All,
No doubt that the Greek campaign had it all.
There are of course a lot of What If's in this.
1) Italian forces just doing a little bit better
2) No diversion of forces to Greece
3) Italian navy just doing something
The Greek adventure was a tactical blunder (according to Brooke), bordering on a calamity.
Was there really an alternative to British support for Greece? If no forces had been diverted to Greece, surely O'Conner could have cleared North Africa?
However, with a British-held NA but a German held Greece, then what?
If we put Malta into it, it becomes more hazy. German-held Malta and Crete in May 1941.
Could that totally negate a British NA?
Maybe Italy would feel encouraged to launch a bit of a naval attack somewhere.
The Med in 1941 had opportunities galore but were they all real?
If we follow OTL a bit, could the airborne invasion of Crete have taken place in parallel to the Greek campaign? That would have denied Suda Bay as evacuation point? or it would have meant a total fiasco for Germany?
Ivan