History Since 1865

History Since 1865

16 August 2013

How did the United States approach defeating the Axis Powers? Your answer must address the strategies adopted to defeat Japan & Germany, it must explain why the US elected the particular strategies, it must discuss the impact wartime diplomacy had on shaping strategic decision making, & it must conclude by describing & assessing the “atomic diplomacy” debate—the question of whether the US needed to employ atomic weapons to defeat Japan, or whether it utilized the weapons for reasons other than hastening Japan’s surrender.

Ten hours after the strike at Pearl Harbor, Japanese airplanes attacked the American airfields at Manila in the Philippines, destroying much of America’s remaining air power in the Pacific. Japan also took Guam three days later, followed by Wake Island and finally Hong Kong (a British colony). It was seemingly one hard blow after another and American strategists had to make fast and (sometimes) rash decision on how to retaliate. They quickly came up with two offensives.

The first was to move north from Australia, through New Guinea, and eventually back to the Philippines. This would be lead by General Douglas MacArthur. The second strategy was to move west from Hawaii toward major Japanese island outposts in the central Pacific Ocean. Both of these groups would eventually merge together to invade Japan. The Battle of Coral Sea marked the first victory for the Allies. Not even a month later, an even more important pivotal point occurred near Hawaii when the Allies won a brutally savage battle that lasted for four days. The central Pacific was reclaimed for the United States after the American navy destroyed four Japanese aircraft carriers while only losing one. A couple months later on the island of Guadalcanal, a battle lasting for six months ended with the Japanese abandoning the island. With the U.S. in control of both the southern and central Pacific, they now had the arduous task of moving toward the Philippines and ultimately toward Japan itself.

The European front of the war was a much different situation than the Asian counterpart. The U.S. banded together with Britain and was trying to appease its new ally, the Soviet Union, which was fighting Hitler in the east. Our army chief of staff, General Marshall, supported a plan for the Allies to invade France across the English Channel but the Soviet Union wanted the attack to occur much earlier than planned. The Soviet Union had been taking the brunt of the German effort in Europe and wanted to ease that pressure as soon as possible. The British had a different idea on how to proceed. They wanted to surprise the Nazi empire with launched attacks in northern Africa and southern Europe before proceeding to invade France.

Roosevelt was definitely torn in his decision whether to follow the Soviet’s proposal or go with Britain’s plan. He took into account that supporting the British plan “would antagonize the Soviets and might delay the important cross-channel invasion. But he also knew that the invasion of Europe would take a long time to prepare, and he was reluctant to wait so long before getting American forces into combat” (Brinkley). He ultimately decided to go with the British and in October of 1942, the British opened a counteroffensive against Nazi forces in North Africa. The Germans implemented the full force of its army against the Allies and caused some major setbacks in our own army. Allied air forces and the British navy were very important in aiding the U.S. to ultimately drive Germany out of Africa in May 1943. On a side note, Russia had successfully held off major German assaults during the winter of 1942-1943 at Stalingrad, effectively diminishing the threat of a Soviet collapse. However, these victories came at a price. Stalingrad had lost a majority of its population and its countryside was completely devastated. Still though, it had not been defeated.

This victory caused Roosevelt to agree with Churchill that the Allies would invade Sicily. General Marshall argued that any further delay in the invasion of France could be detrimental, however, Churchill prevailed that an invasion of Sicily might knock Italy out of the war and “tie up German divisions that might otherwise be stationed in France (Brinkley).”

As early 1944 rolled around, the Americans and the British were constantly attacking German industrial installations. Some major victories came from the seizing of German cities such as Leipzig, Dresden, and Berlin. These quick yet vicious attacks were successful in destroying industrial facilities, demoralizing the population, and clearing the way for a great Allied invasion of France. On the morning of June 6, 1944, more formally known as D-Day, troops of about three million stormed the Peninsula on the coast of Normandy. Within a week and after some ruthless and vicious fighting, the German forces had been forced off the Normandy coast. On August 25, French forces arrived in Paris and liberated the city from four years of German occupation followed by mid-September, when the allied armies had driven the Germans almost completely out of France and Belgium.

The Battle of the Bulge began on December 14, 1944, with a major German offensive through the Ardennes that caught the Americans almost completely by surprise. It became the bloodiest battle ever to involve American troops and resulted in 19,000 Americans dead (mostly during the first few days of the battle). German advances created a "bulge" in the Allied lines, thus giving the battle its name. And, after significant advances, the Germans were effectively stalled by December 24 and the Americans began their counterattack. By the end of January the battle was essentially over. Many experienced German units were shattered or depleted of personnel and equipment; the Luftwaffe took terrible losses and was for all practical purposes broken; most German army reserves were expended; and forces drawn from the Eastern Front for the battle were lost, leaving the forces facing the Russians greatly weakened as well. The German military never recovered from the loss and were steadily pushed back on both fronts until the end of the war.

Next and final was to invade and conquer the Pacific offensive. We had been working on atomic and nuclear weapons, however, the war in Europe ended before we were ready to test the first weapon. A bomb named Trinity was detonated in a remote area of the New Mexican desert – and this marked the first nuclear explosion on record. News of this explosion reached Truman who was in Germany for an Allied leaders meeting. He gave Japan the ultimatum of surrendering or facing complete and utter devastation. While the Japanese debated on whether to surrender or not, the deadline