Practices of World War II in Europe and the Pacific

Practices of World WAR II• To What Extent were economic and

Human resources mobilized in one 20th Century war?

• Examine the importance of air power in one 20th century war.

• Discuss the impact of technological developments in the course and

outcome of one 20th century war.

Historical Context • Deadlier than World War 1

(17m v 60m or 3% of global pop.)

• Civilian impact significantly greater – death, destruction, displacement

• War of rapid movement across the entire globe

Allegiance of countries as they entered war through 1939-1945

21. Which country suffered highest percent loss?2. What is the combined deaths for China and USSR?3. Compared to deaths in the US?4. Compared to deaths in Germany5. Which country suffered the most civilian deaths?

The War in Europe

Invasion of Poland (Context)

• After dismemberment of Czechoslovakia in March 1939

• This was an abrupt and fateful turning point for Chamberlain and for Britain … The Prime Minister at last saw that Hitler had deceived him.

• William Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (1959)

• B/F guarantee security of Poland

• German Polish Non-aggression Pact 1934

The War in Europe – Sept. 1 1939

• Polish Blitzkrieg(lighting war) – use of combined arms to quickly infiltrate deep into enemy territory.

• Panzers – tanks

• Luftwaffe – air force

• Make path for infantry to clear and occupy

Phony War or Sitzkrieg (Oct.-April 39-40)

• Britain declared war immediately after Germany invaded Poland, but could not get troops to Poland in time to have any effect

• Instead Britain and France stood by behind fortified defenses (Maginot Line)

• Chamberlain believed Hitler’s inaction would be his demise

Rollin Kirby. “Heavy Firing Heard on the Western Front,” 1939.

Invasion of Denmark and Norway (April 1940)• Controlling Norway would allow Hitler to access

Swedish iron ore• British had hoped to invade/control region before

Hitler

• Quickly led to Kriegsmarine totally encircling Norway/Sweden

• Chamberlain removed for not being active enough against Hitler – Churchill leads new coalition gov’t in Britain

Invasion of Holland, Belgium, France (May-June 1940)

• Skirted around Maginot Line• French Commander Gamelin

did not believe that Germans would move through wooded, poorly roadedArdennes

• Hitler reached English Channel in 6 days

• Encircled 1m troops in Dunkirk “pocket”

• Allowed to escape but lost large amounts of arms/equipment

Fall of France • Paris captured June 14th

• Government now led by Marshal Petain

• Surrenders in Compiegne to Germans

• Hitler achieved in 2 months what the Kaiser could not achieve in 4 years

Hitler’s Situation - 1940

• French puppet government – Petain

• USSR – friendly under terms of Nazi-Soviet Pact

• Franco’s Spain – not allied, but closely associated with G/I

• Italy joins war on Germany’s side in last days before French surrender

• Slovakia, Hungary – satellite states

• Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Northern France – occupied

Battle of Britain - 1940

• The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war…if we fail then the whole world, including the US, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new dark age made more sinister…Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties and so bear ourselves (so that) men will still say “This was their finest hour”

• 3 messages according to Churchill

Battle of Britain – 1940• Hitler astonished at Churchill’s resistance

• Luftwaffe needs to destroy RAF in order to knock out Britain, prepare operation Sea Lion

• Germany fails to gain air superiority, decides to turn attention to his original priority –invasion of USSR.

• Why does it fail?

Operation Sea Lion – Postponed Indefinitely – Sept. 1940

• RAF must be beaten

• English channel cleared of mines

• Channel dominated by German artillery

• Royal Navy must be occupied elsewhere

Battle of Britain – 1940 • Germany has numerical superiority (1200

bombers, 1000 fighters v. 900 fighters) but those fighters, mostly

• Messerschmitt 109 – good fighter but only had enough fuel load to escort bombers over Britain for 10-20 minutes

• Radar – Germany aircraft showed up on fighter control screens 120km away, RAF did not waste time searching and patrolling skies

• Hitler switched to bombing cities – allowed RAF time to recover

Mediterranean and the Balkans(‘40-’41)

• Sept. 1940 – Mussolini sent army from Libya into Egypt

• Also invaded Greece from Albania

• Both offenses failed – pushed out of Egypt, half of Italy’s fleet sunk by British

• But, drew Germany into N. Africa and Balkans (April ‘41)

• Erwin Rommel's Afrika Korps sent to Tripoli and pushed British out of Libya

• Closed on Alamein Egypt, overran Yugoslavia, Greece

• So what?

“Sea-sick, am I, mien Fuehrer? Very Likely. But what about your frost bite?”

Mediterranean and the Balkans(‘40-’41)

• Effects• By fighting Germany in

Greece, it weakened British resistance in N. Africa

• Hitler delayed plan to invade USSR by 6 weeks due to fixing Mussolini’s wars in this region

German Domination of Europe – 1941-1942

• One country that was directly absorbed into the Reich

• List two countries that eventually became puppet states

• Describe the Germany control of France

• Describe the process leading to the holocaust

• Document analysis p. 146

Operation Barbarossa (June 22 1941)

• Lebensraum – living space

• Nonetheless, true intention was ideological

• Inferior communist supporting Slavs

• Decided it would be ok to leave Britain undefeated

• Would not be strong enough to open up a second front

• Would come to terms with German hegemony after USSR’s collapse, should only take a month

Operation Barbarossa • 121 divisions – actually still outnumbered

• But had element of surprise – Stalin ignored own intelligence, Churchill’s warnings

• Stalin believed Hitler would not open up a two front war

• But USSR was recovering from Winter War with Finland, Stalin’s Purges

• Hitler overwhelmingly successful in first months• N- Leningrad surrounded, besieged

• S - Kiev captured

• E – 80km from Moscow

• Soviets lost 3m casualties

For what reasons would Hitler’s invasion be a sound strategy? (list them)

Operation Barbarossa

• October – heavy rains turn roads to mud, slow blitzkrieg

• Temperatures fall to -38C• Germans equipped only in summer

uniforms

• Marshal Zhukov launched counter-offensive – push Germans away from Moscow

• Hitler changes plans for 1942 – attack southward, take Caucasus oilfields

Stalingrad – 1942 • Germans must control Volga river to

move into region• City of Stalingrad bombed, refused to

surrender, became modern battlefield

• Zhukov waited, launched pincer attack and surrounded German 6th Army, 91,000 solider forced to surrender

• 1.2m total Russian casualties, 800,000 German

• (Document analysis Stalingrad p. 150)

Battle of Kursk -1943 • Germany tried another failed offensive

• Russian salient protected with defense in depth

• For rest of 1943 Germany retreated from entire Eastern Front

• 1944 – Leningrad liberated

• Jan. 1945 – Soviets enter East Prussia

• Enter Berlin May 2nd

Why were Soviets Able to Defeat German Army?

• Not prepared for long campaign – short on supplies, not prepared for harsh Russian winter

• 1941 – Hitler took personal control over army

• Germans brutally attacked Russians, strengthening Russian resolve

• Endlessly long/exposed supply lines

• Loss of aircraft and tanks that could not be replaced

A German supply train in Russia. Supply is crucial in any military action. As the Germans moved deeper into Russia their supply-lines got stretched

Richard Overy Reading • In a short paragraph explain Overy’s thesis on…

• To what extent was the Soviet response to invasion effective?

• In what ways was did the Soviets turnaround the war?

• To what extent did the people’s input shape how the war was fought?

How did Soviets Win?

• Reformed, modernized• Began heavy reliance on tanks/artillery

• Airforce reformed – centrally coordinated radio directives

• Radio also introduced in tanks, infantry regiments

• “The revolution in Soviet communications was perhaps the most important single reform…[It] gave the Soviet commanders the ability to direct large and complex operations and to hold the battlefield together.”

• Richard Overy

Soviet T-34 – apx. 30,000 produced during war – nearly invulnerable to all antitank weapons German Tank commanders: Guderian – T-34 “vastly superior” to German tanks, Von Kleist – “finest tank in the world”

How did Soviets Win?

• Stalin withdrew from military responsibility• Allowed commanders – Vasilevsky, Zhukov much

more freedom and control

• Patriotism – German atrocities indicated to Russians what German victory would mean

• Stalin stayed in Moscow as it neared capture

• Allowed reopening of church, proclaimed “Great Patriotic War”

Zhukov – Chief of Staff, deputy Commander in Chief – pioneer of tank combat, savior of Moscow, Hero of the Soviet Union

How did the Soviets Win?• Though lost 3/4ths of iron, coal, steel and

much of its railways and electrical output• Still out produced Germany in 42-43

• Moved much of its industrial equipment across Ural mountains

• 1360 new factories opened in eastern Russia in 1942

• Centrally controlled economy well suited for total war

• Factories and gulags set to work for war

• US Lend-Lease – contributed 4% of weapons, more importantly much food and raw materials

Defeat of Nazi Germany • 1942

• Although Stalin was desperate Britain and USA can not open second front

• Instead carry war to N. Africa – defeat Rommel’s forces in Nov. 1942 at Al-Alamein, take all of N. Africa by May 1943

• Prevented fall of Suez Canal

• Provided experience in amphibious attacks

• Exposed Italy

Operation TORCH landings

The fall of Italy (‘43-’45)

• Allied Forces land in Sicily (Operation Husky)

• Lead to Italian King firing/imprisoning Mussolini

• Badoglio, new PM signs armistice, sided with Allies

• German divisions diverted to Italy

• Rome captured June ’44

• Significance• Fascism ended in Italy

• Tied up German divisions needed in Russia/Stalingrad

• Stalin can no longer claim Allied forces not fighting in Europe

Operation Overlord (June 6 ‘44)

• 326,000 British, Canadians, Americans• 80km front of Normandy Beach (Fortress Europe, Atlantic Wall)

• Most complex military invasion?• Mulberry harbors – prefabricated harbors provide anchorage for supply ships

• Oil pipelines laid down across channel

• Subterfuge – radio chatter, Patton’s “1st Army”• Land at Calais?

Operation Overlord (June 6 ‘44)

• Within 1 month – 1 million men land• Within a few weeks – N. France, Antwerp, Brussels all liberated

• Allies crossed Rhine – March 1945, Hitler killed himself – April 30

• Germany unconditionally surrendered – May 7

Operation Dragoon(Aug. 15 1944)

• Controversial between B./U.S. forces• Britain hoped to continue operations in

Italy/Med.

• U.S. forces wanted additional supply routes into France/Europe

Invasion of Hitler’s Europe (Summer ‘44-Spring ‘45)

• Germans continued fierce resistance – Why?• Many leaders knew they would be executed as

war criminals

• Effective Propaganda – Allied unconditional surrender = War for Germany’s survival?

• Stauffenberg Plot – further consolidated Hitler’s power – war would be bitter ending.

U.S.A. will preserve European culture,” and next to it in a

different font, ”With what, right?

• German propaganda targeted towards Polish citizens

German propaganda portraying Churchill and FDR as destructive gangsters

Invasion of Hitler’s Europe (Summer ‘44-Spring ‘45)

• Battle of the Bulge (Dec. ‘44-Jan. ’45)

• Why didn’t it work?• No longer most mobile – US –

45,000+ trucks, German infantry mostly reliant on horses

• Did not have men, materials to support advance

• Total lack of air superiority, cloud cover quickly vanished

Why did Allies defeat Hitler?

• Hitler allowed Britain to survive• provided eventual platform for allied invasion in ‘44

• British continued tenacious fighting in Africa, Italy, Asia

• Operation Barbarossa – HUGE mistake!• “committed Germany to a war with a power which was three times her size in

population, eighty times as large in land, and of much greater industrial capacity. It is hardly surprising that the major military setbacks experienced by the Wehrmacht occurred in Russia. These took the pressure of Britain and greatly assisted her war effort in the Mediterranean and North Africa” –Stephen Lee, Aspects of European History

Why did Allies defeat Hitler?• Declared War on U.S

• Was dismissive of U.S. capabilities

• Thought U.S. would fight only in Pacific• FDR instead made Hitler’s defeat top

priority

• U.S. and British Cooperation – perhaps the most successful military cooperation in history

• Limits – Patton and Montgomery's egos, differing goals - British postponements of Overlord for continued focus in Africa, Italy

Know Your Allies – U.S. newsreel- List reason why the U.S. and Britain cooperated during this conflict?

Why did Allies defeat Hitler?

• Hitler’s leadership• Did not prepare for winter campaign in USSR

• Refused orderly retreats (would have allowed for shortening of supply/com. lines, focused counter attacks) – ex. Stalingrad

• V-rocket program – expensive, ineffective – could have spent better on developing jets, regain air superiority?

• German resources• Shortages of rubber, cotton, nickel, oil (after mid’44)

• Women not employed in munitions until late in war

• Military resented civilian interference (war production, strategy)

Me 262 – world’s first operational jet fighter – one of Hitler’s “Wonder weapons”Did not make much difference – began operations in late 1944 but rarely used due to engine problems, jet fuel shortages

• General Alfred Jodl,, reflected on the Führer's style: "If there is anything that clearly demonstrates the revolutionary character of Hitler's method of [military] leadership, it is that he did not concede to his military working staff, the OKW, and within it, the Operations Staff, the role of strategic adviser. All attempts I undertook in this direction failed. Hitler was willing to have a working staff that translated his decisions into orders which he would then issue as Supreme Commander of the Wehrmacht, but nothing more...He did not care to hear any other points of view; if they were even hinted at he would break into short-tempered fits of enraged agitation. Remarkable – and, for soldiers, incomprehensible – conflicts developed out of Hitler's almost mystical conviction of his own infallibility as leader of the nation and of the war."

Why did Allies defeat Hitler?• Allied Strengths

• USSR command economy easily shifted into war economy

• Produced more and better armaments that Germany by 1943

• Once American economy shifted it also overtook axis production

• Produced 70,000 tanks, 120,000 aircraft annually

• Greater economic resources do not guarantee victory –Overy thesis

• Instead were able to “turn economic strength into effective fighting power”

• Improved quality of forces

• Support personal – 18 for every fighting solider in Pacific (similar but less in Europe, still most well supplied)

• Civilian apparatus – mobilize intellectual, organizational strength (Ex. Manhattan Project)

Why did Allies defeat Hitler?• Allied Strengths

• Strategic decisions• Allies focused on attacking Germany 85% of

U.S. war effort v. 15% in Japan

• Strategic bombing – had serious effect on Germany's ability to fight on the front

• Will• most believed war was worth fighting,

unifying civilian populations

• Life and death struggle for many

• “Just” war

Controversial bombing of Dresden Feb. 13-15 1945Killed apx. 25,000 in historical Germany cultural centerUS claim – focused on attacking railway yards, factories

AJP Taylor and Soviet Contribution to the Waris he right?

• “Barbarossa, as the invasion of the Soviet Union was codenamed, unleashed the greatest, bloodiest and most difficult land campaign ever fought in the history of warfare. The failure of the German army to conquer Russia did indeed guarantee that Germany as a nation would be destroyed and that the eastern half of Europe would remain in bondage to the Communists until 1989. The tragic paradox at the center of mid- to late-twentieth century history is that Europe, and the world, owed its deliverance from the tyranny of Hitler to the heroism of the Red Army. Of course, Britain’s resistance to Hitler in 1940 played its part at the beginning of the conflict, as did the enormous contribution of men and arms by the United States when they eventually entered the conflict. But the Russian contribution was crucial: it was the resistance of the Russian people to invasion, siege, and starvation, and the preparedness of Stalin to sacrifice millions of lives, both military and civilian in what Russians still call the Great Patriotic War, which secured Hitler’s defeat. To be delivered from the tyranny of Hitler, it was necessary to be delivered into the tyranny of Josef Stalin.

Research and share, “should the USSR receive more or less credit for winning WWII?”

Overview of World War II – Pacific Theatre

Pearl Harbor (Dec. 7 ‘41)• Brilliantly planned by Isoroku

Yamamoto• Undetected, no declaration of war

• “unprovoked and dastardly attack” FDR

• U.S./Britain/most states in Americas declare war over next 24 hours

• Dec. 11 Germany declares war on US• Tripartite Pact, Hitler – opportunity to stop

starve Britain of its most powerful ally

Evidence for Elaborate Planning?

Japan’s Plan for Survival?

• Buy time, create defensive perimeter

• Force US to negotiate peace

Did Hitler lack an appreciation for US power? Think FDR’s “Arsenal of Democracy”

• “Hitler's deeply-held racial prejudices made him see the US as a decadent bourgeois democracy filled with people of mixed race, a population heavily under the influence of Jews and Negroes, with no history of authoritarian discipline to control and direct them, interested only in luxury and living the "good life" while dancing, drinking and enjoying negrofied music. Such a country, in Hitler's mind, could never be a serious threat to a disciplined country like National Socialist Germany” – Alan Bullock

Did Hitler declare war as an act of propaganda to distract Germany from it’s failures to successful defeat the USSR?

• Joachim C. Fest, one of Hitler's biographers, has argued that Hitler's decision was "really no longer an act of his own volition, but a gesture governed by a sudden awareness of his own impotence. That gesture was Hitler's last strategic initiative of any importance

Dec. 1941

• Japan attacked US – Wake, Guam, Philippines• British Malaya,, Burma

• And Hong Kong – 12,000 prisoners surrender Dec. 25th

• And Singapore – 80,000 forced to surrender – one of worst defeats in British history

• Japan Mid 1942• Conquered Philippines

• And Dutch East Indies

• Create and fortify vast Empire – East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere

3 reasons why the invasion of the Philippines was significant?

Japanese Setbacks – Mid 1942

• Failure to capture Port Moresby – South Coast of new Guinea –airbase in range of Australia – US strategic Victory – Battle of Coral Sea

• Battle of Midway (June) – attempt to lure US aircraft carriers into decisive battle

• JN-25 code broken – codeword AF unknown• Japan intentionally deceived to confirm code was Midway island

• US carriers move to out of visual range location for ambush, lay in wait for Japanese bombardment of island

• Sink 4 of 6 Japanese carriers, 248 aircraft, 3000 sailors/pilots

3 Explanations why US was successful at Midway

Significance of Midway

• “Not only did the balance of the Pacific between fleet carriers now stand equal…the advantage the Japanese had lost could not be made good…six fleet carriers would join the Japanese in 1942-1944’ America would launch 14, as well as nine light carrier and 66 escort carriers, creating a fleet against which Japan could not stand. It was now condemned to the defensive” John Keegan –The Second World War

• 3 messages – use language from source as evidence

Japanese Retreat• Although no lost territory, Midway was

catastrophic defeat

• US would have hard time pushing Japan back

• “Two Prongs” of attack• Admiral Chester Nimitz (Navy) – Central

Pacific• Gilberts, Marshalls, Marianas islands, Iwo Jima,

Okinawa

• Douglas MacArthur (Army) – Southeast Pacific

• Solomons, New Guinea, Philippines• Island hopping

Central Pacific – Nimitz and the Navy• 1943 – Gilberts

• 1944 Marshalls, Marianas – now hoped to cut off sea routes to East Indies

• Oct. ‘44 - Battle of Leyte Gulf – largest Naval battle in history

• Japan mobilized all of its Naval forces for decisive battle

• Lost decisively, what was left usually stayed in port, deprived of fuel

• A further 4 aircraft carriers, 3 battleships + 20 cruisers/destroyers sunk

• J.F.C. Fuller, in his The Decisive Battles of the Western World, writes of the outcome of Leyte Gulf:

• The Japanese fleet had [effectively] ceased to exist, and, except by land-based aircraft, their opponents had won undisputed command of the sea.

• When Admiral Ozawa was questioned... after the war he replied 'After this battle the surface forces became strictly auxiliary, so that we relied on land forces, special [Kamikaze] attack, and air power... there was no further use assigned to surface vessels, with the exception of some special ships.'

• And Admiral Yonai, the Navy Minister, said he realized the defeat at Leyte 'was tantamount to the loss of the Philippines.'

• As for the larger significance of the battle, he said, 'I felt that it was the end.'

Iwo Jima and Okinawa

• Last two steps before invasion of Kyushu and Honshu islands(codename Operation Downfall)

• Casualties mount on both sides• About 13,000 Americans killed in

taking final islands

• 160,000 Japanese solider + 110,000 civilians

MacArthur and the Army in South Pacific • Retreat from Philippines in ‘42

• Quickly pushed back to Australia

• Ambitious push to take back Philippines via Solomons then New Guinea

• Statement “I shall return” fulfilled Oct. ‘44

• Would become Supreme Commander of Allied Powers in Japan

• De facto ruler of Japan until 1948

• Herbert P. Bix described the relationship between the general and the Emperor as: "the Allied commander would use the Emperor, and the Emperor would cooperate in being used. Their relationship became one of expediency and mutual protection, of more political benefit to Hirohito than to MacArthur because Hirohito had more to lose–the entire panoply of symbolic, legitimizing properties of the imperial throne

• MacArthur - His indictment will unquestionably cause a tremendous convulsion among the Japanese people, the repercussions of which cannot be overestimated. He is a symbol which unites all Japanese. Destroy him and the nation will disintegrate...It is quite possible that a million troops would be required which would have to be maintained for an indefinite number of years

• MacArthur's attempts to shield the Emperor from indictment and to have all the blame taken by General Tojo were successful, which as Herbert P. Bix commented, "...had a lasting and profoundly distorting impact on the Japanese understanding of the lost war"

The Atomic Bomb And Japanese Surrender• Germany defeated in May ‘45 – allies could focus entirely on Japan

• Stalin promised to invade Manchuria after defeat of Germany – Yalta Conference

• Firebombing of Japanese cities had devastating effects• March 10th – 100,000 civilians killed in Tokyo in one raid

• PM Suzuki ask for conditional surrender – keep emperor, US refuses, war continues on

• US concerned if they stalled Stalin would expand his reach in East Asia

• Also concerned about mounting casualties – estimates of up to 250,000 Americans would be injured or killed

B-29 Superfortress

• US Army’s long range high altitude, first fully pressurized high capacity 4 engine bomber.

• Electronically controlled turrets for defense

• Responsible for carpet bombing of Japanese cities, atomic bombs

Manhattan Project • Secret US military program lead by Oppenheimer and Groves

• “Little Boy” dropped over Hiroshima Aug. 6

• “Fat man” over Nagasaki on Aug. 9

• Contention – Was the US justified in dropping the atomic bombs? Did they cause the end of the war?

• 2 columns – US actions Justified / US actions unjustified

• HW: source analysis pg. 159

War in the East - Why were Allies successful in defeating Japan?• Several Factors in common with defeat over the Germans:

• 1. The emphasis on back-up support for the military• 2.Involvement of civilian in military planning and logistics • 3. As with Germany, Japan neglected these areas Post-war surveys indicated neglect

maintenance, logistic support, communications and control for airfields or bases

• Technologically, the US began the war at a disadvantage• The US adjusted and learned from their mistakes to build up naval and air superiority

by building new planes and aircraft carriers

• A critical factor lay in • 1.Isolating Japan from its empire by destroying its merchant marine, navy, and naval

air power • 2. Japan overstretched itself and was a small island with limited supplies• 3. The Japanese economy couldn’t match the US capacity for rapid expansion• By 1945 Japanese industry and infrastructure were destroyed

How was WWII fought? – the war on land • The War on Land:

• Mobile attacks rather than attrition

• Blitzkrieg – offensive war – surprise, speed and movement using tanks, armored vehicles, mechanized transport and the airplane.

• Tanks and motorized infantry supported by air power

• Many historians doubt that Blitzkrieg was more of an improved response

• Successes of Blitzkrieg: until 1941, due to surprise

• Failures of Blitzkrieg: Operation Barbarossa showed weakness, due to size of operation and huge areas of land and resources of USSR, Germany lost key element of surprise

The War at Sea – Battle for the Atlantic

• naval power was critical for maintaining vital trade routes the British was dependent on -This allowed Britain to defend its empire and was essential to army operations outside of home waters Thus, until 1944, Britain fought mainly a naval war

• The German navy suffered major blows with the scuttling of the ‘Graf Spee’ (1939) and the sinking of the ‘Bismarck’ (1941)German capital warships were removed from the Atlantic

• Sea warfare became about controlling supply lines1939-43 Germany and British fought control over the Atlantic Germany predominantly finding success using U-Boats By 1943 the Germans had sunk over 3000 British Ships, which seriously threatened the Allied supplies

The War at Sea – Battle for the Atlantic

• To combat the U-boats, the Allies had to both attack and avoid them

• By mid 1943 a few culminating factors helped eliminate the U-boat as a decisive threat:

• 1. Cracked Enigma codes: also changed the Royal Navy codes after discovering the Germans had been deciphering them. Thus gaining an intelligence advantage

• 2. High-Frequency Direction Finder(HF/DF or ‘Huff Duff’):provided an accurate bearing towards any submarine that used radio

• 3. Air Power: Long-range B-24 Liberator aircraft with short-wave radar and searchlights could pick out U-boats on the surface at night

Naval War in the Pacific

• Aircraft used in sea

• Naval war Japan used air power very effectively in attacks against the Allies in hopes of preventing reinforcements from reaching the Pacific

• The US access to radar, Japanese codes, and superior shipbuilding efficiency tipped the balance1943-44 US shipyards out produced aircraft carriers 7/90

What was the significance of the naval war for the outcome of World War II?

• Naval war played a key role in both the course and the outcome – in EU the German U-boat campaign delayed the opening of a second front ; delayed supplies to USSR

• The victory of the Allies in the battle for the Atlantic was vital, allowing GB and USA to prepare for the D-Day

• Allowed allies to impose crippling sea blockades on Italy and Japan

The War in the Air/ Europe :• Strategic bombing -Focused on destroying military and

industrial infrastructure• blurred the lines between combatant and non-combatant

• in the War the RAF was forbidden form indiscriminate bombing

• This changed when the Luftwaffe crew bombed East London - Churchill bombed Berlin in retaliation; Hitler responded with a full scale air assault on Britain (the Blitz)

• The Allies switch to indiscriminate bombing followed Sir Arthur ‘Bomber” Harris was the Commander-in-Chief of Bomber command in 1942

• Initially operated at a high cost to RAF air crafts and did not lead to destruction of German morale and industry

The War in the Air/ Europe :• The introduction of the P-51B Mustang in 1944 changed the tide P-51B had

auxiliary fuel tanks so it could accompany bombers all the way to their targets and take on the Luftwaffe

• The Germans lost 900 fighters in February and March of 1944By June 1944, the Allies had total air superiority

• With the Luftwaffe defeated, Bomber Command was able to bomb in daylight and carry out precision attacks on industrial targets, such as the steel industry in the Ruhr

• Anglo-American bombing of Dresden in Feb 1945 killed 50,00 civilians • Germans responded with V-1 andV-2 missiles, which were unsuccessful• V-1 and V-2 ballistic missiles were targeted at London and did produce

significant casualties• However, they could not be mass produced and were unreliable and inaccurate

They also came into the war too late and diverted resources away from development on aircrafts

The War in the Air/ Pacific :

• From Nov 1944, the USAAF, launching from Saipan and Guam, relentlessly began bombing the Japanese mainland

• The bombing of Tokyo on March 9, 1945 destroyed 1million homes and killed more then 80,000 civilians April-Aug 1945, most cities were devastated by Bomber Command

• Japanese fled to the villages causing 50% absenteeism in factories

• Bombing combined with sea blockades devastated the economy Climaxed with the dropping of two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, after which Japan surrendered - Air power caused the collapse

• The debate about strategic bombing – Two major criticisms • 1.Morally wrong. The British claimed: a. the Germans started it, b. it was the only way they could

respond, c. and I tended the war more quickly• 2. Ineffective: Some argue the drop of production was due to the attrition of war, not bombing

Many critics and historians maintain that the devastating effects on civilian populations made strategic bombing immoral

Industrial cities that were bombed

World War II as Total War:

• Meant that a country uses all its human, economic, and military resources to fight the war.

• Terms : • 1.Creating a fighting force using conscription

• 2. Using civilians in the war effort

• 3. Using all weapons available and developing new ones

• 4. Government control of key aspects of the economy

• 5.Government control over the media

• 6. The targeting of civilians as well as combatants in war

World War II as Total War: • The aims of the belligerents:

• Hitler’s goals were clear; total domination and the take over of the USSR to provide living space for the German peoples. This involved elimination of races - Jewish people in particular

• The Allies could afford no compromise and saw themselves as fighting for the freedom of Europe

• The same was true in the Pacific, where the Japanese Co-prosperity sphere, with its aims of political, economic, and racial domination, were considered unacceptable

• The racial aspect of fighting increased the will to fight until the end for the Allies

• The use of weaponry: both sides used all weapons in their arsenals and developed deadly new weapons - attempt to win at all costs

World War II as Total War:• The role of civilians In WWI civilian casualties accounted for roughly

1/10,whereas in WWII they made up closer to 2/3 of deaths

Deportation and genocide: The ideological and racial aspect meant that certain sections of civilian populations were targeted with the intent that they should be deported or eliminated entirely Hitler believed Jews in particular were subhuman

• The space that was necessary for the Greater German Reich also meant that the existing populations in Poland and the USSR had to be destroyed or displaced The Reich estimated ‘the unwanted population would be close to 50-57 million’15% Poles, 25 % Ruthanians,35% Ukrainians who would be needed as laborers or deported to Siberia

• The Russian populations would wither away through the use of contraception, abortion, and sterilization The Jewish population would be exterminated Special SS squads called ‘Einsatzgruppen accompanied the German army during the invasion of Poland and the USSR, and had the dedicated job of killing all Jews, communists, and resisters

WWII as Total War – Deportation and Genocide • By July 1941, the Einsatzgruppen had murdered

around 63,000 men women and children, 90% of whom were Jewish Others such as Gypsies and mental patients were also at risk

• The method of murdering such large numbers of people was very time consuming and costly The ‘Final Solution’ was a new method the designed to answer the ‘Jewish question’

• This involved transporting Jewish people across Europe to concentration camps and extermination camps Auschwitz-Birkenau was is one of the most gruesome as 10,000 Jewish people a day could be murdered

• The Soviet Government also deported Germans and Tartars. Estonians, Lithuanians, and Poles

WWII as Total War – Deportation and Genocide • Death tolls in E. Europe and the USSR were at least 20

million, more than half of which were civilian - Poland suffered the most with more than 6 million deaths out of their 30 mill population

• 3,000,000 of these were Jewish people and only 150,000represent deaths in military action Overall an estimated 1,000,000gypsies and 6,000,000 Jewish people were killed by the Nazis

• The Japanese also had ambitions linked to racial superiority Gen. Sakai y Ru wrote ‘The Chinese people are bacteria infesting world civilization ’The Rape of Nanking and Singapore Massacre are examples of the implementation of the Japanese genocidal ideology

WWII as Total War – Deportation and Genocide • Overall, 10,000,000 Chinese died at the hands of the

Japanese Filipinos, Indonesians, and Malays were also used as slave workers, resulting thousands of deaths POW’s also suffered from physical overwork, malnutrition, and abuse

• Rape of East Germany: As the Soviets pushed through to Berlin they took revenge on the German population‘ Chief among victims were adult males and women of any age’-Trudy Judt Doctors and clinics reported that 87,000 women had been raped by Soviet soldiers following the Red Army arrival in Vienna This number was much larger in Berlin and does not reflect those rapes that went unreported

• German and Japanese civilians living in America found themselves rounded up and re-located to interment camp by the thousands In America more than 100,000Japanese had to leave their homes and property behind In Britain Germans and Austrian civilians were interned

WWII as a Total War – Civilians as part of the War Effort • The Major combatants mobilized between 1/2 and 2/3 of their industrial workforce, and devoted

up to 3/4 of their national product to waging war ; this meant restrictions and rations for civilian populations

• Britain: conscription was introduced by with caution to keep key workers in important industries ; Industrial conscription was introduced for women

• Germany: Initially there was little change to the economy; Albert Speer, Minister of Armaments and War Production attempted to re-organize human resources from 1942 onwards, but found little support

• Having women in the work place was against Hitler's 3 K’s, Kinder, Kirche, Kuche. ( Children, Church, Kitchen)

• USSR: The centralized nature of the USSR allowed civilians to be easily mobilized towards the war effort

• Coercion played a role; lacking or absenteeism could be punished by labor camps or death

• Women made up most of the workforce Women also volunteered for the Red Army, latter having three regiments (two bomber and one fighter)

• R.Overy calls the civilians of Russia the ‘real heroes’ of the USSR’s economic revival after the Nazi invasion

WWII as a Total War – Civilians as part of the War Effort • America: Women also played a key role in war

industries

• An estimated 350,000 women also joined uniformed groups, such as the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps, the Marine Corps Women’s Reserve, and the Navy Nurse Corps

• Japan: The government was reluctant to use women in the workforce Preferring to conscript students to women

• Resistance fighters: In all countries occupied by the Nazis, there were civilians who joined resistance groups, called Partisans

• They gathered intelligence, used sabotage and murder, helped rescue shot down pilots, and took Jewish people into safety.

WWII as a Total War – Growth of Government Power • Britain:

• The government extended it powers to organize its human and economic resources Churchill exercised supreme political and military power Ernest Bevin, Minister of Labor and National Service was able to complete the task virtually unrestricted

• Mines, shipping, and railways came under state control Rationing and conscription for both men and women were introduced Bevin improved the health and welfare of the nation, improving healthcare, nurseries, and working conditions

• Germany: • The single party already existed, yet, planning remained confused and decentralized 1942,

Albert Speer was put in charge of the Central PlanningBoard1944, Joseph Goebbels, the Propaganda Minister, was appointed Commissioner for Total Mobilization of Resources for War

• According to R. Overy, neither appointment overcame the problems of a system that was ‘poorly coordinated, uncooperative, and obstructive’(Overy, Why the Allies Won, 2006)Until 1943 production focused on quality and sophistication rather than mass production of standard weapons

• USSR• The centralized all-powerful state already existed Soviet survival after 1941 was due to careful

planning and mass production, as well as the efforts of the people • Stalin turned the USSR into a ‘single war camp’ through a single national war plan (1943) that

liberated restrictions previously limiting workers from completing objectives

WWII as a Total War – Growth of Government Power • USA

• US government also assumed control of industrial production

• The War Production Board (1942)changed production priorities to the needs of the military. Eg. Car factories now produced tanks and planes.

• The War Commission recruited workers; Relied on expertise of big business in mass production and technological innovation

• Japan• The military government strengthen power through ‘voluntary’ dissolution of

main political parties and the creation of the Imperial Rule Assistance Association

• Trade unions were replaced by the Great Japan Patriotic Industrial Association to oversee employers and workers

• Tight control was not productive due to the power of the ‘Zaibatsu’ and the Army and Navy rivalry

WWII as Total War – Propaganda

• Propaganda remained a key weapon Goebbels stoked the German fear of communism

• Stalin promoted the ‘Great Patriotic War’ and defense of the ‘Motherland’

• Change in public in the opinion in the west came as a result of the actions of the Axis powers rather than through intense propaganda

• Propaganda did still remain important to the war effort for the west - Churchill, established the Political Warfare Executive

• In America, the Office of War Information was established

• Propaganda and censorship were used to help maintain morale, encourage civilian thriftiness, involve women, and stress the evil nature of the enemy

• BBC broadcast daily reports to maintain morale and inform resistance movements

• American propaganda against the Germans differed greatly to the propaganda used against the Japanese

• Propaganda against Germany stressed the Nazis evil nature Whereas Propaganda against Japan was of an openly racial nature aimed at all Japanese, not just the leaders

• American propaganda portrayed the Japanese as primitive, uncivilized, inferior, and were treacherous and barbaric