Andreas

Ah. Okay that wasn't the Tiger convoy I referred to. That one was the British convoy in May 1941, which delivered a shipment of tanks and fighters to the Middle East straight through the Med. They lost one ship with the full set of Matilda II tanks for 8 RTR and 10 Hurricanes on board to a mine. All the best Andreas

Thanks for the compliment. 🙂 All the best Andreas

I suspect you also get a wider spread of fragmentation from a round detonating inside a tank, as opposed to fragmentation following the direction of the flight-path of a solid shot round from it's entry point? The trade off is I suspect that you are less likely to achieve penetration of the armour in marginal cases, as the overall weight and structural integrity of the APHE round is by necessity lower than that of an equal AP-shot. All the best Andreas

Just in the interest of transparency, that's my site. All the best Andreas

Sorry, you're speaking in tongues here. No idea what you are getting at. All the best Andreas

The Tiger convoy passed through, and there were individual merchants that were passed via Malta as well. Fast warships and submarines for transport did not AFAIK go via, but to Malta from either end. So Axis occupation of Malta would not have changed the convoy routes, as the status quo even with an unoccupied Malta was to not go through the Med. There were substantial mine barriers in the Sicilian Strait, plus of course the risk of air attack from Sicilian bases, and fast warships being based in northern and southern Sicily as well. Who held Malta was irrelevant to the question of Mediterranean passage. All the best Andreas

That's my understanding too, and from the analysis of the British command at the time, that's what happened, and it was a serious complaint that German ammo caused fires to British tanks quite regularly, while the reverse did not happen as they used solid shot. All the best Andreas

Sweden, eh? All the best Andreas

More comprehensive write-up here: https://rommelsriposte.com/2023/01/23/george-burling-jarett-and-the-75mm-ammunition-challenge/ All the best Andreas

History of the German F-Lighters in the Med is here. http://rommelsriposte.com/2015/01/18/the-history-and-operations-of-f-lighters-during-crusader/ I believe these would have been able to land tanks on beaches? Not sure to be honest. Full list of the Italian naval force for the invasion is here: https://www.aidmen.it/articles.html/articles/le-sigle-della-forza-navale-speciale-r49/ All the best Andreas

1) Hmm, I am not sure about those numbers, they seem a bit low? Some of the planes were in dual purpose units, and especially the SM.82 was still used as a bomber in July 1942. 2) The SM.82 also had much higher capacity for paras than the Ju 52. 28 fully equipped paras. All the best Andreas

In fairness that was with massive German support in technology. https://rommelsriposte.com/2009/07/15/german-antisubmarine-equipment-on-italian-vessels/ https://rommelsriposte.com/2015/12/06/use-of-german-sonar-on-italian-vessels-pt-2/ https://rommelsriposte.com/2015/12/07/german-sonar-on-italian-vessels-pt-3/ All the best Andreas

Bir el Gobi Twice. All the best Andreas

810 at full strength I think, and I would expect the Malta units to be at that level. All the best Andreas

The Italians really couldn't afford to lose a BB, and other than the two Littorios they had four modernised Dreadnoughts in 1940, which presumably would have been more vulnerable to 9.2" As for C3/Herkules, it wasn't cancelled because the Italians didn't feel like risking their ships, it was cancelled because the Germans had decided it wasn't needed, as they were going to be on the Nile shortly. All the best Andreas