Royal Navy Response to Operation Herkules

@Fishmoto37:

The tanker “Ohio” was brought to Valletta harbor in Malta flanked by two British destroyers that had passed wire hawsers under the hull of the tanker to keep it afloat. 
It took an hour to make the last mile into the harbor with the aid of local tugs and the destroyers. The cargo of the “Ohio” was 13,000 tons of aviation fuel that kept Malta’s planes in the war. This is an amazing story.

That an aviation fuel carrying tanker could take the damage the Ohio did is truely awesome. But we build things tough in Texas.

Where can I buy a pair of U-Boots?

Goering’s boost: “everything that fly’s belongs to me” this is the major source of the problem. Inter-service rivalry was catastrophic to getting the needed changes done. Goering would not let his power diminish to booster Karl Donetz.

@Frontovik:

@Hobbes:

@Axistiger13:

Choose your side(axis or allies) and your strategy

Russians - one of the main factors concerning the success of Barbarossa was that Stalin actually believed that the Germans would not attack before 1942 and ignored the reports of the German build-up. The Soviet High Command also made a serious strategic mistake after the Soviet-German Pact by moving its armies from their prepared defensive positions to new areas on their now extended borders (E. Poland, Bessarabia, Baltic States) where they were vulnerable to an attack.
I think it was 3 days before the German attack that a German deserter turned itself to the Soviets at the border and said the date of the German attack. Upon hearing the report, Stalin ordered him shot for spreading false rumours - imagine what could have happened if he had finally listened.

he would have ordered an assault, which the germans could easily counter causing huge damage and many casualties to soviet forces…

Stalin and the Soviet High Command knew that the Red Army in 1941 was in no condition of mounting an assault but it could have started its mobilization earlier and move to protect the airforce and pull back major units from frontier, avoiding their encirclement and destruction at the beginning of the German offensive. By October/November 1941 the Germans started realizing that they had greatly underestimated the number of Soviet divisions that could be deployed, even with the huge Soviet losses during the initial invasion. With those forces alerted and properly deployed against a German invasion, and the Germans could have probably been stopped sooner or forced to focus their advance on a single axis towards Moscow/Leningrad/Kiev. Germans could win an operational victory but would suffer a strategic defeat by failing to bring down the Soviet Union as quickly as possible before it turned into a war of attrition that it couldn’t win.

so for every 4-5 brigades create 1 vichy infantry unit

That would be HILARIOUS. He would look at his painting then slowly get a huge grin from ear-ear. Then he pulls out his Luger and pops 3 or 4 rounds in it and says “time to start over”.
:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

The real prize was the fleet at Toulon under Admiral Jean de Laborde. Even with Darlan’s ceding of his fleet to the Allies, Toulon had 77 available french ships.  Darlan tried to barter with his old rival to throw his lot in with his, but laborde remained silent over the topic  In occupying Vichy France after the African landings, the Germans stopped short of Toulon  demanding the surrender of the fleet.  Soon the German’s grew tired of waiting for a reply and moved in to take the fleet by force.  Quoted as “one of the greatest acts of self immolation in military history”, Laborde scuttled his fleet and sabatoged it before it could get into German hands. In all 3 battleships, seven cruisers, and thirty-two destroyers were lost amongst the fleet.  Eisenhower had mixed feelings, he was dismayed that the fleet was gone, but relieved the prize was not in German hands.

I understand, Life happens every single second…