I’ll wager this has already been addressed, but I cannot find it. The situation: Allies are holding Gibralter, build an airbase there, Italian ships in seazone 92, Germany does an amphib with ships they have in the Med. When the allies scramble they will only fight the German ships, correct? Another question. Would an empty CV block a lone transport from doing an amphib. I said yes because it does have a defensive value so the tranny could not ignore it.
Evening Larrie. You are right on both counts.
The Italians are eating pasta and chatting to the ladies. The Germans are alone in the battle. (Probably felt like that most of the war anyway!)
The Carrier does stop an amphibious assault as it has a defensive value as you realised.
@wittmann:
The Italians are eating pasta and chatting to the ladies. The Germans are alone in the battle. (Probably felt like that most of the war anyway!)
HA!
You know, I like to watch these WW2 documentaries and keep getting amazed at accounts of the early part of the war in Africa. When it started out, the Italians had 250,000 troops in Libya plus another 100,000 in Ethiopia, Italian Somaliland and Eritrea. The British had a mere 60,000 troops stationed in Egypt with small garrisons in Palestine and Aden. That’s a 5-1 advantage! Egypt and the Suez should have been ruled by Italy. Instead, Ethiopia was liberated, Italian Somaliland and Eritrea was taken over and the Italians were driven back across Libya with heavy casualties and lots of prisoners. Pathetic.
Morning Knp.
The Italians had no inclination to fight the British and even less the Americans, when they joined the war.
There was also a massive class divide between Officers and the enlisted man. This made morale very low and did not help create a fighting force. Italians were happy to be left alone.
The Italian army was also a foot one. Hardly any units were motorised and that would prove a problem in the vast expanses of desert and the seesaw nature of the campaign.
The British were lucky when they attacked in Dec of 1940 as they had only had limited objectives. The advance was so uncontested, that they kept going until they had Benghazi and Tobruk.
Being Italian, I love to laugh at my WW2 army’s dismal performances and unwillingness to throw their lives away for someone else’s glory.
When the Italians switched sides, however, things got very bloody as civil war broke out amongst the Fascists and Communists. Many Italians proved they were not afraid of dying once they had a real cause and future in which they believed.
My dad’s dad was in Africa, Russia and later ran and hid from the Fascists in Tuscany.
