Axis Yemen move 1939

[Black Hornet]

Well, since I'm knockin em dead so far with these, I'll try 1 more. Germany does oil exploration in Yemen in 30's, builds refineries, then lands forces in Italian held Somaliland & with Italian naval participation invades Yemen in 1939 & chokes off Red Sea to British naval traffic, ( Japanese might have to get involved) & use Yemen as a base for invading Egypt from the south, or go east. I dunno how feasible this is, but it does solve one huge problem for German desert travel, ( gas ), & gets around the nagging problem of the chokepoint of Qatarra depression & med sea, 40 miles wide where they got stuffed in 42, El Alamein.

Germany had interest in the region going back to 1914.

 

Just before war broke out in 1914, British and German companies had negotiated joint participation in the newly-founded Turkish Petroleum Company that held prospecting rights in Mesopotamia.

 

https://www.globalpolicy.org/component/content/article/185-general/40479-great-power-conflict-over-iraqi-oil-the-world-war-i-era.html

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_Somaliland

Edited February 1, 2019 by Black Hornet

[Black Hornet]

 Part 2.................1st move would be to take British held Somaliland, & Japan had an interest in Madagascar with it's huge natural harbor, so with Yemen & Somaliland in Italian & German hands, it becomes easier with friendly ports nearby to invade Madagascar. & the NW corner of the Indian ocean becomes an Axis lake.

[Black Hornet]

The Italians recruited in Yemen.

https://books.openedition.org/cfee/1400?lang=en

Similar enlistment of indigenous locals from across the colonial border took place in the Somali R.C.T.C. Apart from the usual enlistments in Colonia Eritrea and Ethiopia, in this case, army recruiting offices also worked on the Arabian Peninsula, particularly in Yemen. Already, from the birth of Italian Somalia on 5 April 1908, the recruits were seen as a heterogeneous mass. This can be read into a note sent from the Foreign Minister Tittoni to Salvago Raggi, the then Governor of Eritrea: “I am working with H.M. consulate in Yemen on the enlistment of a further five hundred askaris with over one thousand already recruited

Edited February 1, 2019 by Black Hornet

[Black Hornet]

Italians had 800 tanks in east Africa in 35-36.

 

The equipment for the build-up alone included 6,000 machine guns, 2,000 pieces of artillery, 595 tanks, and 390 aircraft. Before these arrived, the Italians had 3,300 machine guns, 275 artillery pieces, 200 tankettes, and 205 aircraft. Thanks to the Royal Navy (Regia Marina), the Italians had tons of ammunition, food,

 

http://www.thefullwiki.org/Italian_conquest_of_Ethiopia