"Corregidor of the Red Sea" or 'Can Italy shut down supplies to Egypt?'

Errolwi

Monthly Donor
1 How does Italy keep this fortress supplied? - the land route goes through British controlled Sudan, and the sea route either via the Suez canal, or around Africa.
2 Not really. OTL the Italians had a naval flotilla based in Eritrea which did not achieve much:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Sea_Flotilla
3 Aden is a major British naval centre which can be used as a base for escorts. Long term solution is land invasion - the British successfully invaded Abyssina from India as far back as 1868.

One thing the naval forces did achieve OTL was diverting at least one AU/NZ troop convoy. As the threat of the Italians joining the war increased, after much back-and-forth between the Dominions and the UK, the partially trained units ended up in the UK shortly after Dunkirk (separating them from earlier echelons already in Egypt). ITTL, with a higher priority on clearing the area, are the AU/NZ (or Indian?) units planned to complete their training in Kenya or somewhere? Infrastructure to support this was severely lacking outside Egypt however, which is why 2nd Echelon NZEF was stealing British pigs for Christmas dinner OTL.
http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-WH2Gree-c2.html#n28
 

hipper

Banned
Second-rate Indian troops were probably the one enemy the Italian army in East Africa could feasibly go toe-to-toe with and come out on top in an even fight.

You may call the 4th Indian division second rate but no Italian or German who encountered them did, these were also the troops that historically did take East Africa anyway.
 
I think it was you reference to second rate Indian troops ...

Which was funny because Indian troops took Keren in East Africa and were used in preference to Australian troops ..
I think I replied to wiking where I specified those were NOT second rate
 
Something like Fort Drum?

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Honestly the money time and threat to the RN make it completely impossible for the Italians to do this . Their red sea flotilla was fairly powerful . If the port was fortified , given a years supplies plus a full division of well equipped infantry backed up by several batteries of old guns removed from their WW1 battleships . It is conceivable to take the entire turret and magazine and transplant it into a land battery , however it is difficult in the extreme . The gun turrets the USSR used in Sevastopol make a good example of the sheer difficulty in rendering heavily armoured turrets unserviceable .
 
Honestly the money time and threat to the RN make it completely impossible for the Italians to do this . Their red sea flotilla was fairly powerful . If the port was fortified , given a years supplies plus a full division of well equipped infantry backed up by several batteries of old guns removed from their WW1 battleships . It is conceivable to take the entire turret and magazine and transplant it into a land battery , however it is difficult in the extreme . The gun turrets the USSR used in Sevastopol make a good example of the sheer difficulty in rendering heavily armoured turrets unserviceable .
then they could take the rest of that SHIP and use it as a breakwater/ sunken obstetrical
 
Probably better use for the Cavours than rebuilding them, put those dual and triple 12" turrets in nice beds of near maintenance free reenforced concrete

Putting them within a few miles of the border with a French colony creates its own problems - it needs to be a large well-manned complex to defend against land assault, but that increases the stocks of supplies it will need to hold.
 
Putting them within a few miles of the border with a French colony creates its own problems - it needs to be a large well-manned complex to defend against land assault, but that increases the stocks of supplies it will need to hold.

Fort Drum was always the last strongpoint standing. Very difficult to assault with troops, and the Turrets were unaffected by IJA 8" Howitzers.
Like I said, far better choice than refitting the Battleships.

It ties down more French and British resources than they would cost to build and operate as Forts.
 

Deleted member 1487

Another factor to consider: if Italy is that much of an increased threat due to build up in East Africa, might not Churchill have been willing to make major concessions to keep them out that the Allies were unwilling to make IOTL?
 
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