Avalancheon wrote: ↑21 Dec 2019, 15:28
Wrong. The port of Benghazi had a railway extending 107 km to Marj (which was called Barce back then). The Italians didn't need to use trucks on this part of the supply route, since the deliverys were of consistent high volume. If they could extend the railway another 201 km from Marj to Derna, then that would represent a considerable logistical surplus.
I disagree strongly here.it was a very low capacity railway,
See old thread
viewtopic.php?t=99035
here's a nice map of railways in Libya in ww2
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_Libya_Railways
Avalancheon wrote: ↑21 Dec 2019, 15:28
If the British lose Malta, they can't sail through the central Mediterranean. They can send subs through that part of the sea, but surface ships will be at extreme risk. To restate what TheMarcksPlan said before:
''Anybody who analyzes Malta simply by the number of ships its garrison sunk is walking blind. Malta forced shipping into convoys that had to sail far afield of direct Italy-Libya routes, decreasing Italian practical lift capacity by an order of magnitude. By concentrating cargo-offloading into convoy arrival dates, it likewise reduced the monthly/seasonal capacity of the Libyan and Italian ports: instead of being able to use their full capacity round the clock, they'd face a wave of offloading requirements followed by periods of dormancy. Likewise for the truck and coastal shipping resources emanating from the ports.''
Well he has his opinion and i have mine. The Removal of Malta would at best remove only 50% of Shipping losses.
Malta only did 60% of the damage and more than half the Malta damage in early 1941 was submarines.
The Royal Navy was not that risk averse. Supplying Malta cost the Royal, Navy quite a bit, the same resources put into raiding is gong produce SOME result.
Avalancheon wrote: ↑21 Dec 2019, 15:28
Fair enough. Although this would be remediable with the greater resources which would be available if the Germans made the Mediterranean their main theater.
Resources are not instantly transformable one thing to another.
How? Designing and building specialty ships is years.
Running merchant ships through the channel around Spain is not exactly super easy either,
Avalancheon wrote: ↑21 Dec 2019, 15:28
This is true. The Germans never put any thought into beach loading of supplys.
Well the Germans were not a major naval power experienced in Naval landing operations. The Germans also had a real blind spot in logistics, they simply did not make logistics central to their operational planning process the way the allies did.