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Members of the Pro-Nazi South Africa Ossewabrandwag movement (they were caught committing acts of sabotage) were jailed along with their leaders for the duration of the war. One of them, John Vorster, was to become future Prime Minister of South Africa. |
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One thing that astonishes me about British built tanks in North Africa, they were always under gunned. The Crusader with either a 40mm 2 pounder or a 57mm 6 pounder main gun. The same applies to the RAF, Lancaster bombers fitted with .303 machine guns. One ex air gunner complained bitterly about the poor effectiveness of his guns trying to knock down German fighters. I believe Canadian built Lancaster were fitted with two 50 cals in the rear turret which made far better sense.
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The thinking behind having four .303 machine guns in the turrets of a Lancaster and many of the other bombers was that at night you did not see your enemy until he was right on top of you and the four machine guns could put out around 9.000 rounds a minute and like buck shot had a better chance of hitting some thing. Now in daylight there would be a good argument for the .50 calibre machine gun
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What I find amusing is that Auchinleck fought Rommel to a standstill at El Alamein twice and managed to launch reasonably effective counter offensives such as the one that relieved Tobruk with very little in the way of men and material yet Montgomery is considered great for being able to defeat Rommel with a 3 to 1 advantage and a US army landing in North Africa, Seems to me that the man deserving credit is Auchinleck. |
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