Dornier 17 Salvage Operation

Japan had no interest in invading Africa, they knew that UK had that on lockdown and they didn’t have the resources to do it. I am 100% sure that Japanese High Command would of double down on invading Australia over that. The idea behind controlling Indian ocean was to do two jobs. First: Close Burma Road since the Chinese were getting heavy equipment from the US. People forget the bulk of the IJA was in China and China was always the end goal for Japan. Two: Cutting the Persian trade route was more of a request from Germany. People forget that the Battle of Madagascar was the only battle during WWII that had both Germany and Japan in the same battle.

That’s the scary thing about being part of a bomber wing, if the enemy’s AA guns or Fighters don’t get you, the lack of fuel surely would

Narvik wrote:

On top of that, the average and casual Italian at this point had a very low morale, since they by now knew that Italy would loose, even if the Axis won the war.

That statement rings false. Germany did not have plans to enslave Italy after the war. In his writings, Hitler pointed out that if a nation wants allies, it must establish a reputation for treating its allies well. It was a logical conclusion for the leader of any nation, and I have seen no evidence to suggest Hitler had deviated from that logic.

I agree Italian morale was low. There were several reasons for that.

Mussolini seized power through military means. His views were not necessarily representative of those of most Italians. Mussolini did not build a strong relationship with the Italian people after seizing office. He had no reason to rely on the Italian people to stick with him through thick and thin. Most Italians did not believe in Mussolini’s dream of a revived Roman Empire, and thought his foreign adventures were rather pointless. Italy was unprepared for war. It lacked a strong military culture and strong military traditions. Its army was not afforded the weapons which would have been necessary to destroy Britain’s Matilda tanks. Its military leadership was lacking. It’s hard to maintain high morale when it’s obvious that your opponent has a much better sense of what he’s doing than your own military has of what it’s doing.

Note that all four problems existed before Hitler came to power in Germany. It’s not as though Mussolini’s Italy had a great military tradition, which then collapsed once Hitler and Mussolini became allies. On the contrary: Italy’s military tradition and military preparedness were greatly lacking both before and after Hitler and Mussolini became allies.

@Fishmoto37:

The tanker “Ohio” was brought to Valletta harbor in Malta flanked by two British destroyers that had passed wire hawsers under the hull of the tanker to keep it afloat. 
It took an hour to make the last mile into the harbor with the aid of local tugs and the destroyers. The cargo of the “Ohio” was 13,000 tons of aviation fuel that kept Malta’s planes in the war. This is an amazing story.

That an aviation fuel carrying tanker could take the damage the Ohio did is truely awesome. But we build things tough in Texas.

My bad, either way, still a pretty cool find. The plans on the show had both the airborne and amphibious landings. Just thought you might find it interesting.

Indeed.  Im checking out this forum daily now to see what interesting stories you have found.

Thanks alot!

so for every 4-5 brigades create 1 vichy infantry unit

I understand, Life happens every single second…