Markus Becker

🤣 I'm still somewhat surprised the US didn't copy the round too: .28-03 aka 7x63mm.

Otoh, they rather disliked Communists and also Jews. Would not have been the first case of making friends because of common enemies. With regard to the before mentioned issue of the German Polish border, see South Tyrol. The Nazis encouraged the German speakers to emigrate to the new Lebensraum in the east. Might have worked for western Poland too. And last but not least, IMO no way Stalin doesn't see Barbarossa coming this time. The Soviets would have done much better if he had IRL and even more if he'd adopted a more defensive strategy to deal with the invasion.

Or the German authorities considered the Schlegelmilch too revolutionary(and thus unproven), while the 98 was an evolutionary design.

I know, I was thinking about lesser powers who began rifle production after 1900 and the major powers after WW1. Particularly Germany who suffered from blockade so much.

https://youtu.be/7musX-aCwwQ The more he talks about the Schlegelmilch design, the less I understand why no one adopted it. The industrialized nations are excused but only before WW1, given their rifle shortages at the start of the war.

It does help if you capture the entire country that made them.

Siege of Tobruk. Australian Infranty becomes "Infantillery" by taking Italian guns captured during the previous Operation Compass out of storage.

Before the airfield had been taken! I thought the airlift didn't happen until after. My bad.

If the paras fail to take Malame airfield -which they almost did- it will be just the end of them. The Ju52 that IRL airlifted the mountain troops would have to remain in Greece. They'd only be lost if the airfield is taken, the airlift is done and the battle is still lost somehow. That looks very unlikely to me. Tempted but if events in North Africa go like IRL, it would remain a temptation. 1943 when the Italians surrender, there would be an opportunity to grab some more real estate. About the garrison. Once the 11k Greek soldiers are re-equipped, their original s

Afaik, there were no airfields on these islands. The closest was on the Peloponnese, no idea how far the Italian fields on the Dedocanese were away. PS: An Me 109 E-4 had a combat radius of 100 miles. If an an E-7 with drop tanks had a radius of 200, that would put Crete within range. However that seems to be generous. Malame was the No.1 target because it was within range of mainland based 109s. It is roughly 100 miles from there to Molai. If we assume a combat radius of 150 m, the eastern half within those based on Karpathos, the western of those based at Molai.

👍🏻Yes, European autumn and winter.

The Axis airfields in Dodecanese and Greece will be better supplied given enough time but during that time so will British airfields on Crete, most happend to be out of Me 109 range. That also depends on the British air strength. The locals? They did fight and quite well.

What caliber very heavy guns? I was thinking about the 15 and 17 cm cannons. Very good range, not too big and fairly mobile too.

The 8" was a rather specialized gun, you'd not need very often given the small number of German long range cannons. But without a counterbattery capability the German guns would have been far more effective.

The name rings a bell. The HMG with the loading block the Partisans disliked so much?