Cmyers1980
Banned
What if Hitler gave Rommel and his Afrika Korps the necessary supplies and reinforcments that were asked for around spring 1942 rather than devote them to the Eastern Front?
... The port situation could be dealt with by bringing in only German troops and gear not about half Italian forces and half German forces.
If you run consistent suppression of Malta, you might be able to see fewer supplies getting sunk, but that feed into the Eastern Front, since those supplies will not now need to be diverted from there.
Their trucks weren't much better either, given they were using the outputs of three different companies, with practically no swappable parts, etc.
Both require prescience, Mussolini isn't going to call for help until he realises he can't cope, and it wouldn't be unreasonable to suspect that the British would consider Malta too impossible to reinforce, after all, they'd done it with the Channel Islands, which were much nearer Britain than Malta was any other British possession.That is what I meant by the 40-41 time frame being the time with the best hope of changing things in Africa. Think Italy taking Malta in 40 and asking for help from Germany a few months earlier then OTL along with some extra support going down there.
How many companies were supplying the things then?They would have loved to have just three
Trucks for which there were no parts, and thus were a finite resource.And that was before you account for all the British and Italian trucks the DAK used
... but the Desert War still probably goes extra innings because of it.. probably to at least early 44.
...
What if Hitler gave Rommel and his Afrika Korps the necessary supplies and reinforcments that were asked for around spring 1942 rather than devote them to the Eastern Front?
The problem with this is always the same.
It just doesn't matter.
Even without Barbarossa, the Germans can't pour enough equipment into Africa to have more than 5% chance of beating the British in the field, even if Rommel actually takes Tobruk in '41. Oh maybe if you take Tobruk, retain Halfaya Pass, and then turtle like hell which rapidly expanding infrastructure you might by 1944 or later be able to match the British in terms of supplies, but this just allows the British to pull out most of their troops to reinforce Malaya, break the western flank of the Japanese push South, and then continue north into Thailand.It could only be a game changer in the war itself other then delaying the end if Hitler never attacked the Soviet Union in 41 and manage to delay the U.S. entry into the war. Then maybe with the fall of Egypt you could have Churchill booted and it completely change the war if not end it on something close to pre-WW1 borders for Germany, but again that wasn't Hitler's war aim... it was Rommel's when he left for Africa in Feb of 1941, but not Hitler's.
Even without Barbarossa, the Germans can't pour enough equipment into Africa to have more than 5% chance of beating the British in the field, even if Rommel actually takes Tobruk in '41. Oh maybe if you take Tobruk, retain Halfaya Pass, and then turtle like hell which rapidly expanding infrastructure you might by 1944 or later be able to match the British in terms of supplies, but this just allows the British to pull out most of their troops to reinforce Malaya, break the western flank of the Japanese push South, and then continue north into Thailand.
How many companies were supplying the things then?
You're still at war with them.I am talking about a very different war. The one Rommel imagined and argued should happen after the fall of France is to basically give the French back everything they had up to 1914 to get them in the war.
Franco wants (and needs) more than Hitler can offer.Then go down to Spain and give Franco an offer he couldn't refuse (Rommel's first letter back from France after its fall makes a point to mention he is ready to take Gibraltar) which Hitler didn't do and no sending Canaris to cajole him doesn't count.
In other words, NotNazis? Led by a conservative genius with a internationally acclaimed peaceful nature? Sorry, not happening.Basically he wanted a Mediterranean strategy that didn't involve pissing off the U.S. by hitting allied convoys in the Atlantic and bombing British cities. Something that would tire out the British public, but not piss them off as Hitler did.
This is about the same time the Soviets get pissed off at not getting paid for the resources they're exporting to German, and stop, leading to an economic collapse and a popular revolt.I am not so sure the U.S. would have provided LL to Britain with such a strategy to protect Britain's Empire instead of England itself. Without LL even if Germany is still fighting over Libya Britain IMHO exists the war before the middle of 1942.
Did any of those companies work to the same plans as any of the others, or were there literally 78 different truck models out there with few if any swappable parts?-company list-
You're still at war with them.
Franco wants (and needs) more than Hitler can offer.
In other words, NotNazis? Led by a conservative genius with a internationally acclaimed peaceful nature? Sorry, not happening.
This is about the same time the Soviets get pissed off at not getting paid for the resources they're exporting to German, and stop, leading to an economic collapse and a popular revolt.
Did any of those companies work to the same plans as any of the others, or were there literally 78 different truck models out there with few if any swappable parts?