Naval History Forums

Thanks a lot.

Francis

Gentlemen, Thank you for your kind and interesting answers. Dave, do you know if Force Z destroyers (Express, Electra & Vampire) had radars ? Kevin, according to http://www.bobhenneman.info/bhfz.htm "Force "Z"(...) at 1925 had passed about 18 miles astern of Ozawa and 22 miles sou...

Gentlemen,

what radars did have the ships of Force Z when they operated off Malaya in December 1941 ?
Were this radars all operationnal ?
How far could this radar detect a target of the size of a heavy cruiser ?

Thanks for your help,

Francis Marliere

Hello Keith,

I am interested in you DB. You can send it at francismarliereXyahoo.com (replace X by @).

Thanks,

Francis

Keith, you database looks impressive. is it available from Internet ?

BTW, the name of the French naval base is, at least in French, Mers-el-Kebir, not Mers-el-Kabir (may be a typo ?).

Best,

Francis

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...