Guernica, Shanghai, and Ethiopia

Reece and Patrick

Guernica

Spanish Civil war

● 1936-1939, Spain is in a civil war between leftist republicans and right leaning

nationalists

● Francisco Franco is the nationalist leader and an informal ally of the Pact of

Steel (German-Italian alliance)

● Dozens of countries sign embargo against Franco including France, Britain,

and even Germany (Germany completely ignores embargo)

● Essentially a struggle between democracy and fascism similar to the Soviet

Revolution

● Fascist Italy and Germany support the nationalist party

● During the course of the war Hitler provides military support

● Hitler’s main reason for support was to test new military equipment such as

tanks, airplanes, etc.

● Hitler is aware support for the Nationalist party may anger France and Britain

● Hitler would not be ready for the outbreak of a second World War until late

1940 so he limits the aid provided to Franco

● Franco agreed to fuel the German and Italian war-machines with raw materials

in exchange for military support.

Guernica

● Guernica was a village of 5,000 civilians located in the north central region of

Spain

● Every Monday, the people of Guernica and neighboring regions would have a

“market day”

● Market day consisted of farmers meeting in the town square to sell their crops

from the week of labor

● Guernica was one of the few cities not directly involved in the civil war

● Guernica did not have any resources to defend against an aerial attack

● In 1935, German General Erich Ludendorff published Die Totale Krieg (The Total

War)

● In this text, he stated that during wartimes there are no civilians, everyone is involved

in the war

● Italian General Giulio Douhet further suggested an enemy's morale could be crushed

by air-delivered terror.

● Hitler was very interested in these new ideas and decided to try them on their new test

range: Spain

● Nationalists pushed refugees towards Guernica with attacks from the north

● Hitler gathered 52 aircraft including bombers and fighter planes and created

the Condor Legion, famous for including the Red Baron

● The official orders were to destroy the roads leading away from Guernica to

halt any retreats from Republic forces

● After two hours of bombing, ¾ of the city had been completely destroyed with

the remaining quarter sustaining heavy damage.

● Fighter planes strafed over the streets and gunned down any civilians

attempting to flee

● The official target was left untouched.

Weapons Used

● During a single 60-second pass over the town, from north to south, the SM.79s

dropped thirty-six 50 kg (110 lb) light explosive bombs

● Two Heinkel He 111s, one Dornier Do 17, eighteen Ju 52 Behelfsbomber, and three

Italian SM.79s (Corpo Truppe Volontarie) were assigned for the mission. These were

armed with 250 kg (550 lb) medium high-explosive bombs, 50 kg (110 lb) light

explosive bombs and 1 kg (2.2 lb) incendiary. The ordnance load for the 24 bombers

was 22 tonnes (22 long tons; 24 short tons) in total.

● Clearly armed to demolish an entire city

Shanghai

The Second Sino-Japanese War

● July 7, 1937-September 9, 1945

● Main Aggressors:○ Japan

○ Nationalist China

○ Communist China

● Japanese Strategy○ Japan launched the war in an attempt to overtake central asia and set up puppet governments

○ With these governments, Japan would receive a secure source of materials

○ Unable to seize central Asia, Japan needed embargoed resources owned by Britain, The

Netherlands, and the USA

○ This new strategy led to the bombing of pearl harbor

● Chinese Nationalist Strategy (Kuomintang)○ Focused on building a modernized army and defense strategies

○ Constantly fighting insurgencies with the communists and warlords

○ Once the attack started, it was clear that China was under-armed and under-trained

○ Main Goals:

■ Resist Japanese Aggression

■ To unite China under one flag

■ To emerge the war as a world power

● Chinese Communist Strategy○ Avoid large scale battle

○ Used Guerilla Warfare and political savvy

○ Aimed to avoid conflict with Japan so that when the the attack was over, they would be more

powerful that the Nationalists

○ Its main goal was expansion

● Battle started on the Marco Polo Bridge when a scuffle turned into a shootout○ A Japanese Private was captured, and when Japanese military asked to extract him out of

WanPing, the Chinese refused

● Both sides began mobilizing, and before long it was an all out war

● The war resulted from the Japanese Imperialistic policies

● Japan began taking vast parts of china and many major cities

● Became so widespread their forces were extremely thin

● Eventually surrendered after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

● All territories gained by Japan went back to China

The Battle of Shanghai

● Background○ Shanghai was the biggest city in China with 3.5 million citizens

○ In the city there is the International settlement

○ The Japanese increased their garrison size without the Chinese’s knowledge

○ The battle lasted from August 13, 1937 to November 26, 1937

○ First of 22 major battles between the NRA and IJA

○ Chinese were outnumbered and outgunned

○ The Japanese were not expecting a fight from the Chinese army in Shanghai

○ The Chinese were able to hold off the Japanese for three months before retreating

● Japan

○ Deployed in Shanghai to avoid

confrontations with other foreign

powers

○ Japan wished to conclude the war as

soon as possible

○ Believed that the chinese army would

be too tired from the civil war

○ Confident that they would be able to

take the city in three days

○ Japan came in from Luiho and Lotein,

north of shanghai and also from 20

miles down shore on the yangtze in

order to flank the chinese

Aims and Strategies

● China○ Wanted to force the Japanese to change

their advance from north to south, to from

east to west

○ This would allow for the Chinese troops to

regroup and retreat to the south west

○ Trading “Space for Time”

○ Because the Chinese Army was not

allowed in Shanghai, they trained the

police garrison in military exercises

○ Use its numerical advantage to overpower

and push the Japanese to the sea

○ Not able to destroy Japanese bunkers, so

tried to encircle them instead and throw in

hand grenades

○ China hoped that the attack on shanghai

would trigger international intervention

● Japan○ 300,000 men, 500 aircraft, 300 tanks, 130

naval ships, 59,500 casualties

○ Japan was able to hold of the sheer

numbers of the chinese with their naval

gunships until reinforcements arrived

○ Deployed tanks in the city to stop chinese

advancements to their bunkers

○ Utilised flamethrowers and heavy machine

guns to wipe out the chinese in the streets

○ Made use of amphibious vehicles to

transport infantry to the battle and cut off

the chinese

Weapons and Technology

● China○ 700,000 men, 180 aircraft, 40 tanks,

250,000 casualties

○ Used second hand planes purchased from

other countries to drop bombs on

Japanese flagships

○ Accidentally bombed the Civilian refugee

center and killed 3000 civilians

○ Chinese greatest defence was the ROCAF

which shoot down 85 planes and sunk 51

ships while losing 91 of its own planes

○ Was able to stand their ground for three

months without adequate training, artillery,

or armor

Effects

● China’s decision to launch a full defense at shanghai cost them 60% of their

elite units

● China lost almost all of their heavy vehicles and aircraft during the battle

● They held the Japanese long enough for the Chinese Government to move its

vital industries

● Succeeded in altering the Japanese plan of attack

● The decision to not withdraw directly caused the army to not be able to defend

nanjing

● There were heavy civilian casualties, many at the hands of the chinese and

Shanghai was lost and severely damaged

Ethiopia

The Second Italo-Ethiopian War

● Italy in massive financial crisis, Mussolini knows that war can solve a lot of

unemployment issues.

● Italy already owns land in northern africa, such as Somalia and Eritrea,

bordering both sides of of Ethiopia.

● Ethiopian leader wrongly assumes the league of nations will protect him

● League of nations refuses to supply Ethiopia with weapons so Ethiopians use

sticks, swords and 19th century muskets

Prelude

● Italy violates Italo-Ethiopian treaty of 1928 by building a fort in Ethiopian

territory, at the WelWel oasis.

● Small battle that Italy demands apology for but doesn’t receive

● De Bono and Graziani are sent to Italian Somaliland with 100,000 troops

● Emperor of Ethiopia, Haile Selassie orders every able man to fight and every able woman to cook and wash for him. Any who do not fight will be hanged.

● On the eve of the war, Selassie’s army consisted of 500,000 soldiers, 25% of which had any military training

● Over 100,000 soldiers fought with spears and bows ● The Ethiopian army was limited to few artillery cannons and only 300

trucks● Most Ethiopian rifles were from the 19th century ● Their air force consisted of 13 planes and only 4 pilots

Battles

● Italy invades Northern Ethiopia

Oct 3 1935

● Italian army captures Adigrat Oct

5 1935

● Italian army captures Adowa Oct

6 1935

● Italian army captures Axum Oct

15 1935

● Italian army captures Mekele Nov

8 1935

● Italy captures Negele Boran

Jan 20 1936

● Inconclusive first battle of

Tembien ends Christmas

offensive Jan 20-24

● Battle of Amba Aradam

(Heavy Ethiopian casualties)

February 19 1936

● Second battle of Tembien

February 27-29 1936

● Battle of Shire

February 29- March 4 1936

Battles cont.

● Ethiopians lose battle of

Maychew March 31 1936

● Battle of Ogaden April 14

1936

● Battle of Gogetti, final battle

February 19 1937

Technology

● Ethiopians use “Dum-Dum” bullets, hollow tip bullets that expand to create

larger wounds, illegal in war since 1899

● Ethiopians used torture of captured Italian forces, often castration that resulted

in death

● In response Italians use chemical warfare, often Phosgene gas, it was colorless

and odorless so Ethiopian troops had almost no warning when they were being

gassed, leading to heavy casualties and easier wins for the Italians

● Over 300 tons of mustard gas also used

● Italy has almost 700,000 troops for the war

● 600 tanks, 390 aircraft, thousands of pieces of artillery, and 6,000 machine

guns

The Italian advance

● 1935 October 3 De Bono crossed the Mareb river without a declaration of war

● De Bono takes outpost at Adagamos a week later and declares all slaves in

Ethiopia to be free

● Relieved the slave owners of the need to feed their slaves, most of the

livestock had been moved to the south for the troops

● Within four more days the Italians had advanced from Adwa and taken the holy

city of Axum

Ethiopian Christmas offensive

● Intended to split northern Italian forces in half

● March towards Mai Timket and Amba Aradam mountain

● 190,000 Ethiopian troops mobilize

● Some begin rolling boulders onto paths to immobilize tanks

● The attack was victorious although the Ethiopians lost 16x more troops than the

Italians

Civilian involvement

● Almost every able Ethiopian civilian was required to fight in the war but many

of those left behind were gassed in their villages

● Outrage amongst Ethiopian citizens was sparked following the bombing of

Egyptian red cross trucks

● The Italian populus was told that there were millions of slaves in Ethiopia

needing to be freed

● Italian citizens believed the war would be won “without a single tear being

shed”

● The Italian people supported the war due to the amount of resources and

people in need in Ethiopia

Important locations

● The Italian empire already included African countries Eritrea and Somaliland,

these countries were located on either side of Ethiopia○ Italy was not able to capture Ethiopia when they tried the first time in the 19th century due to a

strong showing by Ethiopia's allies

● Italy began to set up forts on the border between Eritrea and Ethiopia

● The first battle occurred in Adwa, where Italy was stopped in the first Italo-

Ethiopian war, but they won the second time

● Italian general moved on to capture the Holy Capital of Axum, where his forces

looted the obelisk of Axum

● Italy then firebombed and captured the city of Herar and two days latter won

the final battle in Maychew

Aims and strategies

● Italy

○ Italy wanted revenge for their loss in

the first Italo-Ethiopian war that they

lost

○ In the early 20th century having

colonies was considered prestigious

○ Most of Africa had already been

taken by other colonizers and the

Italian empire bordered Ethiopia from

Eritrea

○ Italian strategy was to knock out

Ethiopian forces fast which involved

the use of gas, heavy machine guns,

and tanks

● Ethiopia○ Under Emperor Haile Selassie, Ethiopia

wanted to protect its borders and the

people and property within them

○ Since the Ethiopian aren't was very

under armed, most of their strategies

involved either guerrilla warfare or

encircling the enemy and swarming

then