Manstein in Africa: The Genius of the Desert
- Thread starter BlairWitch749
- Start date
IU thought that might have been what you were planning, but was reluctant to voice that opinion if you wanted to shut yourself of the project.
So the focus now shifts to the Fox of the Steppes with some mentions of Marshal Manstein in the Middle East. Though I do question if there is much campaign left in the Middle East. Namely that the Empire after the Twin defeats and loss of the Suez wpuld come to to the table allowing the theater to be reduced to occupation to bolster Barbossa.
BlairWitch749
Banned
The 9th and 10th British armies that occupied the middle east in 1941 where not particularly big and had almost zero air support or armored components...Manstein's main enemies would be distance, time, and the hostility of the terrain
maverick
Banned
Would Manstein invade Palestine now and drive to Syria?
Glad to know this is going to be continued, and I quite like the nickname 'Fox of the Steppes'
I can only hope you can keep it as realistic as it has been...although hopefully not another 'Hitler's Mediterranean Strategy'...which was quite good, btw a good read IIRC.
Glad to know this is going to be continued, and I quite like the nickname 'Fox of the Steppes'
I can only hope you can keep it as realistic as it has been...although hopefully not another 'Hitler's Mediterranean Strategy'...which was quite good, btw a good read IIRC.
BlairWitch749
Banned
a great read! bring on the sequel
Rommel's Barbarossa 1942 will unfortunately not be so singularly focused. He is just a corps commander among many. I will delve into him as much as the story permits him to be the focal point but the main parts of the story will focus on Germany as a whole and the eastern front
You're not wrong, but the Germans (like the Allies & Japanese) were convinced their cypher systems were uncrackable. The Germans routinely suspected spies (& IIRC, the Brits encouraged them to, by means I no longer recall
). Is it unreasonable to believe there are treacherous Italians or Frenchmen in some places but not others? Especially when your best scientists tell you Enigma simply cannot be broken? And they have good reason to believe it?That said, the shark jumping will be if the Germans win, 'cause delaying Barbarossa turns it from a debacle into a catastrophe. Instead of a few dozen T-34s & KVs, they'll face thousands. Can you see numerous SOs having strokes when they hear the news? I can.
Have a look at Parillo on the Japanese merchant marine. The situation wasn't really dire, just stupidly short for a war, where replacing losses was next to impossible. Japan actually built more tankers than U.S. subs sank for the first two years of the war. (Not a big surprise, seeing how awful the Mk14 was...) Part of it was ComSubPac didn't put tankers on #1 priority til IIRC mid-'43; before that, it was BBs & CVs, which (needless to say) were damn hard targets...
To supply a peacetime economy, or one not under attack from subs (presuming war in Siberia), Japan could readily increase the size of her tanker fleet to cope. Might even make deals with U.S. companies (#1 supplier of fuel prewar) to ship it.
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world
Banned
You will have all the resources at my disposal! (chapter 3)
At Manstein's briefing at Commando Supremo Rome Italy 1941,
Present were Bastico (who replaced the relieved Graziani), Badaglio, Manstein, Goring, and Balck who was picked up by Goring's train and hadn't even met his troops yet.
Bastico: We are most pleased by Germany's commitment to the theater. Your 4 divisions are the key to a successful drive to Cairo
Goring: The fuhrer's interest in your theater is only on behalf of Senior Mussolini who he considers a dear friend. Know this, we expect this campaign to be finished by the end of June at the latest Marshal.
Bastico: All assets available will be committed that aren't fighting in Greece.
Goring: We have a score to settle there too but that will be handled on our next conference. I have brought GeneralMajor Black here to assist your staff for the next few months. Your naval attache made it clear that he won't be able to ship all of our forces to Libya for several months. Balck here will command 7th Panzer which will have the longest time to wait. I have instructed him and his troops who will entrain for Naples to work with your forces. The fuhrer demands that all new troops being sent to the Libyan front train for at least 10 days with the men of 7th Panzer while they are available to pass on their expertise.
Bastico: We will gladly except Germany's generosity in such a manner.
Badaglio: The most important matter is assuring safe transit of your armored corps to the front. The British aircraft and submarines have proved quite pesky.
Goring: We will make arrangements to assist the Africa Corps in arriving safely. Please lets take a walk to your airfield I wish to show you gentlemen two weapons that will turn the tide.
The men along with interpreters and staff walked over to the small airstrip next to the headquarters to see Goring's gift.
Goring: Gentlemen allow me to present the fuhrer's great gift to cover the African convoys. This is our BF-110 heavy fighter series E. It has a solid nose with 4 MG-17 machine guns, 2 20mm cannons and under wing racks holding (4) 50kg bombs. Grossadmiral Raeder assures me that despite the small size of these bombs, the fragile nature of a submarine makes them extremely deadly if dropped on them. The armament is also sufficient to strafe British ships and keep their bombers away from our convoys. The Africa corps will be given 48 of these new machines. Half of them will be dedicated for convoy protection flying out of Sicily and Tripoli respectively. We will make the necessary arrangements that every convoy going to Africa will have at least 1 schwarm of these heavy fighters overhead at all times. They will have increased air cover over the trouble areas near the ports and near Malta.
The Italian hosts were impressed by the Luftwaffe commitment. The walked around the aircraft like they were inspecting a new car.
Goring continued:
Goring: The fuhrer in his commitment to victory in Egypt on Senior Mussolini's behalf has allocated our entire Luftflotte 2 to support our operations for the next four months. This will be over 500 aircraft at our disposal along with their associated ground crews. GeneralFeldMarshal Kesselring will command this group here from Rome. They will be dispersed between attacks on British naval units, convoy cover, direct support of the Libyan armies, and suppression of British rear areas.
General of Panzer troops Von Manstein will show you our other weapons system.
Manstein: I would like to show you gentlemen our adaptation of your L-3 tank. We had several in storage that had been lent to us during the conflict in Spain and have made an adaption that should prove excellent in Africa. May I present the L-3 75 Fledermaus is the nickname one of the technicians at the Krupp factory I visited named her. The superstructure as you can see has been modified and a captured French 75mm gun has been inlaid behind the armored screen. This gun has an extremely high muzzle velocity and flat trajectory so it is very accurate as an anti tank gun. I have brought with me 6 of our finest engineers and a trainload of captured guns and ammunition to begin the conversion. The fuhrer has agreed not to bother with any licenses for this weapons system since it is based off your tank. I would like to give a small demonstration
The tank crawled along into a nearby field were Manstein had set up a dummy tank as a target.
Manstein: You may fire when ready Oberfedwebel.
The cannon let off a high crack and the round left an easy to follow smoke trail as it hit the dummy tank and blew the hell out of it.
Manstein: It will have a similar effect on the British tanks that have been giving you so much trouble.
Badaglio: This is a most impressive system. Manstein you have changed the world.
Manstein: Thank you Herr FeldMarshal but I could never do such a thing, I am just a simple soldier, not some world changing King. Do we have any questions
The generals all shook their heads no
Goring: Good work head off to Naples and get things in order Manstein. You have much to do if the fuhrer's vision of victory in 4 months is to be acheived
to be continued....
your thoughts or critiques?
The "bat" the simple yet effective Italian tank destroyer
Have you any further information on the L3 adaptation with a 75mm gun.
I know the Italians fitted it with a 47mm gun but I did not know it could even take a 75mm gun.
What French gun was fitted and how many did they have?
BlairWitch749
Banned
This was a POD, no such modification was done in OTL. The gun used was the French M1897 75mm field gun which boasted excellent tank killing properties, due to its high muzzle velocity and flat trajectory... there where literally thousands of these guns available for use
I have akined the "bat" or L3 75mm to something between the SIG IB self propelled artillery pieces or an earlier version of the "Marder" series of self propelled anti tank weapons
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world
Banned
I know it was a POD I just wondered if it was possible to fit such a gun on the L3.
If the Italians had done this it could have tranformed their armoured forces.
They has so many L3's their armoured force could have been huge.
world
Banned
Ive been reading your full series of AH which are very good.
But could you tell me which German divisions Hitler sent to North Africa.
At the start of this thread he says he is sending 4 but I only counted 3.
Light Division, 7th Pz and 15th Pz?
What are how many Italian divisions are involved?
But could you tell me which German divisions Hitler sent to North Africa.
At the start of this thread he says he is sending 4 but I only counted 3.
Light Division, 7th Pz and 15th Pz?
What are how many Italian divisions are involved?
BlairWitch749
Banned
the otl divisions
5th light later renamed 21st panzer
90th light
15th panzer
7th panzer, although not deployed to the theater initially (used for training and full moon) was the "extra" division
The Italians had Ariette, Trieste (XX armored corps) and 6 infantry divisions