Under the Red Sea Sun

To recover North Africa from the Nazis, the Allies had to undertake the largest salvage operation the world had ever seen

By 1942, Mussolini’s forces were on the run in East Africa. In order to slow the Allied advance, the Italians used audacious tactics. One included making ports inoperable, leaving the Allies without the infrastructure necessary to continue the war effort. At Massawa, Eritrea, the fleeing Italians left the largest mass wreck in the world, turning a vital port into a tangle of shattered ships, cranes, and sunken dry docks. In order to continue the war effort and push back the Axis powers in Africa, the Allies enlisted famed naval salvage expert Commander Edward Ellsberg.
 
Ellsberg, a veteran miracle worker in raising sunken ships, was given his toughest assignment yet: He had to get the port open again with no budget, no men, and no tools. The British had claimed the task was impossible—Massawa couldn’t be cleared. Under the Red Sea Sun is Ellsberg’s account of his work in the searing heat of Eritrea. Ellsberg navigates complicated American and British bureaucracies to build a ragtag group of international civilians and accomplish what was called “the Miracle of Massawa.”