All 3 tanks (Sentinel, Thunderbolt and the Yeramba can all be also seen at the Australian Armour and Artillery Museum in Queensland. Or via there You tube channel.
Icelander here, born in 1950. While there was apparently considerable Nazi sentiment in Iceland (the father of a childhood friend of mine was an unabashed Nazi until the day he died in the 1970s, a curious childhood experience), the vast majority of Icelanders wanted nothing to do with the Nazis. While the British occupation was not welcomed as a matter of principle, it was not unexpected. The entire invasion was very civilized, the "on principle" opposition was credibly delivered, and that was that. Period. In hindsight, anyone knowing how the occupation of Denmark and Norway turned out will agree that the Brits were better than Nazis as an occupying force. Make no mistake: Colonial Britain made brutal mistakes in their colonies that rival the Nazis in WW2 but, curiously, they have been let off the hook regarding pesky little details.
The Sentinel was tested to see how resilient the tank was for 17 pounder use by putting a pair of 25 pounder howitzers in the turret and firing them together to see if the turret/hull could take the strain. It worked. In something of a missed opportunity for Commonwealth nations, we all could have adopted the 25 pounder howitzer as a tank mounted gun. It was a tried and tested artillery piece. Ammunition would have been readily available. This was an 87mm gun! The thing that probably didn't sell it to the British was the fact that it was a two part ammunition system, though for a country that was already making a lot of 25 pounders, fitting them to a Sentinel would have been a good step. I think they were planning for more 25 pounder equipped Sentinels, and a good portion of 17 pounder ones - set up in the same formation as the British did with their 3 Sherman 75mms with one Sherman Firefly.
First ever single casted hiull also suffering from a shortage of zinc, to make traditional armours steel. So Australia invented a new type of armour equal in strength. Was it the best tank? But it was Australia’s first attempt at a tank up against any other countries first attempt
The Sentinel was designed to arm a complete armoured division for North African combat but the war entry of Japan meant hat an armoured division was not required. However development did continue despite US pressure to buy Shermans instead. But the only tanks used in force were Matilda II's by choice against Japan, US tanks were only used for training.
I agree, bring back the V8 - Holden & Ford! We desperately need to bring back the " … can do, she'll be right attitude..."'. It will come I'm sure. In the end; she'll be right!
Some of your numbers are a bit off. For instance you say UK lost only 536 soldiers to the Italians 12.000 at Keren. I guess you got that number from Wikipedia, however tha’s incomplete. 536 are only the British casualties in the battle, but doesn’t include, for instance, the number of Indian commonwealth forces who died in the battle, who numbered about 3-4000 deaths. Overall the Allies lost almost 100.000 troops in these campaign counting dead and wounded. Italians’ losses were comparable. It wasn’t an easy fight for the Allies overall
worth noting that in Adwa the ethiopians outnumbered the italians and they were also supplied with modern russian rifles, sent by the tsar in reason of their mutual orthodox faith
My grandfather, an American in the coastal artillery stationed there in '41 before US entered the war, had old photos of him and his British/Commonwealth drinking buddies also stationed there in Iceland. We never talked much before he became senile in old age but I do recall he got quite a butt-chewing for sneaking off base to go fishing. He happened upon some civilian and inadvertently scared the piss out of them. The civvie reported him. Apparently it was a big no-no to go outside the designated military occupied area due to the standing agreements with the Icelandic gov't at the time. 😄 The photos were interesting, though. Looked like the Tommies and the Yanks were having as good a time as they could way out there with little to do but watching for the Germans to show up.
The thing is Canada never used any lend lease stuff, but passed it on. in 1940, the Billion Dollar gift was given to Britain, and was very unpopular in Canada since still in the Depression. Canada overall gave over 5 billion in cash to the war effort, plus Canada wrote off the BTAC training program for 500 million 1945 dollars, and Canada is still owed from Russia all the ships were refitted. Canad a built 1800 Valentine tanks that were given to Russia. Elsie McGill built 16000 Hurricanes.
Hey, you forgot to mention that despite Denmark, having the shortest lifetime of the war with six hours, Norway had the longest with 61 days beating out France’s 45 days and poland’s 35
The Canadian tank skink was actually used in combat, and because the Luftwaffe was already destroyed it was used to clear forests. Lets just say it was loved by the Allied troops around it, because it shredded those forests.
Ethiopia was in the end colonized, and Liberia was basically an US dump colony. So no, Africa was 100% defeated and colonized, no wakanda in this timeline.
Italy had barely controlled most of the country side. The resistance fighers held lands comparable to southern Italy for 5 years until the British came. I suggest that you watch the video second ethio italian war everyday
@@ThePanEthiopian that’s what African lesser education maybe teaching. It is documented that Italy conquered the major regions of Ethiopia, expropriated land and filled it with Italian colonists (textbook colonization). You don’t say that because Myanmar had resistance in the jungle against the UK then it was never colonized. No wakanda in this timeline, deal with it.
These videos are really good, my favourite so far. Sad to see you haven't posted one in 8 months, I was actually looking for the North Atlantic Weather War video somewhere. Even if the views aren't a lot you never know when one of these will blow up so keep it up.
Since you so enjoyed yourself spreading propaganda about Italian forces, I had to include this which is but an excerpt of this article: According to Dr Fennell, the situation of cowardliness and low morale among the rank and file of the British soldier and infantryman leading to an unwillingness to fight and a distinct tendency to surrender, that General Auchinleck, “with the unanimous agreement of his army commanders, forwarded to the War Office a recommendation for the reintroduction of the death penalty for ‘desertion in the field’ and for ‘misbehaving in the face of the enemy in such a manner as to show cowardice’.” The situation was so bad, that Auchinleck could not wait for a reply from the War Office to his request that he issued a general order to his senior officers that they were to ‘take the strongest possible action against any individual of whatever rank who refused to conform to orders. If necessary, in order to stop panic, there must be no hesitation in resorting to extreme measures, such as shooting an individual who cannot otherwise be stopped’.”
"Not only should Tunisia have exploded the myth of Hitler's military acumen, it should have discredited the idea that Germans fought better than the Italians, since Messe's 1st Italian Army held out longer than Arnim's 5th German Army and the DAK, even both groups had about six divisions and faced roughly equal Anglo-American forces. Indeed, Hermann Goring division was the first to be scattered on 7 May, DAK the next to break and surrender on 9 May, with the Italian Spezia division closing the gap created by the German collapse and watching still combat-efficient German units march off into captivity on 11 May. Whether it is significant that the German 90th Light division was the first to collapse in Messe's 'Italian' Army, there is no doubt that the Italians fought well and held out longest in Tunisia." (The Second World War: The German War 1939-1942, Jeremy Black, Page 265, Ashgate, 2007)”
“This revisionist history convincingly argues that the Regia Marina Italiana (the Royal Italian Navy) has been neglected and maligned in assessments of its contributions to the Axis effort in World War II. After all, Italy was the major Axis player in the Mediterranean, and it was the Italian navy and air force, with only sporadic help from their German ally, that stymied the British navy and air force for most of the thirty-nine months that Italy was a belligerent. It was the Royal Italian Navy that provided the many convoys that kept the Axis war effort in Africa alive by repeatedly braving attack by aircraft, submarine, and surface vessels. If doomed by its own technical weaknesses and Ultra (the top-secret British decoding device), the Italian navy still fought a tenacious and gallant war; and if it did not win that war, it avoided defeat for thirty-nine, long, frustrating months.”
“On June 7, 1942, infantry of the Italian X Corps saved Rommel’s 15th Brigade near Gazala, in North Africa, from otherwise certain annihilation. These and numerous other disclosures combine to debunk lingering propaganda stereotypes of the inept, ineffectual Italian armed forces and their allegedly inept commanders and supreme leader. That dated portrayal is rendered obsolete by a true-to-life account of the men and weapons of Mussolini’s War: Volume 1-The Triumphant Years.”
Rommel was a “genius” thanks only to the Italians: “At that point, of course, the situation changed considerably and Rommel has gone down in history as one of the greatest military leaders of all time for his stunning victories over the British in north Africa.. What many fail to realize though is that the forces effectively under his command, which he used to win these masterful successes, were 2/3 Italian and the large majority of his armored forces were Italian tanks.” “The German soldier has impressed the world, however the Italian Bersagliere soldier has impressed the German soldier.” _Rommel And Italian intelligence and bravery: NOTE: This video has since been removed due to copyright infringement. It showed how Italian Intelligence Services penetrated British Intelligence and relayed British fighting positions to Rommel, hence why he seemed to know their every move.
Italy conquered 6 countries, was awarded the territory they won in France, and were the main contributors in the victory in the Spanish civil war vs. the Communist. Aside from Russia and Germany no other European country performed better, or stated another way, Italy was the 3rd best performing European country of the war, and an Empire larger than Germany's.
Without America, Commonwealths, India, the French who saved you at Dunkirk (look up the video How the French saved the British army at Dunkirk) , you Brits would have LOST: Q: Why does every piece of British military equipment come with a phone? A: So they can call America and their allies to come save them "Over 87,000 Indian troops, and 3 million civilians died in World War II.[2][3] Field Marshal Sir Claude Auchinleck, former Commander-in-Chief, India, stated that Britain "couldn't have come through both wars [World War I and II] if they hadn't had the Indian Army."[4][5]"
Typical Brit/BS/LIES/PROPAGANDA/EXAGGERATIONS...This is why that Isle in the north Atlantic is the most hated in the world. What you don't state...Britain went crying to America it was bankrupt and on the cusp of defeat and just before Operation Compass, America began mass aid to Britain (Look up the Lend-Lease Act). In that campaign the Allies were abundantly supplied while the Italians in the end, with little to no help from the betrayers (=Germans) were fighting with home made petrol bombs vs tanks and were devoid of munitions, food and water. Plus the majority of those surrendering were from Italian occupied countries colonial troops who could care less than die for their rulers.
Why you dont talk about the indians losses 4000-5000? Ah yes, they arent commonwealth, they only died for themself. Where is the gratitude for these indians who died for British empire...????
Funfact did you know the germans actually used tanks in norway several eye witnesses and photos and destroyed panzers in norway is my evidence and the only reason the lines in hønefoss broke was due to the tanks so if they hadnt use tanks the lines could have holded until the british got alittle more competence to send units to the Frontline (they sent 2 under equip battalions during the entire southern campaign) and before the norwegian goverment sent the leaflet of surrender to soldiers the norwegians soldiers had pushed and surrounded the germans on the swedish border
Fascinating to hear the Italians conducted an insurgency in Ethiopia. I sas very curious about the circumstances behind that. It turns out the local Somali and Eritreans helped the Italian soldiers navigate their insurgency. It's also crazy to see the incompetence of the Italian army throughout all of WWII, and then finding out they performed relatively well in the Eastern front. The Italian volunteer groups there quite sucessful. Either way informative video about a front that often is just skipped over. Thank you 🙏.
The Italian-Abyssinian war started in 1935, not 1936. The Italians resorted to using Mustard gas after losing a major battle at the end of December 1935. At the time of the Italian invasion, Abyssinian had the 4th largest regular army in the world, which was reasonably equipped with what were then modern weapons. The Abyssinian primary anti-tank guns were the SEMAG L 20mm. autocannon and 20 German 37mm. PaK.35 anti-tank guns (with a good supply of PzGr.18 APHE ammunition, that was donated by Hitler (along with 10,000 Mauser rifles, 10,000,000 rounds of Mauser 7.92mm. cartridges and modern radio communications equipment). The Abyssinian army consisted of the Imperial Guard & the regular army. This was equipped with Chevrolet 30 CWT trucks, Mauser rifles, FN BAR rifles, Czech Zb.26 LMG, Hotchkiss MMG and Vickers MMG. The Abyssinian officer corps was trained by the Belgian army and were up to date with European military tactics in 1935. Facing them was the overconfident, outnumbered, inappropriately equipped, logistically challenged and mostly inept Italian invasion forces.
MORE/BS "history" The Italians lost NO major battle, they were only slowed down for a few weeks and the mustard gas was used later to discourage Ethiopians from fighting for the resistance. Plus Germany prolonged the war by aiding the Ethiopians just as in the 1st war the Russians aided Ethiopia and the ONLY Italian loss was ONE battle. Adawa, the decisive one, where the Italians were outnumbered 10-1. Aside from that the Ethiopians were easily defeated and it was 5 years later that the ALLIES, not the Ethiopians defeated the Italians. So even with help from Europeans, the Italians won and this after Italy had been fighting continuous wars since 1911, while Germany was busy rearming itself for 20 years. There was no ineptness, only a delayed victory since the impatient over confident Mussolini always wanted immediate victories as in Greece where he inadequately supplied his forces. And Greece was an ITALIAN victory, NOT German, as Hitler admitted in a speech to the Reichstag.
Why did the Italians conquer Br. Somali Land? Only to get more land? Because in a game like hoi4 there is no real reason to do it and I'm guessing it would be the same irl . Did Mussolini think More land=good?
