Best Fighter

[plan_D]

They would have to been in high numbers by 1943 to get a full successful service record, and they never really got into the war until 1941. And I don't think their pre-war projects were exactly on par with others.

[Lightning Guy]

The Mc.205 entered service somewhere in mid-43 but only 265 were ever produced. Still, it was supposed to be an even match for the P-51.

[plan_D]

I hope you know I meant that Italy didn't really get into the war until 1941, not the MC.205.

[Lightning Guy]

Yeah. It took me a second but I realized that was what you meant. I just thought I woudl throw some numbers on the 205 out there. At the time of the Italian Armistace, the RA only had the grand total of 66 in service.

[plan_D]

So, it's career could have never been full, and success filled. Still, if it could dogfight with the best of them, that's pretty good, especially for the Italians.

[Lightning Guy]

Reportedly the Germans even used about a staffel's worth of them.

[Erich]

are you aware of the Afrika Korp units such as the famous JG 27 served alongside Italien air units ?

[plan_D]

I am aware of the Afrika Corps air units. But if the feeling was the same as in the air, the German pilots would have been sick of serving alongside the Italians.

[the lancaster kicks ass]

i saw a program and it said the italians were more of a hinderance than a help to the axis??

[plan_D]

A lot of Germans on the ground thought so, and Erwin Rommel was sick of the lack of command skills possesed by the Italian Commanders. Rommel actually made himself General of Axis forces in Africa.
He never believed that the Italian fighters, or commanders had the capability to fight an effective war against such a 'worthy foe' as the British. He tried his hardest to relegate them to secondary roles but found with lack of his own German troops he had to use the Italians to cover vital flanks which sometimes proved a fatal flaw.

Von Paulus had the same problem with the Romanians, and his feeling was strengthened in Stalingrad when the only place the Russians broke out was through the Romanian held part of the line.

[Lightning Guy]

Look at how much trouble the Italians had trying to take Greece. They had to be bailed out by German troops there as well.

[plan_D]

When they attacked Libya in 1941 they outnumbered the British 'Nile' Army defending Eygpt 6 to 1. They pushed the British back some 80km before the Nile army counter-attacked and took 130,000 prisoner, with a loss of only 500 dead and 1,200 wounded.

[the lancaster kicks ass]

yeah i've heard about that before, it's pretty amazing, either we were to good, or most proberly, they were really bad......................

[plan_D]

I've said it countless times, that's probably where you've seen it.

I'd say both, if you've seen the way they went about it, it was a very good idea.
The British swooped right round the Italian frontline which ended in the desert, where the Italians thought it to be impassable. The British marched through the desert, around the Italian frontline and hit them at their rear artillery areas, and encircled the Italian frontline. They probably could have got out of it with their weight in numbers, but they panicked and surrendered.

[the lancaster kicks ass]

sounds like something the french would do....................