They'll probably wind up being forced to work at the Showa Steel Works in Manchuria or some other Japanese factory as slave laborers.
Sir John Valentine Carden Survives. Part 2.
- Thread starter allanpcameron
- Start date
Considering the short distance from Bataan, IMO it is probably more likely for them to be transferred south and be forced to build the Sandakan Airfield, replacing the IOTL POWs taken from the Battle of Singapore.
Absolutely the existence of iron in FNA ramps up the pressure there to an unsustainable level. Especially if someone in Whitehall begins to realise the economic squeeze the FDR Administration is forcing “the Oyster” that was the British Empire open with.
From that point someone will realise the only way to prevent a WWI style near-bankruptcy is to limit gold & FX depletion as much as possible. Good tanks has helped a lot, but nobody from TTL knows ITL, so the US loss of Bataan will make things worse: As Corporal Jones from Dads Army asked “Is it true the only thing the US Army ever charged in WWI was interest?” Unless the US gets a victory, and soon, there will be a lot of allies muttering angrily about “war profiteers”.
When combined with this, gaining access to Sterling Zone iron that doesn’t require Atlantic Convoying becomes extremely valuable on its own, as has been noted. Vichy are no longer “mere” collaborators who are “in the way” and hosting Nazi spies, they’re effectively costing the empire shipping, lives gold, and FX.
I suspect the leadership of FNA will get an ultimatum: Algeria is going to the Free French. The question as noted before is simple: Does one of you want to challenge DeGaulle as the Leader & Liberator of France? If so, speak now, or forever hold your peace in the shadow of his “l’état, c’est moi” ego.
From that point someone will realise the only way to prevent a WWI style near-bankruptcy is to limit gold & FX depletion as much as possible. Good tanks has helped a lot, but nobody from TTL knows ITL, so the US loss of Bataan will make things worse: As Corporal Jones from Dads Army asked “Is it true the only thing the US Army ever charged in WWI was interest?” Unless the US gets a victory, and soon, there will be a lot of allies muttering angrily about “war profiteers”.
When combined with this, gaining access to Sterling Zone iron that doesn’t require Atlantic Convoying becomes extremely valuable on its own, as has been noted. Vichy are no longer “mere” collaborators who are “in the way” and hosting Nazi spies, they’re effectively costing the empire shipping, lives gold, and FX.
I suspect the leadership of FNA will get an ultimatum: Algeria is going to the Free French. The question as noted before is simple: Does one of you want to challenge DeGaulle as the Leader & Liberator of France? If so, speak now, or forever hold your peace in the shadow of his “l’état, c’est moi” ego.
Hmmmm, I'm somewhat wondering if it would have been better for the UK to adopt the BESA in .30-06 instead of 7.92mm Mauser, given how much arms from the US would factor into British planning...
Anyways, how is the A10 with the Meadows engine as a support vehicle for AAA/SP artillery/APC/TD/funnies project going? Are they going to enter service soon?
Or since the Victor is entering production, are they going to use the Valiant hull for those tasks instead?
Anyways, how is the A10 with the Meadows engine as a support vehicle for AAA/SP artillery/APC/TD/funnies project going? Are they going to enter service soon?
Or since the Victor is entering production, are they going to use the Valiant hull for those tasks instead?
Everything before the Crusader is now gone, and the Crusader itself is on shaky ground.
Britain can export rubber to the USA.
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Makes sense but given the way it was presented can't blame them given how good the Valiant is the Crusader is the worser tank.
Weren’t they just a prototype/proof of concept version, to showcase the idea to the army and see if they were interested, before spending time and effort to properly develop a true prototype/production model using either the Valiant or the Crusader as the base chassis?
Also, why bother to modify it to take another calibre the British don't use? Remember, the BESA was selected before Lend-Lease, so goung for .30-06 makes less sense than keeping it in the original 7.92mm Mauser. If anything, .303 British would have been the obvious choice, but I can assume that, since they didn't, they must have had a damn good reason not to.
They wanted to but couldn't make it work with a rimmed cartridge. What I don't understand is why they didn't find a different MG.
They could make the BESA in .303, but they wanted the guns asap so adopted it in 7.92mm.
The Royal Armouries did a video on it earlier this year.
The Royal Armouries did a video on it earlier this year.
RAF didn't use the BESA, they used Brownings chambered in 0.303 British & 0.50-cal. and firing from an open bolt. Later, they transitioned to the 20mm Hispano-Suiza HS.404 auto-cannon, adapted to belt-feeding and known in service as the Hispano Mk.I - V.
Well the BESA is gas-operated, while the Browning is recoil operated, so maybe that's part of it? After all, a bit of gas buildup in the wings of an aircraft is okay, but less so inside a tank.
The initial plan I believe was for an air cooled replacement for the Vickers in all forms. That includes with the infantry. I'm not sure why the plan to change the Infantry Vickers over went nowhere but for the AFV's the it was decided that due to the low logistical load that 7.92 would be acceptable as the gun was needed sooner rather than later. That was probably why the switch from the Infantry Vickers did not happen.
All things being equal then yes a Browning in .303 would have been superior but it is a case of one organisation not talking to another I suspect.
All things being equal then yes a Browning in .303 would have been superior but it is a case of one organisation not talking to another I suspect.