Phase II of World War II
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Transcript of Phase II of World War II
Phase II of World War II
The World Fights For Survival
Pearl Harbor (1941 - PTO)
• Japanese fleet under Yamamoto travel 3,400 miles to deliver a decisive sneak attack
• US commanders Kimmel and Short are unaware of the impending attack - controversy abounds
• Why the attack? To neutralize US power in the face of a Japanese attack deep into the South Pacific
• What is at stake? Japanese access to oil, rubber, magnesium and other commodities in British and Dutch colonies
• British stronghold at Singapore would also be reduced by the Japanese with 70,000 POWs captured
• 2,400 Americans killed and 18 vessels sunk or damaged compared to Japanese losses of under 200
• Oil tank farm and repair facilities left unscathed. Sunk vessels resurfaced.
• Nagumo: “we have awakened a sleeping giant”
Midway (PTO - 1942)
• For six months after Pearl Harbor the Japanese run wild establishing the “Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere”
• Japanese victories at Java Sea and Coral Sea imperiled Australia and the west coast of the US
• Japanese armada steams for the Hawaiian islands in June, 1942 to square off with a 3 aircraft carrier fleet commanded by Adm. Nimitz
• 3 day battle is a devastating defeat for the Japanese as Nimitz’s forces prevail
• 3 Japanese carriers sunk (Akagi caught by US torpedo-bombers while refueling her planes on deck)
• The battle for the Pacific now swings in the US’s favor
The “Paukenschlag” (ETO <Atlantic> 1942)
• German U-boats based in Norway wreak havoc in the North Atlantic in the first six months of 1942
• From the coastline of North America to the Barents Sea Allied shipping face massacre odds
• Convoy PQ-17 an example of this • Allies turn the tide against Doenitz’s “wolf
packs” in mid-1943
• Several factors contributed to Allied victory: cracking the Enigma code machine, eliminating the mid-Atlantic air gap and greater Allied shipping productivity
El Alamein (ETO <North Africa> 1942)
• Montgomery’s Commonwealth forces (Br, Aus, NZ, Ind, SAf) defeated Rommel’s vaunted Afrika Korps
• Where: Egyptian desert sixty miles west of Alexandria
• What’s at stake: control of the Suez Canal and British access to India
• Victory turns the tide of the North African campaign just as American forces are arriving on the western coast of North Africa
Guadalcanal (PTO-1942)
• MacArthur’s island-hopping campaign begins off the eastern coast of New Guinea in August, 1942
• Vandegrift’s US Marines stage amphibious invasion on an island vital as a staging ground for future operations
• Japanese kept their forces supplied by the Tokyo Express (battle of Iron Bottom Sound)
• First clear-cut land victory for Allies over Japanese after vicious fighting
Stalingrad (ETO - 1942/43)
• Battle of epic proportions as Russians mount a “stand-or-die” defense of Stalin’s namesake city
• What’s at stake: the attempts by Paulus’ Army Group South to reach the oilfields of the Caucuses
• Barbarossa has stalled outside of Moscow and Leningrad
• Operation Blau begins in September with aerial bombardment that kills 30,000
• Ferocious street-fighting ensues as Russian general Chuikov orders his troops to “hug” the Germans
• An utterly destroyed city is fought for brick by brick. Railway station changes hands 15 times
• As November snows and cold approach, Germans hold 90% of the city but are shattered
• On November 19 a counteroffensive is begun by Russians under Zhukov
• Defying logic, Hitler forbids Paulus from removing his troops while he can still save a semblance of his army
• Estimates vary, but it appears that 350,000 Germans perished as well 100,000 of their allies (It, Rom, Hun).
• Perhaps 500,000 Russians died. Of the 840,000 civilians living in Stalingrad before the battle, 1500 remained at the end of the battle
Pearl Harbor - Battleship Row
Midway - US divebombers
El Alamein - Rommel v. Montgomery
Stalingrad - Mamayev Kurgan
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Kharkov and Kursk - ETO
• Kharkov - a German counteroffensive victory. German army still dangerous even after the epic losses at Stalingrad
• This victory sets the stage for what Hitler hopes will be the make-or-break offensive in the East - Operation Zitadelle
• Kursk - the greatest clash of armored forces in the history of warfare
• Germans penetrate deep into Soviet lines but are unable to achieve victory and lose 850 armored vehicles
• This is a defeat the Wehrmacht will not recover from
Sicily and Italy - ETO 1943
• Operations Husky and Avalanche part of Churchill’s plan to strike at the Axis’ “soft underbelly”
• Sicilian campaign would be marked by Anglo-American rivalry (Montgomery v. Patton)
• Italian campaign would be hampered by ineffective Allied leadership and determined German resistance aided by the arid, mountainous Italian landscape
Mussolini toppled
• Mussolini’s is forced from power by the effect of the Allied invasion. With the connivance of King Victor Emmanuele III, il Duce is replaced by Badoglio
• Allies place heavy symbolic importance on the capture of Rome, the campaign for the “eternal city” would be hard and bloody
• June 4, 1944 Rome is entered by the Allies, two days late D-day will occur in NW France and the Italian campaign will be relegated to secondary status
Tarawa PTO 1943
• The US island-hopping campaign moves from the Solomon islands to the Gilbert islands in the central Pacific
• Tarawa, a heavily fortified volcanic atoll, proves a formidable prize for the US Marines
• In 76 hours of fighting the Marines lose as many men as they did during the six-month Guadalcanal campaign
• Nevertheless, victory is achieved and the noose tightens around the Japanese
Kursk
Sicilian campaign
Gen. George S. Patton (USA)
Tarawa