The War in the Pacific

• Background
  • There is a clash between Japanese expansionism (particularly in China and eventually into Indochina) and Western Imperialist interests
  • World War 2 in Europe has negated many of the Imperialists (the British, French, and Dutch).
  • The Imperialists in East Asia, opening the door for Japanese Expansion. Only the US interests remain strong.
• Embargo
  • In 1940 and 41, the US embargoes on Japan have steadily increased.
  • US embargo on oil (they get 90% from the US) and scrap iron in August 1941 are regarded by Japan as a casus belli.
  • The US embargo has completed Japan's domestic transformation into a fascist, single-party state under Prime Minister Hideki Tojo.
• Pearl Harbor
  • December 7th, 1941 witnesses a wide range of Japanese surprise attacks which secure the DE Indies, which contains oil.
  • The assault on Singapore and the US forces in Philippines are a preliminary to conquest of Indonesia.
  • Japan has deemed the US Pacific Fleet in Pearl Harbor as the primary threat to their conquest of Greater East Asian Company.
  • They are aiming for a Prosperity Sphere, or economic self sufficiency (autarky).
  • The attack on Pearl Harbor was a limited success. The US has 7 Battleships: 3 are sunk, 3 are badly damaged, and 1 is run aground.
  • 6/7 are back in use by June 1942.
• Japan's problems
  • Japan failed to eliminate Australia as a base for allied operations, mainly by losing two campaigns
    • Guadalcanal/Coral Sea (May 1942)
    • Midway and a 2nd rebuff of an attack on Hawaii
      • Lost 4/5 carriers and decimated their veteran pilots
  • In Spring 1942, American Filipino forces surrender to Japanese General Homma. The survivors are a part of the Bataan Death March (6000 americans) where the Japanese treat the surrendered americans like dogs. The Bataan Death March becomes an Alamo type situation, where is makes the Americans angry and lust for revenge.
  • MacArthur vows, "I shall return," and bases his US army forces out of Australia. For Japan to secure DEI they must isolate Australia so that it isn't a viable base for US ships. The Japanese are trying to complete the conquest of New Guinea by taking Guadalcanal (which sits astride shipping lanes to Australia) to have a strategic location.
  • There are 9 months of jungle warfare, and in May 1942, the US Pacific feet will meet the Japanese at the Battle of Coral Sea, which is a stalemate and forces a Japanese retreat.
  • Japanese dual failure leads them to attempt another attack on Hawaii. 5/9 aircraft carriers and 40,000 troops in transports are sent by Japan to attack and occupy Hawaii.
  • The 1st Hawaiian Island Chain is Midway, the US army Air Base.
  • In June 1942, Japan's carrier force launches an attack on Midway Island (partially) and then both find each other in ocean and air attacks on the opposing fleets. The Japanese loose 4/5 carriers and the other is too damaged to land a plane. The US looses 1/4 and 2 are badly damaged. Japan looses the cream of their fighter pilots at Midway and never recover.
  • June 1942, Japan has lost. After Midway, Japanese air tactics will switch to Kamikaze Attacks, which is a successful tactic, but the US produces more than the Japanese sink.
• Japan made its play for dominance in the region (GEACPS)
  • Dec 7, 1941 until June 1942
• From June 1942 until Nagasaki of August 1945, Japan is on the defensive
• Japan in some ways benefits from the Allies' Europe first strategy, which was decided upon in early 1942 at the Arcadia Conference in DC
• December 11, 1941 Germany and Italy declare war on the US. Though there wasn't any fighting between them, they were already fighting an economic war.

World War 2 with a focus on The Cold War

• Review of the Nazi-Soviet agreement
  • The Soviets are suspicious of the West. Evidenced by the Nazi-Soviet Pact.
  • Stalin and the USSR are also cognizant of the role the west played in the Russian Civil War.
  • Nazi-Soviet has given the Soviets the opportunity to recoup territories lost to Poland in 1919-1920. In addition, the pact awarded Stalin a "sphere of influence in Eastern Europe."
• The Invasion of Poland and the start of the war
  • The German conquest of Poland is swift. It takes four weeks to defeat an army of 800,000. Poland is divvied up between the Soviets and Germans, who reclaim all Polish territory lost by Versailles and establishment of a protectorate.
  • Warsaw and other major Polish cities will have Jewish ghettoes.
  • After Polish capitulation, Hitler offers the Fritish peace terms based on the status quo. The West refused, and London will be the capital for the Polish Government in exile.
  • The British declare war and the French follow suit. However, they are not followed by the rest of Europe; every other country declares their neutrality, including Italy.
  • The Fritish do not declare war on the Soviets because they are hoping to reconcile with Stalin and because they want a two front war for Germany.
• Soviet Expansionism
  • The Soviets will utilize the Winter of 1939-1940 to consolidate their position in Eastern Europe, especially while Hitler has his eyes turned westward.
  • Stalin wants to reclaim all territories lost by Russian in Paris 1919. Essentially this entails the Cordon Sanitaire.
  • In early 1940, Stalin will demand and reacquire the Romanian province of Bessarabia (Moldova). Thereafter, Romania falls into an alliance with Germany. Stalin moves into the Baltic States: Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, and establishes communist regimes (not peaceably). Becomes the SovietSocialistRepublics.
  • In late 1939, Finland resists reincorporation into the USSR.
  • This devolves into Winter War of 1939. The Russo-Finnish War 1929-1940. 70% of the Red Army had been purged in during the Tukachevsky Purge of 1937.
  • Leadership is impugned and Winter War will reveal this. The Finnish slaughter the Soviets (600,000 are killed), who are punished by the elite Finnish troops.
  • The Finns bravely resist, but by Spring the Russian mass beings to surge forward. The Russians will sue for peace, gains some territory, but Finland retains its independence and allies with Germany.
  • Hitler is unhappy with Stalin, who has taken advantage of Hitler's preoccupation with the West. Nevertheless, critical trade exchange between Stalin and Hitler continues. Stalin outhitlers Hitler.
• Western Front
  • All is quiet on the Western Front.
  • The French are secure behind Maginot Line, as the British are secure in their respective country. The Germans are still sending out peace feelers.
  • No land or air action. There is some action at sea, but it is limited. From September 39-May 40, they just sit and stare at each other. They call this Sitzkrieg.
  • Hitler will use the Winter of 1939-1940 to consolidate his position in the West and prepare for the printemps of France.
• The US postition
  • The US is isolationist, constricted by the Neutrality Acts, which will be circumvented by an increasingly interventionist FDR.
  • The policy to aid Europe is called Cash and Carry. This ensures that there is no debt and no liability of the US ships being sunk by unterseeboots (submarines).
• Invasion of Denmark and Norway
  • Hitler's precursor to the invasion of France was to secure his northern borders, especially from air attack and amphibious landings. The Germans invade and subdue the Danes in one day.
  • The Germans and simultaneously with the British, land troops in Norway to "protect" them from becoming an enemy base. This is a clear violation of Norwegian neutrality.
  • Norway has a pseudo-Nazi party led by Vidkun Quisling (quisling now means traitor). The Nazis prevail against the British forces and Quisling becomes leader of the collaborational government, and he is hung by the Norwegians at the end of the war.
• France
  • In May 1940 Hitler is prepared to invade France, but the Maginot line is impregnable. The German plan is Schlieffen Plan, second addition.
  • They attack through the Low Countries (Benelux) and then through France.
  • The Germans want to secure the Channel coast and North east France as potential naval and aircraft bases, but they didn't think they could conquer France until 1942. Allied plan is to enter Belgium after the German attack and stop Germans short of France.
  • Two German tank generals called Heinz Guderian and Ernst Rommel get to Hitler and concentrate the German Armor in Ardennes Forest. The German Armor is an Armored corps with motorized infantry.
  • After the initial German attack and allied response, the concentrated German Armory sliced accross the Allied read and traps 1.2 million French, British, and Belgian troops inside low countries.
  • Holland surrenders in 5 days and Belgium in two weeks. Germans reach Calais and captures all the channel ports: their only route of escape for allies except for Dunkeik/Dunkercque.
  • Hitler stops his armor 5 miles from Dunkirk because he fears that the German Army plays too large a route in the conquest of France. He turns the surrender of Dunkirk over to the Loftwaffe. 5 days of bombing allows the British to organize a scratch fleet that will go to Dunkirk and rescue 350,000 troops evacuated to Great Britain is the only force left to defend.
  • By early June, the Nazis attack the halved French army. They quickly break through, capture Paris, and Bordeaux by June 20th. On June 22nd, France surrenders.
  • Hitler is in a nasty mood, so he orders the French to surrender in the same train box car in the Compeigne Forest where the Germans had signed the Armistice November 11, 1918.
• London Blitz
  • From August through October 1940 the Battle on Britain becomes a war on civilian morale.
  • CBS Radio for the first time in history brings the sounds of war into US living rooms. Edward R. Murrow was instrumental in changing American attitudes from isolationism to interventionism.
  • By October 1940 the "Battle of Britain" ends and the Nazis cancel their invasion plans. The bombing of Britain continues until 1945.
  • The effect was opposite of what was intended: British resolve to win the war galvanizes. Churchill becomes the heroic ideal of British perseverance and personifies the British Bulldog.
  • By the Fall of 1940, Hitler believing that Britain was crippled and isolated sees the opportunity to achieve his penultimate war aim, which is the conquest of USSR to destroy Communism and turn Russia into German lebensraum. The conquest of the USSR is called Operation Barbarossa.
  • Hitler enlarges the Germany Army and focuses production.
  • Europe will enjoy a whole year of relative peace nowhere on the continent is any opposition.
• Mussolini
  • Mussolini uses the defeat of France and British preoccupation with air warfare to expand Italy's position in the late 1900.
    • Somalia and Ethiopia attack Kenya
    • Libya
    • Albania and invade Greece all these are successful in 1940
  • By 1941 the British focus on Italy and drive the Italians back into Libya and Somalia. The British backed the Greek force on Italian retreat.
  • Italian reverses in Greece force Hitler to delay his attack on the Soviets from May until June.
  • the Germans send hoaxy forces to defeat the Greeks (Pandas on the Parthenon), and the Germans also take Crete by paratoopers.
  • Hitler often bolsters Italy in North Afrika, detaching a panzan army from the intended Russian invasion.
• Invasion of Russia
  • June 20th, 1941, Nazi invasion of the USSR (Largest war evah). There are 4,000,000 troops who attack on a Broad front from the Baltic to Black Sea.
  • There are three army groups who aim for Leningrad/ St. Petersberg, St. Pete/ Moscow, and Kiev /South. Stalin was caught completely by surprise despite repeated British warnings. (Stalin thinks that GB is trying to evoke a Nazi-Soviet Pact which they are)
  • Stalin disappears for two weeks and the Soviet armies are routed; he reappears and orders "no retreat" and scorcjed earth policy. German intel has estimated the Soviet Army War 2.5-3 million troops. Soviets will suffer 4 million casualties in 1941.
  • Distances are long and prisoners are burdensome. By October Kiev has fallen and Leningrad encircled (four years) and Moscow lays open before Nazi advance. October brings rains and mud. Ironically they cannor resume their advance until the freeze hits. By early December he is 9 miles from Moscow.
  • Pearl Harbor allows the Soviets to remove their Siberian Army to stop the Germans. The Cold sets in.
  • German advance has stopped cold until Springtime.
• After the German invasion of the USSR, Churchill and FDR will meet off the coast of Newfoundland The Agreements are called the Atlantic Charter (but the US is not at war) and numerate war aims.
  • No territorial gains were to be sought
  • Territorial change should be made in consultations with affected peoples
  • People have right of self-determinism
  • Trade barriers should be lowered (Free Trade)
  • Global economic cooperation and advancement of social welfare
  • A world free form fear and want
  • Freedom of the seas
  • Disarmament of Aggression Nations and a common post war disarmament
  • This leads to the declaration of the United Nations.

The Polish Problem

• The Problem
  • After the Munich Pact, the Germans, who supposedly we are satisfied territorially begin to hold open talks with the Poles. The Poles had gotten territory from the Czechs and the 10 year Non-Aggression Pact with Germans.
  • Polish government is a right-wing military dictatorship (about 60% Fascist) ruled by a triumvirate. Marshal Smigly-Rydz and Foreign Minister Colonel Jozef Beck are two main leaders.
  • The German issues include a minority in Poland and territory lost to Poland by Versailles: Posen/ W. Prussia, Silesia, Danzig (League Free City), and the Polish Corridor.
  • The Germans want Danzig returned, which is 90% German, as well as a corridor so that E. Prussia can be contiguous with Germany.
  • The Poles steadfastly refuse to negotiate, so the Germans lure them with a 25 year deal, and also told them that they would settle for an extra-territorial (above ground) road across the corridor.
• Alliances both form and break
  • The Poles still refuse relying upon their alliance with the French and their 800,000 man army.
  • With the 2nd Czech crisis in March 1938, Polish fears are increased geographically.
  • British and French see the German occupation of Czechoslovakia as a breach of the Munich Pact. They draw the line in the sand. The Brits and the French will guarantee the territory of a number of countries: Greece, Romania, Belgium, and Poland.
  • The 2nd Czech crisis also foments an uprising in the Memel Land (Lithuania). The German population demands to be retuned to Germany, and Hitler annexes on March 22, 1938.
  • Thereafter, Britain with France for the first time ever sign a peacetime alliance with Poland. Hitler's reaction is that he claims its a violation of the Non-Aggression Pact with Poland and repudiates AGNA in April 1939
• Putting the pressure on
  • Hitler begins to place pressure and propaganda on the Poles. There are atrocities against the German minority. In May 1939, Hitler orders his army (the Wehrmacht) to make plans to invade Poland. Is Hitler aiming for another Munich?
  • There is feverish diplomatic activity during the summer of 1939, but no direct meetings. The 3 allies and Germany include the Soviets in their negotiations. The Poles are caught between the Germans and the Soviets, and there is a long negative history between the Poles and the Russians.
  • The Poles recently annexed large amounts of Soviet territory in 1919-20. The Poles unfortunately try to balance between the two antagonists.
  • During the summer of 1939, the British and French begin lackluster military cooperation talks with the Soviets.
• The Nazi-Soviet Pact
  • Stalin begins to worry threat the West is trying to foment a Russo-German war. Hitler, seeing Polish intransigence, sends his foreign minister Ribbentrop to Moscow in August of 1939 to meet Stalin.
  • Stalin replaces his Jewish foreign minister Maxim Litvinov with Vyacheslav Molotov. The Rationale was military and economic.
  • The German economic recovery, fueled by Keynesian government spending, produces far more than it consumes. Late 1930s have witnessed increasing embargoes against Nazis. There is a search for foreign markets, and lebensraum in the east.
  • Poland and USSR will provide those markets and natural resources for German Wehrmacht in case of War with the West.
  • On August 22, 1939, Ribbentrop/ Molotov sign the Nazi-Soviet Pact. This is an economic deal with the secret military codocil. The Nazis and Soviets will partition Poland if war arises while soviets stay out of Nazi war with the West.
  • Moreover, Soviet gets a large SOI in Eastern Europe. This avoids the WW1 problem of a two front war.
  • This Pact initiates the last minute pleas from Great Britain, the French, and the Poles.
• Hitler will only entertain a Polish leader who comes to Berlin with plenipotentiary powers. On August 31, Germans will dress condemned prisoners in Polish uniforms stage an attack on Germany.