Doh! I didn't think about sugar as big time export from Puerto Rico. Sugar was a tightly rationed commodity.Sugar and rum mostly.
The war with Japan cut off U.S. imports from the Philippines, and cargo ships from Hawaii were diverted to military purposes. The nation’s supply of sugar was quickly reduced by more than a third.
What strategic commodities were going in or out of Puerto Rico then, or was that day-to-day mercantile stuffs? Either way, the minelayer is tying up some pretty hefty resources. But,.... The US could afford that and it was useful operational training too.
Elmore Leonard's 1985 novel Glitz partly concerns Roosevelt Roads -Vincent Mora is a Miami cop convalescing in Puerto Rica – he wants to see the place his father sailed from to death at Anzio.IIrc, Roosevelt Roads, was a major transit point for shipping heading for the Panama Canal and South American ports, as well as naval task group working up.
Bataan, September 7, 1943
The corps' objective was Valdez with the goal of forcing the Japanese to commit any remaining reserves to a meat grinding campaign of attrition where artillery and air power would dominate.
In OTL Italy was totally unprepared for bombing and the raids produced a political crisis. One can argue that the double coup againt Beny was caused by the bombing raids as much as by the fall of Sicily. In TTL not only Sicily has fallen but Sardinia also. Not to mention that several italian corps have been destroyed or isolated in Greece, while the Dodecanese have fallen since 1942.
Whomever Italy is Allied with has a major logistical black holeExactly. At this point what or why is keeping Italy in the war? By that I mean how much longer until Mussolini and his government is overthrown?
Sadkovich, J. J. (1989). Understanding Defeat: Reappraising Italy’s Role in World War II. Journal of Contemporary History, 24(1), 27–61. https://doi.org/10.1177/002200948902400102 |
Problem is with that analysis is that it does not cover the negative effect of all the strategic materials that Italy needs, that Germany has not got enough of already. The key ones that spring to mind are oil and natural rubber. Germany has a deficit of the first and no access to sources at all of the second. Italian production is, in part, reducing German production and depleting stockpiles.I would argue that the italian war economy added much value to the Axis war effort:
Problem is with that analysis is that it does not cover the negative effect of all the strategic materials that Italy needs, that Germany has not got enough of already. The key ones that spring to mind are oil and natural rubber. Germany has a deficit of the first and no access to sources at all of the second. Italian production is, in part, reducing German production and depleting stockpiles.
Those extra German troops suggested might be costing less to maintain but I'm pretty sure that they would be better served by actually doing something useful on the eastern front in 1943.
Well, as I mentioned there were 500,000 Italian in occupationduty in the Balkan and a corps in France. If they are out of the picture, the Germans will need almost all infantry reserves to cover the gap.
The island of Vieques off the coast of Puerto Rico during WW2 was an important training area. They did both air to ground, air to air, and shore bombardment based out of Roosevelt Roads. Any units that go to the Caribbean for training would be going there. Even into the 90's there was that type of training going on there.IIrc, Roosevelt Roads, was a major transit point for shipping heading for the Panama Canal and South American ports, as well as naval task group working up.
If we're talking about the overall picture from the start of the war - if Italy stays neutral, there's no need, because there's no gap to cover. There's no Balkan or Greek front.
Attica
Rome, September 11, 1943
The fire brigades were overwhelmed. Several hundred British bombers had struck the capital of the reborn Italian Empire just hours after sunset. The rail yards were an inferno worthy of Dante. A mile upwind of the conflagration , a dozen men committed themselves to being cast into the poet's 9th Circle if they failed left a small townhouse with a plan in place.