Sea Power and Maritime Affairs

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Sea Power and Maritime Affairs

• Lesson 10 US Naval Strategy and National Policy,
  1919-1941

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Learning Objectives

• Comprehend the principal points of controversy
  among the great powers at Versailles and the main
  shortcomings of the treaty finally produced.
• Know the reasons for the U.S. not joining the
  League of Nations and the reasons for the
  Leagues ultimate failure to keep the peace.
• Comprehend the treaties resulting from the
  Washington Naval Conference and the subsequent
  changes in naval technology and strategy.
• Comprehend the relationship between international
  affairs and national defense goals in the context
  of sea power.
• Comprehend the ways in which changes in American
  society affected foreign policy and the
  development and employment of the U.S. Navy
  during this period.

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German High Seas Fleet

• Armistice of 11 November 1918
• High Seas Fleet undefeated in battle.
• Germany must surrender most of its ships to
  Allies.
• High Seas Fleet interned at Scapa Flow.
• Fleet scuttled by German naval officers on 21
  June 1919 due to fear of resumption of war.
• During negotiations of Treaty of Versailles.
• Great Britain and France require Germany to
  relinquish control of the rest of its Navy.

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German Battleship Bayern Scuttled at Scapa
Flow - 21 June 1919
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German Battle Cruiser Hindenburg Scuttled at
Scapa Flow
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Treaty of Versailles -- 1919

• U.S. President Woodrow Wilson
• Attempts to use U.S. power to ensure peace in
  Europe.
• Germany
• Forced to follow military limitations and pay
  reparations.
• Wilson's Fourteen Points
• Second Point
• Freedom of the seas and illegality of blockades.
• British opposition.
• Self-Determination for European peoples.
• League of Nations Republican U.S. Senate
  rejects due to isolationist sentiments.

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The British Royal Navy

• Several desires for the Royal Navy
• Maintain naval predominance in the face of the
  challenge from the U.S. Navy.
• Avoid a naval construction race with the U.S.
  Navy.
• Destruction of the German High Seas Fleet.
• Opposed Wilson's principle of freedom of the
  seas.
• Advantage of dominant fleet would be
  relinquished.
• Attempted to deter the U.S. from adopting a large
  building program.

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The Japanese Imperial Navy

• Seized German Pacific possessions early in WW I.
• Island groups in central Pacific.
• Chinese port facilities.
• Engaged in a major naval building program.
• Designed to give Japan naval dominance in the
  western Pacific to protect expansion.
• Cannot afford an arms race with U.S.
• Insufficient resources and capabilities.

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The U.S. Navy

• Woodrow Wilson
• Opposes British rejection of Second of the
  Fourteen Points.
• Major naval building program begins - 1919.
• Naval Act of 1916 continued and expanded.
• Emphasis back on capital ships.
• Need for a large fleet to protect both coasts.
• Construction planned to rival and eclipse the
  Royal Navy.
• American people seek a Return to Normalcy.
• Do not support a Navy second to none.
• Republican Congress supports disarmament.
• Republican President Warren G. Harding elected in
  1920.
• Wilsons building program disapproved.

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Washington Naval Conference -- 1921-22

• Issues for U.S.
• Security of possessions in the Pacific.
• Dislike of Anglo-Japanese Alliance of
  1902. (Potential threat to U.S. interests in the
  Far East)
• End to the naval arms race.
• Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes
• Dramatic proposal for disarmament
• Immediate 10-year Holiday on construction of
  new capital ships.
• Scrapping of ships already commissioned.
• Designed for appeasement of Congress. (Determined
  to cut military spending after WW I)

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Washington Naval Conference
12
Five Power Naval Limitation Treaty

• U.S., Britain, Japan, France, Italy
• Capital ship tonnage ratio of 5-5-3-1.7-1.7
• Limits on displacement and caliber of guns on
  capital ships.
• No limit to cruisers, destroyers, submarines
• Non-fortification of Pacific possessions.

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Effects of the Five Power Treaty
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Effects of the Five Power Treaty
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Other Treaties

• Four-Power Pact
• U.S., Great Britain, Japan, and France.
• Terminates the Anglo-Japanese Alliance of 1902.
• Respect Far Eastern possessions of other
  countries.
• Mutual consultation in crisis.
• Nine-Power Treaty
• U.S., Great Britain, Japan, France, Italy, China,
  Belgium, the Netherlands, and Portugal.
• Guarantees Open Door in China.
• Freedom of trade for all countries.

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Treaty Implications to U.S.

• Negative
• Japanese angered by limits on their expansion.
• Smaller classes of ships not included.
• Did not recognize that U.S. and Great Britain
  were no longer rivals.
• Positive
• Ensure Open Door in China.
• Naval limitations realistically accepted
  congressional budget limitations.
• U.S. Navy able to develop new technology.

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Technological Improvements

• Battleship Backbone of the Fleet- very Mahanian!
• Conversion from coal to oil fuel source for
  engines
• Underway replenishment much easier to accomplish.
• Aircraft carriers Attack and fighter aircraft
  developed.
• Slow integration into the fleet.
• Army General Billy Mitchell Navies are
  obsolete.
• Carriers still seen as support for battleships.
• Lexington and Saratoga - Converted battle
  cruisers.
• Ranger - 1934 - First carrier built from the keel
  up.
• Modern radio communications.
• Submarines - Ability to fire torpedoes submerged.
• Aluminum and plastic reduce weight and increase
  speed.

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USS Langley (CV 1)

• - First U.S. Navy aircraft carrier.

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General John A. Lejeune

• Commandant of the Marine Corps
• 1920-1929

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U.S. Amphibious Doctrine

• Focus on Japanese-controlled island groups in the
  Pacific.
• Major Earl H. Pete Ellis, USMC
• Assigned by General Lejeune to develop plans for
  Marine operations in support of War Plan Orange.
• Advanced Base Operations in Micronesia approved
  1921.
• Necessary to seize and defend advanced naval
  bases.
• Need the ability to perform opposed amphibious
  assaults.
• Special landing craft and heavy weapons needed.
• Incorporated lessons from Gallipoli on proper
  planning.
• Ellis is killed on Palau in 1923 while studying
  islands.
• General Lejeune
• Marine Corps exists to perform missions with the
  fleet.

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Geneva Conference of 1927

• U.S. hopes to extend 5-5-3 ratio to cruisers.
• Different types of ships
• U.S. -- fewer, bigger cruisers.
• Britain -- more, smaller cruisers.
• Britain, France and Japan oppose limits.
• No agreement is reached.

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London Conference of 1930

• Cruisers reclassified
• Heavy 6.1 guns.
• Light
• U.S., Britain, Japan, France, and Italy.
• Results
• U.S.-British parity in all types of vessels.
• Increased Japanese ratio in cruisers and
  destroyers to 10107.
• Japanese parity in submarines.
• France and Italy do not participate.
• Ban on new capital ships extended until 1936.

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Fascismin Europe

• Mussolini - Il Duce 1922
• Invasion of Ethiopia - 1935
• Hitler - Fuhrer Chancellor of Germany - 1933
• Nazi Third Reich replaces Weimar Republic.
• Promise of German economic recovery.
• Beginnings of the Holocaust.
• German rearmament begins.
• Spanish Civil War - 1930s
• Generalissimo Francisco Franco supported by
  fascists.
• Agreement permits Germany to rebuild Navy - 1935.
• Remilitarization of the Rhineland - 1936
• German rejection of the Treaty of Versailles.

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Fascism

• General traits
• Rejection of individualism.
• Rejection of representative government.
• Idealization of war.
• Disallowance of the class struggle
  (anti-communist).
• Unity and indivisibility of the nation.
• Military build-up.
• Territorial expansion.
• Rome-Berlin Axis - 1936
• Tripartite Pact Germany, Italy, Japan - 1940
• Mutual support if one party is attacked by a
  power not already involved -- Soviet Union.

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Il Duce

• Benito
• Mussolini

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Adolf Hitler

• Fuhrer

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Rome Berlin
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Japanese Imperialism

• Expansion - Natural Resources
• Formosa (Taiwan) - Annexed 1895
• Korea- Protectorate 1905, Annexed 1910
• Invasion of Manchuria 1931
• Non-recognition doctrine-President Hoover
• Beginning of Japanese expansion into China,
  leading to WWII

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Hirohito

• Emperor of Japan
• World War II

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Other Conferences

• Geneva Conference of 1932
• Complete failure.
• Japan resists.
• Invasion of Manchuria.
• France resists.
• Hitler and Nazi party emerging in Germany.
• Second London Naval Conference of 1936
• Britain already allows Germany 35 of tonnage and
  parity in submarines - 1935 agreement.
• Mild limitations on size of naval craft proposed.
• Italy and Japan do not sign.
• Effective end of naval limitations.

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Depression and the U.S. Navy

• Strong support of isolationism in U.S. public and
  Congress.
• Neutrality Acts 1935-37
• Renounce U.S. neutral rights (1812, 1917)
• 1935 Sale or transport of munitions prohibited.
• 1936 Loans prohibited.
• 1937 Cash and carrypolicy enforce.
• 1939 Embargo lifted, but President can prohibit
  American ships from entering danger zones.
• 1936 U.S. budget cuts - Reductions in naval
  spending.
• Japanese Imperial Navy -- Large build-up begins
  in 1936.
• Stress on importance of aircraft carriers to the
  fleet.

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War Plan Orange Rainbow Plans

• Scenario U.S. and Japan at war in the Pacific.
• Attempt to hold Philippines.
• Build up naval forces in Hawaii.
• Offensive across the Pacific.
• Amphibious operations to seize advanced naval
  bases.
• Defeat Japanese Navy in a fleet engagement.
• Recapture Philippines.
• Threaten Japanese Home Islands with naval
  forces.
• Open Door -- Maintain territorial integrity of
  China.
• Guam and Philippines -- remain relatively
  unfortified.
• 1922 Five Power Naval Limitation Treaty
• Japanese Islands Marshalls, Marianas, and
  Carolines.

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U.S. Fleet

• Majority of U.S. Fleet based in the Pacific.
• Pacific Fleet moves to Pearl Harbor - 1940
• Battleships - Capital ships of the fleet.
• Aircraft Carriers - Fleet Exercises demonstrate
  potential.
• USS Lexington (CV 2)
• USS Saratoga (CV 3)
• USS Ranger (CV 4)
• USS Yorktown (CV 5)
• USS Enterprise (CV 6)
• USS Wasp (CV 7)
• USS Hornet (CV 8)
• Submarines

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Japanese Imperialism in Asia

• Undeclared War with China - 1937
• Shanghai Incident
• USS Panay sunk on Yangtze River.
• Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Tse-tung.
• Occupation of French Indochina - 1940
• Oil embargo other natural resources - July 1941.
• U.S., Great Britain, and the Netherlands.
• General Tojo Military government installed -
  October 1941.

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USS Panay Incident

• Yangtze River Patrol, China
• Sunk by Japanese naval aircraft on 12 December
  1937.

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U.S. Options

• Military intervention
• Economic sanctions
• Joint military and economic moves with Britain
• Indirect response

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U.S. Response

• FDRs quarantine speech called for positive
  endeavors to preserve peace.
• Not effective lack of popular support
• Did not impose Neutrality Act
• Hurt China more than Japan
• No joint action with Britain disagreements
• Indirect response
• 1938 Naval Expansion Act-ships not avail until
  40-41
• Lesson A COUNTRY CANNOT EXERT FORCE WITHOUT THE
  MILITARY FORCE TO BACK IT UP!

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Force Level of U.S. Fleet 1937

• Manning
• Navy officers and enlisted 113,617
• Marine officers and enlisted 18, 223
• Fleet
• Battleships 15
• Aircraft Carriers 3
• Heavy cruisers 17
• Light cruisers 10
• Destroyers 196 (162 overage)
• Subs 81 (50 overage)

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Force Level of U.S. Fleet 1937

• Strategic disposition
• Pacific Coast Main U.S. battle fleet at Pearl
• Atlantic Training squadron
• Asia Asiatic fleet 2-CAs, 13-DDs, 6-SS, 10
  gunboats
• Panama Service squadron 1-DD, 2 gunboats, 6-SS
• Europe 1-CA, 2-DD
• Most probable enemy Japan
• strategy, War Plan Orange

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Retreat Toward Hemispheric Defense

• Impracticality of War Plan Orange
• Lack of forward bases
• Crisis in far east over shadowed
• Army-Navy conflicts
• European Commitments
• U.S. fleet divided between Atlantic and Pacific
• Revisions to strategic planning
• The Rainbow War Plans

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Navys Ability to Carry out Plans

• Enough capital ships
• Insufficient aircraft carriers
• Barely sufficient cruisers
• Submarines 40 below war strength
• Aircraft
• Landing Craft
• Manpower
• Bases
• Marine Corps
• Conclusion Not fully prepared!!!

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Europes Events

• German annexation of Austria (Anschluss) - March
  1938.
• Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact - August 1939
• Non-aggression treaty between Soviet Union and
  Germany.
• Munich Crisis - September 1938.
• Czechoslovakias German-speaking Sudetenland.
• Appeasement of Hitler by Western leaders.
• British Prime Minister Chamberlain Peace in
  our time.
• German occupation of Czechoslovakia - March 1939.
• Italian occupation of Albania - April 1939.
• Guarantee of protection of Poland Britain and
  France.
• March 1939 (Also Holland and Belgium.)

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MolotovRibbentropPact
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JosefStalin

• Secretary General
• of the
• Communist Party
• Union of Soviet
• Socialist Republics
• World War II

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War in Europe

• Invasion of Poland Blitzkrieg - September 1939
• Tanks and Stuka dive bombers.
• Soviet occupation of eastern Poland.
• Denmark and Norway - April 1940.
• May 1940 - Invasion of Netherlands, Belgium, and
  France.
• Maginot Line proves ineffective to maneuver
  warfare.
• Battle of Britain - Summer 1940.
• Operation Sea Lion - planned German invasion of
  England.
• Soviet annexation of Baltic States June 1940.
• Soviet invasion of Finland - November 1940.
• German invasion of Soviet Union - June 1941.
• Operation Barbarossa

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WinstonChurchill

• Prime Minister
• of
• Great Britain
• World War II

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• We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight
  on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the
  fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the
  hills we shall never surrender
• Winston Churchill
• - June 4, 1940

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Unterseeboote -- U-boat
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German Commerce Raiding

• Ineffective until German invasions of Norway,
  Denmark, and France.
• Allows German access to Atlantic ports.
• German surface raiders target Allied shipping.
• Battle of the River Plate - December 1939
• Admiral Graf Spee scuttled.
• Bismarck sunk - May 1941.
• U-boats
• Commanded by Admiral Karl Donitz.
• HF Radio used to organize Wolfpacks - groups
  of U-boats that attack Allied convoys.

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Gulf Spee SUNK!
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Naval Action 1939-1941

• Royal Navy blockades Germany.
• German invasion of Norway - April 1940.
• Avoid Royal Navy mining of lines of
  communication.
• Dunkirk (Dunkerque) - May, June 1940
• Royal Navy evacuates 337,000 Allied soldiers from
  France.
• British destroy Vichy French fleet at Oran- July
  1940.
• U.S. Navy Neutrality Patrols become the Atlantic
  Fleet.
• Admiral Ernest J. King in command.
• Undeclared naval war in the Atlantic against
  U-boats.
• Destroyers escort convoys.
• Anti-submarine patrol aircraft used to locate
  U-boats.

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Battle of Cape MatapanMarch 1941

• Royal Navy escorts troop convoys to Greece.
• Italian Navy attempts to intercept.
• Ultra - British able to read German encrypted
  messages.
• British Mediterranean Fleet
• Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham in command.
• Aircraft carriers used to attack Italian fleet.
• Italian fleet defeated.
• BUT German land-based air power forces British to
  retreat.

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Battle of the Atlantic - 1941

• Britain dependent on merchant shipping for food
  supply.
• Importance of maintaining lines of communication
  between Great Britain and the U.S.
• Increased number of U-boats and ease of transit
  to Atlantic.
• Wolfpacks used to attack Allied convoys.
• Gap in anti-submarine aircraft coverage south of
  Greenland.
• Happy Time for German U-boats.
• Heavy losses of Allied merchant ships 1940 -
  1941.
• Britain acquires more escorts and better ability
  to break the secret Ultra code used by the
  German armed forces.
• U.S. participates in convoy escort.
• Allied losses begin to decrease in late 1941.

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War in Europe, Sept 1939Effects on U.S.

• Neutrality Patrols
• Britain made facilities available Bermuda, St.
  Lucia, Trinidad
• Four Neutrality Act (1939)- Shift from
  isolationism
• The Deceleration of Panama
• New opportunities for Japan
• The Fall of France and isolation of Britain
• Rearmament Authorize 2 ocean Navy

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War in Europe, Sept 1939Effects on U.S.

• All aid to Britain short of War
• Destroyers for bases deal
• 50 overage destroyers for 99-year leases on bases
  in Bahamas, Jamaica and Newfoundland
• Lend-Lease to Britain and Russia
• American Occupation of Greenland/Iceland
• American escort of convoy and eventual co-op in
  hunting down U-boats
• Torpedoing of the Greer, Kearney and Reuben James

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FranklinDelanoRoosevelt

• President
• of the
• United States
• World War II

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Preparations for war in the Pacific

• Rainbow II
• U.S. fleet kept in Pearl as deterrent to Japan
• U.S. refuse to send forces to Singapore
• Shift in Strategy from Rainbow II to Atlantic
  First
• Strong offensive in Atlantic, Defensive in
  Pacific
• Defeat Germany and Italy first, then Japan
• Support Brit forces in East Indies, and defend
  Midway, Johnson, Palmyra, Samoa, and Guam.
• Defend Philippines as long as possible

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Political Developments

• Leading to the War in the Pacific
• 26 Jul 1940 embargo on aviation fuel
• Sept 1040 Japan joins Axis
• 13 Apr 1941 Japan signs 5 year neutrality treaty
  with Russia
• Jun 1941 Japan forces French to turn over bases
  in S. Indochina
• 26 Jul 1941 U.S. freezes all Jap assets and cuts
  of oil
• Oct 1941 Tojo/War party takes political control
  of govt
• Japan sends last proposals
• 26 Nov 1941 U.S. responds with demand for Jap
  withdrawal of China and Indochina
• 6 Dec 1941 Roosevelt personally appeals to Emp
  Hirohito for withdrawal. Answered 0755 next
  morning Pearl Harbor

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Learning Objectives

• Comprehend the principal points of controversy
  among the great powers at Versailles and the main
  shortcomings of the treaty finally produced.
• Know the reasons for the U.S. not joining the
  League of Nations and the reasons for the
  Leagues ultimate failure to keep the peace.
• Know the results of the naval treaties resulting
  from the Washington naval Conference and the
  subsequent changes in naval technology and
  strategy.
• Comprehend the ways in which changes in American
  society affected foreign policy and the
  development and employment of the U.S. Navy
  during this period.

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Discussion
Next time World War II The US Navy in North
Africa, the Mediterranean and the Atlantic,
1941-1945