P-39s at Alamein

[stevehnz]

I have just finished ploughing through Antony Beevor's "The Second World War". Not too much of a plough in fact as I found it very readable. A couple of mistakes jumped out at me & one I'm not sure about. On p378, covering the Battle of El Alamein he talks about..."The new 40mm cannon on the American P-39 Airacobras proved a most effective tank-busting weapon."
I've heard of P-39 with (I think), 37mm cannon firing thru the propellor boss, apparently much admired by the VVS, but never before of a P-39 with a 40mm cannon nor any mention of P-39s at Alamein. My best guess is that he means the Hurricane IIDs with the 40mm Vickers S guns. Comments?
Steve.

[kaki3152]

The first P-39s came over during the Tunisian campaign. Yes, he undoubtedly means Hurricane IID.

[stevehnz]

Thanks for that, pretty much as I had understood it but I wasn't 100% on that.Seemed like a slightly basic mistake but I guess he is painting on a very vroad canvas & relying on researchers to fill in the detail. Someone boobed a bit on this one. I still think it is a remarkable potted history of the biggest collection of events from the last 100yrs & does a good job of tying up the different threads of the war.
Steve.

[kaki3152]

Don't get me started on all the errors I find in WWII books...Sometimes I think they need to proofread to a greater extent.

[stevehnz]

Yeah, but then you need proof readers that can spot factual rather than just spelling/grammatical errors. If you don't want to talk about that, how about we chat about the History Channel. Now that can really get me going.
Steve

[kaki3152]

What do you mean, the UFO/ancient mysteries speculation channel? Yeah, I don't watch it anymore.

[stevehnz]

Neither do I but it sounds like we're talking about the same thing.
Steve.