Speaking from the marine side Diesel is a lot more stable and safer than a petrol engine. You don’t have to worry about the petrol eating through o-rings and worry about you tanks exploding.Diesels tend to have more torque.
But most of thse old trucks didn't have synchronized gearboxes, so you had to know how to double clutch(or have a reaaly good feel for it) to avoid grinding gears
for the sweet scream of the Detroit Diesel Two Stroke
Interesting (to me, at least).@allanpcameron
I did not know this. I had always assumed that we had just poached the word, spelling and all, from the Boers during first or second Boer War
Me too. I learned to double-declutch in the Australian Army. It was how we were taught to drive before the introduction of such modern things as syncromesh.Well that takes me back.
It was, with of course, an English spin on it. I've often wondered how "laagar" was spelt properly. Thanks.@allanpcameron
I did not know this. I had always assumed that we had just poached the word, spelling and all, from the Boers during first or second Boer War
Hmm, methinks there were obviously more possibilities though. To quote the Whale has Wings, "It's all being done on a shoestring, but a very determined shoestring" 😅OTL Compass ran to the limits of its logistics. For an intended brief counter-attack, it achieved far more than I think most would have hoped for.
The only better possibility really was being able to bring sufficient supplies and equipment forward to not be overrun. Here that's going to happen.Hmm, methinks there were obviously more possibilities though. To quote the Whale has Wings, "It's all being done on a shoestring, but a very determined shoestring" 😅
Not really, you would still end up using most of your fuel to just move the lorries. The killer of vehicles is not so much the road quality but all sand and salt in the air just causing abrasive damage and gumming things up.The only better possibility really was being able to bring sufficient supplies and equipment forward to not be overrun. Here that's going to happen.
Now, I've been informed by people far more knowledgeable than I am that major improvements to either ports or the railroad in Libya are between difficult and impossible, so I wonder if any real improvement can by made to the road? At least make travelling it less wearing on the trucks.
For the hundreds of miles of North African coast? Utterly impractical.Did they water unmade roads back then? That would cut down on dust and make filters last longer?
Did they water unmade roads back then? That would cut down on dust and make filters last longer?
To quote Tesco, every little helps. Capturing and opening the port's sooner than OTL reduces the distance some of the trucks need to travel to reach the front, that is a cumulative effect. Every extra day not needing to travel back to a major supply hub in Egypt is a blessing. That reduces wear per round trip for some of the trucks and also over time the trucks in general will be less worn out.Best I can come with is to extend the single track railway from Mersa Matruh.
None of the ports had capacity for all the armies needs, so every mile extra on the railway is one mile less all the rest has to go by lorry.
To be honest you probably need all of them.
Improve the ports as far as possible, use all the captured transport (needs drivers and driver training, fuel, repair, etc. etc.), and extend the railway.