Recent content by allanpcameron

5 November 1941. Sedada, Libya. Operation Crusader, Day 4. Wadi el Zerzer was little more than a dip in the desert at this point. As it moved towards the sea and joined Wadi Sofeggin it became much more of a tank trap. For C Squadron 6th Bn RTR it wasn’t the Wadi that they were worried about...

4 November 1941. Libya. Operation Crusader, Day 3. Lieutenant Peter Smith watched the sun rise with the same feeling of awe as the first time he’d watched it in the desert. The ethereal beauty of the cold clarity of the starlight as it was warmed and suffused by the palest peach, the delicate...

3 November 1941. Libya. Operation Crusader, Day 2. The progress made the day before, continued with little interference from Italian forces. The LRDG had noted that there was a defensive line based on Wadi Sofeggin. This was expected to be the main line of resistance on the road to Misrata...

2 November 1941. El Gheddahia, Libya. Operation Crusader, Day 1. The Valiant I Tanks of 6th Bn RTR (4th Armoured Brigade) accompanied the men of 22nd (Guards) Brigade (2nd Bn Scots Guards [2SG], 3 Bn Coldstream Guards [3CG], 1st Bn Durham Light Infantry [1 DLI]) before first light from their...

Sorry, this is a bit of filler. But there were two things I wanted to note. Firstly the Italian supplies. The Beta Convoy that was annihilated on 8 November by Force K from Malta has happened differently here. Force K sortied on 25/26 October but missed that convoy. Here they didn't miss. The...

31 October 1941. Libya. The RAF’s efforts over the last few weeks had been intensified, so, it was clear to the Italians and Germans that the British were coming. With almost the whole of the Wehrmacht committed to Operation Barbarossa, almost no German reinforcements had arrived. With the...

It was interesting looking at the various plans for Force Z. The two Nelson Class were meant to go, but Rodney's crew were on a leave cycle and Nelson was damaged on one of the club runs to Malta. The Admiralty wanted to send the four R Class, but Winston wanted a modern ship, so POW and Repulse...

Sorry for the delay, but was busy over Easter. Allan

25 October 1941. Singapore. Lieutenant-General Percival finally had a chance to sit down and talk about the first couple of months of having tanks under his command with Lt-Col Michael Hedderwick (CO 11th Bn RTR). Hedderwick was happy to report that his men and machines were coping with the...

In the interest of fairness, The Crusader Project has been very useful in providing ideas and information. There's a lot of excellent research and material there. Also, in fairness, I feel that there are bits and pieces where I'm tempted to go back to the old normal/italics to denote changes...

20 October 1941. Sirte. Libya. The arrival of 50th (Northumberland) Infantry Division to join 7th Armoured Division and 6th Infantry Division in XIII Corps had allowed the Corps to begin rehearsing for the forthcoming attack towards Misrata and ultimately Tripoli. The Royal Navy and RAF had...

Neame had done well as GOC 4th Indian Division in Op Compass, but he was captured along with O'Connor in North Africa, so spent a large part of the war in an Italian POW camp. Cunningham OTOH, having done really well in East Africa, didn't cover himself in glory as GOC 8th Army and was fired by...

Please note that I have edited the last update. I had Philip Neame down as GOC XIII Corps, but it should have been Godwin-Austen, as OTL. I now have Neame and Alan Cunningham going spare. What would happen if Cunningham went to Burma to replace McLeod instead of Hutton? Especially if one of...

I meant to say that Vyvyan Pope obviously didn't die in an air crash TTL. According to Wiki, sorry, he was going to a meeting with Cunningham (GOC 8th Army) when his plane crashed. With O'Connor and Neame un-captured, I thought there was enough leeway for the change to take place. The plane...

13 October 1941. Cairo, Egypt. The forces in the Western Desert were now designated as Eighth Army. The creation of XXX Corps in August had been the final ingredient, with Lieutenant-General O’Connor becoming Army Commander. September saw the arrival of Lieutenant-General Vyvyan Pope as GOC XXX...