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World War II
1.0 INTRODUCTION
‘The war to end all wars’ as World War I was called, had ended in 1919 but the issues remained unresolved. The foundations of World War II were allmost the same as the first World War. This was exacerbated by the humiliating treaty of Versailles which Germany was forced to sign. But the treaty was signed by the civilians. The army had not surrendered. In 1929 the Economic Depression which began in America and spread to the rest of the world also contributed to increasing the instability of the region.
1.1 The Great Depression
The severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II is known as the Great Depression. It started in 1929 and lasted till the end of the Second World War. It was the longest, most widespread, and deepest depression of the 20th century.
The Great Depression had devastating effects in countries rich and poor. Personal income, tax revenue, profits and prices dropped, while international trade plunged by more than 50%. Unemployment in the U.S. rose to 25%, and in some countries rose as high as 33%.
Cities all around the world were hit hard, especially those dependent on heavy industry. Construction was virtually halted in many countries. Farming and rural areas suffered as crop prices fell by approximately 60%. Facing plummeting demand with few alternate sources of jobs, areas dependent on primary sector industries such as cash cropping, mining and logging suffered the most.
Some economies started to recover by the mid-1930s. In many countries, the negative effects of the Great Depression lasted until the end of World War II.
1.1.1 The Great Depression & WW II
- Unemployment: Mass unemployment in Germany and poverty in Japan caused great anger. This created the ground for rise of right-wing, dictatorial governments who told them their country was superior and it was valid for them to take what they wanted by force. It was the kind of thing they wanted to hear in the circumstances. 25 countries became dictatorships 1929-39.
- America: America called in her loans to Germany. This precipitated the collapse of German industry and led directly to Hitler's rise to power.
- Politics: Many leaders know that, when things get bad at home, one way to stay in power is to turn people's attention to foreign affairs, direct people's hatred against other countries and indulge in jingoism which resulted in a more aggressive, nationalistic foreign policy.
- Empire-building: In the atmosphere of cut-throat economic trade, the answer of countries like Japan & Italy was to build an empire - this would secure their supplies of raw materials and natural resources. Countries like Japan ( Manchuria ), Italy (Abyssinia) and Germany (eastern Europe), therefore, set about building an empire leading to international conflict and tension.
- Self Interest: Countries who were prepared to be philanthropic during the 1920s, could not afford to give way during the 1930s. They left the League of Nations thereby destroying the international co-operation ideal on which the League of Nations was formed.
- Britain and France: Britian and France were also suffering economically which is why they did not send an army to Manchuria or impose sanctions on Italy over Abyssinia. This is the same reason as to why they did not begin to rearm against Hitler in the 1930s.
1.2 The treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles punished the people of Germany. These people had already suffered during the war which had caused them to have an entire change of their political system. The new treaty was signed by a newly formed Weimer Republic government and therefore the blame for its harshness was passed on to this government. Many Germans saw the new government as having 'stabbed Germany in the back' by signing the treaty which was so harsh on them. This only encouraged the political instability and gave rise to fascism in Germany.
The Treaty caused Germany to have to repay massive war debts called 'reparations' to Allied countries. What these debts didn't take into account was that Germany was broken too by the war and that much of the land lost in the Treaty had industries which were profitable to Germany. Following their first payment, the passive-resistance of the German workers after the French invasion of certain areas and the resulting hyperinflation, America loaned Germany significant amounts of money. This allowed German society to progress, but it was living on false prosperity. When these loans were retracted following the Wall Street Crash, Germany was hit especially hard. This did little to help the struggling democracy in Germany and provided conditions necessary for the rise of an extreme government, in this case the fascists.
The loss of land and the loss of the German Empire was not only detrimental economically for Germany, but also shameful. Combined with the war guilt clause, the Treaty of Versailles angered many Germans and caused resentment against the Allied forces to build up. This motivated extreme political groups like the Nazis foster beliefs that the German people had been 'hard-done by' and therefore were entitled to certain privileges such as more 'living space' which led Hitler to invade countries such as Poland and Russia.
1.3 Eight steps to war
- SAAR Plebiscite: In 1935, the historian Hal Fisher wrote that 'a country which is determined to have a war can always have it.' The Treaty of Versailles had put the Saar under the control of the League of Nations for 15 years. In 1935 the inhabitants of the Saar voted to return to Germany. The Saar plebiscite is cited by many historians as the first step to war.
- Conscription and Re-Armament: Hitler began to build up his armed forces. In 1935 he introduced conscription (calling up men to the army). This broke the Treaty of Versailles, but Britain and France let him get away with it.
- Rhineland: Hitler invaded the Rhineland on 7 March 1936. This broke the Treaty of Versailles. It was a bluff because the German army had only 22,000 soldiers and had orders to retreat if they met any resistance. But once again, Britain and France did nothing.
- Austria: In 1938, Hitler took over Austria. First, Hitler encouraged the Austrian Nazis to demand union with Germany. Then Hitler invaded Austria on 11 March 1938. This broke the Treaty of Versailles, but Britain and France did nothing.
- Munich: In 1938, Hitler tried to take over the Sudetenland. First, Hitler encouraged the Sudeten Nazis to demand union with Germany. Then, Hitler made plans to invade Czechoslovakia. Neville Chamberlain appeased Hitler. At Munich, on 29 September 1938, Britain and France gave Hitler the Sudetenland.
- Czechoslovakia: On 15 March 1939, Hitler's troops marched into the rest of Czechoslovakia. This, for most British people, was the time when they realised that the only thing that would stop Hitler was a war.
- USSR/Nazi Pact: In summer 1939, Hitler began to unfold his plan to take over Poland. First, the Germans in Danzig demanded union with Germany. Then, Hitler threatened war. Chamberlain promised the Poles that Britain would support them if Germany attacked Poland. In August 1939, Hitler made a secret treaty with Russia. He thought this would stop Britain & France helping Poland.
- Poland: In April 1939, Chamberlain announced the 'Polish Guarantee' - a promise to defend Poland if Hitler invaded (this was the event which ended appeasement).On 1 September 1939, Hitler invaded Poland.
2.0 HITLER AND MUSSOLINI'S RISE TO POWER
A new democratic German republic, known as the Weimar Republic, came into being. After some success it was hit by hyperinflation and other serious economic problems. Right wing nationalist elements under a variety of movements, but most notably the Nazi Party of Adolf Hitler, sought to blame Germany's "humiliating" status on the harshness of the post-war settlement, on the weakness of democratic government, and on the Jews, whom it claimed possessed a financial stranglehold on Germany. Hitler was appointed Reichskanzler (Chancellor) on January 30, 1933, by the aged President von Hindenburg. Hitler's government exercised much of its power through the special emergency powers possessed by the President under the constitution.
These powers enabled a government with the President's powers to effectively bypass the Reichstag (federal parliament). Under a further disastrous clause in the Weimar constitution when the President died, his office was temporarily assumed by the Chancellor. As a result, when Hindenburg died, the immense powers of the presidency fell into the hands of Adolf Hitler. Through the possession of those powers and an Enabling Act that allowed the Nazi government to bypass and ignore the constitution, Hitler ensured his possession of the presidential powers became permanent and so gained dictatorial control over Germany.
The Italian economy also fell into a deep slump following World War I. Anarchists were endemic, Communist and other Socialist agitators abounded among the trade unions, and many were gravely worried that a Bolshevik-style Communist revolution was imminent.
After a number of liberal governments failed to rein in these threats, Italy's King Victor Emmanuel III invited right-wing politician Benito Mussolini and his Fascist Party to form a government in 1922, following their largely symbolic Marca su Roma (March on Rome). The Fascists maintained an armed paramilitary wing, which they employed to fight Anarchists, Communists, and Socialists.
Within a few years, Mussolini had consolidated dictatorial power, and Italy became a police state. On January 7, 1935, he and French Foreign Minister Pierre Laval signed the Italo-French agreements.
Meanwhile in Germany, once political consolidation (Gleichschaltung) was in place, the Nazis turned their attention to foreign policy with several increasingly daring acts.
On March 16, 1935, the Versailles Treaty was violated as Hitler ordered Germany to re-arm. Germany also reintroduced military conscription (the treaty stated that the German Army should not exceed 1,00,000 men).
These steps produced nothing more than official protests from Britain and France, for they were more serious about enforcing the economic provisions of the treaty than its military restrictions. A majority of the Britishers felt that restrictions placed on Germany in Versailles had been too harsh, and they believed that Hitler's aim was simply to undo the extremes of the treaty, not to go beyond that. Faced with no opposition, Hitler moved troops into the Rhineland on March 7, 1936. Under the Versailles treaty, the Rhineland should have been demilitarized because France wanted it as a buffer between herself and Germany. But, as before, Hitler's defiance was met with inaction.
3.0 THE GERMAN - RUSSIAN NON-AGGRESSION PACT
The Economic Agreement: The first pact between Germany and Russia was an economic agreement, which Ribbentrop and Molotov signed on August 19, 1939. The economic agreement committed the Soviet Union to provide food products as well as raw materials to Germany in exchange for finished products such as machinery from Germany.
During the first years of the war, this economic agreement helped Germany bypass the British blockade.
The Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact: On August 23, 1939, four days after the economic agreement was signed and a little over a week before the beginning of World War II, Ribbentrop and Molotov signed the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact. The pact is also referred to as the German-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact and the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact. Publicly, this agreement stated that the two countries, Germany and the Soviet Union, would not attack each other. If there were ever a problem between the two countries, it was to be handled amicably. The pact was supposed to last for ten years; it lasted for less than two.
What was meant by the terms of the pact was that if Germany attacked Poland, then the Soviet Union would not come to its aid. Thus, if Germany went to war against the West (especially France and Great Britain) over Poland, the Soviets were guaranteeing that they would not enter the war; thus not open a second front for Germany.
In addition to this agreement, Ribbentrop and Molotov added a secret protocol onto the pact, a secret addendum whose existence was denied by the Soviets until 1989.
The Secret Protocol: The secret protocol held an agreement between the Nazis and Soviets that greatly affected Eastern Europe. In exchange for the Soviets agreeing to not join the possible future war, Germany was giving the Soviets the Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania). Poland was also to be divided between the two, along the Narew, Vistula, and San rivers.
The new territories gave the Soviet Union the buffer that it wanted to feel safe from an invasion from the West. It would need that buffer in 1941.
Impacts of the Pact: When the Nazis attacked Poland in the morning on September 1, 1939, the Soviets stood by and watched. Two days later, the British declared war on Germany and World War II had begun. On September 17, the Soviets rolled into eastern Poland to occupy their "sphere of influence" designated in the secret protocol.
Because of the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact, the Soviets did not join the fight against Germany. Thus Germany was successful in its attempt to safeguard itself from a two-front war. The Nazis and the Soviets kept the terms of the pact and the protocol until Germany's surprise attack and invasion of the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941.
4.0 THE PHASES OF THE WAR
4.1 Phase I (The Phoney War)
The Phoney War was an early phase of World War II marked by a few military operations in Continental Europe in the months following the German invasion of Poland and preceding the Battle of France. Although the great powers of Europe had declared war on one another, neither side had yet committed to launching a significant attack, and there was relatively little fighting on the ground. This was also the period in which The United Kingdom and France did not supply significant aid to Poland, despite their pledged alliance.
While most of the German Army was fighting against Poland, a much smaller German force manned the Siegfried Line, their fortified defensive line along the French border. At the Maginot Line on the other side of the border, French troops stood facing them, whilst the British Expeditionary Force and other elements of the French Army created a defensive line along the Belgian border. There were only some local, minor skirmishes. The British Royal Air Force dropped propaganda leaflets on Germany and the first Canadian troops stepped ashore in Britain, while Western Europe was in a strange calm for seven months.
In their hurry to re-arm, Britain and France had both begun to buy large numbers of weapons from manufacturers in the United States at the outbreak of hostilities, supplementing their own production. The non-belligerent United States, contributed to the Western Allies by discounted sales of military equipment and supplies. German efforts to interdict the Allies' trans-Atlantic trade at sea ignited the Battle of the Atlantic.
Scandinavia: While the Western Front remained quiet in April 1940, the fighting between the Allies and the Germans began in earnest with the Norwegian campaign when the Germans launched Operation Weserübung, the German invasion of Denmark and Norway. In doing so, the Germans beat the Allies to the punch; the Allies had been planning an amphibious landing in which they could begin to surround Germany, cutting off her supply of raw materials from Sweden. However, when the Allies tried to invade Norway, the attack was repulsed. The German Navy, nonetheless, suffered very heavy losses.
Battle of France: In May 1940, the Germans launched the Battle of France. The Western Allies (primarily the French, Belgian and British land forces) soon collapsed under the onslaught of the "blitzkrieg" strategy. The majority of the British and elements of the French forces escaped at Dunkirk. With the fighting ended, the Germans began to consider ways of resolving the question of how to deal with Britain. If the British refused to agree to a peace treaty, one option was to invade. However, the German Navy (Kriegsmarine), had suffered serious losses in Scandinavia, and in order to even consider an amphibious landing, Germany's Air Force (the Luftwaffe) had to first gain air superiority or air supremacy. On June 22, France surrendered.
The Battle for Britain: After a year of war, Adolf Hitler was ready to contemplate an attack on Britain. But, by August 1940, the heavy losses suffered in the Norwegian campaign had reduced the German fleet to the strength of one pocket -battleship, four cruisers, and a dozen destroyers. The British Home Fleet, based on Scapa Flow was much stronger than this, making an invasion by sea a less than inviting prospect. In the skies above the English Channel and the North Sea however, it was a different story. The Luftwaffe had numerical strength and, if they could gain ascendancy over the air, then an invasion would be feasible.
If the Germans were able to get through to English soil, things would be rather bleak for the British. At the time of the French Armistice in June, 1940, the British Army in Britain totaled some 26 divisions, of which 12 had been formed recently and were not yet fully trained or equipped. Only 25 of the 600 tanks, which were in action in France, were back in Britain. The Americans agreed to provide Britain with 5,00,000 rifles and 900 75-millimeter guns, each complete with 1,000 shells.
The implementation of Hitler's Order No.16 - the invasion of England - took the following four phases:
Phase One (July 10 to August 7): German attacks on shipping and coastal ports. The German's fighter tactics proved superior. Throughout this time the British concentration was on raising pilot strength and building up for the battle ahead.
Phase Two (August 8 to 23): German attacks on radar stations and forward fighter bases. The RAF suffers heavy losses and pilots suffer from extreme fatigue.
Phase Three (August 24 to September 6): German attacks on aircraft production and inland fighter bases. British pilot losses and fatigue reach desperately high levels.
Phase Four (September 7 to 30): German attacks on London in a final effort to destroy British air power. After a climax on September 15th, the Germans postponed ‘Operation Sea Lion' indefinitely. Up until around September 6th the scales of battle were firmly tilted in favor of the Luftwaffe, even though they had lost, since August 24, 378 aircraft compared to 262 for the British. The German losses were shared between the fighters and the bombers, whereas the entire British losses came from Fighter Command. Its less than 1,000 pilots were constantly in action and desperately in need of rest. But, then the entire picture suddenly changed.
On the evening of August 24th, a German Bomber formation accidentally bombed some non-military targets in London. Winston Churchill immediately ordered reprisal attacks on non military German targets in Berlin. This prompted a furious response from Hitler, who ordered that a blitz campaign of bombing start immediately on London. This began on September 7th, when a massive 330 tons of bombs were dropped on London.
The bombing of London continued for 57 consecutive nights. While it caused devastation in that city, it meant that the grinding pressure was taken off the RAF. The British had recovered from the losses received over the previous months and had quickly gained the upper hand over the Luftwaffe, destroying some 380 aircraft for a loss of just 178 of their own. The bravery and tenacity of the RAF pilots prompted Churchill to utter perhaps his most famous words ; ‘Never in the field of human conflict has so much been owed by so many to so few.'
4.2 Phase II (Germany attacks Russia)
On June 22, 1941, the Germans launched a surprise invasion, code-named Operation Barbarossa, against their erstwhile Soviet allies. The early weeks of the invasion were devastating for the Soviet Army. Enormous numbers of Soviet troops were encircled in pockets and fell into German hands. However, it wasn't only German troops that went into the Soviet Union. Italian, Hungarian and Romanian troops were also involved in the campaign.
Operation Barbarossa suffered from several fundamental flaws. The most serious of these was the logistical situation of the attack. Ultimately it is logistics that determine what a military can do. The sheer vastness of the distances in the Soviet Union meant that the Germans could only advance so far before outrunning their supply chains. By the time the German attack froze to a halt before Moscow on December 5, 1941, it literally could not go any further. There simply were not enough supplies reaching the front to conduct proper defensive operations, let alone a proper offense. The timetable that Barbarossa was planned to, assumed that the Soviets would collapse before the Russian winter set in. The failure of that also fatally affected German plans.
During their long retreat, the Soviets employed a scorched earth policy. They burnt crops and destroyed utilities as they withdrew before the Germans. That helped to contribute to the logistical problems that the Germans experienced. The extension of the campaign beyond the length that the Germans expected meant that the German Army suffered hundreds of thousands of casualties in the bitter cold of the Russian winter, and from the counterattacks of Soviet units.
Even with their advance grinding to a halt due to a lack of supplies and the onset of winter, the Germans had conquered a vast amount of territory. Dislodging them cost the Soviet Union dearly and took until late 1944.
Once the Germans had conquered some part of the Soviet Union, the siege of Leningrad now Saint Petersburg began.
Hitler had ordered that the city of Leningrad must "vanish from the surface of the earth", with its entire population exterminated. Rather than storming the city, the Wehrmacht was ordered to blockade Leningrad so as to starve the city to death, while attacking it with bombers and artillery. About one million civilians died in the Leningrad siege - 800,000 by starvation. It lasted 900 days, and at its height the only way into the city was across Lake Ladoga, between the German and Finnish lines.
After enduring the winter of 1941/42, the German army prepared for further offensive operations. Instead of trying to reach Moscow, the objective was changed to Stalingrad (now Volgograd) near the Caucasus region of Russia. Stalingrad was captured. However the course of the campaign took a turn for the worse due to disparate objectives, and a lack of focus.
Indecision by Hitler, dissent among the higher ranked German officers, and extended supply lines combined in a prolonged battle in the streets of Stalingrad. In an attempt to capture the city, almost all Germans in the area were funneled into the city leaving only weak Romanian and Hungarian forces on the flanks of the salient. After a Soviet counteroffensive destroyed these forces, the German 6th Army was cut off in the city itself, along with part of the 4th Panzer Army. Starved of food, fuel and ammunition, the pocket was gradually reduced, with the last portion surrendering in early 1943. In a cynical attempt to prevent the surrender, Hitler promoted the commander of 6th Army to Field Marshal, because no German of that rank had ever surrendered. Heavy losses affected both sides in the Battle of Stalingrad, one of the bloodiest battles in history. An estimated 2 million people perished in this battle, including 5,00,000 civilians.
After Stalingrad, the initiative had passed from the Germans but had not yet been seized by the Soviets. A desparate counterattack in the spring of 1943 by the forces of von Manstein halted the Soviet advance for the moment, and set up the largest tank battle in history, Kursk. Kursk was the last major offensive by the Germany Army on the eastern front. The Soviets had intelligence of what was to come and prepared massive defences in huge depth in the Kursk salient. They stopped the German armoured thrusts after a maximum penetration of 17 miles. After Kursk the Red Army never ceased being on the offensive until Berlin was captured in May 1945.
The Soviets bore the brunt of World War II. More Soviet citizens died during World War II than those of all other countries combined. Approximately 27 million Soviets, among them more than 13 million civilians, were killed in the German invasion of the Soviet Union. Civilians were rounded up and burned or shot in many cities conquered by the Nazis. Since the Nazis considered Slavs to be "subhuman", this was ethnically targeted mass murder.
It would be wrong, however, to say the Soviets fought alone. Supply convoys sailed to Soviet ports at great risk. Allied activities may have tied up only a few divisions in actual fighting, but many more were forced to guard lonely coasts against raids that never came or to man antiaircraft guns throughout Europe. It should also be mentioned that the Soviets took virtually no part in the great naval campaigns of the war, had a very limited effect on the strategic bombing offensive, and contributed very little to the defeat of Japan.
The Japanese Prepare for Attack: The Japanese practiced and prepared carefully for their attack on Pearl Harbor. They knew their plan was extremely risky. The probability of success depended heavily on complete surprise.
On November 26, 1941, the Japanese attack force, led by Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo, left Etorofu Island in the Kurils (located northeast of Japan) and began its 3,000-mile journey across the Pacific Ocean. Sneaking six aircraft carriers, nine destroyers, two battleships, two heavy cruisers, one light cruiser, and three submarines across the Pacific Ocean was not an easy task.
Worried that they might be spotted by another ship, the Japanese attack force continually zig-zagged and avoided major shipping lines. After a week and a half at sea, the attack force made it safely to its destination, about 230 miles north of the Hawaiian island of Oahu.
On the morning of December 7, 1941, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor began. At 6:00 a.m., the Japanese aircraft carriers began launching their planes amid rough sea. In total, 183 Japanese aircraft took to the air as part of the first wave of the attack on Pearl Harbor.
At 7:15 a.m., the Japanese aircraft carriers, plagued by even rougher seas, launched 167 additional planes to participate in the second wave of the attack on Pearl Harbor.
The first wave of Japanese planes reached the U.S. Naval Station at Pearl Harbor (located on the south side of the Hawaiian island of Oahu) at 7:55 a.m. on December 7, 1941. Just before the first bombs dropped on Pearl Harbor, Commander Mitsuo Fuchida, leader of the air attack, called out, "Tora! Tora! Tora!" ("Tiger! Tiger! Tiger!"), a coded message which told the entire Japanese navy that they had caught the Americans totally by surprise.
At 8:00 a.m., Admiral Husband Kimmel, in charge of Pearl Harbor, sent out a hurried dispatch to all in the U.S. naval fleet, "AIR RAID ON PEARL HARBOR X THIS IS NOT DRILL."
The Attack on Battleship Row: The Japanese had been hoping to catch U.S. aircraft carriers at Pearl Harbor, but the aircraft carriers were out to sea that day. The next major important naval target was the battleships.
On the morning of December 7, 1941, there were eight U.S. battleships at Pearl Harbor, seven of which were lined up at what was called Battleship Row and one (the Pennsylvania) was in dry dock for repairs. (The Colorado, the only other battleship of the U.S.'s Pacific fleet, was not at Pearl Harbor that day.)
Since the Japanese attack was a total surprise, many of the first torpedoes and bombs dropped on the unsuspecting ships hit their targets. The damage done was severe. Although the crews on board each battleship worked feverishly to keep their ship afloat, some were destined to sink. The Seven US Battleships were Nevada, Arizona, Tennessee, West Virginia, Maryland, Oklahoma, California
In addition to the air assault on Battleship Row, the Japanese had launched five midget submarines. These midget subs, which were approximately 78 1/2 feet long and 6 feet wide and held only a two man crew, were to sneak into Pearl Harbor and aid in the attack against the battleships. However, all five of these midget subs were sunk during the attack on Pearl Harbor.
The Attack on the Airfields: Attacking the U.S. aircraft on Oahu was an essential component of the Japanese attack plan. If the Japanese were successful in destroying a large portion of the U.S. airplanes, then they could proceed unhindered in the skies above Pearl Harbor. Plus, a counter-attack against the Japanese attack force would be much more unlikely.
Thus, a portion of the first wave of Japanese planes that arrived over Pearl Harbor at 7:55 a.m. were ordered to target the airfields that surrounded Pearl Harbor.
As the Japanese planes reached the airfields, they found many of the American fighter planes lined up along the airstrips, wingtip to wingtip, making easy targets. The Japanese strafed and bombed the planes, hangars, and other buildings located near the airfields, including dormitories and mess halls.
By the time the U.S. military personnel at the airfields realized what was happening, there was little they could do. The Japanese were extremely successful at destroying most of the U.S. aircraft. A few individuals picked up guns and shot at the invading planes.
A handful of U.S. fighter pilots were able to get their planes off the ground, only to find themselves vastly outnumbered in the air. Still, they were able to shoot down a few Japanese planes.
The Attack on Pearl Harbor is over: By 9:45 a.m., just under two hours after the attack had begun, the Japanese planes left Pearl Harbor and headed back to their aircraft carriers. The attack on Pearl Harbor was over.
All Japanese planes had returned to their aircraft carriers by 12:14 p.m. and just an hour later, the Japanese attack force began their long journey homeward.
The Damage Done: In just under two hours, the Japanese had sunk four U.S. battleships (Arizona, California, Oklahoma, and West Virginia). The Nevada was beached and the other three battleships at Pearl Harbor received considerable damage.
Also damaged were three light cruisers, four destroyers, one minelayer, one target ship, and four auxiliaries.
Of the U.S. aircraft, the Japanese managed to destroy 188 and damage an additional 159.
The death toll among Americans was quite high. A total of 2,335 servicemen were killed and 1,143 were wounded. Sixty-eight civilians were also killed and 35 were wounded. Nearly half of the servicemen that were killed were on board the Arizona when it exploded.
All this damage was done by the Japanese, who suffered very few losses themselves, just 29 aircraft and five midget submaries.
4.3 Phase III (The Allies strike back)
The Allies' invasion of Italy
With the North African shore acting as a springboard, an Allied blow into what Churchill referred to as the 'soft underbelly' of Europe was inevitable.
A prelude of this attack was the capture of the offshore island of Sicily on 10 July, 1943. This took the wind out of the bombastic Mussolini. He was deposed on July 25, 1943, by the Fascist Grand Council.
He was arrested and placed under house arrest in an isolated mountain resort. His replacement, General Pietro Badoglio, negotiated an armistice with the Allies on September 8, 1943.
The Germans moved quickly into the confused situation, disarmed Italian formations and established strong defensive lines.
Allied troops landed in mainland Italy on September 9, 1943; the American at Salerno, the British at Taranto.
Mussolini was rescued by the Germans and installed as the head of a Nazi puppet state in northern Italy. He continued in this role until he was captured and lynched by mobs on April 28, 1945, as the Allied forces closed in on Milan.
The Germans had built a fortified zone in the mountains called the Gustav line. The Allied forces attacked both sides of the line, attacking Monte Cassino from the south and landing at Anzio in the north.
The Allies finally entered Rome on June 4, 1944, two days before the landings in Normandy. The Germans regrouped at the Gothic Line further north. After a landing in southern France in August to threaten the German flank, British forces started the attack on the line September 10. The offensive by Allied and some Italian forces continued until the Germans surrendered in Italy on April 29, two days after Mussolini's capture.
The Allies' invasion of France: Essentially simultaneously with the fall of Rome came the long-awaited invasion of France. Operation Neptune put troops ashore in Normandy on June 6 1944. A long grinding campaign for two months followed as American, British and Canadian forces were slowly built up in the bridgehead, and German forces slowly worn down. When the breakout finally did come it was spectacular, with American forces under Patton racing across France to the German border. The German forces that had been fighting in Normandy were trapped in a pocket around Falaise.
Incessant bombing of Germany's infrastructure and cities caused tremendous casualties and disruption. Internally, Hitler survived a number of assassination attempts. The most serious was the July 20 Plot, in which Hitler was slightly injured.
Operation Neptune was complemented by an invasion of southern France in August codenamed Operation Dragon - the combined operation was referred to as Operation Overlord. By September, three Allied Army Groups were in line against German formations in the west. There was optimism that the war in Europe might be over by the end of 1944.
An attempt was made to force the situation with Operation Market Garden. The Allies attempted to capture bridges with an airborne assault, to open the way into Germany and liberate the northern Netherlands. Unfortunately, heavier German forces than intelligence had predicted were present. The British 1st Airborne Division was almost completely destroyed.
The cold winter of 1944 combined with a poor situation for the Allies led to a stagnant situation on the western front. The Americans continued to grind away at the defenders in the Battle of Hurtgen Forest. As long as they stayed on the defense, the Allies were hard-pressed to advance rapidly.
That changed when the Germans mounted a major counteroffensive on Dec 16, 1944. The Ardennes offensive, also called the Battle of the Bulge, drove back and surrounded some American units. The Allied forces were eventually successful in driving back the Germans, in what turned out to be their last major advance of the war.
The final obstacle to the Allies was the River Rhine. It was crossed in April 1945, and the way lay open to the heart of Germany. The last German forces in the west were encircled in the Ruhr.
4.4 The End of the War
Allied forces begin to take large numbers of Axis prisoners. In early April, the first Rheinwiesenlagers are established in western Germany to hold hundreds of thousands captured or surrendered enemy personnel. SHAEF reclassified all prisoners as Disarmed Enemy Forces not POWs; the legal fiction circumvents provisions under the Geneva Convention on the treatment of former combatants. By October, thousands had died in the camps from starvation, exposure and disease.
Germans leave Finland: On 25 April 1945, the last Germans are expelled by the Finnish Army from Finland and retreat into Norway.
Mussolini's death: On 25 April 1945, as Allied forces closed in on Milan, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini was captured by Italian partisans on the 27th. It is disputed that he was trying to flee from Italy to Switzerland and was traveling with a German anti-aircraft battalion. On 28 April, Mussolini was executed in Giulino (a civil parish of Mezzegra); the other Fascists captured with him were taken to Dongo and executed there. The bodies were then taken to Milan and hung for public display in one of the main squares of the city. On 29 April, Rodolfo Graziani surrendered all Fascist Italian armed forces at Caserta. This included Army Group Liguria. Graziani was the Minister of Defense for Mussolini's Italian Social Republic puppet state.
Hitler's death: On 30 April, as the Battle of Berlin raged above him, realizing that all was lost and not wishing to suffer Mussolini's fate, German dictator Adolf Hitler committed suicide in his Führerbunker along with Eva Braun, his long-term mistress whom he had married less than 40 hours before their joint suicide. In his will, Hitler dismissed Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring who was his second-in-command and Interior minister Heinrich Himmler after each of them separately tried to seize control of the crumbling Third Reich. Hitler in their place appointed his successors as follows; Admiral Karl Donitz as the new Reichsprasident ("President of Germany") and Joseph Goebbels as the new Reichskanzler (Chancellor of Germany). However, Goebbels committed suicide the following day, leaving Donitz as sole leader of Germany.
German forces in Italy surrender: On 1 May, SS General Karl Wolff and the Commander-in-Chief of the Army Group C, General Heinrich von Vietinghoff, after prolonged unauthorised secret negotiations with the Western Allies named Operation Sunrise, which were viewed as trying to reach a separate peace by the Soviet Union, ordered all German armed forces in Italy to cease hostilities and signed a surrender document which stipulated that all German forces in Italy were to surrender unconditionally to the Allies on 2 May.
German forces in Berlin surrender: The Battle of Berlin ended on 2 May. On that date, General of the Artillery Helmuth Weidling, the commander of the Berlin Defense Area, unconditionally surrendered the city to General Vasily Chuikov of the Soviet army. On the same day the officers commanding the two armies of Army Group Vistula north of Berlin, (General Kurt von Tippelskirch commander of the German 21st Army and General Hasso von Manteuffel commander of Third Panzer Army) surrendered to the Western Allies.
After losing the Battle of Berlin and the death of Adolf Hitler, German troops in various parts of the world started surrendering before the allied armis.
Dönitz government ordered dissolved by Eisenhower: Karl Dönitz continued to act as if he were the German head of state, but his Flensburg government (so-called because it was based at Flensburg and controlled only a small area around the town) was not recognized by the Allies. On 12 May an Allied liaison team arrived at Flensburg and took quarters aboard the passenger ship Patria. The liaison officers and the Supreme Allied Headquarters soon realized that they had no need to act through the Flensburg government and that its members should be arrested. On 23 May, acting on SHAEF's orders and with the approval of the Soviets, American Major General Rooks summoned Dönitz aboard the Patria and communicated to him that he and all the members of his Government were under arrest, and that their Government was dissolved. The Allies had a problem, because they realized that although the German armed forces had surrendered unconditionally, SHAEF had failed to use the document created by the "European Advisory Commission" (EAC) and so there had been no formal surrender by the civilian German government. This was considered a very important issue, because just as the civilian, but not military, surrender in 1918 had been used by Hitler to create the "stab in the back" argument, the Allies did not want to give any future hostile German regime a legal argument to resurrect an old quarrel.
Declaration Regarding the Defeat of Germany and the Assumption of Supreme Authority by Allied Powers was signed by the four Allies on 5 June. It included the following:
The Governments of the United States of America, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the United Kingdom and the Provisional Government of the French Republic, hereby assume supreme authority with respect to Germany, including all the powers possessed by the German Government, the High Command and any state, municipal, or local government or authority. The assumption, for the purposes stated above, of the said authority and powers does not effect the annexation of Germany.
US Department of State, Treaties and Other International Acts Series, No. 1520: The Potsdam Agreement was signed on 2 August 1945. In connection to this the Allied leaders planned the new post-war German government, resettled war territory boundaries, de facto annexed a quarter of pre-war Germany situated east of the Oder-Neisse line, mandated and organized the expulsion of the millions of Germans remaining in the annexed territories and elsewhere in the east, ordered German demilitarization, denazification, industrial disarmament and settlements of war reparations.
Cessation of hostilities between the United States and Germany was proclaimed on 13 December 1946 by U.S. President Truman.
Paris Peace Conference ended on 10 February 1947 with the signing of peace treaties by the wartime Allies with the minor European Axis powers (Italy, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Finland).
The Federal Republic of Germany, that had been founded on 23 May 1949 (when its Basic Law was promulgated) had its first government formed on 20 September 1949 while the German Democratic Republic was formed on 7 October.
End of state of war with Germany was declared by many former Western Allies in 1950: In the Petersberg Agreement of 22 November 1949, it was noted that the West German government wanted an end to the state of war, but the request could not be granted. The U.S. state of war with Germany was being maintained for legal reasons, and though it was softened somewhat it was not suspended since "the U.S. wants to retain a legal basis for keeping a U.S. force in Western Germany". At a meeting for the Foreign Ministers of France, the UK, and the U.S. in New York from 12 September – 19 December 1950, it was stated that among other measures to strengthen West Germany's position in the Cold War that the western allies would "end by legislation the state of war with Germany". In 1951, many former Western Allies did end their state of war with Germany: Australia (9 July), Canada, Italy, New Zealand, the Netherlands (26 July), South Africa, the United Kingdom (9 July), and the United States (19 October). The state of war between Germany and the Soviet Union was ended in early 1955.
"The full authority of a sovereign state" was granted to the Federal Republic of Germany on 5 May 1955 under the terms of the Bonn-Paris conventions. The treaty ended the military occupation of West German territory, but the three occupying powers retained some special rights, e.g. vis-à-vis West Berlin.
Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany: Under the terms of this peace treaty, the Four Powers renounced all rights they formerly held in Germany, including Berlin. As a result, Germany became fully sovereign on 15 March 1991. Under the terms of the Treaty, the Allies were allowed to keep troops in Berlin until the end of 1994 (articles 4 and 5). In accordance with the Treaty, occupying troops were withdrawn by that deadline. Germany remains however without the normal protection of the UN charter due to articles 53 and 107 in the charter which has not been amended since the end of the war.
5.0 THE SURRENDER OF JAPAN
By the summer of 1945, the defeat of Japan was a foregone conclusion. The Japanese navy and air force were destroyed. The Allied naval blockade of Japan and intensive bombing of Japanese cities had left the country and its economy devastated. At the end of June, the Americans captured Okinawa, a Japanese island from which the Allies could launch an invasion of the main Japanese home islands. U.S. General Douglas MacArthur was put in charge of the invasion, which was code-named "Operation Olympic" and set for November 1945.
The invasion of Japan promised to be the bloodiest seaborne attack of all time but on July 16 United States secretly detonated the world's first atomic bomb in the New Mexico desert. Ten days later, the Allies issued the Postdam Declaration, demanding the "unconditional surrender of all the Japanese armed forces." Failure to comply would mean "the inevitable and complete destruction of the Japanese armed forces and just as inevitable the utter devastation of the Japanese homeland." On July 28, Japanese Prime Minister Kantaro Suzuki responded by telling the press that his government was "paying no attention" to the Allied ultimatum. U.S. President Harry Truman ordered the devastation to proceed, and on August 6, the U.S. B-29 bomber Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, killing an estimated 80,000 people and fatally wounding thousands more.
After the Hiroshima attack, a faction of Japan's supreme war council favored acceptance of the Potsdam Declaration, but the majority resisted unconditional surrender. On August 8, Japan's desperate situation took another turn for the worse when the USSR declared war against Japan. The next day, Soviet forces attacked in Manchuria, rapidly overwhelming Japanese positions there, and a second U.S. atomic bomb was dropped on the Japanese coastal city of Nagasaki.
In the early hours of August 15, a military coup was attempted by a faction led by Major Kenji Hatanaka. The rebels seized control of the imperial palace and burned Prime Minister Suzuki's residence, but shortly after dawn the coup was crushed. At noon that day, Emperor Hirohito went on national radio for the first time to announce the Japanese surrender. In his unfamiliar court language, he told his subjects, "we have resolved to pave the way for a grand peace for all the generations to come by enduring the unendurable and suffering what is insufferable." The United States immediately accepted Japan's surrender.
On Sunday, September 2, more than 250 Allied warships lay at anchor in Tokyo Bay. The flags of the United States, Britain, the Soviet Union, and China fluttered above the deck of the Missouri. Just after 9 a.m. Tokyo time, Japanese Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu signed on behalf of the Japanese government. General Yoshijiro Umezu then signed for the Japanese armed forces, and his aides wept as he made his signature.
Supreme Commander MacArthur next signed on behalf of the United Nations, declaring, "It is my earnest hope and indeed the hope of all mankind that from this solemn occasion a better world shall emerge out of the blood and carnage of the past." Ten more signatures were made, by the United States, China, Britain, the USSR, Australia, Canada, France, the Netherlands, and New Zealand, respectively. Admiral Chester W. Nimitz signed for the United States. As the 20-minute ceremony ended, the sun burst through low-hanging clouds.
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