soc.history.war.world-war-ii

"Louis C" wrote:

>........a pick on
> equipment captured by the Germans (e.g. a lot of French stuff, which
> was still competitive by Italian standards).

Yea, RA still was operating some Dewoitine D.520s as front line fighters as
late as summer 1943...

"A lot" is too much, however. The Germans might pass on to their allies lots
of "minor" booty (captured ammo, etc.) but when delivering booty weapon
systems they were unlikely to be lavish.

Sometimes the blame for getting too little is to be pinned on the Italian
themselves. For instance, IIRC a number of B1 bis heavy tanks the Germans
offered were turned off, and it's sort of fun to imagine a battalion of
Italian B1 bis in the Libyan desert with British 2-pdr rounds bouncing off
the armor plates. Although the B1 bis was a fuel drain and a tough customer
to maintain and operate - I don't know how it would have fared in the desert
war.

Haydn