"L'acrobat" wrote in message
...

"Keith Willshaw" wrote in message
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"ArtKramr" wrote in message
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And Monte's entire 8th Army would have been in England and could have
been
used in an invasion along with the supporting RAF aircraft The
invasion
a
year
earlier was very possible had the MTO and African campaigns not taken
place..



No the 8th army was stopping the German sweeping through Egypt
and Palestine at the time.

Do you think it would have been a good idea to allow them
to take the Suez Canal, Egypy and Tel Aviv ?

Even if you believe that it is a good idea to let the Italians have all
that
(not suggesting you do), all you would gain is an 8th Army that had no
combat experience and would likely have the same problems that they ran
into
early in the middle east, without the German supply problems to let them
regroup.


What finally killed the German military machine was lack of oil! If they
(or their Italian allies) had control of the Middle East and the
Mediteranean they would not have had any oil shortages! Also if one assumes
German control of Middle East it would have totally changes the dynamics of
the southern Russian campaigns

David