World War II (continued): Europe and the Pacific Theme: Allied victory and other impacts of the war

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World War II(continued)Europe and the
PacificTheme Allied victory and other impacts
of the war

• Lesson 18

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World War II Europe
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Strategic Differences (Review from Lsn 17)

• US favored a cross channel invasion to directly
  attack Germany
• British preferred an indirect approach, attacking
  through the soft underbelly of Europe

Winston Churchill
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Second Front

• Since July 19, 1941, Stalin had been demanding
  the Allies open up a second front to relieve the
  German pressure Russia was facing
• Invading Italy would help meet Stalins demand

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Trident Conference May 1943

• Americans accepted the strategic goal of
  eliminating Italy from the war but demanded that
  the forces involved consist only of those already
  in the Mediterranean
• Americans and British also agreed that planning
  would begin for a cross channel invasion in May
  1943

The Federal Reserve Building in Washington, DC,
site of the Trident Conference
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The Italian Campaign

• Three amphibious operations
• Sicily
• Salerno
• Anzio
• The Germans were able to withdraw from each and
  force the Allies into slow-moving, attritional
  warfare

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Summary of the Italian Campaign

• Through the summer of 1943 it was an excellent
  training ground for Anglo-American forces
• Casualties the Allies inflicted on German ground
  and air forces in Tunisia and Sicily were a
  significant return on the investment
• After that point, however, Italy cost more than
  it gained.
• Robert Doughty, American Military History and the
  Evolution of Western Warfare

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Economy of Force

• One thing the Italian Campaign was costing was
  LSTs that were needed for the Normandy invasion
• Sometimes I think the whole war depends on some
  damned thing called an LST.
• Winston Churchill

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Operation Overlord The Invasion of Normandy
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German Defenses

• Debate between Rundstedt and Rommel over whether
  to deny the initial landing on the beaches or to
  destroy them with strong, mobile counter attack
  forces

Rundstedt
Rommel
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German Defenses Rommels Plan

• Rommel was appointed commander of Army Group B in
  1943
• Set out to reinforce the Atlantic Wall in
  accordance with the German doctrine that called
  for the immediate and absolute defeat of any
  Allied landings.

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German Defenses
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Weakness of Rommels Plan

• Atlantic Wall had no true depth to its defenses.
• Typical mile long and an inch deep scenario
• An enemy force that breached the thin Atlantic
  Wall would face no further fortified positions of
  significance.

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German Defenses Rundstedts Plan

• Rundstedt placed great reliance on mechanized
  reserves that could respond quickly and flexibly
  to an enemy thrust.
• He stationed a newly created armored command,
  Panzer Group West, near Paris.
• From there, the force could move, as
  circumstances required, toward the site of an
  enemy assault in either the Pas de Calais or
  Normandy.

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German Defenses Compromise

• Rundstedt and Rommel couldnt settle their
  disagreement over which defensive strategy was
  best so they compromised and combined the two
  plans
• This resulted in the worst of both
• Beach defenses not strong enough to stop landing
  reserves not strong enough to destroy the
  beachhead

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Objectives

• Combined Chiefs directed Eisenhower to enter the
  continent of Europe and, in conjunction with
  other Allied nations, undertake operations aimed
  at the heart of Germany and the destruction of
  her armed forces
• To do that he would need a beachhead (Normandy)
• To protect the amphibious forces he would drop
  airborne forces inland

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The Plan

• Airborne forces would secure exits from the
  beaches to allow the amphibious forces to move
  inland and block German counterattack routes to
  protect amphibious forces
• Amphibious forces would secure the beachhead to
  allow for the logistical buildup and breakout

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What Makes the Allied Plan Work

• Mass
• Surprise
• Allied soldier

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Mass
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Mass Priorities

• Europe or Japan?
• Europe
• France or Italy?
• France
• Northern France or Southern France?
• Northern
• (Operational Anvil postponed until Aug 15)

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Mass Logistics

• Massive build up of forces after initial landing
  huge logistical effort
• Mulberry artificial harbors and Whale floating
  piers

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Surprise

• it is more effective to find out what the
  enemy is predisposed to believe and to reinforce
  those beliefs while at the same time altering
  your plans to take advantage of these reinforced
  false beliefs.
• John Chomeau
• Fictitious army
• Inflatable tanks
• Ultra
• Weather

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Surprise Fictitious Army

• By spurious radio transmissions, the Allies
  created an entire phantom army, based in
  southeast England (opposite Pas-de-Calais) and
  alleged to be commanded by Patton.
• In addition, on the night of the invasion itself,
  airborne radar deception presented to German
  radar stations a phantom picture of an invasion
  fleet crossing the Channel narrows, while a radar
  blackout disguised the real transit to Normandy.

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Inflatable Tanks
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Surprise Ultra

• Through the top-secret Ultra operation, the
  Allies were able to decode encrypted German
  transmissions
• Provided the Overlord forces with a clear picture
  of where the German counterattack forces were
  deployed

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Surprise Weather

• Germans had a false sense of security about the
  weather
• Rommel was visiting his wife on D-Day
• There is not going to be an invasion. And if
  there is, then they wont even get off the
  beaches!

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Allied Soldier
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The Allied Soldier Courage
At low tide, the assaulting troops had to cross
more than 300 meters of completely exposed beach
to gain entrance to the Vierville draw.
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The Allied Soldier Initiative
506th PIR Drop Dispersal
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The Allied Soldier Offensive Spirit

• The Germans launched no tactical
  counteroffensives against the American airborne
  assault.
• American paratroopers gathered in ad hoc small
  groups and executed operations in accordance with
  the commanders intent.
• SLA Marshall

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The German Soldier Paralysis

• the performance of the Wehrmachts high
  command, middle-ranking soldiers, and junior
  officers was just pathetic. The cause is simply
  put they were afraid to take the initiative.
  They allowed themselves to be paralyzed by stupid
  orders coming from far away that bore no relation
  to the situation on the battlefield. Tank
  commanders who knew where the enemy was and how
  and when he should be attacked sat in their
  headquarters through the day, waiting for the
  high command in Berchtesgaden to tell them what
  to do.
• Stephen Ambrose

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Breakout
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Breakout
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Breakout and Pursuit
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How it Ends

• July 25 Beginning of Operation Cobra
• Aug 15 Operational Anvil landings in southern
  France
• Sept 17 Operational Market Garden
• Dec 16 Beginning of the Battle of the Bulge
• Apr 20, 1945 Russians take Berlin
• Apr 25 Americans and Russians meet at the Elbe
  River
• Apr 30 Hitler commits suicide

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Surrender of Germany
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World War II Pacific
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Imperial Japan(Where we left off on Lesson 13)

• Japan continued to see the US and others as a
  threat to its influence in Asia and in 1940 the
  Japanese began developing plans to destroy the US
  Navy in Hawaii
• On Dec 7, 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl
  Harbor
• Well discuss this in Lesson 18

In May 1940, the main part of the US fleet was
transferred to Pearl Harbor from the west coast
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Pearl Harbor

• Dec 7, 1941
• a date which will live in infamy
• Americans taken completely by surprise
• The first attack wave targeted airfields and
  battleships
• The second wave targeted other ships and shipyard
  facilities

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Tactical Damage

• Eight battleships were damaged, with five sunk
• Three light cruisers, three destroyers, three
  smaller vessels, and 188 aircraft were destroyed
• 2,335 servicemen and 68 civilians killed
• 1,178 wounded
• 1,104 men aboard the Battleship USS Arizona were
  killed after a 1,760-pound air bomb penetrated
  into the forward magazine causing catastrophic
  explosions.

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Broader Results

• In spite of the tactical success, the attack on
  Pearl Harbor was an operational and strategic
  failure for the Japanese
• The attack failed to destroy the American
  aircraft carriers, fleet repair facilities, or
  fuel reserves
• The sneak attack galvanized American support
  for entry into the war

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Fall of the Philippines

• Shortly after Pearl Harbor the Japanese made
  initial landings on Luzon, then made their main
  landings on Dec 22
• On Dec 24, MacArthur ordered his forces to
  withdraw to the Bataan Peninsula
• By Apr Bataan surrendered
• By early May Corregidor surrendered

Douglas MacArthur in his headquarters tunnel at
Corregidorin March 1942
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Centrifugal Advance

• Japanese attacked Malaya, the Philippines, the
  Dutch East Indies, Wake, Guam.
• Instead of halting, establishing a defense, and
  pressuring the US to sue for peace (the prewar
  plan), the Japanese decided to extend their
  control over the Pacific, planning operations in
  New Guinea near Port Moresby and against Midway
  (1,300 miles northwest of Honolulu)
• US achieved a moral victory with Doolittles Raid
  on the Japanese home islands on April 18, 1942
• Minimal damage but humiliated Japanese high
  command and led them to advance the date for
  their attack on Midway

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Midway (June 3-6, 1942)

• Japanese planned a diversionary attack on the
  Aleutian Islands while the main force attacked
  Midway to destroy the American fleet
• Thanks to Magic intercepts, US didnt fall for
  the Alaska feint and reinforced Midway
• Americans destroyed four Japanese carriers and
  most of their flight crews
• Japanese advance was checked and initiative in
  the Pacific began to turn to the Americans

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Greatest Extent of Greater East Asia
Co-prosperity Sphere
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Twin Drives

• Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Ernest King
  favored a drive across the central Pacific moving
  toward Japan over the coral atolls scattered
  across the Pacific
• Take advantage of ability to leap across vast
  distances
• MacArthur favored an advance across the South
  Pacific via New Guinea and the Philippines
• Meet obligations to Filipinos
• Maintain pressure against the retreating Japanese
• Protect against a renewed threat against Australia

Admiral Ernest King
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(No Transcript)
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Isolation of Rabaul
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Operation Cartwheel

• Became the model for Pacific commanders
  throughout the rest of the war
• dont move island to island advance by great
  bounds using air superiority
• bypass major strongpoints and leave them reduced
  to strategic and tactical impotence
• hit Japanese weak spots avoid frontal assaults
  use deception and surprise
• seize existing airfields and ports and use these
  newly acquired bases to support the next leap
  forward

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Retaking the Philippines

• The invasion of the Philippines brought MacArthur
  and Nimitzs twin drives together
• On Oct 20, 1944, MacArthur attacked Leyte
• By the end of December, the Allies controlled
  Leyte and MacArthur was in position to attack
  Luzon, the heart of the Philippines

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I shall return
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Final Campaigns

• From Feb 19 to Mar 11, 1945 the Marines captured
  Iwo Jima
• From Apr to June Americans captured Okinawa
• Total American battle casualties were 49,151, of
  which 12,520 were killed or missing and 36,631
  wounded
• Approximately 110,000 Japanese were killed and
  7,400 more were taken prisoners
• Okinawa showed how costly an invasion of the
  Japanese home islands would be

Raising the flag on Mt. Suribachi, Iwo Jima
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Plan to Invade Japan

• US planned to invade Japan with eleven Army and
  Marine divisions (650,000 troops)
• Casualty estimates for the operation were as high
  as 1,400,000
• Truman decided to use the atomic bomb to avoid
  such losses

Operation Cornet, the plan to take Tokyo
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The Atomic Bomb

• In the early 1940s, America had started an atomic
  weapons development program code named the
  Manhattan Project
• A successful test was conducted at Alamogordo in
  New Mexico in July 1945

J. Robert Oppenheimer and General Leslie Groves
at the Trinity Site soon after the test
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Hiroshima and Nagasaki

• Hiroshima Aug 6, 1945
• 90,000 killed
• On Aug 8, the USSR declares war on Japan and
  invades Manchuria the next day
• Nagasaki Aug 9, 1945
• 35,000 killed
• Okinawa had been much more costly than Hiroshima
  and Nagasaki

Captain Paul Tibbets piloted the plane that
dropped the bomb on Hiroshima
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Hiroshima, vicinity of ground zero
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Surrender
Japan surrenders Sept 2, 1945 aboard the USS
Missouri
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Beyond World War II

• Growth of Total War
• Holocaust
• Post-war impact of the atomic bomb
• Expanded roles of women
• Cold War (Lesson 19)

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Growth of Total War

• Total war describes a war in which nations use
  all of their resources to destroy another
  nation's ability to engage in war.
• Conscription
• Military-industrial complex to include women
  workers
• Unconditional surrender
• Civilian targets to include the Holocaust
• Rationing, price controls, and other impacts on
  the homefront
• More destructive weapons to include the atomic
  bomb

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Holocaust

• Jews were the primary targets of Hitlers
  racially motivated genocidal policies, but Slavs,
  Gypsies, homosexuals, Jehovahs Witnesses,
  communists, and others suffered as well
• Sometime during 1941, the Nazi leadership
  committed to the final solution of the Jewish
  problem
• At the Wansee Conference on Jan 20, 1942, experts
  gathered to discuss and coordinate the
  implementation of the plan to kill all the Jews
  living in Europe

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Holocaust

• Jews were rounded up and sent to concentration
  camps
• The largest was Auschwitz where at least a
  million Jews died
• The process was organized and technologically
  sophisticated
• Gassing was the preferred method of killing, but
  electrocution, phenol injections, flamethrowers,
  hand grenades, and machine guns were also used

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Roll Call at Auschwitz
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Holocaust

• Victims were subjected to industrial work,
  starvation, medical experimentation, and
  extermination
• Large crematories were used to hide the evidence
• Approximately 5.7 million Jews perished in the
  Holocaust

Auschwitz crematory
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Mass Grave at Bergen-Belsen
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Children Subjected to Medical Experiments in
Auschwitz
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Survivors ofAmpfing Subcamp of Dachau
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Prisoners liberated at Auschwitz
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Post-war Impact of Atomic Bomb

• Changed the very nature of war
• Presented the possibility of annihilation of
  humankind
• US would come to place great strategic reliance
  on atomic bomb
• War plans emphasized sudden atomic attack against
  USSR to allow time for conventional mobilization

15 megaton thermonuclear device test on Bikini
Atoll in 1954
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Post-war Impact of Atomic Bomb

• US held atomic monopoly until 1949
• Huge US-USSR arms race followed
• Eventually led to Mutually Assured Destruction
  (1967)
• Massive retaliation strategy (1954) meant US was
  prepared to respond to Soviet aggression with a
  massive nuclear strike

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Post-war Impact of Atomic Bomb

• Nuclear weapons would prove to not be a
  reasonable option in limited wars
• Well see this in Lesson 20 (Korea and Vietnam)

The US considered, but did not use, atomic bombs
in support of the French at Dien Bien Phu in 1954
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Expanded Roles for Women

• The emergencies of war greatly expanded the roles
  of women
• Some served in the military
• Others replaced men on factory assembly lines
• Women whose husbands went overseas acted as heads
  of households

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Expanded Roles for Women

• From 1940 to 1944 over 6 million women joined the
  workforce filling jobs that had been exclusively
  male
• After the war, women were expected to return home
  and resume their traditional roles as wives and
  mothers

Woman's Day, Oct 1950. The picture asks, "What
more needs to be said about a woman's day?"
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Next

• Early Cold War

Construction of the Berlin Wall