"Bernardz" wrote in message
news:MPG.1a370ac351885d1d989763@news...
In article , gme6


Perhaps a better plan might have been rather then fight a war in North
Africa do a direct invasion of Sicily from Egypt.


Look at a map, without control of Algeria, Tunisia and Libya your invasion
convoy will have to go round the Cape through the Suez Canal and then fight
its way through an area where the axis have air bases on both sides of the
Med


As it was North Africa costs the Axis dearly. IIRC about 25% of axis
strength.


Hardly a compelling argument for not fighting them there then.



U-boats: The U-boat menace wasn't really under control until mid 1943.
This would have added extra difficulties in supplying a large army in
mainland Europe (this is one of the reasons that the destruction of the
German airforce didn't really get started till 1944).

Aircraft: In 1943 the German airforce was more intact than in 1944.
The Allies would have been dealing with a significantly stronger
Luftwaffe while at the same time lacking some of their better aircraft.

Italy (and MTO operations in general): Knocking Italy out of the war
was worth a lot to the Allies, both on land and at sea. Germany was
forced to devote units to Italy that could have been used elsewhere
(like repelling an allied landing), and British navel assets were able
to devote their energies to tasks other than trying to counter Italian
and German ships (a task which tied up several British capital ships
for most of the early war). Isolating the Germans in North Africa would
have taken a lot of material, and would have been very difficult. An
in-the-war Italy and the need to contest the Germans in the MTO would
have still been a big equipment sink (definitely bigger than the
Italian sideshow in 1944 was).

As it was in 1944, Italy diverted almost a million German troops from
more important fronts. It cost the Allies almost as much but they could
afford it.



Lack of specialized equipment: The Allies had a lot of specialized
equipment that played an important part in the D-Day operations. An
invasion in 1943 would have most likely lacked things like enough
specialized landing craft, the more interesting supply solutions, and
specialized tanks.


Not as much as you would think. The invasion of Sicily involved more
landing crafts then D-Day.


Operation Husky involved around 3000 ships and landing craft while
overlord utilised in excess of 5000. While both invasions involved a
similar size assault force, 3 Commonwealth and 2 US divisions the rate
of reinforcement in subsequent waves was much higher in Normand
which in part was a result of the lessons learned in Sicily.

Keith