HISTORY 12

WORLD WAR II - BATTLES Europe

North Africa Pacific

NOTES

Ben Lepore

October 25, 2017 Version 3

2

WAR IN EUROPE

Fall of France and Battle of Britain

Allied and Axis Strategy

• French and British believed their greatest strength was defence and through the

Maginot Line and the Royal Navy adopted a defensive strategy

• Germany developed blitzkrieg (lightening war) to suit strategy of conquest that was

based on surprise, speed, and weight of attack

Invasion of Poland September-October 1939

• September 1, 1939 Germany invaded Poland launching 63 divisions and 2,000

aircraft against the Poles 20 divisions and 6000 aircraft and by September 17 the

Poles were defending Warsaw, Lublin, Lvov

• September 17 Soviets invaded Poland to occupy eastern Poland

• October 1 Germans enter Warsaw and Poles surrender the next day

• Soviets gain a front line further to the west in the event of a German attack and

wanted to improve the defensive position of Leningrad with territory in Finland but the Finnish refused and the Soviets invaded (Winter War)

• Finnish territories were added to the Soviet Union in March 1940

3

Invasion of Norway April 1940

• after Poland’s defeat the French and British were inactive militarily on land for six months until the invasion of Norway in April 1940 > phoney war

• March 1940 British and French decided to tighten blockade of Germany by planning

a landed invasion in Norway to seize the port of Narvik through which Sweden

shipped iron ore to Germany but Hitler invaded first

• April 9 German troops landed in Norwegian ports and British plan failed

• Norway surrendered and a puppet government established under Quisling

• May 10 Chamberlain resigned and Churchill became PM

4

Fall of France May-June 1940

• Maginot Line and armies behind it provided strong defence only as far north as the border of Luxembourg, French and the British Expeditionary Force protected

northeast but the area between the armies in the northeast and the Maginot Line

was left unprotected because it was felt that the terrain of the River Meuse and

Ardennes Mountains was impassable

• May 10, 1940 Germany attacked France and destroyed most of its air force, tanks

moved through the Ardennes and captured bridges along the Meuse and then

punched a hole in the French front line, the roads were now open and armoured divisions swept through pushing French, British, and Belgian forces against the sea

and trapping them

• Churchill refused to commit the entire air force because he wanted the RAF to

defend any future German invasion of Britain

• May 28 Belgian surrendered

• May 27-June 4 Operation Dynamo: 330,000 French and British soldiers were

rescued from the beaches of Dunkirk

• June 10 Mussolini attacked in the southeast but was halted by the French

• June 22 new PM Marshall Petain signed an armistice with Germany

• German occupied the whole of the north and the Atlantic coast and allowed Petain

to govern southern France from Vichy

• Charles de Gaulle escaped to France and led the Free French in England

• France was defeated because the of their defensive strategy, the Maginot Line was

useless because Hitler bypassed it, they deployed tanks in such way as to slow them

down to the speed of the infantry they supported, air force was inferior to Luftwaffe, internal political divisions within France

5

Battle of Britain July-August 1940

• Operation Sea Lion was Hitler’s plan to invade Britain by land, sea, and air forces but needed to establish German air superiority over the English Channel if the plan

was to succeed

• Germany had 975 bombers, 326 dive bombers, 930 fighters; Britain had 650

fighters > Spitfire, Hurricane (fighters) vs Messerschmidts (fighter), Stukas (bomber)

• the battle started July 10, 1940 when the Luftwaffe attack convoys in the Channel

• August 13 the Luftwaffe began a three-week attack on British fighter bases

• beginning of September British Fighter Command was down to 840 pilots compared

to 1,400 in August and young pilots were rushed into service and shot down before

replacements could be trained

• August 23 German bombers mistakenly bombed London and Churchill retaliated by

bombing Berlin which prompted Hitler to respond by ordering the Luftwaffe to shift

from its strategic attack on airfields to the bombing of London which became known as the blitz

• the shift was significant and a turning point in the battle as it spared Fighter

Command from possible destruction and provided the RAF with an opportunity to

rest and rebuild

• as Fighter Command was released from defending its bases it began to inflict

heavier casualties on the German bombing squadrons

• Germany’s hopes of air superiority faded so Hitler postponed the invasion several

times and finally cancelled Operation Sea Lion in January 1941

• Germany continued to blitz London which was subjected to intensive bombing from

early September to mid-November killing 13,000

• other cities were bombed and the raids continued until the end of 1941 killing 43,685 people (20,000 in London)

• the British won because of their determination and will, the RAF, radar and the

Ultra which intercepted and deciphered German signals and gave them advance

information about the bombers’ targets

• significance: the British victory in the Battle of Britain was significant because it

was the first time Hitler was denied conquest, it meant the war would be long and

this was an advantage for Britain once the U.S. entered the war, and it gave Britain and future Allies a base from which to launch an invasion of Europe

6

Barbarossa and Battle of the Atlantic

British in the Mediterranean and North Africa (refer to map TCH p.173)

• November 1940 British attack Italian fleet at Taranto damaging three of six

battleships

• British help Selassie free Ethiopia from Italian occupation by Nov 1941

• September 1940 Italians advance from Libya against British positions in Egypt but

are halted and forced to retreat > by early February 1941 the British capture 130,000 Italians

• Hitler responds by dispatching General Rommel and his rapid offensive in April

pushed the British towards Egypt and surrounded the port of Tobruk

• by the end of May 1941 Britain’s position was not very secure as the Luftwaffe

continued its blitz and German submarines were threatening the Atlantic sea routes

to the Americas and the British Empire along which most of Britain’s food and arms

are shipped > the Battle of the Atlantic

Eastern Europe

• August 1940 Soviets absorb Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia after seizing Bessarabia

and northern Bukovina from Romania

• Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania become German client states

• September 1940 Germany signed Tripartite Pact with Japan and Italy in which each

country promised to support the others if they were attacked by any new enemy >

Hungary, Slovakia, Romania joined later

• October 1940 Mussolini invaded Greece but the Greeks resisted with British

assistance > Hitler saw the British as a threat to the oilfields of Romania and decided to evict them from Greece

• April 6 Hitler attacked Yugoslavia and Greece > Yugoslavia surrendered on April 16

and Athens fell on April 27 forcing the British to evacuate

• Greece was occupied by mostly Italian forces and Yugoslavia was replaced by areas

occupied by Italy, Germany and a puppet state in Croatia

7

Barbarossa June-December 1941

• Operation Barbarossa had three goals: ▪ implement lebensraum

▪ control the wheat of the Ukraine, oil of the Caucasus and other resources

▪ destroy communism

• June 22, 1941 Germany invaded Soviet Union to begin Operation Barbarossa >

Hitler viewed it as best time to attack before the Soviets consolidated their strength

• Hitler confident Soviets could be conquered in approximately six months because of

blitzkrieg, weakened Red Army due to Stalin’s purges and minorities in western

Soviet Union (Ukrainians) would not support Stalin

• Stalin thought the invasion was a bluff to mask a German invasion of Britain

• Germany’s divisions were divided into three groups:

▪ Army Group North (Leeb) was responsible for capturing Leningrad which was the center of the Soviets’ armament industry

▪ Army Group Center (Brock) was responsible for capturing Moscow

▪ Army Group South (Rundstedt) was responsible for capturing the Ukraine wheat

fields and Caucasus oil

• three army groups penetrated Soviet defenses and Red Army retreated on all fronts

• within weeks the Germans had destroyed 5000 aircraft, 1500 tanks and more than

3 million Soviets were killed or taken prisoner

• Stalin implemented a scorched earth policy by ordering Soviet armies to hold on

until defeat was imminent and then retreat and destroy anything the Germans may use (villages, crops, livestock, poison wells) so they would not have resources to live

off > this strategy was intended to give up territory in order to gain time

• Army Group north reached Leningrad and laid siege to it until Jan 27 1944

• August 1 the Germans called a three week halt because they made so much

progress that they did not have the human resources to supply all three battle

groups at the same time > the strategy meeting wasted good campaigning weather

• after resuming the offensive at the end of August the Germans capture Kiev and laid

siege to Sevastopol in the Crimea > Germans decided to capture Moscow and force

surrender before the winter set in

• October 1941 Army Group Center launches an attack on Moscow and almost succeed in encircling the city by December 5 but ran out of troops and supplies

• December 6 General Zhukov launched a Soviet counter-attack and pushed

Germans away from the city > the Germans halted the attack on

December 8 > space, snow, and time saved Moscow

• the German army was not prepared for a winter campaign and suffered as a result >

100,000 cases of frostbite

• by December 1941 German armies had advanced beyond the Sea of Azov in the

south, surrounded Leningrad in the north and were outside of Moscow

• despite losing 40% of is industrial and food production areas, half its armed forces

with almost all of its equipment, the Ukraine and a third of its population the Soviets would not surrender

• the German’s failure to defeat the USSR placed them in a precarious situation as

they did not have the resources to fight a prolonged war

• Hitler underestimated the number of Soviet forces, the campaign would be

completed prior to winter, and that he would have control of Soviet industries but

Stalin had moved the factories east

• some German generals realized that the armed forces had attempted too much and

questioned whether Germany could support three separate army groups operating

in the USSR at the same time

• as Operation Barbarossa came to a temporary halt in early December the Japanese launched their attack on Pearl Harbour

8

Pearl Harbour

• December 7, 1941 the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour, Hawaii

• the Japanese calculated on a short three-four month war to give them the resources and living space needed to complete their industrialization and like the Germans

were not able to fight a long war and counted on a swift victory followed by a

favourable negotiations

• although technically neutral the U.S. supported the Allies through the destroyers-

for-bases deal, cash and carry and lend-lease programs, rearmament of the Anglo-

French forces after Dunkirk and war patrols at sea

• December 11, 1941 Germany declared war on the U.S. so the Americans decided to

fight Germany first as it was potentially the most dangerous enemy

9

Battle of the Atlantic 1939-1944

• the critical factor in a prolonged war is the mass production of war materiel

• Britain’s ability to stay in the war depended on getting food, fuel, and raw materials

from North America and it was this weakness that Germany sought to exploit through submarine warfare

• the battle was fought in the Atlantic Ocean by German submarine wolf packs and

Allied merchant convoys protected by naval escorts and anti-submarine aircraft

• German U-boats (Unterseeboot) came close to forcing Britain out of the war during

period 1941-1943 as they were immune to detection except in vicinity of other ships

• British imports fell from an annual 50 million tons to 22 million tones

• 1941 1299 merchants ships sank and 1942 1644 were lost

• an added strain on shipping was the Arctic convoys to send aid to the Soviets as the

route was within range of German aircraft and surface ships

• 100 ships and 2800 crew members were lost from 40 convoys

• it took time to organize an effective convoy system

• the heyday of German U-boats was July to December 1941 and beginning in

January 1942 the U-boats controlled the sea lanes from Quebec City to Bermuda

• the critical stages of the battle occurred between August 1942-May 1943 when

German submarines were deployed across the sea lanes in wolf packs

• but sweeping back and forth across the ocean they encountered more and larger

convoy escorts and maritime patrols craft equipped with sonar detection and acoustic homing torpedoes

• by the end of 1943 Allies had several escort groups at sea each with an aircraft

carrier and latest anti-submarine warfare devices to deal the U-boats in the Atlantic

• 1069 of 1162 German submarines were sunk or surrendered

• the last German U-boat victory was in March but by May Canadian and British

escorts sank 41 U-boats which was one-quarter of its submarine strength and as a

result the Germans withdrew its U-boats and conceded the sea lanes to the Allies

• significance: the significance of the Allied victory meant goods from U.S. continued

to reach Allies (Britain, USSR) in their war against Germany and the Axis powers

• as the sea lanes became more secure the Allies were able to focus soldiers and materiel on the battle fronts and begin planning the invasion of Europe which was

the Normandy Landings in June 1944

10

Battle of Stalingrad and Battle of El Alamein

The Allies: U.S.S.R, U.S.A., Britain

• Stalin wanted Britain and the U.S. to attack Germany by opening a second front in

Western Europe (France) to relieve pressure on the USSR but the Americans and

British were not ready to launch such an invasion

• Roosevelt also wanted to strike directly at Germany through France but were not

ready to undertake the attack until at least the spring of 1943

• Churchill wanted to begin with strikes against North Africa, Italy, and the Balkans

as they were also not ready to open a second front in France

• a bombing campaign was the only direct action against Germany in 1942

• 1942 was the turning of the tide with Allied victories in the battles of Midway in the

Pacific, El Alamein in Egypt and Stalingrad in southern USSR

Battle of Stalingrad August 1942-February 1943

• March 1942 Red Army counter-attacks on German lines had been halted

• Spring 1942 German renewed their offensive towards the industrial complex of

Stalingrad which was a strategic transportation and communication hub and its

capture would cut off the land route providing the Soviets supplies from Britain and the U.S. and provide the Germans with a base for attacks on the Soviets second

industrial centre east of the Ural Mountains which produced most of the Soviets

war equipment

• September 1, 1942 Germany began its attack on Stalingrad by bombing the city and

the German Sixth Army under Field Marshal von Paulus began leveling the

southern part of the city over the next four months

• Hitler divided his forces: one group to capture Stalingrad and another to advance

further south to capture the oil fields of the Caucasus but this group was halted in October before reaching its objective > the splitting of the forces was an error that

cost the Germans the battle

• fierce house-to-house fighting took place in Stalingrad where buildings were taken

and retaken until they were totally destroyed by gunfire

• as the battle for the city waged Soviets built up their forces to the north and south

of Stalingrad and in November General Zhukov attacked along the German flanks

encircling the German Sixth Army > striking deep behind the German lines they

completed a pincer movement in December and cut off Stalingrad from the outside

• the Soviet victory was a prelude to the USSR’s counter offensive in 1943

• Hitler refused to allow the von Paulus to retreat and ordered the Luftwaffe to supply the army by air but it was unable to provide the 500 tons of daily supplies that was

required and instead only managed 65 tons

• von Paulus surrendered on February 2 1943 with 90,000 troops

• significance: Battle of Stalingrad September-February 2 1942 was a turning point

and the significance of the Soviet victory was the loss of some of the best German

units, Hitler was denied access to the Caucasus oil fields, the supply route carrying

supplies from Britain and U.S. via Iran to the USSR remained open, Germany was now forced on the defensive, it began the road to liberation of Eastern Europe > the

first time a Germany army was defeated in Europe

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12

Battle of El Alamein November 1942

• while the battle for Stalingrad was at its height the Germans suffered a serious reversal in North Africa as the 10 day battle at El Alamein near the Suez Canal was

the beginning of the liberation of North Africa

• Italian forces opened the war in North Africa when they attacked British forces in

Egypt September 1940 but the British Eighth Army counter-attacked in December

and pushed Italian forces back into Libya by February 1941 but General Erwin

Rommel and the German Afrika Corps attacked and advanced through Libya into

Egypt March-April 1941

• British Eighth Army advanced through Libya November 1941-January 1942 but the Afrika Corps forces the Eighth Army back into Egypt January-June 1942 and

pushed the British Eighth Army back to El Alamein sixty miles from the Suez Canal

• U.S. and Britain agree to a joint invasion of North Africa called Operation Torch >

Churchill wanted to relieve the pressure on the Eighth Army and Roosevelt wanted

to be involved in an offensive campaign > American generals were concerned it may

drain men and resources and delay the opening of a second front in Western Europe

• General Bernard Montgomery commander of Eighth Army had 230,000 men and

1,444 tanks while Rommel had 80,000 troops and 540 tanks

• November 4 British tanks broke through Rommel’s defences and pushed his Axis forces back through Libya

• significance: Battle of El Alamein October 23-Novemeber 4 1942 was a turning

point and the significance of the victory was the Suez Canal remained in Allied

hands, Hitler was denied access to the oil in the Middle East, it proved to the Allies

that Hitler’s best forces could be beaten

13

Allied Landings in North Africa – Operation Torch November 1942

• November 8 Operation Torch began with the Americans landing in Morocco and the British in Algeria

• after the Allied landing in North Africa German and Italian troops occupied Vichy

France (southern France)

• American, British advances towards Tunisia faltered and Allied Commander-in-

Chief Major-General Dwight D. Eisenhower called a halt Christmas Eve

• February Allied forces resumed the offensive on Tunisia and by May 13 they

controlled Tunisia capturing 130,00 German and Italian troops > Hitler lost

thousands of experienced troops that he will sorely miss

• the Allies now controlled the Mediterranean and North African coast

• the Allied victory in North Africa represented a reversal for the Axis powers in a

major theatre of war, prepared the way for the liberation of Italy, reopened the

routes of the Middle East, proved to Allied forces that the best of Hitler’s forces could be defeated > it was the first American action in alliance with the European

powers in this war

• Hitler may have not taken the war in North Africa seriously enough as the Middle

East was of great importance strategically to Britain’s empire

• it was too late to move troops to Britain and prepare to open a second front in

France so the Americans and British decided to invade Sicily

Casablanca Conference January 1943

• while the American and British forces were advancing into Tunisia Roosevelt and

Churchill meet in Casablanca, Morocco in January 1943

• Roosevelt and Churchill discussed Anglo-American strategy and decided a second

front in France was still not possible because there was not enough equipment

ready to transport the large forces needed for the seaborne assault

• Roosevelt and Churchill issued the Casablanca Declaration which stated that they would only accept an unconditional surrender from Germany

• the declaration was intended to reassure Stalin that they would not make a

separate peace with Germany and leave him to face Hitler alone

14

Invasion of Italy and Bombing of Germany

Invasion of Italy July 1943

• Churchill proposed this strategy as a means of inserting Allied presence into Central

Europe but Roosevelt was unhappy because it delayed the invasion of France

another year > Americans did not believe Allied armies could bring the enemy to a

decisive battle in Italy

• July 10 1943 British, American, Canadian Armies land in Sicily

• July 24 Italian army officers depose Mussolini and enter armistice negotiations with

the Allies

• August 17 Allies enter Messina and take control of Sicily

• September 3 Italy signs an armistice with the Allies

• September 9 the Allies land at Salerno and Taranto in southern Italy

• September 12 Germans rescue Mussolini and install him as leader of German

occupied northern Italy

• October 1 Allies enter Naples

• October 13 Italy declares war on Germany

• as a result the Germans occupy northern Italy and are fighting the Allies who are

occupying southern Italy

• the Germans establish a defensive line from the Tyrrhenian Sea to the Adriatic Sea (coast to coast) anchored at the monastery Monte Casino called the Gustav Line

• November 1943-January 1944 the Allies attack the Gustav Line trying to break

through but are not successful

15

Allied Bombing of Europe 1942-1945

• instead of establishing a second front in France Roosevelt and Churchill agreed to bomb strategic targets in Germany

• the difficulty hitting specific military targets shifted the strategy to the area bombing

of larger targets like communications and transportation centres and industrial and

power-generation plants and selected cities to delay aircraft fighter production

• as the size of the air fleets grew other cities came under attack including Berlin,

Hamburg, Cologne, and Dresden as it was believed bombing would directly affect

civilian morale and destroy their will to resist but it did not achieve its objectives

16

Eastern Front: Battle at Kursk

• as the Allies bombed German cities and landed troops in Sicily the largest tank battle of the war took place at Kursk July 5-12 1943 as the Germans launched an

offensive > it was the last German offensive on the eastern front

• Germans were attempting to cut off a Soviet salient and struck at the bulge from

Orel to Kharkov > a million soldiers and 2700 tanks were involved

• Soviet air superiority and their use of anti-tank rackets and weapons brought

decisive defeat for the German Panzer corps

• after Kursk the Soviets were able to advance along a broad front of 1200 km with 6

million soldiers

• by 1944 the Soviets had superiority in weapons on a 5 to 1 ratio except in the air

where the ratio was 17 to 1

Teheran Conference November 28-December 5 1943

• Stalin, Churchill, and Roosevelt met at Teheran, Iran and agreed to establish a second front in France to begin in June 1944

• Allied efforts in the eastern Mediterranean and Churchill’s proposal to strike for

Vienna and the Balkans (Mediterranean Strategy) were set aside as Churchill could

not convince Roosevelt of political danger of permitting Red Army to liberate Eastern

Europe > Roosevelt wanted to leave political matters for post-war conference

• Americans needed Stalin’s help in Asia against Japan (he agreed to participate at

the end of war in Europe) and Roosevelt believed Stalin would be reasonable

regarding the future of a liberated Europe so he accepted Stalin’s promise of self-determination and free elections for Europeans after the war but Stalin had not

intention of giving up any of the territorial gains

• the Soviets demanded the re-establishment of its 1939 boundary with Poland so it

was decided to restructure Poland by setting its eastern boundary at the Curzon line

and compensating the Poles with German territory but no agreement was reached

on Poland’s government

• the spheres of influence that would dominate the post-war world (Cold War) were beginning to take shape at this conference with the British and Americans giving up

their interests in Central Europe

17

Normandy Invasion, Liberation of France, Eastern Front

Allied Bombing of Germany and the Italian Campaign

• since the Battle of Britain combat in Western Europe was mostly a battle of the air

as the Allies employed strategic bombing in Germany > keep the Allies fighting in

the West, limit German ability to wage war by bombing factories and vital facilities

and demoralize the enemy

• by the end of 1943 Allied advance in Italy is slow

• January 22, 1944 Allied armies landed on the coast of Anzio behind the Gustav Line

the main German front in southern Italy

• May 17 Germans evacuate Monte Casino

• June 5, 1944 Allies enter Rome > the fighting continues until May 2, 1945

• the importance of the Italian campaign was that it was a prerequisite step for the

liberation of Europe and it occupied German troops and made them unavailable to defend France when the Allies attacked in June 1944

Normandy Landings/D-Day June 6, 1944

• Germans prepared for an attack of the French northern coast and Hitler appointed

Rommel to defend the beaches of France and the Lowlands (Belgium and Holland)

• the German coastal defences, called the Atlantic Wall, included massive concrete

bunkers protected by guns and the beaches were heavily mined

• Operation Overlord: General Eisenhower was the supreme commander of the Allied forces (3 million) whose objective was to secure the beaches, break through the

Atlantic Wall and advance to Berlin to meet the Soviets

• June 6, 1944 the initial attack began with an amphibious assault when 175,000

men with their equipment landed on several beaches > the Americans were to

capture beaches named Utah and Omaha, the British to take Gold and Sword and

the Canadians to seize Juno

• Hitler expected the invasion to be in the Calais area and Eisenhower reinforced this

idea by bombing the area and setting up dummy camps in southern England facing Calais > as a result when the attack occurred in Normandy Hitler was convinced it

was a decoy and held back his heavy armour for the expected attack at Calais

• by the end of the day Allies with the aid of naval bombardment and air assaults held

and secured their beaches > by the end of the month 640,000 soldiers were ashore

18

Normandy Campaign June-August 1944

• the caution of the Allied commander and fierce resistance from the Germans slowed down their advance in Normandy and throughout July and August the fighting in

France, Belgium and Holland was fierce

• early August Americans advanced west into Brittany and then east for the Rhine

River while British and other Allied forces advanced towards Belgium and Holland

• August 15 Operation Anvil: Americans land in southern France and advance

• August 16 the French Resistance in Paris organized an uprising in Paris and with

the aid of a French armoured division was able to capture Paris Aug 25

• Allied armies liberated most of the rest of France and Belgium in August

• by September Americans were near the German border but instead of advancing the

Allies decided to pause to refit, refuel, and rest > this allowed the Germans to

reinforce their armies and position

• an attempt to outflank the German armies at Arnhem (Belgium) on the Rhine River

by Montgomery failed

• Germany launched the first V-2 rockets at London which flied at supersonic speed and contained a ton of explosives > in seven months more than 500 rockets were

launched and almost 3,0000 killed in London

• Battle of the Bulge: December 16 Hitler caught the Allies by surprise with an

offensive in the Ardennes and had some initial success

• December 24 the Allies launched a counter-offensive by bombing German supply

lines and by December 26 with the Allies reorganized and advancing the Germans

began to fall back

• Hitler’s no withdrawal policy resulted in the loss of 120,000 men, 500 tanks and

1,600 aircrafts in the Battle of the Bulge

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Eastern Front

• January 27, 1944 the Red Army broke the siege of Leningrad but the Germans were able to hold up their advance

• Red Army able to advance in the south as they entered Poland in January, recover

the Ukraine in April and force the Germans out in the Crimea

• June 22 the Red Army launches a massive offensive across the Eastern Front as

they struck the centre of the German front and pushed the Germans back beyond

Minsk and by July they had reached Warsaw

• as German resistance stiffened in the centre the Red Army began to advance in the

south > August the Soviets signed an armistice with Romania and Bulgaria >

October the Red Army advanced into Hungary and Yugoslavia > November the Germans leave Greece and the Red Army surrounded Budapest, Hungary

• in the north Finland signed an armistice in September and the Red Army captured

the Baltic states and were on the East Prussian border

• October 9 Churchill visited Moscow to discuss the fate of Central Europe which the

Soviet now controlled > Churchill proposed establishing spheres of influence in the

Balkans and Central Europe that mirrored the reality of the situation as the Soviets

were in control of Central Europe and could not be removed without force

• by the beginning of 1945 the Allies pushed the Germans back in the west and east

to land that laid between the Rhine and the Vistula River (refer to TCH map p.179)

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21

Defeat of Germany May 1945

Yalta Conference February 4-11 1945

• Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin met at Yalta to discuss Germany after defeat

• Germany was to be divided into four zones each occupied by an Allied power and

France > Berlin was also divided into four zones of occupation

• German industries were to be dismantled and reparations levied

• Americans and British were more interested in reconstruction in their zones than

stripping them of their resources but the Soviets wanted to seize German resources

to help rebuild the war-ravaged U.S.S.R.

• Allies could not reach agreement on whether to levy reparations before or after

reconstruction and left it for the Potsdam Conference

• Stalin wanted to address the Polish frontier but it was not entirely settled

• Allies agreed to the disarmament and denazification of Germany and to conduct

trials of war criminals at Nuremberg after the war

• Stalin promised free elections and self-determination for the people the Soviets liberated in Eastern and Central Europe > but Stalin was firmly committed to the

concept of spheres of influence and defending the U.S.S.R.

• Stalin promised to enter war against Japan 3 months after victory in Europe

• League of Nations to be replaced by the United Nations Organization

• international organizations were created to help post-war recovery:

▪ International Monetary Fund (IMF) lend money to countries whose economies

were in poor shape and stabilize their currencies

▪ World Bank lend money for re-building Europe and to help poor nations

▪ International Trading Organization/General Agreement of Tariffs and Trade (GATT) (now called the World Trade Organization (WTO) promote free trade

22

Road to Berlin – Germany Surrenders May 1945

• January-February 1945 Western Allies built up massive formations of troops, armour, and aircraft for an assault towards the Rhine > Hitler diverted most of his

forces to the east to hold the front against the Soviets

• February 13-14 Allies bomb Dresden force the Germans to surrender

• March Allies launched an attack across the Rhine and met little resistance

• April 11 Western Allies reached the Elbe River while the Soviets broke through the

north and advanced across Germany

• April 25 U.S. and Soviet troops met at Torgau on the Elbe River

• end of April Germans were fighting the Soviets in Berlin

• April 12 Roosevelt died and was replaced by Vice-President Truman, April 28

Mussolini was shot by partisans, April 30 Hitler committed suicide April 29 German

generals surrendered in Italy, May 4 German forces in the north surrender to

Montgomery, May 2 Germans in Berlin surrender to Soviets

• May 7 General Jodl surrendered all German forces at Rheims

23

Potsdam Conference July-August 1945

• Churchill, Truman, Stalin met to discuss post-war issues and plan a peace conference (it never happened) > Clement Atlee replaced Churchill as PM

• Allied cooperation came to an end as Stalin and Truman disagreed on many issues

such as the treatment of Germany and Poland and the conference was the origins of

the cold war between the U.S. and USSR > the atomic bomb is successfully tested in

New Mexico July 17

• Stalin had no intentions of allowing the Americans or British to interfere with his

plans for Eastern Europe which was occupied by Soviet troops > he paved the way

for a Communist takeover in Poland by arresting non-Communists leaders and assisting the Communist Party establish a provisional government > Western Allies

were unable to resist the move

• as decided at Yalta Germany was divided into four occupation zones as was Berlin >

Austria was separated from Germany and also jointly occupied

• Allies agreed Germany should be administered by a Control Council made up of the

four military commanders of the occupied zones but disagreements on how to

administer Germany between the Western Allies and Soviets eventually led to a split

• Allies agreed Germany would be purged of its Nazis (denazification) > SS members

would be put on trial as well as wartime leaders of the Nazi Party and the army before an Inter-Allied Special Tribunal at Nuremberg

• 6 million former Nazi members were interviewed, twenty-four major Nazi leaders

were brought to trial for crimes against humanity while 50, 000 were brought to

trial locally

▪ Goring committed suicide, twelve given death sentences, three given life

imprisonment, four given 10-20 years in prison and three were acquitted

24

WAR IN THE PACIFIC

Pearl Harbour and Japanese Offensive

Pacific War 1937-1941 Japan vs China

• the Pacific War had its origins in the struggle between Japan, China and the USSR

over the mineral resources of Korea and Manchuria

• the Pacific War started when the Japanese invaded northern China in July 1937 in

an attempt to destroy Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalists (Kuomintang) forces

• after the Japanese invaded China Chiang Kai-shek withdrew his Nationalist forces up the Yangtze River to Chongqing (Chungking) (refer to GF p.109) where he was

safe from Japanese attack and continued to receive aid from British, American and

Soviet allies > Soviet supplies came down the northern road from Turkestan while

American and British supplies came by road from Burma (the supply route was

called the Burma Road)

• by 1939 Japan was in control of most of eastern China which provided them with

vast foodstuffs and resources but were unable to destroy Chiang Kai-shek and the Kuomintang who were unwilling to agree to peace

• in order to force Chiang's Nationalists to surrender the Japanese planned to cut off

the supply routes to Chongqing by capturing the caravan routes in the north

through Xinjiang and the Burma Road (refer to MHMW p.73) > this would mean

risking an expansion of the Pacific war (against the USSR, Britain, and the U.S.) but

if successful would force Chiang to acknowledge Japanese control in Manchuria

• the Japanese army struck north and attacked the Soviet armies in Vladivostok and

Mongolia but were not successful

• after land and air attacks against the USSR were unsuccessful the Japanese adopted a naval strategy that would give them control of Southeast Asia and its

mineral resources (especially oil) > the main battle plan called for a simultaneous

strike against all foreign colonial possessions in Asia with the main thrust directed

at the mineral wealth of Malaya, the Philippines, and Dutch East Indies

• once the imperial powers were driven out of Asia the Japanese planned to fortify an

arc of islands stretching out into the Pacific toward North America as an outer

defence perimeter (refer to map GF p.143) > attempts to break through would result in heavy losses and the imperial powers would negotiate an end to the war> the

major objective was to gain recognition for the Japanese right to Manchuria

• Japan realized it could not remain in the occupied territories indefinitely as they did

not have the forces or possess the resources to fight a long war against the U.S. so

the whole plan depended on forcing negotiations after the first six months of war

25

Prelude to Pearl Harbour

• Japanese Foreign Minister Matsuoko Yosuke concludes that the USSR would defeat Germany in a prolonged war after visiting Stalin and signs a non-aggression pact

with the Soviets April 13 1941 > this gives the Soviets and Japanese a single front to

fight in the event of a general Pacific war

• July 1941 Japan seized French air bases in Indo-China (France defeated June

1940) as now able to conduct air strikes against Malaya, Burma, and the

Philippines

• after the Japanese occupation of Indo-China U.S., Britain and the Dutch East

Indies imposed sanctions on Japan that included oil and as their fuel supply dwindled were forced into negotiations with the U.S. > by the summer of 1941 the

oil shortage was so critical that Japan decided that if a solution to the fuel problem

was not found by the end of November war would result and the Japanese would

have to attack to seize the oil resources in Southeast Asia

• the Japanese wanted to force the pace of negotiations and were at first prepared to

give up some of their mainland possessions but that changed when General Tojo

became PM in October 1941 as he was not prepared to give up any of the territory conquered by the army

• the American tactic was to draw the talks out as long as possible to enable the

maximum military forces to gather in Manila and Singapore before hostilities broke

out > the Americans demanded that the Japanese respect the territorial integrity of

China and withdraw from their occupation zones and refused to recognize Japan's

right to large parts of China (i.e. Manchuria)

• November 25, 1941 Roosevelt sent a final ultimatum to the Japanese demanding

their withdrawal from the Asian mainland and knew the result would likely be war but he was informed by intelligence sources that during negotiations the Japanese

invasion fleet had been put to sea

• American fighter planes were sent to Guam and Midway and secret war warnings

went out to U.S. military commanders in the Pacific and Manila (Clark Field airbase)

and Singapore (British naval base) went on high alert

26

Pearl Harbour and the Japanese Offensive December 1941-June 1942

• the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour was the first stage of the Japanese offensive to capture essential fuel and mineral resources in Southeast Asia > the Japanese

calculated on a short, victorious conquest of Southeast Asia that would expel the

Western imperial powers, bring an end to their support of Chiang Kai-shek, and

force the Chinese to negotiate a settlement of Manchuria > the only military force

that stood in their way was the American Pacific Fleet in Pearl Harbour

• Japanese launched its attack across a 10,000 km arc from Hawaii to Singapore and

Manila striking Pearl Harbour, Hong Kong, Rangoon, Manila, and Midway (while still in occupation of northern China, Korea and Indo-China) > this was the beginning of

six months of continuous victories that threw the colonial powers out of Asia

Pearl Harbour December 7, 1941

• Japanese attack force commanded by Admiral Yamamoto with six aircraft carriers,

two battleships, and other warships and submarines left Japan at the end of November and arrived undetected within 600 km of Pearl Harbour

• first wave of attack occurred 7:55 am when 200 Japanese planes bombed

battleships moored side by side on Battleship Row and was followed by a second

wave of 180 planes at 8:40 am and concluded at 9:45 am

• four American battleships had been sunk > the Arizona sank with a thousand crew

members > another four battleships were severely damaged > ten other warships

were sunk or damaged

• American air force suffered more damage than the naval forces as two-thirds of the

air force (200 planes) was destroyed > 2403 Americans killed

• the Japanese lost 5 submarines, and 29 planes (out of 360)

• the attack on Pearl Harbour was intended to immobilize the U.S. Pacific Fleet by destroying its battleships and aircraft carriers and although many of the battleships

had been sunk or damaged and out of service the aircraft carriers were not effected

because they were not in port > the Lexington and Enterprise were ferrying fighters

to Wake and Midway Islands

• although the Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbour was crippled it was not destroyed and the

survival of the aircraft carriers was significant as it was a major factor in defeating

the Japanese in the Pacific War (i.e. Midway, Leyte Gulf)

• December 8 Roosevelt declared war on Japan as did Britain

• December 11 Germany and Italy honoured their agreement with Japan (Tripartite Pact) and declared war on U.S. > Hitler's decision to declare war on the U.S. is

questionable as the American public may have insisted on fighting only the

Japanese and the alliance between the U.S. and Britain may never have resulted to

ultimately defeat Germany

• the U.S. decided on a Europe First strategy as they believed Germany was the most

dangerous enemy because of its industrial capacity and therefore gave priority to

the European theatre which meant maintaining a defensive posture against Japan until enough war materiel and personnel was available to fight major campaigns on

both sides of the globe

• the attack on Pearl Harbour was questionable as the American fleet had been

unable to stop Japanese expansion in Asia, the aircraft carriers were not in harbour

and the ships that were damaged were quickly prepared and put back into action, it

may have been more effective to destroy American oil-storage facilities which would have delayed American involvement in the Pacific War longer than the destruction of

ships and aircrafts

27

28

Japanese Offensive December 1941-June 1942

• in addition to the attack on Pearl Harbour the Japanese launched a series of offensives on the Philippines (U.S.), Hong Kong (Britain), Malaya (Britain)

• Japanese bombed American positions on the Philippines and destroyed Clark Field

leaving the Philippines without air defences > they attacked the British in Hong

Kong by land and air and forced the Scottish, Canadian and Indian forces to

surrender in two weeks > they landed troops in Thailand and advanced towards

Malaya to cut off the Burma Road and capture the British naval base at Singapore

• Japanese air force bombed Guam, Wake Island, and Midway (U.S. bases) and

captured Guam December 10 and Wake Island December 23

• January 1942 Japanese captured Dutch East Indies (Netherlands)

• February 15 Japanese captured Singapore and 80,000 men

• May 6 Japanese captured Philippines and 110, 000 Filipinos and 30,000 Americans

• May Japanese captured Burma (Britain) cutting off Chiang Kai-shek’s supply route

(Burma Road)

• together with their other conquests in the Pacific islands the Japanese held a vast empire on the mainland of Asia, in the East Indies and dispersed over the sea and

called it the Greater Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere (MHMW p.73)

29

30

Midway

Doolittle Raid April 18 1942

• fifteen American B-25 bombers dropped bombs on Tokyo destroying a few buildings

and causing few casualties > the saturation of the airwaves with radio signals

allowed the Americans to break the Japanese codes and as a result the Allies were

informed about Japanese plans for the rest of the war

• the fact bombs were dropped on the home islands had a profound effect on morale

in Japan and the U.S.

• the most significant result of the Doolittle raid was Japan’s decision to capture Midway Island to serve as a forward post in the Pacific defence perimeter > from

Midway reconnaissance planes could warn Japan of potential threats to the home

islands (refer to GF p.137)

Battle of the Coral Sea May 6-8 1942

• Japanese naval units were recalled from the Indian Ocean so that they could escort invasion forces against Australia prior to the Midway operation but the invasion was

turned back after a fierce naval battle in the Coral Sea

• it was an air battle supported by aircraft carriers > although no decisive winner it

could be viewed as a setback for Japanese because it prevented them from taking

Port Moresby (south coast of New Guinea) from which they could bomb Australia

31

Battle of Midway June 4 1942

• the first phase of the Midway operation was the landing of Japanese troops on Alaskan islands in order to draw Americans away from the main battle

• the decisive part of the battle occurred when American torpedo planes and dive

bombers caught the Japanese aircraft carriers as they were refueling and rearming

their own planes and dropped bombs on the fighter planes which resulted in a

series of fires that destroyed the aircraft carriers > four of five Japanese aircraft

carriers were sunk and about 300 planes destroyed

• the Americans lost one aircraft carrier and one destroyer

• the core of the Japan’s naval air arm was destroyed and Japan would no longer

dominate the Pacific

• significance: the Battle of Midway was significant as it was a turning point in the

Pacific war because it halted the string of Japanese victories, the American fleet

defeated the Japanese fleet, and the Japanese lost irreplaceable aircraft carriers and

pilots, naval aviation (aircraft carriers with their planes) was confirmed as the most

important element of combat in the Pacific > Japan would be on the defensive from

this point on

• within 9 months the U.S had 19 aircraft carriers while Japan had 10

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33

Allied Offensive 1942-1944

The Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere

• many viewed Japanese as liberators from European colonial rule and had the

Japanese harnessed this support they would have been a military and economic

match against the Allies > by 1942 the Japanese had captured more resources than

they could have used

• there was support for the idea of Co-Prosperity Sphere of independent nations in the

Pacific > nationalist movements were encouraged to embrace self-government > Burma and the Philippines were granted a form of independence but other colonies

would have to wait until after the war

• although the Japanese gave lip-service to the idea of a commonwealth of

independent Asian nations it had no desire to turn the fruits of their military

victories over to nationalist leaders and tried to direct independence movements to

benefit Japan and lost support of millions of potential allies

• nationalist leaders were angered at Japanese treatment of their peoples and the

ruthless exploitation of their resources ▪ hundreds of thousands of people were sent to work in the mines of Korea or

build railways and air bases far from their homes

• Japanese resorted to terror to govern the large populations under their control and

their cruelty inflamed hatred towards them

▪ troops bayoneted civilians in the streets, sacked hospitals in Singapore, used

Chinese for bayonet practice, prisoners of war were herded on long marches to

concentration camps

• November 5-6 1943 Prime Minister Tojo brought nationalist leaders to Tokyo and agreement was reached to create a common market, Burma and Philippines were

given republican status > but the army did not approve and treated the nationalists

as inferiors and chose force as the best means of control over the Asian allies

Allied Strategy

• Americans adopted a strategy that assumed that the aircraft would be the most

important weapon and instead of taking every island occupied by the Japanese they

chose to remove the Japanese from strategic islands in order to get them close to

the main islands of Japan > the strategy is called island hopping and it saved them

much fighting and casualties

• Anglo-American strategy in the Pacific took shape in the fall of 1943 > British and

Commonwealth forces would strike back from India into Burma and American forces would mount their attacks on the Philippines and Japanese-held islands

• November 22-26 1943 Chiang Kai-shek met Churchill and Roosevelt in Cairo

• British did not like Chiang and preferred Communist leader Mao Zedong who

seemed to have the support of the Chinese people but the Pacific was an American

theatre of war and the British relented

• British were more interested in regaining their positions in Burma and Malaya even

though the Americans insisted they were not fighting the war merely to reinstate the

old colonial empires and were adamant that no American lives be lost in restoring

Asia to colonial status

• U.S. and Britain demanded unconditional surrender of Japan, return of China to its traditional borders (including Manchuria) and elimination of trade concessions on

the mainland

34

• Chiang agreed to the construction of air bases for American B-29 bombers in return

for more loans > the B-29 bombers could reach Japan from Chiang's bases near

Chongqing but alerted to the dangers of long-range bombers the Japanese army overran the air bases and drove Chiang's forces deeper inland

• after the Cairo Conference Roosevelt and Churchill met with Stalin at Tehran

November 28-December 1 where Stalin agreed to enter the Pacific war after

Germany’s defeat which meant the Americans did not need Chiang Kai-shek > in

return the Soviets would regain their Eastern empire as Lushun (Port Arthur) would

be returned, control over the Manchurian railway system would be regained as well

as the southern half of Sakhalin Island

35

Allied Offensive 1942-1944

• after the Battle of Midway the Allies went on the offensive in Asia

• the U.S. divided the Pacific into two areas of command: the Pacific Ocean area

under the command of Admiral Chester Nimitz and the South-West area under the command of General Douglas MacArthur (included Australian and British forces)

• August 1942 the Americans attacked Japanese air bases on Guadalcanal in the

Solomon Islands and begin landings on the Solomon Islands > it took the American

marines six months before they defeated the Japanese in Guadalcanal as Japanese

resistance was fierce and hand-to-hand combat routine on the "island of death"

▪ this type of fighting would be repeated on other Japanese held islands such as Iwo Jima and Okinawa and Japanese resistance would intensify as the

Americans advanced towards the Japanese home islands

• November 1943 U.S. forces landed on the Gilbert Islands and Nimitz captured the

Gilbert Islands in late 1943, then moved on to the Marshall Islands in December

and captured the Marshall Islands in February 1944 and landed in the Marianas

Islands in June 1944 after the Battle of the Philippine Sea which enabled B-29

bombers to bomb Japan

36

Battle of Leyte Gulf October 1944

• October 25 1944 Battle of Leyte Gulf (refer to map MHMW p.75) was the largest naval battle in history as almost 300 warships and hundreds of aircrafts clashed

pitting the American Pacific fleet against the Japanese fleet > the Americans viewed

the battle as a necessary prerequisite to retaking the Philippines

• during the Battle of Leyte Gulf kamikaze (meaning divine wind) pilots crashed their

bomb-laden planes into American ships as part of a suicide mission and

demonstrated Japanese willingness to die rather than a dishonourable surrender

• the objective was to gain time for the preparation of insurmountable defences to be

built in the Philippines and at home and inflict huge losses on the enemy that would result in a negotiated end to the war not the occupation of Japan

• October 1944-January 1945 kamikazes hit 121 ships and sank 19

• Japanese planned three times as many kamikazes against enemy ships when the

invasion of the home islands began

• the kamikazes failed to stop the Allied advance and Americans adopted a bombing

strategy that would make it unnecessary to land troops on the home islands

• the Americans were victorious in the Battle of Leyte Gulf and the Japanese lost 4

aircraft carriers, 3 battleships, 10 cruisers, 11 destroyers, 500 aircraft and 10, 550

men while the U.S. lost 3 aircraft carriers and over 200 aircraft and 3,000 men

• the Battle of Leyte Gulf was a strategic victory as it cut off the Japanese from their

oil supplies in the Dutch East Indies as well as sink most of the Japanese fleet and

pave the way for the invasion of the Philippines

37

Philippines October-September 1944

• after the Battle of Leyte Gulf General MacArthur began clearing out the Japanese from the Philippines in late October 1944 > it was a grim struggle and the Japanese

resisted fiercely as they viewed surrender as dishonourable

Burma

• MacArthur planned to invade Japan on Christmas 1945

• as the Americans (and Australians) were destroying the Japanese empire in the

Pacific the Allies set up a new South-East Asia Command under British Admiral

Lord Louis Mountbatten whose objective was to clear the Japanese out of Burma

and open the Burma Road

• 1943 the British had little success but in early 1944 they stopped the Japanese

offensive in Assam and counterattacked in September and began to push back the Japanese in Burma

• mid-October 1944 the British began to drive the Japanese out of Burma and

achieved this by May 1945

38

Bombing of Japan, Iwo Jima, Okinawa

Air Assault on Japan

• the air assault on Japan began in November 1944 from air bases in the Mariana

Islands and continued with few interruptions until August 1945

• the initial raids were carried out at high altitudes against specific military or

industrial targets but proved ineffective as the bombs missed their targets so the

strategy was changed to saturation or carpet bombing of entire areas suspected of

having military value but this also proved ineffective as the Japanese dispersed their military and industrial assets

• the air strategy was changed into one of terrorism against civilian populations using

low-level incendiary raids against cities hoping it would weaken the will of the

people to continue the war and lead to surrender

• March 1945 the first raid was on the industrial suburbs of Tokyo > hundreds of

bombs created a fire storm that spread through the streets destroying the wooden

buildings and as temperature rose spontaneous combustion ignited buildings > 26

square km of Tokyo was destroyed and killed 80,000 people

• sixty-one Japanese cities were subjected to incendiary raids but despite the destruction and death the air assault did not bring about their surrender

• General Lemay estimated that it could take another 12 months to finish the task

and force the Japanese to surrender

39

Iwo Jima and Okinawa

• American island-hopping strategy was effective but caused high casualties

• February 1945 fighting was fierce in Iwo Jima as Japanese defenders had to be dug

out of their defensive positions one by one > only 216 of 20,000 Japanese defenders were captured alive at a cost of 5,000 American lives

• April 1 U.S. forces landed on Okinawa and the fighting was as fierce as it was on

Iwo Jima as the Americans came under attack by kamikazes but gained control of

the island in June > 130, 000 Japanese soldiers

• at Iwo Jima and Okinawa Americans faced Japanese soldiers who were prepared to

fight to the last soldier

• if the Japanese were so fanatical about defending the outer islands how would they

behave when defending their homeland?

• the Japanese had approximate 2 million troops defending Japan

• Manila, Philippines MacArthur began assembling the invasion forces to go ashore on

Honshu (main island of Japan) in December but it was estimated that the invasion of the Japanese home islands would cause about one million American deaths

40

Hiroshima and Japan’s Defeat

Hiroshima and Nagasaki

• beginning of August 1945 Prime Minister Suzuki wanted to end the fighting but not

an unconditional surrender which would give fanatics in the army an excuse to

overthrow the government and resist at all costs and cause a greater loss of life

• Stalin was poised to attack Japanese positions in Manchuria and hoping to gain

territory in China and share of occupation of Japan as price of Soviet participation

• U.S. and Britain were concerned about Soviet penetration of Asia to match the

territory it occupied in Eastern and Central Europe > Truman advised that an invasion of Japan may result in approximately one million American lives and

another twelve to eighteen months of fighting

• at the Potsdam Conference in July Truman was informed that testing of the atomic

bomb in Los Alamos, New Mexico was successful so Truman now had another

option to end the war as he had a weapon that would eliminate the need to invade

Japanese home islands and thereby save American lives

• Truman decided to use the atomic bomb to avoid an invasion of Japan and save

American lives

• the atomic bomb also meant that the Americans no longer needed the Soviets as allies in the Pacific and the war could now be won without them

• August 6, 1945 Colonel Paul Tibbets piloted a B29 (Enola Gay) that took off from

the island of Tinian in the Marianas and at 8:15 am dropped an atomic bomb (Little

Boy) on the industrial city of Hiroshima

▪ the bomb killed people instantly by fire and blast and from the radiation

▪ the city was destroyed and approximately 100,000 people killed

• August 8 the Soviets declared war on Japan and invaded Manchuria

• when the Japanese did not immediately surrender the Americans dropped a second

bomb August 9 on Nagasaki killing 40,000 people

• even the second bomb did not completely convince the Japanese cabinet that the war was lost but the Soviet invasion of Manchuria was of great concern > as long as

the Soviets remained out of the war there was a chance of bringing the armies in

China and Manchuria back to Japan to defend the homeland and inflict huge

casualties on the Americans but now that the Soviets were fighting the Japanese

armies in China that was not possible

• the cabinet consulted Emperor Hirohito who advised them to surrender provided

that they were allowed to retain the imperial dynasty > the Allies agreed and the Japanese accepted the terms August 14

Surrender and Occupation

• September 2, 1945 General MacAthur accepted the formal surrender of the

Japanese forces on board the battleship Missouri anchored in Tokyo Bay

• as Germany, Japan was to be occupied by Allied armies but it was not to be divided

into Allied zones since the Americans had won the war the Americans would determine the peace

• a military government was established under MacArthur as the Supreme

Commander for the Allied Powers who was responsible for demilitarizing and

democratizing Japan

41

Post-War World

• the war altered the balance of power between the industrial nations with the U.S. and the Soviet Union emerging as superpowers and the world’s power structure

became bipolar (two groups or camps)

• despite significant losses the Soviets maintained an armed forces of

12 000,000 and was in occupation of Central and Eastern Europe

• U.S. contained $20 000, 000, 000 of the world’s gold supply, over half of the world’s

industrial output, and 12 000, 000 men in arms

• Britain and France were economically and militarily drained by the war and would

be reduced to middle powers and become allies of the U.S.

• the development of a bipolar world in part shifted the global power from Europe to

North America and Asia and resulted in the Cold War between the U.S. and USSR

for the next 46 years (1945-1991)

The Cost of the War

• an estimated 40-50 million people died in World War II > the Pacific War accounted

for approximately a quarter and half of the 300,000 American deaths > most of the

deaths occurred in Europe particularly Eastern Europe

42

Role of Technology in Allied Victory

Technology Battle/Campaign

radar • radar played an important role in allowing the British to win

the Battle of Britain and avoid invasion

aircraft • Spitfires and Hurricanes were key factors in the British

victory in the Battle of Britain

• air support enabled Americans to capture Japanese occupied

islands and facilitate island hopping

• aircraft played an important role in hunting and destroying

U-boats in the Battle of the Atlantic

Enigma (German)

Purple

(Japanese)

• British control of the Enigma (ULTRA) gave them knowledge

of German communication and helped during the Battle of Britain and throughout the war

• American knowledge of Japanese communications helped

them defeat the Japanese fleet at Midway

sonar • sonar was an important factor in anti-submarine warfare

and destruction of the U-boats in the Battle of the Atlantic

and vital in keeping Allied convoys moving to Britain

tank • Soviet tanks were an important factor in their victory on at

Stalingrad and Kursk

• British tank superiority contributed to victory at El Alamein

aircraft carrier • American aircraft carriers facilitated island hopping and the

capture of Japanese occupied islands

• it enabled Americans to win critical naval battles in the Pacific such as Midway, Leyte Gulf

• it defended against U-boats in the Battle of the Atlantic

Mulberry

Harbours • Mulberry Harbours contributed to the success of the

Normandy Landings

atomic bomb • the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki resulted in

Japanese surrender and end of the war in the Pacific

Other factors besides technology that contributed to Allied victory:

• numerical superiority

• industrial production of the U.S.

• access to resources (especially oil)

• on the Eastern front Soviet success was aided by the extreme weather conditions of

winter which the Germans were not prepared for and could not deal with effectively

• conventional bombing of Germany reduced and hindered German industrial

production and war capacity by 1945

• resistance movements against the Germans within European nations occupied by

Germany (Yugoslavia, France, Italy)

43

44

Total War

Total war is a war in which a nation engages in the complete mobilization of fully

available resources and population.

In a total war, there is less differentiation between combatants and civilians than in other conflicts, and sometimes no such differentiation at all, as nearly every human

resource, civilians and soldiers alike, can be considered to be part of the war effort.

Examples of total war:

conscription

women volunteered as nurses

women worked in war industries

wartime economy

bombing of cities

people subjected to rationing food and other resources

people encouraged to conserve resources

government imposed censorship and other restrictive measures

government passed laws to organize nation for war ex. War Measures Act

civilians trained for home defence

people encouraged to financial support the war by purchasing war bonds

internment of “enemy aliens”