Another example from Playfair:Kurt_S wrote: ↑17 May 2023, 23:02You'll find this kind of discussion throughout Playfair and any competent history of the Med campaigns.Urmel wrote: ↑17 May 2023, 18:36Why? How? It appears you assume that there was some constraint imposed by the long logistics chain? What's your evidence for that? What materials were piling up in British ports that couldn't be delivered due to this distance? What supplies?Kurt_S wrote: It isn't at all simplistic to say that the Empire would have crushed Rommel, or forced the diversion of far more resources, had the sea LoC to the Western Desert been ~500km (as was the Axis sea LoC).
So in the Western Desert ahead in late '41 the British were lacking two divisions, 35,000 replacements/drafts, and 10,000 airmen due to shipping shortages. [immediate logistics-caused shortages only, ignoring those upstream and due to foreseeable lack of shipping capacity]In the end Mr. Churchill agreed that 25,000 airmen should be sent out before the end of the year. But no shipping programme ever remained firm for long, and in the event only 15,000 airmen sailed. This was partly due to a complication of an unusual sort. On 1st September the Prime Minister had asked President Roosevelt for the loan of enough United States shipping to carry two regular British divisions from the United Kingdom to the Middle East. General Auchinleck would greatly have preferred (as had General Wavell before him) to receive instead the large quantity of outstanding reinforcements and drafts needed to bring his existing units up to strength. The Chiefs of Staff supported this view on military grounds, but Mr. Churchill was adamant. He was determined to give the Dominions no cause to feel that the bulk of the fighting was done by their troops, and, in any case, having mentioned two complete divisions to the President he was not prepared to face him 'with a demand to use his ships for details and drafts.' As it turned out, the Americans were able to lend shipping for only one division, and this not from England but from Halifax. The division had therefore to be moved westward across the Atlantic in British ships and the capacity of the Middle East convoys was thus reduced.
Given how close-run CRUSADER was, can anybody doubt the Axis would have been in serious trouble against those additional British forces?
Urmel I love your website and you do great work there - I read it often. Thank you. It's odd that this bigger picture is so unfamiliar to you.