World War II(continued):

Europe and the Pacific

Theme: Allied victory and other impacts of the war

Lesson 18

World War II: Europe

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

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 Stalin’s demand

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

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

Gustav LineAnzio

Salerno

Rome

Sicily

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

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

Operation Overlord: The Invasion of Normandy

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

Rommel

Rundstedt

German Defenses: Rommel’s 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.

German Defenses

Weakness of Rommel’s 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.

German Defenses: Rundstedt’s 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.

German Defenses: Compromise

• Rundstedt and Rommel couldn’t 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

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

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

What Makes the Allied Plan Work

• Mass

• Surprise

• Allied soldier

Mass

Mass: Priorities

• Europe or Japan?– Europe

• France or Italy?– France

• Northern France or Southern France?– Northern– (Operational Anvil

postponed until Aug 15)

Mass: Logistics

• Massive build up of forces after initial landing; huge logistical effort

• Mulberry artificial harbors and Whale floating piers

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

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.

Inflatable Tanks

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

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 won’t even get off the beaches!”

Allied Soldier

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.

The Allied Soldier: Initiative

506th PIR Drop Dispersal

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 commander’s intent. – SLA Marshall

The German Soldier: Paralysis

• “… the performance of the Wehrmacht’s 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

Breakout

Breakout

Breakout and Pursuit

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

Surrender of Germany

World War II: Pacific

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– We’ll discuss this in

Lesson 18In May 1940, the main part of the US fleet was transferred to Pearl

Harbor from the west coast

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

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.

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

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 Corregidor

in March 1942

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 Doolittle’s 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

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 didn’t 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

Greatest Extent of Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere

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 AustraliaAdmiral Ernest King

Isolation of Rabaul

Operation Cartwheel• Became the model for Pacific commanders throughout

the rest of the war

– don’t 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

Retaking the Philippines

• The invasion of the Philippines brought MacArthur and Nimitz’s 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

“I shall return”

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

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

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

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

Hiroshima, vicinity of ground zero

Surrender

Japan surrenders Sept 2, 1945 aboard the USS Missouri

Beyond World War II

• Growth of Total War

• Holocaust

• Post-war impact of the atomic bomb

• Expanded roles of women

• Cold War (Lesson 19)

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

Holocaust

• Jews were the primary targets of Hitler’s racially motivated genocidal policies, but Slavs, Gypsies, homosexuals, Jehovah’s 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

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

Roll Call at Auschwitz

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

Mass Grave at Bergen-Belsen

Children Subjected to Medical Experiments in Auschwitz

Survivors ofAmpfing Subcamp of Dachau

Prisoners liberated at Auschwitz

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

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

Post-war Impact of Atomic Bomb

• Nuclear weapons would prove to not be a reasonable option in limited wars

• We’ll 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

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

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?"

Next

• Early Cold War

Construction of the Berlin Wall