world war ii questions of the day part 3 daniel w. blackmon ib hl history coral gables sr. high
TRANSCRIPT
World War IIQuestions of the Day Part 3
Daniel W. Blackmon
IB HL History
Coral Gables Sr. High
Essay of the Day
How comprehensively are the characteristics of "total war" illustrated by the Second World War? (1990) (HL)
Define “Total War”
War conducted with the purpose of the complete destruction of the enemies’ ability to resist.
The mobilization of the entire resources of a nation-state
Define “Total War”
We will examine the Second World War in Europe
Political
Economic
Social
Intellectual
Military
Political
“No protracted war can fail to endanger the freedom of a democratic country. . . . . War does not always give over democratic communities to military government,
Political
“but it must invariably and immeasurably increase the powers of civil government; it must almost compulsorily concentrate the direction of all men and the management of all things in the hands of the administration.
Political
“If it does not lead to despotism by sudden violence, it prepares men for it more gently by their habits.
Political
All those who seek to destroy the liberties of a democratic nation ought to know that war is the surest and the shortest means to accomplish it.”
Alexis de Tocqueville (qtd in Wright, 236)
Political
Germany, Italy, and the Soviet Union were already on a war footing.
The totalitarian regimes in each had already converted the nation into a garrison state.
Political: Great Britain
Winston Churchill as Prime Minister combined that post with Minister of Defense, which gave him direct oversight over all three branches.
Political: Great Britain
The Emergency Powers Act gave the British government “practically unlimited authority over British citizens and their property.”
Political: Great Britain
Churchill operated through a small War Cabinet and a four man Chiefs of Staff Committee (C.O.S.)
Churchill and C.O.S. increasingly directed the war.
Political: The United States
As President of the United States, FDR was already Commander-in-Chief.
Political: The United States
In the U.S., FDR created the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) along the model of C.O.S.
Anglo-American cooperation was achieved through the Combined Chiefs of Staff Committee (the C.O.S. and the J.C.S.)
Political: The United States
This very close cooperation plus the firm personal relationship between Churchill and FDR cemented the Anglo-American coalition.
A reminder, coalition warfare is always difficult.
Political: The Soviet Union
In the Soviet Union, Stalin created a five man State Defense Committee chaired by himself.
Stalin also named himself Commissar for Defense and Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces.
Political: The Soviet Union
Stalin created a supreme military headquarters, called Stavka, which exercised close control over operations.
Political: The Soviet Union
Stalin involved himself deeply, directly, and frequently disastrously in military decisions.
Stalin continued to distrust the military, even after the purges, and many officers became scapegoats.
Political: The Soviet Union
Stalin remained completely informed during the war. He required briefings 3 times a day.
He worked very long hours, and Stavka worked 18 hour days.
Political: The Soviet Union
Stalin punished mistakes ruthlessly.
However, he expected to told the true situation.
Political: The Soviet Union
Gradually, Stavka gained more credence, and Stalin began to accept the advice of his professional soldiers more often.
Administering the War
Churchill, FDR, and Stalin all understood that the war had to be managed.The managers were professionals.Promotion was by merit, and effectiveness rather than loyalty was rewarded.
Administering the War
Britain: Chief the Imperial Staff Sir Alan Brooke
USA: Army Chief of Staff George Catlett Marshall
USSR: Chief of Staff Alexei Antonov
Administering the War
Brooke, Marshall, and Antonov were all powerful personalities and enormously talented men.
They were also thoroughly professional.
Administering the War
Hitler, by contrast, provided catastrophic leadership.
Politics: Germany
Following his purge of Blomberg and Fritsch in 1938, Hitler made himself Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, a task he took literally.
Politics: Germany
He created an armed forces high command, Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW)The chief of OKW was Wilhelm Keitel
OKW was a secretariat rather than a staff, and Keitel nothing more than a slavish assistant.
Politics: Germany
Chief of Staff for OKW was Alfred Jodl
Jodl was the closest thing to a military adviser Hitler had.
He, like Keitel, thought Hitler a genius.
Both were hanged at Nuremberg
Politics: Germany
Hitler dealt directly with his service chiefs:
In 1939, Brauchitsch and Halder for the Army
Raeder and later Doenitz for the navy
Goering for the Luftwaffe
Politics: Germany
Only Hitler had complete access to all information.
There were no staffs to coordinate decisions on strategy, logistics, manpower, weapons development or economic mobilization.
Politics: Germany
Hitler further separated the command structure by using OKH to control all activities against the Soviet Union, while using OKW for all other theaters.
Politics: Germany
Neither OKW nor OKH knew the plans or problems of the other.
Both competed for scarce resources
Politics: Germany
This approach was duplicated in all other areas of the German war effort: what has been called
“administrative anarchy.”
Axis Coordination
Nor did Hitler coordinate strategy with Mussolini or Japan.
Mussolini did not tell Hitler he was invading Greece.Hitler did not tell the Japanese he was invading Russia.The Japanese did not tell Hitler they were attacking Pearl Harbor.
Axis Coordination
In many ways, Hitler and Stalin are parallel figures.
However, as the war progressed, Stalin used the talents of his professionals more and more; Hitler increasingly ignored the advice of his professionals.
Axis Coordination
The Axis powers did not so much fight the war as a coalition as they each fought parallel wars.
Economics: Germany
Hitler’s Four Year Plan of 1936 aimed at increasing autarky.
Synthetic rubber and oil programs were instituted.
Strategic materials were stockpiled.3 year stockpile of ferroalloys
Economics: Germany
Hitler chose to arm “in breadth” for a short war rather than “in depth” for a war of attrition.
Arming in depth would have pushed war back to 1943
Economics: Germany
Arming in breadth meant a short war fought out of existing stocks of arms.
German industry would not have to be totally mobilized for war.
Economics: Germany
In fact, Germany continued to produce steady amounts of consumer goods until 1942.
Germany did not adopt complete mobilization until 1942
Germany: Exploitation of Occupied Empire
The Polish Corridor, Silesia, Western Prussia, Luxemburg, Alsace, and part of Lorraine were annexed.
Germany: Exploitation of Occupied Empire
The rest of Poland was organized as the General Government under the brutal Gauleiter Hans Frank
Two other territories were created: Ostmark (Baltic states and Belarus) and Ukraine.
Germany: Exploitation of Occupied Empire
Indirect control was used in western and southern Europe.
Bohemia-Moravia was a “protectorate” with Reinhard Heydrich the protector.
Slovakia was a satellite ally under Father Tiso.
Germany: Exploitation of Occupied Empire
Norway became a satellite under Vidkun Quisling.
Vichy France became a satellite under Marshall Petain.
Croatia became a satellite under Ante Pavelic.
Germanization
Hitler created a Reichs Commissariat for the Strengthening of Germandom, or RKFVK and gave it to Himmler.
Originally a million Poles and Jews were evacuated to the General Government and their property confiscated.
Goering on Exploitation
“There must be removed from the territory of the Government General all raw materials, scrap, machines, etc. which are of any use for the German war economy.
Goering on Exploitation
“Enterprises which are not absolutely necessary for the meagre maintenance of the bare existence of the population must be transferred to Germany.” (qtd in Yahil 157)
Germanization
“Our duty in the East, is not Germanization in the former sense of the term, that is, imposing German language and laws upon the population, but to ensure that only people of pure German blood inhabit the East.” Himmler, 1942
Germanization
Himmler wanted to resettle German peasants in the east.
He had to compete with Alfred Rosenberg’s Ministry for Occupied Eastern Territories.
Germanization
Himmler’s plan was to push the border to the Urals.
Some Slavs would be permitted to remain as cheap labor, but they would not be allowed over a 4th grade education, nor to own land or capital.
Germanization
Most Russians would be forcibly removed beyond the Urals.
Goering on Economic Exploitation
“In old days, the rule was plunder. Now, outward forms have become more humane. Nevertheless, I intend to plunder, and plunder copiously.”
Himmler on Economic Exploitation.
“How the Russians or the Czechs fare is absolutely immaterial to me. . . . Whether nations live in prosperity or starve to death interests me only insofar as we need them as slaves for our culture; otherwise it is of no interest to me.”
Hitler on Economic Exploitation
“The real profiteers of this war are ourselves, and out of it we shall come bursting with fat! We will give back nothing and will take everything we can make use of. And if the others protest, I don’t give a damn.”
German Economic Exploitation
Hence, Goering, the director of the Four Year Plan, ordered “Enterprises which are not absolutely essential for the maintenance at a low level of the bare existence of the inhabitants must be transferred to Germany.”
German Economic Exploitation
Such methods were, from an economic point of view, inefficient and counterproductive.
Ideologically, they were entirely consistent.
German Economic Exploitation
In the West, slightly more sophisticated means were used.
France, Belgium, Netherlands, Greece, Norway, and Yugoslavia had to bear the cost of occupation—at extraordinarily inflated rates.
German Economic Exploitation
Monetary exchange rates were fixed grossly to Germany’s advantage.
Clearing accounts in Berlin allowed businesses to purchase goods on credit without ever having to pay.
German Economic Exploitation
Dutch, French, and Belgian holdings in Southeastern Europe were bought at prices fixed by the Germans.
Major corporations were acquired by German firms.
German Economic Exploitation
Since Hitler strongly resisted the use of German women in industry, Germany soon began to ship workers from occupied countries.
German Economic Exploitation
By 1941, that was 4,000,000
By 1944, the figure had risen to 7,000,000 or 20 % of the total labor force.
German Economic Exploitation
Some of these came from Soviet prisoners of war.
5,000,000 Soviets POWs were taken by the Germans.
Only 2,000,000 returned.
Economics: GermanyTotaler Krieg
Fritz Todt was given authority over much of the economy (after a bitter struggle with the army) in 1942
Killed in a plane crash, he was succeeded by Albert Speer, the most talented and intelligent of the Nazis.
Economics: GermanyTotaler Krieg
Speer performed miracles of production.
But he always had to struggle against Goering’s control of the Luftwaffe and Himmler’s growing SS empire.
Economics: GermanyTotaler Krieg
Under Speer, the output of weapons, ammunition, and aircraft increased 300 %
Tank production increased 600 %
Economics: GermanyTotaler Krieg
German manpower problems:
Fritz Sauckel, Speer’s rival, was placed in charge of labor.
Sauckel imported slave labor on a massive scale.
German businesses were able to profit from the use of slave labor, both because they did not have to pay salaries, but also because they were paid an allowance for food per slave, and rarely did they provide that much food (a pitiful amount to begin with)
By the end of the war, Germany industry had been destroyed.
Transportation had been destroyed.
There was no fuel.
Strategic materials were down to zero.
Manpower was hopelessly short.
Economics: Great Britain
Great Britain, beginning its rearmament late, planned for war in depth from the start.
The big question was, could she survive the initial onslaught?
The Fall of France shocked everyone into action.
The British moved to all-out mobilization using a mixture of compulsion and popular consent.
The public was, in fact, often ahead of the government in demands for mobilization.
The Lord President’s Committee was formed to coordinate the economy.
Economics: Great Britain
Britain’s most pressing problem was manpower.
The National Service Act subjected men from 18-50 and women from 20-30 [later 50] to military or essential civilian war service.
Economics: Great Britain
Labor was ruthlessly diverted from civilian employment to war related employment.
2.8 workers were added to the labor force; 2.2 million were women.
Economics: Great Britain
By 1944, 33 % of Britain’s labor force was in war related service.
Economics: Great Britain
John Maynard Keynes introduced scientific national budgeting.
Taxes increased.
Pay was deferred (compulsory savings)
Bond drives held
Rationing was general.
Economics: The Soviet Union
The Third Five Year Plan of 1938 specifically aimed at improving defense capability.The defense budget was doubled.Crash programs were installed to develop the Urals and Western Siberia: industrial areas far from Germany
Economics: The Soviet Union
Iron, coal, and nonferrous mines were opened, railroads and power plants built.
Economics: The Soviet Union
After Barbarossa began, the Soviets began an extraordinary transfer of factories from endangered areas in Leningrad, Moscow, and the Donbas east beyond the Urals.
Economics: The Soviet Union
1360 factories were disassembled and shipped (with the workers) east.
They were rebuilt under appalling conditions and put into production as soon as possible.
Economics: The Soviet Union
The Soviets concentrated production on a few simple, rugged, effective weapons, and made a lot of them.
US Lend Lease was typically in the form of food, trucks, rolling stock, clothing, and special equipment (radios, fuel additives)
Economics: The Soviet Union
Manpower was also a severe problem for the Soviet Union
Millions were lost early in the war.
Large areas of the country fell under Nazi rule.
Casualties were hideous
Economics: The Soviet Union
All men from 16-55 and all women from 16-45 were mobilized.
As a proportion of the labor force, women rose from 38% to 53% by 1942
Economics: The Soviet Union
Women were used in the military in both support and combat roles.
They were nurses, tank drivers, fighter pilots, anti-aircraft gunners, snipers
Economics: The Soviet Union
Despite extremely harsh conditions and military discipline, labor productivity rose each year—a testament to the courage and patriotism of the Soviet peoples.
Economics: The Soviet Union
The same pattern occurs in agriculture.
“Women to the tractors!”
By 1943, 71% of the agricultural labor force were women.
Economics: The Soviet Union
The loss of the Ukraine meant severe food shortages in the Soviet Union.
US Lend Lease aid provided much of the food needed.
Social: Germany
The Germans kept consumer production high and rations high until very late in the war.
In fact, German rations were the highest of all until the last year of the war.
Social: Germany
Germany was also reluctant to mobilize women into the labor force.
In fact, payments to dependents of soldiers led many women to withdraw from the labor market.
This did not begin to change until 1943
Social: Germany
Hitler began the T-4 euthanasia program early in the war.
About 200,000 elderly, very sick, or handicapped persons were killed by German doctors, nurses, and administrators.
Social: Germany
Rumors about these killings eventually led to an outcry, and the program was stopped in 1942By that time, there was no one left to euthanize.The personnel was transferred east to work in the Death Camps.
Social: Germany
Gestapo files demonstrate that most Germans were aware of the massacre of the Jews.
Social: Germany
One German reporter wrote in 1943: “We heard entirely clear and explicit announcements about the Jewish question. Among the 16 million inhabitants of the area controlled by the civilian administration I nthe Ukraine,
Social: Germany
“there used to be 1.1 million Jews. They have all been liquidated . . . . One of the higher officials of the administration explained the executions with the words, ‘the Jews are exterminated like roaches.’”
(Weinberg, 474)
Social: Germany
The government took steps to prevent the marriage of Germans to inferior races.
Aryan looking children from occupied countries were kidnapped and taken to Germany to be raised.
Social: Germany
Slave laborers were present in most towns and attached to most factories.
Social: Germany
Heavy bombing damage made Germans increasingly dependent upon the National Socialist Welfare Organization (NSV) for relief.
Social: Germany
Resistance to the Nazis within Germany was rare.
There was the White Rose group, as well as the group which tried to assassinate Hitler in July 1944
Social: Germany
The fact is that the great majority of the population supported Hitler.
The military fought bitterly to the end.
Social: Great Britain
Britain mobilized 5,000,000 men from a workforce of 22,000,000
Britain suffered 800,000 casualties (military and merchant marine) and 33,000 civilians were killed in bombing.
Social: The United States
The war quickly ended the unemployment of the Great Depression.
Inactive industrial plant was geared up.
Massive government investment expanded our industrial plant.
Social: The United States
Many new plants were placed in California, the Northwest, and the South.
This led to a demographic revolution.
Social: The United States
The aircraft industry in California and Washington burgeoned.
Shipyards on the Gulf Coast sprang up.
Social: The United States
Japanese-Americans were rounded up and herded into “relocation camps” and interned.These people lost their property and were denied their rights.Despite this, many Nisei served with distinction during the war.
Social: The United States
African-Americans moved in large numbers to the jobs.
Under pressure, FDR issued an Executive Order banning discrimination in federal war contracts.
Social: The United States
Hundreds of thousands of African-Americans served in armed forces in segregated units.
Eleanor Roosevelt worked with civil rights groups to push for full civil rights for African-Americans.
Social: The United States
The GI Bill of Rights provided educational opportunities for veterans after the war (including women and African-Americans), as well as home loan entitlements.
Here are the origins of suburbia.
Social: The Soviet Union
The Germans pursued a “race war of extermination”
Current estimates of Soviet losses are around 48,000,000
Every Soviet family was effected.
Social: The Soviet Union
The Soviet name for the Second World War is “The Great Patriotic War”
The Great Patriotic War consolidated the Stalinist regime and provided a validation of its rule
Science
What Churchill called the Wizard War was extremely important.
Prof. F. A. Lindemann of Oxford was Churchill’s scientific adviser.
Science
The Allies established a close and far more effective relationship between the military, the policy makers, and the scientists.
Radar
First developed by Robert Watson-Watt, radar is the most important scientific device of the war.
Radar
An electromagnetic war developed.
The Germans developed a radio directional beam to assist bombing during the Battle of Britain.
The British jammed it.
Radar
The German X-Geraet used many frequencies, and resulted in the devastation of Coventry.
The British put radar in night fighters.
Radar
The British developed Gee as a radio directional beam.The Germans learned to jam it.The British developed Oboe for blind bombing.The British developed H2S look down radar.
Weapons Development
Radar was systematically applied to anti-aircraft gun fire.
The Germans developed magnetic mines.
The British learned to demagnetize or “degauss” their ships.
Weapons Development
Rocket artilleryThe Russians developed the Katyusha rocket
The Germans developed the Nebelwerfer.
The US introduced the bazooka
The Germans produced a superior version, the Panzerschreck.
Weapons Development
The US applied radar to artillery shells to produce the proximity fuse.
Weapons Development: Jets
The Germans developed the Me 262 turbojet fighter / bomber (but too late to influence the outcome.)
The British were close behind in jet development.
Weapons Development: Rockets
The Germans also developed the V-1 buzz bomb and
The V-2 rocket—the origin of ballistic missiles and space flight.
Science: Medicine
The US and Britain produced a synthetic substitute for quinine with which to fight malaria.
Without atebrin, the war in the Pacific could not have been fought.
Science: Medicine
(US soldiers didn’t like to take it. My father told me that it turned the skin yellow, colored the urine, and there was a rumor that it reduced potency.)
Science: Medicine
DDT was developed also to fight disease by fighting mosquitos.
Science: Medicine
Sulfa drugs were developed and used extensively, reducing combat deaths from wounds.
Science: Medicine
The US took over production of penicillin, a British development, and mass produced it.
The era of antibiotics had appeared.
Science: The Atomic Age
The work of Neils Bohr, Enrico Fermi Otto Hahn, and Otto Frisch led to the conclusion that a uranium bomb was theoretically possible.
Science: The Atomic Age
The Germans assigned Werner Heisenberg the task of developing such a bomb.
Science: The Atomic Age
FDR directed the creation of the Manhattan Project, a massive, enormously expensive secret development plan for the uranium bomb.
Science: The Atomic Age
The project was coordinated by an Army general, Leslie Groves. The scientific team led by J. Robert Oppenheimer.
Science: The Atomic Age
Germany had surrendered when the bomb was tested.
Japan was still fighting.
The degree of US and British strategic bombing against both Germany and Japan suggests that the bomb would have been used on Germany if necessary.
Propaganda: Germany
Joseph Goebbels was head of propaganda.
Purpose was to convince Germans to fight and to discourage the enemy.
Propaganda: Germany
The British fascist William Joyce (dubbed “Lord Haw-Haw”) made radio broadcasts aimed at England.
The Japanese had Tokyo Rose.
Joyce was hanged for treason after the war.
Propaganda: Germany
Goebbels’ premature triumph meant that, after Stalingrad, much of his propaganda was ridiculed by everyone except Germans.
Propaganda: Germany
Goebbels’ real task then was maintaining morale at home, esp. since Hitler increasingly withdrew.
Propaganda: Germany
With the invasion of Russia, Goebbels’ emphasized racial ideology.
After Stalingrad, he emphasized hatred, and above all, fear of what would happen if Germany were defeated.
Propaganda: Germany
A joke spread in Germany in 1944: “Better enjoy the war; the peace will be terrible.”
Propaganda: British
The BBC was the chief vehicle for propaganda.
Besides sending coded messages to the resistance in Western Europe, they decided that effectiveness would be in direct proportion to accuracy and truth.
Propaganda: The Soviet Union
The ideological themes traditional in Soviet propaganda gave way to a stress on Russian patriotism.
Heroes like Suvorov and Kutusov or Alexander Nevsky were resurrected.
Propaganda: The Soviet Union
German atrocities were emphasized, and the resulting hatred those atrocities created.
Military Dimension
I will briefly summarize some of the more obvious military elements.
Military Dimension
The Second World War was a life and death struggle.
Axis victory meant the destruction of the core values of Western culture.
Military Dimension
The Allies demanded “unconditional surrender”
The war did not end until the Axis was physically destroyed and occupied, and their governments liquidated.
Military Dimension
The war was fought on land, in the air, and on and under the sea.It was fought on the coasts, along rivers, in forests, mountains, jungles, steppe and swamp.At was fought in summer, spring, autumn, and deepest winter.
Military Dimension
The destruction of housing, industry, and transportation infrastructure was appalling.Millions were left without shelter.Tens of millions of civilians were killed.Tens of millions became refugees.
Military Dimension
There was little discrimination between civilian and military targets.The Germans terror bombed Warsaw, Rotterdam and London.The Allies killed 600,000 Germans while reducing Gemran cities to rubble.
Military Dimension
German soldiers committed atrocities against civilians where ever they went.
Lidice was merely the most famous such atrocity.
Military Dimension
The fighting in the East was the most brutal.
German soldiers stole food, clothing and shelter, leaving the populace destitute of the means of survival.
Military Dimension
Partisan resistance led to mass killings of civilians.
Mass murder of Jews by the Einsatzgruppen was disguised as anti-partisan activities.
Military Dimension
Jews were particularly targeted by the Germans for extermination.
Overall, between 5 and 6,000,000 Jews were killed.
Military Dimension
Ground battles frequently took place in populated centers:
Leningrad
Kharkov
Stalingrad
Caen
Berlin
Military Dimension
The major belligerents mobilized at least 10% of the population into uniform.
10 % is the benchmark level—more than that will damage the economy
Bibliography
Most of the information in this was stolen from
Weinberg, Gerhard. A World at Arms. Cambridge University Press. NY: 1994.
Wright, Gordon. The Ordeal of Total War, 1939-1945. Harper and Row. NY: 1968
Topics for Consideration
With reference to EITHER the two World Wars OR any two twentieth century wars of your choice, show how the use of aircraft has changed the nature and the practices of war. Reference should be made to (A) war on land; (B) war at sea; (C) war in the air; (D) psychological warfare; and (D) any other relevant aspect. (1988) (HL)
Topics for Consideration
Compare the First and Second World Wars from the point of view of the impact of weaponry on (a) tactics and strategy (b) the role and involvement of civilians. (1987)
Topics for Consideration
"War is the locomotive of history" (Leon Trotsky). With reference to any ONE war in the twentieth century, consider to what extent war has acted as an accelerator/catalyst of (A) technical; (B) economic; (C) social, and (D) political change. (Nov. 1990) (HL)
Topics for Consideration
How has "total war" affected: (A) the role of women in society; (B) refugees and displaced persons; (C) the distinction between civilian and military targets and (D) control of national resources. (Nov. 1990) (HL)
Topics for Consideration
“The Second World War had one victor, the United States, one loser, Germany, and one hero, Britain.” Assess the validity of this claim. (1996) (HL)
Topics for Consideration
"Scientific and technological advance play an important part in the nature and outcome of wars." Compare the two World Wars with this claim in mind. (1989) (HL)