Chapter 24: The United States in World War II section 1: The War in Europe and North Africa The Battle of the Atlantic

Sea power is strength. Control of the seas would be necessary to ferry men and equipment across the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans to defeat the enemy.

The Germans had built new classes of vessels. The pocket battleship class was exemplified by the Bismarck and Graf Spree. These were fast, heavily armed battleships that raided shipping and could outrun their opponents.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgqJ-O_UkE8

After both ships were destroyed, the Germans relied on their U-Boats to destroy enemy shipping.

U-boat Attacks

World War I had taught the Allies that the convoy system was the best way to protect shipping across the Atlantic.

It took a while before the Allies had enough ships to protect the convoys. In the early days of the war, the Nazi U-boats feasted on Allied shipping, partly because of a new tactic developed by Admiral Doenitz of the Kriegsmarine. The subs hunted in wolf packs. U-boats would patrol the Atlantic looking for convoys. When a U-boat would spot a convoy they would radio back to France with the position and course of the convoy. Every U-boat in the area would then rush to join the other subs and attack the convoy en masse.

These were the “happy times” for U-boats, 1940 and 1941. Hundreds of ships and tons of goods were sent to the bottom of the sea.

When the U.S. entered the war American shipping was targeted. There were German U-boats off of the American coast. American merchant ships were being destroyed within sight of the coast. 360 American ships were destroyed in the first few months.

The Allies Fight Back

American shipyards replaced the sunken ships at a fantastic pace. These new ships were able to form convoys which helped to reduce the losses.

Aircraft could patrol around the convoys as long as they were within flying distance of their bases. That area between Europe and North America where the planes could not fly became the killing zone. The Allies developed small aircraft carriers, escort carriers, which could go with the convoys providing air support for the ships.

Because of these factors, by war’s end, 70% of the Germans who had served on U-boats were dead. German submariners referred to their ships as iron coffins.

The War in the Soviet Union

In the summer of 1941 Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union. Hitler had always intended to invade the Soviet Union, he just needed time to prepare; thus the non-aggression pact with Stalin. Using his Blitzkrieg tactics, the German forces stormed through eastern Poland and into the Soviet Union.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhlDMYAGoMo

The Soviets looked like they would be conquered, but the Russian winter brought the German juggernaut to a halt. Hitler had believed he could force the Soviets to surrender before the winter arrived, thus the German army was not prepared for the bitter cold. Also, when the Soviets learned that Japan was going to attack the U.S. it allowed the Soviets to recall several armies from the Far East to defend Moscow. They had kept them in Asia in case Japan had attacked the Soviets. Before the war started, Japan and the Soviet Union had fought a very brief war in which the Soviets defeated a Japanese army; the Japanese did not want to face the Soviets again.

The Germans had laid siege to Leningrad and were very close to Moscow when the wheels came off their war machine.

What Hitler’s invasion did do was to bring a new ally to Britain and the U.S. and Germany was now faced with a two front war.

When spring returned, the Germans made an assault towards the oil rich Caspian Sea region of the Soviet Union. Hitler ordered one of the invading armies to peel off and capture Stalingrad on the Volga River.

The Stalingrad campaign was possibly the bloodiest of the war. Both Hitler and Stalin ordered their troops to fight to the death, no retreat. In February 1943, 90,000 German troops were forced to surrender to the Soviets; less than 4,000 ever returned to Germany after the war.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49fdHDBJCFI

The Germans lost 2 million men; the Soviets lost 12 million soldiers and about 800,000 civilians.

This was the beginning of the end for the German army. From now on Germany is going to be retreating from the east and eventually the west.

After the British were driven from the continent of Europe, they were at the mercy of the Italians in the Mediterranean. The British held the Suez Canal and could control English shipping from their colonies in the East. They depended on oil from the Middle East and supplies and men from India and the Pacific colonies.

The deserts of North Africa became the battle ground between the British and Italians. The Italians attacked from Libya. The British pushed the Italians back and it looked like the British would control all of North Africa. Hitler could not allow his ally to be humiliated, so he sent an army, the Afrika Korps, under Field Marshall Erwin Rommel to save the day. The Germans pushed the British, primarily Australians and New Zealanders, back towards Egypt.

Churchill sent General Bernard Law Montgomery to take command of the British forces. Rommel and Montgomery pushed each other back and forth across North Africa.

September 23 to November 2, 1942 the Battle of El Alamein was fought. The British had the advantage in men and tanks, thanks to 500 Sherman tanks that had been sent to North Africa by the Americans. Rommel was forced to retreat.

The U.S. entered the war in December, 1941. Roosevelt wanted to bring the war back to the continent of Europe, but Churchill did not feel the U.S. forces were ready for such an ambitious plan.

It was decided that the U.S. would invade Algeria and Morocco, Vichy French colonies in North Africa, and drive east to link up with Montgomery’s forces.

Lieutenant General Dwight David Eisenhower was given command of Operation Torch, the U.S. invasion of North Africa. Eisenhower had never commanded troops in battle; during World War I he served in the Panama Canal Zone and later had been Chief of Staff to General MacArthur in the 30’s.

It was reported that Fredendall never visited the front and when the battle began, he told his second in command to take over and he went to bed. Eisenhower relieved him of command of II Corps and replaced him with Gen. George Patton.

Patton arrived at II Corps headquarters on March 6, at 10:00 a.m., finding Fredendall still at breakfast. With just ten days to turn things around before the offensive, Patton wasted no time. On March 7, his first day of command, the newly promoted lieutenant general ordered the mess closed at 7:30 a.m. That was just the start. A round of inspections commenced. Finding discipline lax, even non-existent (“No salutes. Any sort of clothes and general hell.”), he imposed a sweeping range of shock tactics designed to transform a dispirited mob of citizen soldiers into a fighting force. Rigorous training regimens were imposed. Some orders – such as the wearing of neckties by officers and strapped helmets even while using the latrine – seemed trivial and nonsensical, but the $25 fines (half a month’s wages for a private) were not. Omar Bradley, now Patton’s deputy corps commander, noted, “Each time a soldier knotted his necktie, threaded his leggings, and buckled on his heavy steel helmet, he was forcibly reminded . . . that the pre-Kasserine days had ended, and that a tough new era had begun. . . .” Predictably, the troops became mad as all get out.

Because of Kasserine, Alexander didn’t trust American troops, thus II Corps’ limited, diversionary role in the upcoming offensive. Patton seethed, but knew only victory in battle could change things. On March 16, Patton melodramatically told his staff, “Gentlemen, tomorrow we attack. If we are not victorious, let no one come back alive.” Though El Guettar would be a minor clash in the scheme of the war, one participant later said, “Probably, the greatest training benefit of the Battle of El Guettar was learning that the opponent was not ten feet tall.”

Pershing in Mexico

US Olympian=Pentathlon

First tank commander in WW I

Believed he lived several lives before

Wrote poetry

Read Bible daily/swore profusely

In Jan. 1943 FDR met with Churchill and Chiang Kai Shek, leader of the Nationalist Chinese forces at Casablanca in North Africa.

Charles de Gaulle was also present; he represented Free French forces.

It was agreed there that they would accept nothing but unconditional surrender by the Germans, Italians, and Japanese.

By May of 1943 the Germans had been driven from North Africa.