Phase II of World War II

1. Phase II of World War II The World Fights For Survival

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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”

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. Several factors contributed to Allied victory: cracking the Enigma code machine, eliminating the mid-Atlantic air gap and greater Allied shipping productivity

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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

14. Pearl Harbor - Battleship Row

15. Midway - US divebombers

16. El Alamein - Rommel v. Montgomery

17. Stalingrad - Mamayev Kurgan

18. 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

19. 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

20. 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

21. 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

22. 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

23. Kursk

24. Sicilian campaign

25. Gen. George S. Patton (USA)

26. Tarawa