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
•
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 AngloAmerican 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