Fuerzas británicas en Oriente Medio

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Encontré esta información mientras buscaba datos para mi juego "What if" "¿Pudo Hitler ganar la guerra tras "Barbarroja"?, en el que especulaba con un cambio de estrategia a partir de Agosto de 1941, renunciando Hitler a tomar Moscú a cambio de conquistar el Mediterráneo y Oriente Medio.

Me quedaba la duda de qué fuerzas encontraría Rommel (o Guderian) en Oriente Medio tras derrotar al Octavo Ejército a finales de 1941 y alcanzar Suez. Más o menos, sería esto:

India: Paiforce 1942-43
v.1.0 June 2, 2002
Ravi Rikhye
Source: Indian Armed Forces in World War II Historical Section India and Pakistan, Bisheshwar Prasad, Editor 1957
I have placed the Persia and Iraq Force under India, as most of the troops were Indian. Of course, in 1942 there was no Indian Army as such, but a British Indian Army. That was quite separate from the Indian State Forces. Many of the larger 550 Indian states not directly under British rule maintained armies from which they generously sent troops to aid the Imperial cause.
Paiforce came into existence on September 15, 1942, at Baghdad, with General (later Field Marshal) Sir Henry Maitland, also known as Jumbo Wilson, as its commander. General Wilson in turn reported to Middle East Command, which along with the Near East Command controlled British force in North and East Africa, and what is today Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Iraq, and Iran. Paiforce was intended to protect northern Iran from a German thrust through the Caucasus. No one seemed to have much confidence this could actually be achieved if the Germans came. Logistic considerations aside, this was probably realistic.
The German tank commanders in Russia and in the desert had proved themselves master tacticians; the standard of their troops was very high. Their ability to achieve so much with so few tanks against huge numerical odds was nothing short of astonishing.
Paiforce, conversely, was in a backwater of the Second World War. The Indian troops, all volunteer long-service professionals, were first class in matters of training and discipline. But armor and motorized transport were conspicuous by their absence. It could hardly be otherwise. With 8th Army fighting for its very life against Rommel, German U-boats ascendant at sea, America not even a year in the war, and the British-Indian armies in the east retreating against a relentless Japanese advance, the supply position for the Middle East was desperate. Add to that the complete lack of transport infrastructure in the theatre, the huge area, the long lines of communication, and the shortage of troops to be protected, Paiforce was right to be pessimistic about it chances of deflecting an attack by the 7-8 German divisions believed to constitute the threat. Had it come to war, the British and Indian troops would probably have found themselves staging another long and undoubtedly famous retreat back to their Persian Gulf ports.
And yet – we did say “logistic considerations aside”. In reality, logistic considerations ruled supreme. The German armies headed for the Caucasus were already completely overextended, running, as the Americans colorfully say, on fumes. Armored divisions counted their tanks in the dozens instead of the hundreds. Fuel, ammunition, and replacements were not to be found at any price. The German infantry was numb with exhaustion after fighting its way one thousand kilometers on foot against the largest land army in the world. And powerful Soviet armies were massing, one immense echelon behind the other, waiting for the opportunity to begin the counteroffensive.
Still, we know all this in retrospect. At that time, the Germans appeared invincible. Even in retrospect, it would be unwise to underrate the Germans. No one can tell what might have happened had Rommel reached the glitteringly gorgeous and stuffed British supply bases in Egypt. This was a man capable of staging sweeping offensives with less than a hundred tanks. As always with World War II, the “if” factor fascinates and tantalizes. If Hitler and the German General Staff had given Rommel the four additional divisions he wanted, who knows what he might have achieved. Luckily for the Allies, neither Rommel, Manstein, or Guderian hove too over the horizon of sleepy Iran and Iraq. In 1942 this was a region where nothing much seemed to have changed since biblical times, and where Paiforce went about its business slowly and deliberately because of the heat and the distances, moving to the pace and rhythms of a colonial army in the pre-industrial desert.
Paiforce went through five configurations that changed according to the situation in the Caucasus: original force, Plans Wonderful, Garment, and Gherkin, and 1943 plans. We discuss for now only the first and the last, leaving the others for another day.


También encontré este testimonio sobre el Noveno Ejército británico

Air Field Service
February 1942 it was in Damascus, had moved to Baalbek by 15 September 1942
With the exception of a few locations at which the Field Service was constantly represented, nothing in Syria remained settled for very long. (...)these were the infinity of units that came under Ninth Army command for training schemes or rest periods and that went away again; the total number, ranging from 68,000 to 108,000, was usually around 80,000. Bodies of Greek and Indian troops, and numerous antitank and similar regiments, marched up and down the length of Syria, so far as could be determined, only for the exercise of it. The units and locations served were far too many, and often brief, to be listed in entirety with any hope of accuracy.


O sea, que si Rommel (o Guderian) hubiesen logrado aniquilar al poderoso Octavo Ejército británico en Libia-Egipto, lo demás habría sido pan comido...

[bycicleto]

Interesantísima información. No obstante...¿alguien sería tan amable de traducirlo?
Para la comodidad de los foreros cuyo nivel de inglés sea poco dilatado(me incluyo)

Un saludo