The Crusader Project
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crusaderproject.bsky.social
The Crusader Project
@crusaderproject.bsky.social
2.6K followers 4.1K following 8.8K posts
Long-running research project on the desert war 1940-43, with a specific focus on Operation CRUSADER.

www.rommelsriposte.com
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crusaderproject.bsky.social
It was an attack that never should have happened. It was a pointless display of what the Russians call ‘Aktivnost’, showing to do something rather than sit still, no matter how pointless.

It is likely that the Crusaders ran into a mix of 88s and Panzerjäger I of 605 AT bn. They never stood a chance
Abteilung 605, July 1942 "The accuracy of this weapon was commented on; as it will usually hit its target with the first shot at ranges up to 1,000 metres (1,100 yd). However, its penetration qualities were far too low for the necessary combat ranges in the desert of North Africa. The chassis, engine and suspension were constantly in need of care due to the additional weight of the anti-tank gun. In one case, three Mk II (Matilda II infantry tanks) were penetrated at a range of 400 metres (440 yd) by 4.7 cm tungsten-core armor-piercing shell (Pz.Gr. 40). It usually penetrates 60 millimetres (2.4 in) of armor. Therefore, a small percentage of these rounds are desired. The 4.7 cm armor-piercing shell (Pz.Gr. 36(t)) will not penetrate a Mk.II at 600 to 800 metres (660 to 870 yd). But the crew will abandon the tank because fragments spall off the armor on the inside."[6]
November 21, 2025 at 4:09 PM
crusaderproject.bsky.social
By the end of the day, the Axis had a brigade+ size problem in a place where they really couldn’t afford to have a problem at all.

The battle for the area into which TobFort broke out, while contained, would shape the rest of operation CRUSADER. Everything would now revolve around the salient.
Place Africa: North Africa, Libya, Cyrenaica, Tobruk Area, Tobruk Accession Number 021058 Collection type Photograph Object type Negative Maker Fisher, Thomas Place made Libya: Tobruk Date made 4 October 1941 Conflict Second World War, 1939-1945 Copyright Item copyright: Copyright expired - public domain Public Domain Mark This item is in the Public Domain Description Portrait of Brigadier A.C. Willison, DSO, MC, Commanding Officer, 32nd British Army Tank Brigade (at right) and Major C.A, Windsor (looking through binoculars).
November 21, 2025 at 4:00 PM
crusaderproject.bsky.social
Pensions aren’t the only form of wealth.

social-mobility.data.gov.uk/mobility_out...
November 21, 2025 at 8:58 AM
crusaderproject.bsky.social
Try this one.
November 20, 2025 at 9:50 AM
crusaderproject.bsky.social
UK isn’t London and the Southeast.

www.plumplot.co.uk/East-London-...
November 20, 2025 at 9:47 AM
crusaderproject.bsky.social
Anything by Tony is worth reading.
Cover of ‘images of war - Leros and the Aegean September - November 1943’ by Tony Rogers.
November 17, 2025 at 9:03 AM
crusaderproject.bsky.social
Today’s favourite #warart

J.F. Brill’s mural at Bardia.

Brill was KIA during the initial assault on the Alamein line, 1 July 1942.

Details in ALT
Text from Wikipedia. Having joined up, Brill became a Private in the British Army, 5th Battalion of the East Yorkshire Regiment. He fought in Europe and having survived Dunkirk and returned to England, his regiment was posted to the Middle East. This would have involved him joining a troop ship likely in Liverpool and sailing around the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa up the east coast of Africa and through the Suez Canal to Cairo. After a time, Brill was transferred to the RASC, his mother "imagined that life would be somewhat slacker in the RASC than the infantry". Brill's passion for drawing does not appear to have been reduced by the war around him. In fact it became a source for his art as related to his mother by his chum; "...when their convoy was bombed, as it frequently was, John would deliberately go out with his sketch book & pencil and sketch everything in sight, especially the faces of the lads as they ran for cover." He painted all the walls of his colleagues' canteen, with murals which according to his mother, "represented 'A Soldier's leave in Cairo'. This - I understand, afforded them much interest & amusement." These caught the attention of the officers of the RASC who asked him to create some murals in their Officers Mess. The subject of the murals being "The Pleasures of Avarice" and "The Pleasures of Art", he started a third mural of "The Last Supper", "but this was never finished as his company was moved up the line." The mural appears to represent a combination of these subjects.He signed the mural on 21 April 1942,a matter of weeks before his death.
November 17, 2025 at 7:27 AM
crusaderproject.bsky.social
‘Myth’

Your pet party is literally being endorsed by Tommy Ten Names.

Myth, my left foot.
November 16, 2025 at 10:41 AM
crusaderproject.bsky.social
The horseshoe theory, but just with Labour.
November 16, 2025 at 9:06 AM
crusaderproject.bsky.social
Fuck off
November 16, 2025 at 7:31 AM
crusaderproject.bsky.social
Tells me your lawyers have been all over this article without saying ‘my lawyers have been all over this article’ 🤣

@stephenkb.bsky.social
November 13, 2025 at 9:34 PM
crusaderproject.bsky.social
Superb original colour of a CANT Z.1007bis being maintained (engine oil replenishment) by hand on what is likely the Regia Aeronautica base at Rhodes. Opposite a SM.79 bomber.

Facebook I Cavalieri del Cielo la Regia Aeronautica Gyanni Syerra

@ima-naval-history.bsky.social
Contemporary colour picture of three ground crew undertaking what looks like re-oiling the starboard engine of a CANT Z.1007bis medium bomber on an Italian air base during WW2. The men are standing on the wing just above the engine, handling what looks like a large funnel.
November 13, 2025 at 12:41 PM
crusaderproject.bsky.social
If you insist on doing it 100% by land then Iran or Russia are the only options. The Bosphorus has two bridges after all.
November 13, 2025 at 11:28 AM
crusaderproject.bsky.social
November 13, 2025 at 7:52 AM
crusaderproject.bsky.social
We've all felt like that about Patton.

Facebook, Craig Moore
General Patton on a 3/4 ton Dodge truck in Morocco, 1942.
November 13, 2025 at 7:35 AM
crusaderproject.bsky.social
#OTD S.S. Scillin set out for her last voyage, taking 814 Commonwealth POWs to Italy.

She would be sunk the next day, with 790 POW killed.

#navalhistory

Facebook: South Africans in WW1 and WW2, Graham du Toit.

Details in ALT
On Friday 13.11.1942, the Italian 1579 gross tons S.S. Scillin sailed from Tripoli in Libya at 13h00 for Trapani in Sicily with 200 Italian Troops and 814 British and South African POWs on board and followed the coastal route at a speed of 8 knots. On 14 November 1942 at 19h29, the S.S. Scillin was sighted 10 miles North of Cape Milazzo in the Tyrrhenian Sea by H.M. Submarine Sahib (P212) (Lt John Henry Bromage DSO, DSC). After gaining a position up-moon to attack, Sahib fired 12 rounds with her 3-inch gun at a range of 14,000 yards. Ten of the shells registered and the ship was brought to a stop. Sahib then closed to 700 yards and fired 1 torpedo into the ships engine room that also blew the bottom out of the ships hold where the POW’s were being held causing the ship to sink in less than 2 minutes. Of the 814 POW’s on board, 790 including 9 South African POW’s were reported Missing and have no known grave. Sahib rescued 26 British and 1 South African POW together with the Captain and 45 Italian Crew Members before having to leave the area due to approaching enemy vessels and later landed all the survivors safely in Malta. HM Submarine Sahib was later bombed by Luftwaffe Junkers Ju-88 aircraft and depth-charged by the Italian Corvette “Gabbiano” during a counter-attack where she was severely damaged. Unable to make home base, HM Submarine Sahib was later abandoned and scuttled by the crew. At a subsequent Board of Inquiry held into this “friendly fire” tragedy, Lieutenant Bromage RN was cleared of any wrongdoing because the S.S Scillin was sailing unmarked, unlit and at the time, Lieutenant Bromage firmly believed that the ship was only carrying Italian Troops. The British Ministry of Defence kept this incident a closely guarded secret and informed the next-of-kin that their loved ones had died in captivity while in Italian hands. The full truth of this incident only surfaced in 1996 after repeated requests from families and next-of-kin for a full disclosure.
November 13, 2025 at 6:31 AM
crusaderproject.bsky.social
A lovely and very clear shot of a class not often noted in the context of WW2, D-class cruiser HMS Danae, transferred to the Polish Navy during WW2, where she became ORP Conrad. Sold for breaking up in 1946.

Facebook: Royal Navy Cruisers Group, William Bowley.

#navalhistory
Royal Navy 'D' Class Light Cruisers The Danae class were the last large WW1 British light cruiser series, also called "D" class to distinguish them from the 'C - Class' they replaced, or the following "E" class which construction was only partially realized (HMS Enterprise and Emerald). They were basically larger C class with an extra main gun. Started in 1916 to 1918, they were completed too late for most to take part in WWI - Only Danae and Dragon saw little service at the end of the war. Four of the ordered were cancelled, the remainder all served in the interwar, and were often modernized soon before WW2 commenced, and afterwards, notably as AA cruisers, spending the war as escorts. HMS Dunedin was sunk by a submarine in the South Atlantic on 24 Nov 1941, HMS Dragon was transferred to the Polish Navy in Exile and so severely damaged off Normandy that she was written off and expended as breakwater off the Normandy beaches during OVERLORD. HMS Durban was also expended as a breakwater there on 9 June 1944. HMS Dehli was converted to an AA cruiser, and HMS Despatch became a HQ vessel for the Normandy landings.
November 13, 2025 at 6:25 AM
crusaderproject.bsky.social
Caption competition

Facebook - Peter Pawlowski collection
A Panzer IV F1 standing next to a tent for the crew in 1942. Three men of the crew have built a very pretty little garden in the desert with stone borders and some plants. They are admiring their work which they seem very pleased with.
November 12, 2025 at 1:21 PM
crusaderproject.bsky.social
November 11, 2025 at 10:49 PM
crusaderproject.bsky.social
Sarcasm warning.
November 11, 2025 at 8:29 PM
crusaderproject.bsky.social
What like this?
November 11, 2025 at 6:07 PM
crusaderproject.bsky.social
That's a lot of sensors.
RAF Rivet Joint Sigint plane at Royal International Air Tatoo Fairford, July 2025.
November 11, 2025 at 11:06 AM
crusaderproject.bsky.social
I am not taking questions at this time.
November 11, 2025 at 10:28 AM
crusaderproject.bsky.social
Today’s favourite #warart comes from Italy where propaganda postcard artists clearly didn’t have access to pictures of Royal Navy vessels.
A S.84 torpedo bomber flying past a light cruiser it just attacked. The vessel carries the Royal Navy’s white ensign but is clearly a Montecuccoli or Savoia group light cruiser of the Italian navy. The drawing is dramatic and was done for propaganda purposes.
November 9, 2025 at 7:49 AM
crusaderproject.bsky.social
This just popped up on Facebook. German soldiers checking out a captured Leo.451, 1940.
November 8, 2025 at 10:16 PM