Naval History Forums

Keith,

I think that the Formidable was damaged by the Luftwaffe, not the Regia Aeronautica.


Francis

Francis - I think that the damage to Formidable was done by the Italians. I assume that you mean the damage that resulted after the May 1941 Scarpanto attack. The planes were Ju 87B Stukas and C.R.42 Falcos. The latter are definitely Italians and, I believe, the former were among those provided by ...

Keith, some points : The reasons why no German DD ever sank a British sub in WWII were IMHO : - as you said the German navy was not very ASW oriented ; - there were very few German DD, especially after the heavy looses in Narvik ; - there was not so many subs to sink neither. In the Mediterranean : ...

RF, sorry, I missed your post. I agree that the distances between Tunisia and Tripoli are quite shorter than Egypt and Tripoli. However, the British and German armies that fought in the desert were motorized while French army was not. Trucks were scarce and most guns and supplies were moved by horse...

Francis - Who's Greg? I think you were addressing me and I'm Keith. Anyway, to your points. I agree that the roads and railroads were better in French North Africa than elsewhere. However, to reach the Italians in North Africa, the French would have to leave those roads and railroads behind and cro...

Hello Greg, I fear I don't totally agree with all your arguments. There is no doubt that roads and railwaysin French North Africa were far from perfect but I am not sure that it would make a French attack on Libya impossible. My point is that the French army, despite the difficulties, could still br...

Gentlemen, I don't agree that in the case of an Italian - French war in 1940-1941 Italy would have the upper hand. I think that France has too many strategic advantages that make a French defeat unlikely. IMHO both navies can challenge the sea lines of communications of the other side. Both had larg...

RF, the French Navy was willing to get a fight with Italian Navy which, at the time was willing to avoid it. The French had nothing to loose and the Italians nothing to gain in such a fight ... I don't know if the british did shell genoa in June 1940, but I am pretty sure that the French did it. It ...

Well I said that a carrier would have been usefull for the RM, not that the RM could easily have one. There was many difficulties and it is not surprising that none were commissioned. First problem is political. The Regia Aeronautica owns all the aircrafts, like in Germany, and is not really incline...

Italy was not prepared for a full scale war. The army was designed for small colonial wars and the armed forces as a whole had more a political role (ie consolidate Mussolini's power and the country's prestige) than a true military one. Hence, many officers, including most senor ones, were not selec...

lwd, a carrier would have been very usefull for the Regia Marina because it would have given the fleet the air cover that the Regia Aeronautica was never able to provide during the air. One can easily imagine that the outcome of the battle of Mapatan would have been very different if there was a CAP...

RF, while I agree with you on the fact that Mussolini was deeply responsible of the poor state and the poor conduct of Italian armed forces, I think that he shares with the naval staff the responsibility for not building an aircraft carrier. Sure, after the war, the Italian admirals said and wrote t...

Phil, I don't think that we should blame RM for the lack of fuel. As far as I know, RM did have strategic reserves, but they were hijacked by the Air Force, which had none, at the beginning of the war. Blaming the navy for not having an efficient sonar is also unfair since the navies that had sonar ...

Another case where the modern "apologists" have a fascinating way of twisting the truth into a very convoluted argument. Well, Phil, thank you for learning me that I am both a modern and an apologist (I don't know of what). I am also happy to fascinate someone, even if i would prefer to fascinate m...

Phil, I am not sure that the Regia Marina "failed totally strategically". Of course the Italian navy lost battles and was eventually defeated, but we shouldn't forget that the main purpose of RM was to protect the sea lines of communications between Italy and Lybia. And despite some heavy looses at ...