Featured Content - Battle of Bir el Gubi

[Andreas]

I am afraid this article is really quite poorly written and contains many errors, some of them significant. It is not really a good advertisement for the site.

http://comandosupremo.com/the-battle-of ... -gubi.html

Errors:

- 7 Armoured and 22 Armoured - what about 4 Armoured Brigade? Or does the author want to imply that 22 Armoured Brigade was a division.
- The Italians had two armoured divisions - no they didn't. Littorio was not in theatre.
- Bersaglieri sharpshooters - they are light infantry
- 22 Armoured boasted a battery of heavy artillery - err, no, those were 25-pdrs (88mm) field guns
- British intelligence greatlt underestimated the number of Italian tanks - no it didn't. They underestimated it by 18 tanks.
- on the evening of the 19th British leaders were confused and in disbelief - no they weren't, they thought they had won the battle.
- Bir el Gobi was a great Italian victory. Well, that depends on how you see it. A different perspective would be that an unprepared, green British force attacked a dug-in prepared defense with a force that was much weaker in artillery, about even in tanks, and had next to infantry. It would have been criminally incompetent for Ariete to lose this battle.

Apart from that the whole thing reads like a chest-beating Italian ra-ra-ra. But that's a matter of taste.

The corrections provided by Fabio D. in a comment should also be heeded.

All the best

Andreas

[Jim H]

Andreas,

Your notes are appreciated, but it would been better to contact the author directly rather than criticize his work on the forum. We have been trying to get authors to publish material on this site for many years now and the last thing we need is for their work to be ridiculed in an open forum. If anything, he should be applauded for stepping up to the task of writing articles where information in the English language is difficult to come by. I would urge anyone who sees errors on any article on the main site to contact the author directly and let him know privately. Each author has the ability to edit their articles if they become aware of their errors.

Regards,
Jim H

[Andreas]

Andreas,

Your notes are appreciated, but it would been better to contact the author directly rather than criticize his work on the forum. We have been trying to get authors to publish material on this site for many years now and the last thing we need is for their work to be ridiculed in an open forum. If anything, he should be applauded for stepping up to the task of writing articles where information in the English language is difficult to come by. I would urge anyone who sees errors on any article on the main site to contact the author directly and let him know privately. Each author has the ability to edit their articles if they become aware of their errors.

Regards,
Jim H

Jim

I am not ridiculing the article. I am pointing out serious errors.

I have no intention of entering into private email conversation with the author, I do not know if he wants that, and I simply do not see what that would add. As far as I am concerned this is your site, and you are responsible for its content, and this is the part of the forum where the site is being discussed.

You can of course take these comments or leave them, or forward them to the author, or whatever, it is up to you.

All the best

Andreas

[Peleliu81]

Andreas, thank you for pointing out some errors in the article I had written. I have gone in an edited the ones I agreed with you on. The biggest being stating that the Littorio Division was in the theater. It was clearly not. I am not sure how that error occurred . Very embarrassing!!! Also 25 pounders were definatley not heavy artillery. Again my fault. I strive not to have any errors, but as you can see I am far from perfect. I am definitely not an OOB guy. That never interested me to much. I have always been drawn to the human element of ww2. The conflict,drama,and unfortunately the suffering it brought the world. If I write further articles I will try even harder to eliminate any mistakes, but my articles will probably appeal more to those like me who are drawn to the dramatic aspect of WW2. But as mentioned I will try and eliminate all mistakes. And yes, I am writing with some degree of Italian Ra Ra. Somebody in the world has to!!! Sorry you did not like the article, but the great thing about ww2 is there is plenty of choices out there. Thanks again, and have a good evening.

[Andreas]

Hi

Thanks for taking the comments in the spirit they were meant. As I said, the style is a matter of taste, and as they say, there's no accounting for it.

Keep up the good work.

All the best

Andreas