Setting the Med Ablaze: Churchill's Secret North African Base - Hardcoverby Peter Dixon (Author) It was Christmas 1942. Eleven young women braved the attentions of Nazi U Boats in the deep Atlantic on their way to North Africa. About to play their part in defeating Hitler, they called themselves the First Eleven. According to Winston Churchill, the Mediterranean was the key to defeating the Third Reich. And a crucial part of undermining Fascist power in Italy, France and the Mediterranean islands would be subversion and