Taking sicilly, while desirable isn't a necessity if Italy is out of North Africa and Crete is in British hands. You can run convoys from Suez to Malta and they are fairly safe. Yes that's a massive journey that doesn't need to be made if you hold hold Sicily but it's still a solution.
Sir John Valentine Carden survives.
- Thread starter allanpcameron
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With Italy out of North Africa, but still in control of Sicily, Malta becomes much less important as a base, and it remains decidedly risky to run convoys through the Med.
Except that Libya isn't the critical factor there, Tunisia is, and that's in Vichy North Africa. If you want to run convoys, you need at least one side of the Strait of Sicily.
Oh don't get me wrong Sicily is highly desirable for the British and the likely next place to be attacked. Taking Sicily nearly completely secures the Med allowing convoys through without having to take the little detour round Africa.
That will become far more important in December 41.
Thing is it isn't necessary, it does get very close to being though
To Pantellaria, aka Friesian Island Sud!
Pretty sure that can take a wing of bombers and a couple of wings of fighters, just needs a floating harbour and a double-decker airfield or two.
Vichy is not going to interfere with British convoys, certainly not if British troops are stationed on the Tunisian border. If the Germans send troops to Tunisia then they will need to activate Case Anton and that opens a whole other can of worms.
@allanpcameron . It is spelt Laager. Wahey the South Africans
To run convoys, you either you need to secure Tunisia, or you need to take Sicily.
Pantelleria was regarded as crucial to Operation Husky, so although you were being facetious you weren't far off the truth either.
You need to control at least one side of the Strait of Sicily to have any chance of getting convoys through in any sort of order. So which is it going to be? Tunisia? Or Sicily?
Points please for the Italian news paper headline and do not Trample me in the rush to Sidi Barani .
great writing Sir! Another good reference for the western desert war in 1940/41 in my opinion is:- The Crucible of War, Western Desert 1941 by Barrie Pitt.
Looking forward to where this TL takes us.
great writing Sir! Another good reference for the western desert war in 1940/41 in my opinion is:- The Crucible of War, Western Desert 1941 by Barrie Pitt.
Looking forward to where this TL takes us.
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You don’t need to take Sicily to run convoys through the med, especially if you hold Crete and a significant portion of the NA coast. You need to suppress Sicily. Destroy or degrade the airbases, make it untenable to base any warships larger than MAS boats. Use Malta and Crete as bases for air and naval cover in the east, and rely on aircraft carriers out west.
Malta isn't nearly big enough to take that many aircraft, and Crete is way too far away. Looking at it again, once Libya's done, taking Pantelleria might be a good first step in securing the Strait of Sicily, it wouldn't require a huge number of men, and while not terribly large, it is rather well positioned.
There were Hundreds of aircraft on Malta during Op Husky - including 5 Spitfire Squadrons - how many aircraft would they need?
With North Africa in Allied hands it would be very easy to maintain reserves and workshops (for planned maintenance) etc away from the Island allowing for a leaner force
Bloody hell talk about a good hard punch in the face that is a lot of men and war material captured as well as a lot more POWs taken as well. That's going to be felt by the Italians rather strongly.
I have to wonder how far operation Compass will get now. Also on the subject of the Italian war material taken it may not be the best expect for a few things like their sub machine guns but would it be worth shipping it to Crete to equip the locals and any greek units that manage to flee but don't have kit in the event of an invasion.
I have to wonder how far operation Compass will get now. Also on the subject of the Italian war material taken it may not be the best expect for a few things like their sub machine guns but would it be worth shipping it to Crete to equip the locals and any greek units that manage to flee but don't have kit in the event of an invasion.
The Italian campaign. Lasted upto may 1945, Italy, with its mountains running left to right making repeated defensive lines causing heavy casualties among allies and you want to start an invasion at the tip. Good luck with that..
marathag
Banned
Sicily taken, yes, you can go over to Naples and work your way up, or you can go to Sardinia, Corsica and then southern France
My quote was to do with securing the Strait of Sicily for convoys - effectively opening up the med for convoys and part of that was using Malta for Aircover when another poster suggested that Malta could not handle many planes.
Nothing to do with the Italian campaign per se.
From compass?
I know a lot of it was sent to the Greeks - artillery, machine guns etc - I am not sure how much though!
Some was used by the Imperial forces in North Africa - at least 1 Regiment (Battalion for those of you hard of Commonwealth types) of tanks in the 3rd Armoured Brigade was equipped with the 13/40s captured (the other 2 battalions with Light tanks and Worn out Cruisers).
And also some of the guns were used as well in North Africa by Commonwealth Forces
I think a lot of the logistical and support stuff - trucks and such - were used up by 8th Army
A lot of 9mm rounds went to supplying sten gun mags, iirc. There were also 20mm guns that 'just happened' to end up fitted to RN ships.
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