empire. Bradford gives a very informative account of the events of the great siege and offers it all inside a simplistic book to read. I give it five stars because it the most informative book on the topic. ...

Great Siege = great story!:
Great Siege: Malta 1565 is simply one of the those books you cannot put down. The pace is frenetic. It gallops the entire way through. Malta, the home of the Knights of St. John after their loss of Rhodes, is beset by the Ottomans fed up with their predatory maritime practices. From the moment the Turkish fleet arrives to the moment of it's departure, Ernle Bradford provides a yarn that renders the reader his captive. The Knights were severely outnumbered, but the Turk force's command was divided. Between the courage of the former and the ineptitude of the latter lies a story of miraculous proportions. And, as if more fuel were required to a story so stunning in itself, Bradford's rapid-fire writing style ups the adrenalin even further. Concise, addictive, and thrilling, the Great Siege is one of the better histories of any event I've read in some time. Buy it, borrow it, read it, love it: Only the most romantic pacifist would think to set this book down.

Determined Attack, Dauntless Defense:
In the mid 1500's the Ottoman Turk Suleiman the Magnificent was a septagenarian, but he still was the most powerful ruler in the world. He had carved out an empire in the Middle East, and he wanted to expand it into Europe. A small group of men on a miniscule island in the Mediterranean didn't exactly stand in his way, but they were a bloody nuisance. They were the Knights of St. John of the Hospital, a relic of the Crusades. Driven from the Holy Land, they had settled in Rhodes and become pirates preying on Moslem shipping. The Turks had twice beseiged Rhodes and finally driven out the pesky Knights, but the Knights took refuge on Malta and continued to be a thorn in Suleiman's flesh. Suleiman decided to destroy them, capture Malta, and use its port as a base of operations against Europe. He sent an armada and an army to do the job, and a few thousand defenders faced off against tens of thousands of invaders. The Turks decided to capture the harbor first so that their ships would have a safe haven against possible storms. A small fort called Fort St. Elmo stood in their way. They figured they could overwhelm the Fort in less than a week, occupy the harbor, and the rest of the island would soon fall to their attack. When we think of famous last stands, we think of the Alamo and Thermopylae. The Spartans withstood the Persians for 3 days at Thermopylae. The Texans withstood the Mexicans for 13 at the Alamo. Fort St. Elmo stood for an entire month before it finally succumbed. The defenders of Fort St. Elmo fought stubbornly and to the last man, enduring unimaginable hardship, and they wrought terrible slaughter on the Turks. When the fort fell, the Turks took no prisoners and mutilated the bodies of the fallen defenders. Grand Master La Vallette of the Knights responded by decapitating all his Turkish POW's and using the severed heads as cannonballs to bombard the enemy. Then the battle for Malta began in earnest, with no quarter asked and none given. The seige of Malta is a gripping tale of brutality, courage, and tenacity peopled with larger-than-life protagonists like Suleiman the Magnificent, Grand Master La Vallette, and Dragut the Barbary Coast pirate.

wow.:
wow. i read the great siege for a critical book review in world history class, and it sure was boring. it may have been the worst book i have skimmed, ever. i suppose it's because it isn't my hobbie or occupation, so i don't find the information compelling. but seriously, i couldn't stand it. i'm sure i got a horrible grade on the review too. i'll admit it looked nothing like this, but i wish it had. don't buy it. if you do, throw it away. you'll thank me. good luck to those finding an alternate, i'm sure this book won't be hard to replace.

Epic:
An epic tale accurately told with recounting based on manuscripts and diaries of those there, interspersed with the tales from the natives, lightly spiced with the author's understanding of life at that time, so it all comes together in a fascinating true story of the Muslem forces of Suleyman the Magnificent setting out in great strength to seize the island of Malta, in order to establish a base in the western Mediterrainian, with the purpose of pushing his empire up into the underside of Europe. The island is held by The Knights of St. John, the Hospitallers, honest-to-goodness knights in shinning armour, who carry one of the hands of the disciple John with them as a divine relic. The story is Muslem against Christian, both dedicated to fight to the death, the attackers in flowing robes that caught fire easily when the defenders, who were wearing armour and chain mail in sweltering heat and sun, rolled hoops of fire into their midst. It is seige warfare, psychological warfare, religion vs religion, men vs men, and men vs germs. Polictical betrayal, bravery, heroics, bad strategys and brilliant tactics. The author has done excellent research, the core of the book is a scholarly work with references and sources, but done in such a way as to become a great story, not a boring read. Brings it all to life and death, an easy and interesting read at 232 pages of story. This is not just for military history buffs, but for anyone who likes a good story.