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Re: Any dispute about interpreting the BofB?
This discussion is getting bogged in detail; as Juha says there was no frozen mud in North Africa.
7RTR managed to keep its high maintenance Matilda IIs running, but after Compass they had clocked an average of 1,200 hours and needed a major overhaul, especially of the Rackham steering clutches, so they were shipped from Tobruk to Alexandria. They were in any case not indispensable to the matter under discussion of whether Tunis could have been taken before the Germans arrived. Wavell thought he could do it given the army's domination over the Italians who had taken heavy losses, and the overwhelming strength of the RN's fleet that included three 15-inch battleships (Warspite, Valiant and Barham) an aircraft carrier, cruisers, destroyer screen and landing craft. Churchill himself did not doubt it, but preferred to try for a hat trick of bizarre exploits - Dardanelles, Norway and now Greece/Crete. Why Wavell ever agreed to the Greek adventure when he knew the benefit of clearing Italy out of North Africa is still one of history's big imponderables.
The small U-boat construction early in the war by a Kriegsmarine wedded to heavy surface ships (18 submarines built in 1939 and 50 in 1940) was contained by the RN and RCN without US assistance. The big expansion of U-boat construction did not produce the big threat until late 1941 and 1942 (199 submarines built in 1941, 237 in 1942) when the US contribution became significant in terms of closing the air gap and using hunter-killer groups, but by then the UK was no longer independent.
Singapore was not reinforced, and India was not built up as a supplier of arms and troops due to Churchill's neglect of these opportunities and in spite of dire warnings of the consequences of neglect from the Chiefs of Staff. Enigma intercepts showed Churchill that the Germans had given up on Seeloewe in September. Churchill could then have sent significant numbers of Spitfires and Hurricanes to Malaya and North Africa instead of leaving them in the UK with nothing much to do except make work for themselves.
Tony
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