Washington Conferences

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Washington Conferences

• 3 meetings between FDR and Churchill
• 1st Wartime Conference
• 22 December 1941 bonds of enduring friendship
• 18 June 1942 Churchills flying boat lands on
  the Potomac River
• Decide on N. Africa campaign to begin November
  1942
• 11 May 1943 code name Trident
• Talk strategy
• Address Congress
• Joint press conference
• Invasion of France in 1944
• Step up war against Japan

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Philippines

• Site of 2 very difficult losses Bataan and
  Corregidor
• I Shall Return
• Somewhere around 7,000 islands
• United States gained possession after the Spanish
  American War
• Very strategic position
• Macarthur was head of U.S. military forces in
  Philippines
• Japanese occupied Formosa
• Macarthur bragged about organizing a devastating
  defense would discourage any attack
• Defensive force 10,000 regular U.S. Army,
  12,000 Filipino scouts, 100,000 very poor
  Philippine Army soldiers

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• War Plan Orange (WPO) pull to Bataan Peninsula
  and await reinforcements use mountains and
  jungle for cover (Rainbow War Plan)
• Pearl Harbor 8 December (Philippine Time)
  Attacks followed on Philippines destroyed many
  planes on the ground at dawn on 9 December an
  amphibious assault on the island airstrip off
  Luzon.
• 26 December Manila labeled an open city (free
  of military activity)
• U.S. begins withdraw to Bataan even though no
  hope of help
• Lt Gen Masaharu Homma overall Japanese
  commander
• Macarthur ordered out reaches Australia on 17
  March
• Bataan falls on 9 April
• Corregidor
• Lt Gen Jonathan Wainwright
• Guerrilla war supplied by U.S. submarines

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Bataan Death March

• 60 mile movement of 76,000 POWs (12,000 American)
• After surrender in April 1942
• News of atrocities came 3 years later
• Grouped 500 1,000
• Strong were not allowed to help the weak
• Sun treatment
• March lasted 6 days for some it was 12
• Estimated 5,200 Americans died on the march
• Death rate climbs to 550 men a day at the camp

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Selective Service the draft

• September 1940 first peace time draft passed by
  Congress
• Registration of all males 21 36 began 16
  October 1940
• Of those called in the 1st year, 50 were
  rejected for failing to meet minimum standards
• Needed to be at least 5 feet tall, 105 pounds,
  correctable vision, at least ½ of your 32 natural
  teeth, no flat feet, no hernias, no VD
• Literacy
• Impact of the Great Depression
• November 1942 began drafting men ages 18 37
• By the end of the war 34 million men had
  registered and 10 million were ordered to report
  for induction
• Conscientious objectors
• About 75 of Quakers who were drafted did serve.

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Rationing Wartime allotment of scarce goods

• Complex and backed by laws
• Distribute scarce goods equitably among consumers
• Also was the allocation of raw materials
• At first the system was voluntary.
• Scrap drives
• Car pools
• Non-essential
• Gas, rubber (90), cheese, butter,
• About 1/3 of food items were rationed during the
  war
• Points and money ex pound of ham .51 and 8
  points, can of baked beans 10 points

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Guadalcanal

• Solomon Islands
• Operation Watchtower
• 7 August 1942
• Landed on surrounding islands first
• Troops walked ashore complete surprise to the
  Japanese
• By the time the Japanese realized the landing had
  occurred there were 11,145 Marines ashore
• Main objective Henderson Field
• Port Moresby and Australia
• Japanese landed many reinforcement main part of
  Guadalcanal was the naval battle around the island

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• Japanese air attacks on Marines supplies would
  have hurt the Marines badly
• Cactus Air Force various Navy and Marine
  planes flying off of Henderson Field
• First Medal of Honor to a Marine went to Sgt.
  John Basilone
• Tokyo Express source of reinforcements for the
  Japanese
• The Slot
• USS Juneau and the Sullivan Brothers
• Weve got the bastards licked! Adm. William
  Halsey
• Hirohito allows a withdraw from Guadalcanal which
  was very secret
• 25,000 Japanese died on Guadalcanal, 9,000 from
  disease and starvation
• United States lost 1,500 dead and 4,800 wounded

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Casablanca Conference

• January 14 23, 1943
• FDR and Churchill (Stalin declined)
• Casablanca, Morocco
• 1st time President left country when country was
  at war
• Unconditional surrender prolong war? Stiffen
  resistance?
• Pick up pace on war vs. U-boats and Combined
  Bomber Offensive
• Secrecy meeting kept secret until 27 January

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Strategic Bombing

• Use of bombers as a blockade
• Precision bombing vs. area bombing (carpet)
• Day vs. night
• Escort fighters
• Offensive action all the time
• 3 strategic aims
• Oil facilities destroyed
• Transport facilities destroyed
• General dislocation
• Operation Gomorrah July 1943 Hamburg 45,000
  dead
• Dresden 13 -14 February 1945 135,000 dead

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• Japan B-29 bombers high vs. low level raids
  fire bombing
• By the time Germany surrenders Bomber Command had
  dropped 1,104,320 tons of bombs, and USAAF had
  dropped 997,920 tons.
• Bomber Command lost 55,573 airmen 20 casualty
  rate

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Upkeep Bombs

• Bouncing Bombs
• Dam bombs destroy hydroelectric power and flood
  industrial areas
• Bombs would spin backwards at 500 rpm prior to
  dropping
• Dropped from height of 60 feet
• Bomb would skip across the surface of the water
  and crawl down the dam to 30 feet below the
  surface and then explode
• 9,200 pounds/warhead was 5,720 pounds
• 16 17 May 1943

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• 18 April 1943 Yamamoto shot down one year
  after the Doolittle Raid
• 22 April 1943 One way ticket to hell
• U-505 First enemy ship to be boarded on high
  seas since War of 1812
• North Africa Video

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Battle of Stalingrad

• Tsaritsyn Stalingrad Volgograd
• Friedrich von Paulus
• 21 August Germans were 40 miles from the city
• 12 September Germans enter the suburbs
• October and November desperate house to house
  fighting
• Zhukov
• Soviet Counterattack Operation Uranus
• 22 23 November Germans are surrounded
• Fortress Stalingrad reinforcement are to come
  in by air
• Goring promises 500 tons per day (remember
  Dunkirk!)
• They average about 80 tons per day
• Germans needed 400 JU52 deliveries per day ---
  there were750 Junker JU52s in all of Europe and
  North Africa at 100 readiness

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• Surrender is out of the question fight to the
  last man
• 28 January no rations to the wounded
• Paulus promoted to Field Marshall
• 31 January - Paulus surrenders
• 2 February fighting stops
• 140,000 KIA/MIA/WIA 91,000 POW (6,000 survive
  the war)
• 100,000 KIA/WIA outside the pocket

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Battle of Kursk

• Largest tank battle of the war
• Germans 2,500 3,000 tanks and self-propelled
  guns, and 1,800 aircraft
• Russians 3,000 tanks
• 4 July 1943
• Kursk salient
• Many Germans had urged Hitler to stop the attack
  due to Soviet knowledge of the plans
• Hitler calls an end to the attack due to the
  invasion of Sicily
• German losses 70,000 KIA and captured 2,950
  tanks and 1,400 aircraft
• Soviet losses were again heavy, but absorbed
• Russians launch first summer offensive

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Sicily

• 10 July 1943 38 days long
• 315,000 Italians and 90,000 Germans
• Patton and Montgomery
• Operation Husky
• Test for paratroopers
• Germans got out 39,569 troops, 47 tanks, 94 heavy
  guns, 9,605 vehicles, 2,000 tons of ammunition
  Italians got out 62,000 troops, 41 artillery
  pieces, 12 mules

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Anzio

• 35 miles south of Rome
• Meant to put pressure on the Gustav Line,
  therefore a quicker fall to Rome
• Operation Shingle 22 January 1944
• 36,000 troops landed unopposed
• Basically no German troops between the beach and
  primary target Alban Hills or even to Rome
• Rapido and Garigliano Rivers assaults failed
  troops shift to Anzio

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• American commander, Major General John P. Lucas,
  was overly cautious, delayed advance until the
  supplies were built up.
• I am far too tenderhearted ever to be a success
  at my chosen profession.
• 4 month battle for the Anzio beachhead and the
  few miles inland
• German artillery
• Anzio casualties 72,000 (15,000 at Normandy)
• Anzio Annie and Anzio Express railroad guns
  562 pound projectile
• Axis Sally on Anzio largest self-supporting
  POW camp in the world
• Breaking out of Anzio happened after Gustav Line
  had been broken

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Cassino

• February May 1944
• Key to Gustav Line
• Traced back to St. Benedict in 529 AD
• Becomes Hill 516
• Commander of New Zealand Corps, General Sir
  Bernard Freyberg, veteran of Gallipoli, wounded
  9xs in World War I, Crete, and Africa
• Bombing gave Germans great places to hide
• Some craters were so big that it took bridges to
  get across them
• Polish troops were the group to actually take
  Monte Cassino
• Papal investigation confirmed Germans had not
  used the Abbey and even helped monks remove
  valuable art and treasures

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Italian Campaign

• Reasons for Italy
• Defensive Lines Gustav Line, Winter Line,
  Gothic Line
• 36th ID (Texas) investigation in Congress about
  the attack on the Rapido River
• Monte Cassino
• Polish, Indian, New Zealand, South African,
  French, Brazilian, 442nd RCT
• From the landings at Salerno to the liberation of
  Rome on 4 June 1944 ---- 275 days, 124,914
  casualties, (20,389 KIA 11,292 were Americans)

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Ploesti

• 35 miles north of Bucharest
• Oil!
• Provided up to ½ of the Germans petroleum
• Egypt, Italy ---- pre-warning (smoke pots)
• 1 August 1943 5 Medals of Honor were given 3
  posthumously most ever given for a single air
  mission
• 3rd best defended target on the continent
  Vienna and Berlin
• Total of 13,469 tons of bombs dropped on Ploesti
• 350 bombers were lost plus numerous fighters

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• Peenemunde site of German rocket research and
  construction
• V-1 buzz bomb, V-2 missile terror weapons

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Tarawa

• Bloody Tarawa
• One of the bloodiest battles in Marine Corps
  history
• Operation Galvanic
• 20 November 1943
• Makin Atoll was attacked first
• Airfield was target
• ½ hour gap between pre-invasion bombardment and
  landings gave Japanese time to regroup
• Landed at low tide some men had to wade ½ mile
  to shore

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• Got tanks and artillery ashore on Day 2
• Flamethrowers, TNT, grenades
• Day 4 Tarawa is in U.S. hands
• Approximately 4,836 Japanese were killed there
  were 17 wounded POWs
• Marines 3,000 casualties 984 KIA total of
  3,300 WIA and 1,027 KIA

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Saipan

• 14 miles wide, 2 5 miles wide
• Mariana Islands
• 15 June 1944
• UDT Underwater Demolition Team scouting
  pre-invasion
• Day 1 2,000 U.S. KIA or WIA 20,000 went ashore
• 30,000 defenders
• 7 July 3,000 make a banzai charge
• 22,000 civilians killed/suicide
• 16,525 KIA/WIA U.S.

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Peleliu

• 5 miles long, 2 miles wide
• 15 September 1944
• Operation Stalemate
• Little knowledge of Palau Islands last
  knowledge was 1923
• Pre-invasion bombardment was ineffective
  defensive line was behind the beach
• Week 1 4,000 Marine casualties
• 1st Marine Division 6,786 casualties (1,300
  KIA) 53.7
• 5th Marine Division 42.7
• 7th Marine Division 46.2
• F4U Corsair napalm bomb from the same island
  dont pull landing gear up
• 12,000 Japanese KIA
• Resistance ends 27 November
• Of 19 Medals of Honor awarded to Marines of the
  1st Division, 8 were on Peleliu
• Not necessary, wither on the vine
• MacArthur

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Iwo Jima

• One of the Volcano Islands reeked of sulfur
• 660 miles south of Tokyo
• 8 square miles
• Japanese were using it to attack B-29s
• We used it to land damaged planes
• 22,000 Japanese defenders
• 19 February 1945
• 5 weeks to secure the island
• 16 March Iwo Jima secured
• 26 March Iwo Jima completed

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• Dawn of 26 March 350 Japanese troops attacked
  an Army Air Force camp
• During April and May, a further 1,602 Japanese
  were killed
• Iwo Jimas Mt. Suribachi
• During the prep for the invasion the question was
  raised as to whether or not to use chemical
  weapons no civilians were on Iwo Jima

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Okinawa

• 1 April 1945 Easter Sunday
• Last major battle of World War II
• Was an independent kingdom until 1870s when it
  was forcibly annexed
• 110,000 Japanese defenders
• Did not defend the beaches
• 22 June island is deemed secure
• Kamikaze
• Japan lost 108 ships in the battle
• 4,200 Japanese airplanes (1,900 kamikaze) went
  after the U.S. fleet sinking 36 ships and
  damaging 368
• U.S. Navy had greatest number of casualties in
  one operation 10,000
• U.S. had 12,281 KIA (4,907 Navy) and 50,000 WIA

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• Atomic Bombs
• Hiroshima and Nagasaki
• Enola Gay and Bocks Car
• 130,000 and 65,000 75,000