Operazione C3

[jwsleser]

I was considering writing a book on Operazione «C3» and remembered that John Burtt was working on one. I hadn't heard anything from him in over a year, so I was wondering whether he had been successful. He had mentioned contacting Pen & Sword, so I checked its website.

Yes, John Burtt's Operation C3 is scheduled to be out on 30 March 2023. I have preordered it.

Operation C3

When writing his memoirs after World War II, German Generalfeldmarschall Albert Kesselring stated, “Italy’s missing her chance to occupy the island [of Malta] at the…

www.pen-and-sword.co.uk

John is a well-known name in wargaming. John and I had exchanged emails in 2020-2021 when I was trying to track down Davide Pastore. Long time members of CS will remember Davide's excellent contributions back between 2008–2010. Davide and John were working together on a Malta book back then. I was hoping to get a draft of John's book back in 2021 to use as a resource for my book. John graciously provided his bibliography and the OB that he and Davide had developed.

I am expecting this to be a very good book. I will wait to read his book before deciding whether to write one of my own. I will continue to collect research materials, but will now begin to ponder other options.

Pista! Jeff

 

[Dili]

Thanks for the feedback.

 

[jwsleser]

Now pushed back to May.

 

[jwsleser]

Now listed as 30 March once again.

 

[jwsleser]

I hadn't previously noticed (or it is now just manage to reach my conscious brain), but the cover of Burtt's book really bothers me. It is titled Operation «C3» but....

-Why is it 'Hitler's Plan to invade Malta"?

-Why is a German fallschirmjäger on the cover? And I believe those are Ju 52s flying above.

With that picture and subtitle, why didn't he titled it Operation Herkules? I am really wanting to get my hands on this book to see if a better book can be written.

Pista! Jeff

 

[jwsleser]

Pen & Sword has charged my card, so I assume the book is on its way.

 

[jwsleser]

My copy of Operation "C3" arrived. My initial impression is 'this is not the book I would have written.'

I will need to read it before I say anything more.

 

[jdburtt]

Gentlemen: I am happy to join the discussion and appreciate the interest in my book.

The answer to the question about the cover...well, my Original title was "Goddess of War: The plan to invade Malta. However, as a "new" book author with Pen & Sword, they wanted Hitler's name in the title - because "Hitler" sells. Same with the Fallshirmjaeger image. my suggestion had been Italian RA recon images of the island with parachutes falling. As a neophyte writer for them, i didn't have much influence.

I'll be happy to answer/discuss anything about the book etc here with you.

John Burtt

 

[jwsleser]

Buongiorno John

Welcome to the forum. Thank you for offering to discuss your book.

I do understand the issue being a new writer with a publisher. I was fortunate that Helion gave me full control over my book. I wanted to title my book Fanti dell'aria, but the publisher felt prospective readers might believe the book was written in Italian. Besides that, they allowed everything else I asked for. Any errors or weirdness in Infantrymen of the Air is solely due to my poor decisions.

Please understand that my comments are from someone who has done extensive research on Operazione «C3» with binders full of original documents. I purchased your book to see if you brought anything new to the table.

As I stated above, this is not the book I would have written. But on the other hand this isn't my book. I felt your book provided excellent background and set the stage for the proposed Operazione «C3», but lacked any true discussion of the development of the plan, nor did it actually detail the plan as it existed in 1942. The freshest part of the book was the details of the UK defensive planning, but even here I wished for more hard data.

The map in your figure VI-4 has always troubled me. It has been kicking around for years. The locations of the various btg. para. doesn't match those depicted in allegato 3 and 4 of the Esigenza C3 Progetto Operativo Sommario dated 31 May 1942. The VI-4 map is from a war-game source (Panther Games), but I was never able to track where the game designers sourced their information.



In looking at this image today, I now realize that I know the people at Panther Games. I had contracted Panther to do some development work for the college when I was Chief of Simulations. I will reach out to them and see where they sourced this information.

Your footnotes don't often provide the source of the information. For example, p.259 fn.16 states only 72 SM.82 were fitted for airdrops but doesn't give a source. On p.225 of Infantrymen of the Air I stated 70 SM.82 were so equipped and cite the source of that information in fn.49. While many of the footnotes in Operation C3 are interesting and add to the story, the lack of cited sources makes using that information risky. I will note that in Infantrymen I discuss the issue of the variations of SM.82 production on pp.178–179 and 181.

The logistical information on pp.130–131 was interesting but again lack cites. Other Italian aircraft were capable of dropping supplies as demonstrated in Ethiopia and during the war. I haven't run the supply numbers but I do have detailed load plans for para. ops from the Italian archives. Something I plan to do in the future.

I do realize that much of the Italian research was done by Davide and he wasn't exactly forthcoming with his sources. I also know that Davide, while heavily researching the Air Force archives, didn't get into the Army archives. The Italian para. organization on pp.111–112 has errors but your fn.14 does state that you are unsure of your data. Unfortunately Morisi too is incorrect on his discussion of the organization (your fn.15). The correct information is in my Appendix III which is directly copied from the 18 luglio 1941 Formazioni provvisore di guerra dei reparti di ftr. paracadutisti, luglio 1941 found in the USSME archives (cited in fn.6).

OB work is solid (I did wish for more sources) and the war-game part of the book was fun to read but not what I was looking for. Others will need to comment after reading your book to see if it met their expectations.

v/r Jeff

 

[jdburtt]

I appreciate your comments. One of the key problems on any research is reference sources. Much of the C3 plan that I presented was based on Davide's research, before we lost contact around 2010. Given the two years between acceptance and publication, It might take me awhile to track some of the sources for information I used. I had to fight to keep the footnotes I had in place; I was aided tremendously by P&S's technical reader, Tony Walton, who liked them.

As for para locations...sigh...I had been studying Malta since 1977, but never pulled the trigger because I didn't want to just "plan" a C3 on my own, but use the "real" C3 plan...What I got from Davide seemed to fit that bill, so I went with it. Now I'll heave a heavier sigh and check out your Esigenza C3 Progetto Operativo Sommario and see what could have been. And please do not hesitate to make comments - I enjoyed these contact and learning more.

And thank you for your steer to your book. I just put an order in for it!.

More Later

john

 

[jwsleser]

John

Thank you for your reply. I was fortunate with Helion as they allowed over 800 footnotes in my book and 54 maps. I insisted on both of those requirements.

However your book is a hardback and mine is only paper

RE: para. drop locations. I should be clear that the general area is close. The main issue is that your map shows the two divisions intermixed. That is not correct. The 1ª para. was in the west while the 7.FJ was in the east. Due to that and the fact that the your map has the western boundary a bit too far west, the positions of the battalions are a little different.

Pista! Jeff

 

[jwsleser]

I reached out to Panther Games last night. As they are in Australia, I received a pretty quick reply.

Panther stated that the map didn't look like the one from Conquest of the Aegean as it is hexed. He will check on the sources used for the game once he returns home (he is currently on the road).

My follow-up question was whether COTA provided the para drop locations and whether the underlying map was from the game. It might be a few days before I receive an answer.

My current theory is that a gamer used the COTA map to present their ideas of the drop locations (if the map background is from COTA). If not, then this is a completely individual effort by someone unknown and we will likely never know the sources used to construct this presentation.

Pista! Jeff

 

[jdburtt]

Good morning, Jeff. Been busy finishing some writing projects and traveling with my grandkids.

your book just arrived - perfect timing as I can read without hurting some other deadline on my schedule.

John

 

[jwsleser]

I am jealous. My daughter and her husband traveled from Germany for their Urlaub, so we were having all our children and grandkids here this week. Alas the two sons and their families had to cancel for various reasons, so no grandkids to spoil.

RE: book. Enjoy but ignore the typos.

Pista! Jeff