Parsifal i've not said 31 august? you are a false be ashamed, my post 55 of 14/3 never modified, my post 64 15/3 never modified. not fired a shot so you want count not present its? so we can count not present all the british BB no fired a shot? The Cesare go in Sea in both the operation and i never writed that in august the italian had 5 BBs again you are false i writed that were 5 in september.
i'm waiting for my omissions
Not ashamed, my friend, im not the one trying to rewrite history. Im not trying to cast the italian fleet as anything other than what it was. In any event, even if you were referring to the whole of August, the two modern BBs, despite being declared operational, does not mean they were finished actual work up. It means, "for the most part we are ready". It doesnt mean "we are at the peak of our game and ready to take on a superior number of British Battelships in a most difficult operation". They were ready for that by 31 August
The Cesare go in Sea in both the operation and i never writed that in august the italian had 5 BBs again you are false i writed that were 5 in septembe
Ah yes, you are right about your claim, but according to my sources, Cesare did not put to sea until 27 September after Punto Stilo. That meant for the whoile of August she was not ready (you claimed she did) and most of September she was either still reparing or getting back to operational efficiency
Bottom line is this, the Italians never enjoyed enough of an advantage (and in fact never had ANY advantage) to risk most of their fleet on a sea copntrol operation that would leave them exposed to massive retaliatiuon by the Brits. Even on those many occasions when they gave battle with an advantage in numbers, they relinquished control of the ocean, relying on their superior speed to get them out of trouble (most of the time that worked, on a few occasions it went horribly wrong). If they were engaged in an amphib operation that takes many days to complete, they dont have the luxury of withdrawing, without losing their amphibious fleet. As I recall, you were one of the people claiming it would be an "easy" operation, and that ther were no significant landward defences to worry about. Sorry, but wrong and wrong. They (the Italians) did have enough lift capacity to put a lot of people offshore, but its the transition from ship to shore that is the problem. They had very limited (offensive) minesweeping capability (which in any case in this hypothetical are being used as makeshift transports, so for this scenario their capability is close to zero), and the ability to put about a regiment across the beaches, except in ships boats. They had some additional capability akin to the british effort at Suvla in 1915 ( where makeshift LCIs were used and were cut to pieces by the few companies of Turks defending). It would have been a sheer massacre, and anyone still insisting it was possible should be the ones being ashamed of themselves