Andy Wilson

History 443
November 22, 2005

2. World War II was one of the darkest hours in the history of mankind. The armies

of Nazis Germany were marching across the globe squashing any resistance in their way.

Those nations that attempted to resist the onslaught of the Axis armies were either

quickly defeated or sustained terrible loses. Yet the terrible armies of Germany and Japan

were eventually checked and thrown back. In many instances during 1942 and 1943 the

resilient Allied armies fought back and achieved great victories which turned the tide of

war in their favor. These victories are attributed to costly mistakes made by Axis

commanders but without the tenacity and bravery of the Allied soldiers there would not

have been a victory in the Pacific and Asia.

The First major defeat for the Nazis occurred in the deserts of North Africa. In

September of 1940 the Italians attempted to take British possessions in North Africa and

create for themselves a huge empire. The Italian invasion of Egypt stalled and in eight

weeks the British, under the leadership of General Sir Archibald Wavell destroyed the

Italian army. With the Italians sorely defeated in North Africa, Hitler was forced to help

his allies and send his Afrika Korps under the leadership of General Erwin Rommel, the

“Desert Fox.” Rommel struck with his forces and pushed the British back into Egypt.

The battle for North Africa was back and forth with the any advances by either side

quickly being lost. In the spring of 1942 Rommel attacked into Egypt with his newly

reinforced army and made substantial gains, advancing to within 60 miles of the

Alexandria. But he British, under the leadership of General Sir Claude Auchinleck, were

not finished and quickly dug a defensive line between El Alamein and the Qattara
Depression. The battle, which came to be known as the first battle of El Alamein, halted

Rommel in his tracks and prevented the Afrika Korps from advancing to the Suez Canal,

cutting Britain’s lifeline to its possessions in Asia. Nearly two months later, at the second

battle of El Alamein, the British under General Montgomery attacked the Rommel and

forced him to retreat back into Libya. Without reenforcements Rommel retreated but was

hastily pursued by the British who forced him to retreat into Tunisia.

There were indeed miscalculations on the part of the Nazis in North Africa Had

the Germans been victorious at the first battle of El Alamein they surely could have

advanced into the oil rich countries of the Middle East effectively cutting off Great

Britain from one its most important resources. If Hitler had focused more on strategy and

placed more forces into the North African campaign he might well have thrown out the

British and starved them from resources in their colonies, cut the lend-lease line to Russia

through Iran, and threatened India. Had this happened the British and the Russians would

have been starved to the peace table. But this scheme could have only been reached had

the Nazis avoided the costly invasion of the Soviet Union which drained many men and

much material from the German war effort.

In the summer of 1942 Germany smashed its way into Russia driving the

Russians back to the gates of Moscow. Operation Barbarossa, as the invasion of the

Soviet Union was named, was a three pronged attack designed to quickly crush the

Russians. The northern prong advanced into the Baltic, the central prong moved towards

Moscow, and the southern prong moved into the oil fields of the Caucasus. The southern

advance was that which brought the Germans into the conflict at Stalingrad. Having

failed to take Leningrad and Moscow, Hitler focused on seizing Stalingrad and the rich
oil fields of the Caucasus. On September 13, 1942 the battle of Stalingrad began and

lasted until February 2, 1943 with the surrender of General Von Paulus. The Germans

were determined to take the city at any cost and the Russians were determined to old it at

any cost. Fighting in the city was a ferocious battle of attrition, were fighting proceeded

block to block, house to house, and room to room. On November 19, 1942 General

Zhukov launched a counter attack to the north and south of Stalingrad which trapped the

Germans inside the city. There were attempts made by the Germans to reinforce the

trapped troops but they failed.

Stalingrad was a catastrophic defeat for the Germans. 200,000 troops were lost

and 90,000 captured. Hitler had miscalculated the resolve of the Russians and of his own

decision making. His decision to invade the Caucasus, without securing Stalingrad

proved devastating. He had believed that attacking to the south would bring the Russians

to their knees but instead he overextended his supply lines while attempting to fight a war

on a front 500 miles long. Partisan forces behind the German lines increasingly attacked

supply routes and the onset of winter made it harder and harder to supply the front lines.

Hitler miscalculated the effectiveness of his own army and underestimated the resilience

of the Russians. With the defeat at Stalingrad the Germans were forced to the defensive

and were never again able to mount an offensive on the Eastern front. Hitler’s desire for

Stalingrad was the crucial turning point that cost him the war in the East.

In the East the Japanese fared equally as well as the Nazis in the early years of the

war. The Japanese had forced the Allies out of the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore,

Hong Kong, Thailand, as well as numerous smaller islands in the Pacific. But in 1942

there were two crucial battles that turned the tide in the Pacific, one on land and the other
on sea. The first battle was that of Midway which occurred on June 4-6, 1942. In the

aftermath of the Doolittle raids the Japanese admiral, Yamamoto, desired to destroy the

U.S. Pacific Fleet in order to protect the Home Islands. His plan was to attack Midway

Island and therefore lure the fleet out of Hawaii and destroy them. Unbeknownst to

Yamamoto, U.S. had cracked the Japanese code and the carriers were in fact setting a trap

for the Japanese at Midway. Admiral Nagumo, who was in command of the Japanese

fleet, launched an air attack on Midway which went according to plan. Yet as the attack

planes were refueling a group of American torpedo planes appeared and were quickly

shot out of the air. With their air cover refueling and rearming on the carriers and their

decks covered in bombs and fuel, the Japanese were attacked by a group of dive bombers

that had strayed off course and three of their four carriers were severely destroyed.

Without the carriers the Japanese could not attack Midway.

The battle of Midway shifted the naval balance in the Pacific. Japan had lost

three of its main battle carriers as well as many irreplaceable pilots. The defeat at

Midway marked the end to Japans initiative on the high seas. As Stalingrad had placed

the Germans on the defensive, Midway did the same by placing he Japanese on the

defensive. After Midway the Imperial Navy would be constantly on the defensive. In the

battle of Midway, U.S. intelligence turned the battle from a horrible defeat to a

miraculous victory. The Japanese did not make mistakes so much as the Americans were

lucky. Had the American planes not fond the Japanese carriers when they did the battle

may have ended with the destruction of the U.S. fleet and the invasion of the Hawaiian

Islands. Without Hawaii the U.S. would not have been able to send troops and supplies

to Australia and the U.S would have lost its toe-hold in the Pacific.
 The turning point on land in the Pacific was the battle of Guadalcanal from

August 1942-January 1943. U.S. marines attacked the airfield on Guadalcanal in order to

keep the Japanese from securing a foothold in the Solomon Islands. By operating their

airfield on Guadalcanal the Japanese would have been able to disrupt American supplies

and troops going to Australia. The fight was led by Marines who were, at the time, the

only group trained and capable of fighting an amphibious, island war. During the entire

six month battle there were seven naval battles and ten land battles. These battles were

horribly brutal and vicious; over 5,000 seamen died in the naval fighting alone and the

Japanese lost 2,300 irreplaceable aviators as well as 21,000 ground troops. Neither

Americans nor Japanese took any prisoners; this shaped the nature of the conflict in the

Pacific for the remainder of the war. The jungle atmosphere also contributed to the

misery of the common fighting man. After the naval battle of Guadalcanal the Japanese

were unable to supply and reinforce the troops on the island, which led to their ultimate

defeat. Beginning in December of 1942 the Marines pressed out from their perimeter

around Henderson field and began mopping up the Japanese still held up on the island.

The Battle of Guadalcanal was the first defeat on land that the Japanese had

sustained in the war up to that point. As with the battle of Midway, the Japanese defeat

marked a shift in momentum and initiative to the U.S. The Japanese lost two thirds of

their ground forces as well as many irreplaceable aviators. Never again in the war would

the Japanese army be able to make a significant attack against the U.S. The battle of

Guadalcanal was not a lost or won by a mistake, the victory on the island ripped from the

hands of the Japanese by the tenacity of the American Marines, Navy and Army. The

only move that the Japanese could be faulted for at Guadalcanal was the beginning of
suicide attacks. These attacks needlessly wasted the lives of Japanese soldiers who could

have retreated and fought another day. By beginning suicide attacks the Japanese set a

costly precedent which would drain them of many men.

As can be seen in every instance fate seemed to favor the Axis powers, yet in each

battle they failed. One might as themselves: what factors led to Axis failure to sustain the

momentum gained in the early years of the war? First, in the case of both Germany and

Japan, the expansion was too rapid and they gained far too much territory. The Germans

and the Japanese were forced to protect immense supply lines that stretched for thousands

of miles. Neither army had the men or the resources to sustain and protect these lines

from partisans and attacks, which led to the lack of supplies reaching the frontlines and

the inability of the troops to continue fighting. Second, Allied intelligence quickly broke

the codes of both Japan and Germany. American code-breakers were crucial in the defeat

of the Imperial Navy at Midway and British code-breakers at Bletchley Park were

successful in deciphering the German code and defeating the German “wolf-packs.”

Third, in the case of the Germans the megalomania of Hitler proved their undoing.

Hitler’s refusal to listen to the sound judgment of his generals cost him numerous battles;

over 200,000 men at the battle of Stalingrad alone. If Hitler had listened to his generals

he would have not attacked the Soviet Union without the mechanized divisions needed to

carry troops and supplies to the front lines. Theses factors are not the only ones that need

to be considered. One must also look at the tenacity and courage exhibited by the

fighting of all the Allied armies. Without their ultimate sacrifice, none of what was

accomplished could have obtained. Mush laurel is given to the generals but it was the

determination of the ordinary grunt that who really caused the turning points of WWII.
4. “Battles might be won or lost, but our power to fight, to keep ourselves alive

rested on the outcome of the struggle for control of the Atlantic.” This statement was

made by Winston Churchill and describes the desperate situation Britain was in during

the early years of the war due to the attacks on their lifelines by German submarines. The

British could have afforded to lose and win other battles but if they had lost the Battle of

the Atlantic all of their efforts would have been for naught because without the materials

necessary for the war effort the British war machine would have crawled to a halt. From

1939 until 1942 the U-boats of the German Navy harassed the merchant and naval vessels

of both Great Britain and the U.S. From the beginning of the war until 1942, German U-

boats presented the geatest threat to the safety and welfare of Great Britain because they

threatened Britain’s means to feed and arm themselves. Unable to obtain supplies from

continental Europe, the British were forced to look overseas, its dominions and empire as

well as the United States, in order to obtain the raw materials needed to build the

equipment necessary to continue the fight against the Nazis.

The first victory of British in the Battle of the Atlantic was the defeat of the

German surface fleet. The British submarine Salmon torpedoed the German cruisers

Leipzig and Bluecher, followed by the scuttling of the Graf Spree in Montevideo

Uruguay. In May of 1941, the great German battleship Bismarck was chased down and

sunk off the coast of Greenland. Nearly 2,300 sailors went down with the ship. By the

summer of 1941 the Royal Navy had won control of the surface seas but underneath the

waves the U-boats still lurked and posed a deadly threat.

The U-boats were by far the greatest threat to the British war effort. Not only did

they threaten to cut off Britain from badly needed supplies but they also threatened to
stop supplies going to Russia and North Africa. With the U.S. entry into the war the

Germany extended the U-boat war to the shores of North America. The plan was called

“Operation Drumbeat.” Drumbeat was carried out by five long-distance U-boats who

roamed freely from Canada to the Caribbean taking advantage of the woefully inadequate

U.S. Navy that was fighting a desperate battle in the Pacific and therefore not giving the

Atlantic its top priority. In a mere six months, the German raiders sank nearly 400 Allied

ships and as many as 5,000 Allied sailors died. In 1942 merchant men had a higher risk

of dieing than did American troops in the jungles of Bataan. It was estimated that the

sinking of one freighter was the equivalent of four railroad trains of seventy-five cars

apiece. The raids forced Admiral Ernest King to establish the convoy system and

improve antisubmarine aviation.

In 1942, it appeared as if the Allies were on the verge of losing the Battle of the

Atlantic. U-boat production soared and they began using the new “wolf-pack” method to

attack convoys. U-boats would use triangulation to direct other boats to the location then

they would attack and overwhelm the escort ships. This method proved to be deadly

affective because in 1942 over one thousand Allied ships were sunk with only eighty-six

submarines lost. There was a bright spot that year as the British captured a German

enigma machine and began deciphering the code used to direct U-boat actions. This

allowed for convoys to skirt areas where U-boats were known to be. This did not stop the

U-boats however who now numbered over 300 boats. In the first part of March 1943 the

U-boats sank ninety-seven Allied ships. This was the darkest period for the Allies

throughout the entire Battle of the Atlantic but a dramatic change was about to happen.
 In May of 1943 one of the most dramatic changes had occurred in the Battle of

the Atlantic. The battle had gone from its most bleak point to Allied supremacy in one

month. This was in large part done by advances in industry, technology and tactics. The

first aspect was that America was building more merchant ships than the U-boats could

sink. By 1943 Henry J. Kaiser constructed 140 Liberty ships in just one month. Kaiser

also convinced President Roosevelt to send small carriers along with the convoys. These

carriers used new planes equipped with new radar technology and homing torpedoes

which became the scourge of the U-boats. The Navy also used search and destroy teams

comprised of fast destroyers and the previously mentioned small carriers armed with

torpedo planes. In what the Germans came to call “Black May,” Admiral Doenitz would

lose 27,491 of his 39,000 men and 754 of the 863 U-boats in his force. Yet the German

lose was not without a significant amount of damage done to the Allies. During the long

years of the Battle of the Atlantic the U-boats had sank almost 2,775 merchant vessels

and 175 warships.

The Battle of the Atlantic was a costly battle that was fought to maintain the

supply lines between the Old World and the New. It was a colossal effort on the part of

the German U-boats to stem the tide of material and men that was streaming into Great

Britain. The Allied seamen who fought and died in the effort are now a mere footnote,

barley mentioned in the large histories of WWII. But their sacrifice was as important as

those of the men who died on the beaches of Normandy. Without the effort of the Allied

merchant seamen and Naval seamen Britain would have surely been starved to death by

Doenitz’s wolf-packs. The Battle of the Atlantic is important not because of the number

of vessels involved or of men killed. It is important because it sustained the small, brave
nation of Great Britain in its effort to ward of the onslaught of the Nazis. Without the

Allied victory in the Atlantic Europe may very well have been lost, because without

Great Britain Hitler would have been able to focus all of his energy on destroying the

Soviet Union. The Battle of the Atlantic was indeed of the utmost importance to the

outcome of the war in Europe.