Il Duce waits until 1941

Even with better equipment that still doesn't mean the British forces in Egypt wouldn't tear Italian 10th Army to pieces.

It's like giving some third world African militia army Abrams tanks and F-16s. Just because it's top of the line equipment doesn't mean they are giong to be able to win if they take on someone that has equally decent equipment but that also has far superior training.

Another thing to consider. You basically have the Italians doing nothing but building up through June of 1941. Britain isn't going to have as much pressure on them as in OTL, obviously they aren't going to be setting on their asses, picking their noses.

This delay in attacking Egypt by Mussolini will give the British forces in the region time to secure French positions in Syria, and build up more forces, bring in additional divisions and reequip existing units with more and/or better equipment.

Or trying one of the famous 'Churchill' plan as there are no other front.
 

Hyperion

Banned
Or trying one of the famous 'Churchill' plan as there are no other front.

That or putting more resources into taking down various Vichy French holdings.

Or maybe a few more commando raids in Norway or France, the earlier ones in Norway where quite successful at least.

That or devoting more long range RAF aircraft and support to patroling for U-boats and surface raiders.
 

Esopo

Banned
Even with better equipment that still doesn't mean the British forces in Egypt wouldn't tear Italian 10th Army to pieces.

It's like giving some third world African militia army Abrams tanks and F-16s. Just because it's top of the line equipment doesn't mean they are giong to be able to win if they take on someone that has equally decent equipment but that also has far superior training.

Another thing to consider. You basically have the Italians doing nothing but building up through June of 1941. Britain isn't going to have as much pressure on them as in OTL, obviously they aren't going to be setting on their asses, picking their noses.

This delay in attacking Egypt by Mussolini will give the British forces in the region time to secure French positions in Syria, and build up more forces, bring in additional divisions and reequip existing units with more and/or better equipment.

Why i wouldnt really compare italian army to a third world militia, it is surely true. There is no way the italians can avoid to lose libya, let alone conquer egypt, whitout german help.
 
Or maybe a few more commando raids in Norway or France, the earlier ones in Norway where quite successful at least.

Or we can have a couple of earlier Dieppe...or Gallipoli 2, for how much admire him, Churchill was very fond of very hazardous plan who had the great probability of backfire.

That or devoting more long range RAF aircraft and support to patroling for U-boats and surface raiders.

Or buy less american equipment as there is less necessity, good for the overall finances of the Empire and for the postwar situation but basically leave the situation as OTL. Plus without the Greece campaign (and for the German the North Africa campaign) even the Axis has more resources for whatever they want to do.
Regarding Italy in general, as i said earlier, a enter in the war in 1941 (for how much improbable it will be) mean that unlike OTL it will be at least planned a little and some preparation will be done.
IMHO it will be more likely that Benny try to military invade Yugoslavia and get some concession from Greece using a mix of diplomacy/menace
 
This.

Who attacks their major supplier of resources , a country which also has an equipment park as big as the rest of the world combined, while simultaneously at war with the largest empire in the world? Crazy non rational psychotics who cannot conceive of defeat, and never plan for setbacks more than the absolute minimum.

Or people who have just defeated a Great Power with apparent ease, have run off a string of four other snap victories, and note that the target struggled to defeat a tiny neighbor.

I'm not saying the German invasion of the USSR wasn't foolish. But it wasn't utter folly. Now, the Japanese attack on the U.S. and Britain...
 
Who attacks their major supplier of resources , a country which also has an equipment park as big as the rest of the world combined, while simultaneously at war with the largest empire in the world? Crazy non rational psychotics who cannot conceive of defeat, and never plan for setbacks more than the absolute minimum.

I think this was entirely rational. Hitler realised that he couldn't rapidly defeat the UK, and that eventually he'd be at war with the US as well. The only way to beat both would be to seize then exploit the SU's resources. With the UK evicted from Europe and largely impotent until early 1943, he therefore had almost two years to knock out the Soviet Union and prepare for the air war.

Going to war in the first place may have been irrational, but the subsequent strategy up to and including the declaration of war on the US was not just rational, but probably close to optimal. Possibly the only serious strategic error was North Africa.
 
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