Comments by "doveton sturdee" (@dovetonsturdee7033) on "War Stories"
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Good heavens! I never knew that, in 1939/40, Poland, Denmark, Norway, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, & Belgium, all invaded without declaration of war, presumably for their own good, by your peaceloving Germans, were evil bastions of communism.
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Gerry Hagen Here is a quote from one of my sources, by the way :-
'Certain modern historians, such as Larry T. Addington, Niall Barr and Robert Citino, are skeptical of Rommel as an operational, let alone strategic, level commander. They point to Rommel's lack of appreciation for Germany's strategic situation, his misunderstanding of the relative importance of his theatre to the German High Command, his poor grasp of logistical realities, and, according to the historian Ian Beckett, his "penchant for glory hunting".
Citino credits Rommel's limitations as an operational level commander as "materially contributing" to the eventual demise of the Axis forces in North Africa,. Meanwhile, Addington focuses on Rommel's disobedience and struggle over the North Africa strategy, whereby his initial brilliant success resulted in "catastrophic effects" for Germany in this theatre of war.'
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@raywhitehead730 Official records don't differ at all. The Queen Mary did indeed steam from Scotland to Suez in Mid 1942. Via Freetown, Cape Town, & Simonstown. In other words, round the Cape, NOT through the Mediterranean. You have even confirmed this yourself. If you believe that the British used the Suez Canal for anything other than sending warships to and from the Mediterranean fleet, then please provide details of the relevant convoy movements.
Certainly, Allied merchantmen were sunk by U-Boats in the Indian Ocean, but passing through the Suez Canal, and then through the Med., would have exposed them to German & Italian air attack, greater risk from German & Italian submarines, of which there were far more than ever operated in the Indian Ocean, and even a possible sortie by the Italian surface fleet. Which is why the Suez Canal & the Mediterranean were not used for convoy routeing.
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@raywhitehead730 I haven't said that the Suez Canal was 'shut down,' only that it was not used by convoys between the East and the UK. It was used by military traffic, in particular warships moving to and from the Mediterranean Fleet. Supplies and reinforcements, like the eastern convoys, went round the Cape. In the case of military supplies and reinforcements, these unloaded in Suez, at the southern end of the canal, not at Port Said.
Seriously, would you send a slow moving convoy of merchantmen through the Mediterranean in the face of German & Italian aircraft and submarines? Neither would, or did, the British.
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@kayhass2510 Actual history. In September 1940 the British had 34.5 operational divisions in the UK. 32.5 of these were British.
At sea, Britain was defended from invasion by the Royal Navy, which apart from a small number of RCN destroyers, was wholly British.
In Fighter Command, of around 2,900 pilots, around 500 were non-British. Mainly from the Commonwealth.
Certainly, the United States played a major role in WW2, after being reluctantly forced into it by the Japanese & Germans, but in 1940 the US was neutral, although happy to sell munitions to Britain at market prices.
Since then, contrary to what you think, the British fought in the Korean War as part of a United Nations Force, defeated a communist insurgency (unaided) in Malaya, and wisely kept out of the US debacle in Vietnam.
If anything, since then it has been the US begging Britain to get involved in a series of unwise American adventures, generally failed ones, in the Middle East. Unfortunately, a series of British Prime Ministers have let Britain become a part of these American antics.
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'Fighting the nazis for 3 years, alone'. Hardly, until late June, 1941, The Soviets & the nazis were bosom chums. After their acrimonious divorce, the Soviets then received military aid fro Britain and, after December, 1941, from the United States.
The Western Allies then carried out a major air offensive which hamstrung German military production, and forced the Germans to retain large numbers of personnel, much of their modern artillery, and most of the Luftwaffe, in the west in a failed attempt to challenge western air power. This of course, is without mentioning the campaigns in North Africa & Italy.
They also devoted considerable resources to their U-boat campaign, building over 1100 boats, of which over 800 were destroyed, seven by the Soviets. In the midst of this the Western Allies were heavily engaged against the Japanese Empire, in the Pacific in the case of the US & in Burma in the case of the British.
To base your comments simply on the land fighting on the Eastern Front is, frankly, as asinine or blinkered than would a counter-suggestion, that the Soviets contributed nothing because their forces only sank seven U-boats would have been.
'Thank you Russia?' What for, defending herself?
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@northwestprof60 Indeed, which just shows how inaccurate the movie was. The German spoiling action at El Guettar was carried out by 10th Panzer, which had arrived in Tunisia in November, 1942, and, apart from three or four days at Kasserine, had never been commanded by Rommel, but had been part of Von Arnim's 5th Panzer Army.
By the time of El Guettar, of course, Rommel was no longer in Tunisia, but his old Afrika Korps, now part of 1st Italian Army, was at Mareth, in the process of being defeated by 8th Army. Shortly afterwards, 1st Italian was routed at Wadi Akarit, by the same people. Oddly, none of this is mentioned in the movie.
Rommel no more planned El Guettar than John Paul Jones did Midway.
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Unfair. Although the Commonwealth and Empire were later to play a major role in WW2, in 1940, just like Britain herself, they were not geared up for immediate action. There was a Canadian Division and two Australian/New Zealand Brigades in Britain at the time, but, although Britain was, in effect, alone, the British knew that support was coming.
Allied plans pre-blitzkreig had assumed a defensive strategy akin to that of WW1 until Britain organised conscription and troops from the Commonwealth/Empire began to arrive. The issue was that of survival until then.
Put simply, neither Britain nor the Commonwealth/Empire had vast numbers of military resources immediately available. Other than the Royal Navy, of course.
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@abugina The whole of the Commonwealth and Empire eventually stood by Britain, but, in 1940, from a distance. If you can explain how Commonwealth forces being built up in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, or anywhere else, and thus far away from Britain, could have made any contribution to the prevention of a German invasion of Britain in 1940, please try.
In September, 1940, of 34.5 divisions in Britain, 32.5 were made up of British troops.
Oh, and in the Atlantic, the Convoy System was introduced from September, 1939. Convoys were escorted, both in the Atlantic and everywhere else, by Royal Navy warships, until the huge expansion of the Royal Canadian Navy, from around May, 1941. Until this happened Dominion navies were tiny.
France, by the way, had a large overseas Empire. What happened to France?
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