Mussolini offered Hitler several Italian divisions and squadrons of aircraft for the invasion of Britain, but the offer was initially turned down. Eventually, 200 Italian aircraft were sent and some Italian bombers bombed England in October 1940. What if the Italian aircraft had joined the Battle of Britain ealier, would it have made any difference? The Italians could also have supplied some torpedo bombers, which might have helped alleviate the German shortage in that aircraft type. see http://surfcity.kund.dalnet.se/falco_bob.htm
WI the Italians enter BoB ealier?
- Thread starter sitalkes
- Start date
It might have made a difference in the Med. If the Italians had sent more aircraft and their torp bombers to the BoB then they would have less available for the Med later on.
Well the Italians did send 200 aircraft to the BoB so the effect on other fronts would be the same as OTL. The Italian CR 42 biplanes found they could easily get on the tail of a Hurricane by a single turn and didn't do as badly as you might expect. If they were mixed up with German formations then the Germans might have suffered fewer losses and even if they were on their own, if flying at the same time as German attacks, sheer weight of numbers might have protected them. The Italians would have followed their own strategy so perhaps they would have attacked targests that were part of the Sealion plan instead of Goering's insistance on doing it his way and ignoring naval targets.
Assuming the Italians were ready in the middle of august with these 200 planes, then I suppose its about how close to a tipping point were the Germans in the BOB??? The tipping point where the British change their strategy, pull back fighter command behind London and try to reduce losses for the day Sea Lion comes. If the extra planes cause this, then something worthwhile might have been achieved.
(I suppose the Italians were banking on the Germans winning the BOB, forcing some peace and then they get in on the peace negotioations and get stuff for cheap. Seems silly in hindsight but maybe not then)
It does seems 200 aircraft would have been useful in Greece, suppressing Malta, etc...
Fighter command was never going to pull back behind London, suggestions were made but Dowding discounted them. The only way it would have happened is if the airfields in the south east became unworkable and by that I mean the command centres and maintainance facilities not the runways. By the time the Italians turned up the battle was already lost. They would have needed to be there from late August early September for them to make a real difference. The largest contribution they could have made is in the supply of reliable torpedoes rather than planes, but to have an extra 100 planes in the air for some of the larger raids may have helped as well I guess.
The Italians had air superiority over Malta and Libya at that time, the British air defence of Malta for instance consisted of three Gladiator biplanes and the Fiat CR42 biplane was faster than the Gladiator. Greece had not been invaded then. Additional aircraft in Libya would have just created more logistical headaches.