Picture of the day
- Thread starter jwhc
- Start date
Some units in the Italian Army were not very good, the majority were okay and a few were outstanding. Ariete Division comes to mind for the latter, also the Bersaglieri units (mountain troops).
How would YOU feel, dragged from your home, handed a rifle, ordered to fight "for your country" in a land which had not belonged to your country for 1500 years and in which the natives hated your tender guttiwutts, and then told what a wonderful thing it was to face the British Army, the Australian Army, the New Zealand Army, the Indian Army, the Arab Legion, the South African Army and the US Army.... all at the same time? Any SANE troopie would run like blue blazes.
But the Italians also had some crazy men..... and they fought VERY well, should you care to check the accounts left by the men who actually fought against them. They deserved every medal they got..... and more than a few had the Iron Cross from their German allies.
What actually gave us such a load of Italian armour early in the war was the Wavell offensive in which Roberts and O'Connor (who REALLY understood mobility and armour) took prisoner an Italian army 10 times the size of their own. That their offensive did not end the war right then and there was down to the fact that they didn't have enough manpower to guard all the POWs AND fight.
So Rommel came in and the twice-annually "Benghazi Sweepstakes" were on.
BTW, the Italian M.38 HMG was a favourite in the British Army also. It is really quite a small miracle that we didn't start making 8x59 ammo for the critters. ALSO a favourite was the Beretta SMG series beginning with the Model 38....... and we are STILL making 9mm ammo.
Excellent book: Brazen Chariots by Maj. Robert Crisp. Crisp was a noted SA cricket star before the War. The book is his diary and a first-hand, day-by-day account of the battles at and around Sidi Rezegh in the Crusader offensive. Describes first use of the Honey by our troops as well as the incredible privations of the Desert War. One of the absolute classics of WW2.... and it has been available in paperback for almost 50 years now.
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How would YOU feel, dragged from your home, handed a rifle, ordered to fight "for your country" in a land which had not belonged to your country for 1500 years and in which the natives hated your tender guttiwutts, and then told what a wonderful thing it was to face the British Army, the Australian Army, the New Zealand Army, the Indian Army, the Arab Legion, the South African Army and the US Army.... all at the same time? Any SANE troopie would run like blue blazes.
But the Italians also had some crazy men..... and they fought VERY well, should you care to check the accounts left by the men who actually fought against them. They deserved every medal they got..... and more than a few had the Iron Cross from their German allies.
What actually gave us such a load of Italian armour early in the war was the Wavell offensive in which Roberts and O'Connor (who REALLY understood mobility and armour) took prisoner an Italian army 10 times the size of their own. That their offensive did not end the war right then and there was down to the fact that they didn't have enough manpower to guard all the POWs AND fight.
So Rommel came in and the twice-annually "Benghazi Sweepstakes" were on.
BTW, the Italian M.38 HMG was a favourite in the British Army also. It is really quite a small miracle that we didn't start making 8x59 ammo for the critters. ALSO a favourite was the Beretta SMG series beginning with the Model 38....... and we are STILL making 9mm ammo.
Excellent book: Brazen Chariots by Maj. Robert Crisp. Crisp was a noted SA cricket star before the War. The book is his diary and a first-hand, day-by-day account of the battles at and around Sidi Rezegh in the Crusader offensive. Describes first use of the Honey by our troops as well as the incredible privations of the Desert War. One of the absolute classics of WW2.... and it has been available in paperback for almost 50 years now.
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Good day GunnutzNew day new picture
Cheers
Joe
Great pic of a US Marine at Iwo Jima ..... From the film "Crusade in the Pacific: Bloody Iwo"
Always seems to be alot of controversy about whether the M1 carbine was effective,..i read a article in a US gun magazine a while back, where this writer was interviewing some Marine vets who returned to Iwo Jima , and the vets said that they soon dropped their M1 carbines, and picked up the very potent M1 garand shorting after landing on Iwo
Lots of possible reasons. The liked them better, they lost their own, they liked the Germans thinking it was Germans firing not Kiwis. They were a very innovative bunch the Kiwis, just like the Canadians. Quick to make use of whatever worked and was available. Or maybe the photo was just staged by a war photographer and he grabbed the nearest rifles laying around to give to the guys he wanted to look like infantry in his photo, even if they weren't.
The right tank to destroy a German Tiger
No Tiger I's in Africa until it was too late for Jerry anyway, and even then there were only about 40 IIRRC. The 3.7" AA gun would have blasted them from a mile away if the Brits had been willing to use it as an anti-tank gun the way the Germans used the 88, but usually they weren't; very hidebound in some ways.
As for Italian kit, the Breda 20mm MG was very well liked as well, so was the Camionetta Sahhariana AS 42 ht tp://www.planetarmor.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3084
Good day men! New day new picture
I read that this is a German guard in a pow camp.
Cheers
Joe
dIdnt Estonia have a lot of Hodge lodge equipment including p14/17's?
Good day men! New day new picture
I read that this is a German guard in a pow camp.
Cheers
Joe
That's a tin from a Red Cross parcel he's trading with the German. Those parcels kept our POWs alive in WWI and WWII; what was left after the Germans and Japanese stole from them, stabbed the tins to make them spoil, withheld them for months or years and otherwise played their little games while their POWs lived the live of Reilly in our camps.
Lest we forget.
