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history-nerd In reply to Zeonista [2014-12-10 20:24:51 +0000 UTC]

True; to be honest, it's a bit hard to see people repeat "at El Alamein the only Axis tank capable of standing up to the M3 and the M4 was the Panzer IV Ausf. F2". The Semovente da 75/18 wasn't and could never be as good as them, but it was capable of taking them out. Even Yukari's Tank Corner got this right (in the Anzio episode, which is still not translated, unfortunately, but it's pretty clear she did her homework on this).

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Zeonista In reply to history-nerd [2014-12-11 04:38:57 +0000 UTC]

The Semovante was not bad as an incidental tank destroyer, it was sort of an "Italian Stuggy", so it deserved some respect when it was being used properly. But due to the rarity I am sure more Semovantes were destroyed by roving Allied fighter-bombers than Allied tank crews.

Second El Alamein has been misrepresented some by history, albeit with the best of intentions by the wartime British press. Much of the actual fighting was done by the Italian armies, with the badly depleted Africa Corps in reserve, and thrown in when it was too late to stop the British breakouts. I always thought that if Rommel was present he would not have been as cavalier with supporting the Italians, but at a certain point it wouldn't have mattered anyway. Given that it took the British Eighth Army two days of pitched battle to force multiple openings in a defensive line largely staffed by Italian troops, and initially met with Italian armored divisions, the Italians did well. They had improved a lot since 1940, when the initial British advance had nearly pushed them out of Libya altogether. But the British had kept the advantage, and had been upgraded twice over by the USA, so it was in vain. (And really, who wanted to fight to the last round and the last man for Mussolini's ego?)

 

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history-nerd In reply to Zeonista [2014-12-11 08:53:56 +0000 UTC]

Well, about the Semovente there's a rumour (but I don't know if true or not) that says that the British were so impressed by it that they had their fighter-bombers make them their primary targets when attacking Italian positions. It might be plausible, though.

What can I add to what you said? Nothing, I think!  

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Zeonista In reply to history-nerd [2014-12-12 20:39:46 +0000 UTC]

A Semovante in cover or hull-down makes a nice budget Stuggy, and versus Crusaders, Grants, and Stuarts it would be a first-shot kill machine. The lack of a hard cover on the main crew compartment would make poor Semo-chan easy meat for a roving Kittyhawk or Hurribomber though.  

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history-nerd In reply to Zeonista [2014-12-12 21:11:50 +0000 UTC]

Ok, but that's hard to blame; even such tanks as the Panther or the Tiger weren't exactly impregnable against fighter-bombers, and so I guess it happened pretty often that its crews were wounder or killed.

...And, just for precision's sake, it's spelled "Semovente" with an e.  

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history-nerd In reply to Brigadier-Zod [2014-12-08 23:01:56 +0000 UTC]

My pleasure. I was actually somewhat miffed when the "complete" booklet didn't have those, so I was happy to find them, and to post them!

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