World War II - The Definitive Visual History

["PEARL HARBOR A cowardly attack? Japan\u2019s attack on Pearl Harbor was particularly resented because it came before a declaration of war had been delivered. There was little else that Japan could have done to anger the American people more. The news reaches New York\u2019s Times Square America had expected an attack from vital oil storage Most Americans were unaware how badly US\u2013Japanese Japan somewhere but, at Pearl Harbor, facilities, the naval relations had deteriorated by late 1941. In New York and commanders were more worried about dockyard, and elsewhere, December 7 seemed a typical peacetime sabotage from the people of Japanese submarine pens also Sunday\u2014until the news from Hawaii arrived. descent living on the Hawaiian islands. emerged unscathed. It would not be long where it was. On the morning of At any rate, the port was not on high before the naval base December 7, 1941, at 5:50am the alert. The anti-aircraft guns were not was restored to its Japanese carriers were in position manned, all ammunition was locked former ef\ufb01ciency. north of Oahu. Torpedo bombers away, and combat aircraft were parked would strike at the American \ufb02eet, in lines out in the open so that sentries The US at war before a second wave would \ufb01nish the could guard them easily. Since it was a job and bomb the shore installations. peacetime Sunday, many sailors had The following day shore leave and very few were on duty. President Roosevelt A total of 366 Japanese bombers and addressed a joint AFTER \ufb01ghters struck the naval base at Pearl session of Congress. Seething at the late The attack on Pearl Harbor ensured that 3 The number of US warships sunk or delivery of the note America would \ufb01ght until Japan had been damaged at Pearl Harbor that were that broke off peace totally defeated by the Allies. total losses and could not be refloated, negotiations with repaired, or put back into service. Japan, the president GLOBAL WAR called December 7, Hitler was under no treaty obligation with Japan Harbor. The US battleship Arizona was 1941 \u201ca date which to declare war on America but, on December 11, blown up. The Oklahoma capsized and will live in infamy\u201d, 1941, he pitted Germany against the might a further six battleships were badly further describing the of the United States and the war became a damaged in the attack. A total of 188 attack as \u201cunprovoked and genuine world con\ufb02ict. US aircraft were destroyed and another dastardly\u201d. Without hesitation, 150 damaged. In all, 2,403 Americans Congress voted for war against Japan. AMERICAN FLEET RECOVERS were killed. The Japanese lost just 55 That same day, Britain also declared Most of the battleships damaged at Pearl Harbor men and only 29 planes. On the face war on Japan. were repaired to serve later in the war. By then, however, the US Navy\u2019s attack was led by its Although the attack on Pearl Harbor aircraft carriers. Their survival in 1941 pointed was a crushing defeat for the US, it had the way to victory 162\u201363 gg. achieved something that many months of pleading from Churchill had failed to do\u2014isolationism was now over. The American nation, shocked and bitterly dismayed by events at Pearl Harbor, were now united in their commitment to go to war. When Hitler heard about \u201c That the Pearl Harbor attack should have succeeded in achieving surprise seems a blessing from heaven.\u201d JAPANESE PRIME MINISTER TOJO of it, Admiral Yamamoto\u2019s bold attack the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, he HITLER DECLARES WAR ON THE UNITED STATES appeared to have gone like clockwork, was jubilant. Now that Japan was an although this was not the case. ally, he felt it was impossible to lose 149 the war. In perhaps his greatest error The US Paci\ufb01c Fleet\u2019s three aircraft of judgement, Hitler now declared war carriers were out at sea that morning, on the United States. This poor decision and so were saved. Their survival forced ensured that the US was forced to bring American commanders to make air its military might to Europe and as power their main weapon in the war such, it was a decision that would against Japan, which proved to be the ultimately lead to Germany\u2019s defeat. best route to victory. At Pearl Harbor,","EYEWITNESS December 7, 1941 Attack on Pearl Harbor On December 7, 1941, Japanese planes, taking off from aircraft carriers some 217 miles (350 km) north of Oahu, bombarded the US Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor. The attack, which had been meticulously planned, involved fighter and bomber planes, and caught the Americans completely unaware. The first wave of planes, led by Commander Mitsuo Fuchida, hit Pearl Harbor just before 8am. Within a short space of time five out of the eight American battleships stationed there were sunk or sinking. \u201cI peered intently through my binoculars at the ships riding peacefully at anchor. One by one I counted them. Yes, the battleships were there all right, eight of them \u2026 It was 7:49am when I ordered my radioman to send the command \u2018Attack!\u2019. He immediately began tapping out the prearranged code signal: \u2018TO, TO, TO \u2026\u2019 Leading the whole group, Lieutenant Commander Murata\u2019s torpedo bombers headed downward to launch their torpedoes, while Lieutenant Commander Itaya\u2019s fighters raced forward to sweep enemy fighters from the air. Takahashi\u2019s dive-bomber group had climbed for altitude and was out of sight. My bombers, meanwhile, made a circuit toward Barbers Point to keep pace with the attack schedule \u2026 The attack was opened with the first bomb falling on Wheeler Field, followed shortly by dive-bombing attacks upon Hickam Field and the bases at Ford Island \u2026 Lieutenant Commander Murata \u2026 released torpedoes. A series of white waterspouts soon rose in the harbour. Lieutenant Commander Itaya\u2019s fighters, meanwhile, had full command of the air over Pearl Harbor. About four enemy fighters which took off were promptly shot down. By 8am there were no enemy planes in the air, and our fighters began strafing the airfields \u2026 As we closed in, enemy anti-aircraft fire began to concentrate on us. Dark grey puffs burst all around. Most of them came from ships\u2019 batteries, but land batteries were also active \u2026 While my group circled for another attempt, others made their runs, some trying as many as three before succeeding. We were about to begin our second bombing run when there was a colossal explosion in Battleship Row. A huge column of dark red smoke rose to 1,000 metres. It must have been the explosion of a ship\u2019s powder magazine [This was the battleship Arizona]. The shock \u201dwave was felt even in my plane, several miles away \u2026 JAPANESE COMMANDER, MITSUO FUCHIDA, DESCRIBING THE ATTACK ON PEARL HARBOR Being briefed Japanese pilots receive their instructions before setting off to attack Pearl Harbor. Their planes included fighters and torpedo, dive, and high-level bombers. 150","","","5 THE SHIFTING BALANCE 1942 Conflict became truly global with the Japanese conquest of Southeast Asia, but US entry into the war was to prove a turning point. The Allies saw victories in North Africa, and in the Soviet Union, the titanic struggle turned in the Soviets\u2019 favour with the heroic defense of Stalingrad.","THE SHIFTING BALANCE 1942 THE SHIFTING BALANCE Auschwitz II (Birkenau) US forces land Operation Uranus, a is completed in 1942 as in Casablanca major Soviet offensive, is the first camp becomes in November as overcrowded. The largest part of Operation launched in November of the Nazi extermination Torch. Its first to trap the German troops objective is to win in Stalingrad. The success camps, it becomes the final control of Morocco destination of Jews from all and Algeria from of the operation leads over Europe, as well as anti- Vichy France. to the surrender of the Nazis, and Romany gypsies. German Sixth Army. EUROPE ICELAND Y N A E W D R FINLAND E O W N S Faeroe Islands NORWAY FINLAND BRITAIN (to Denmark) SWEDEN POLAND ic Sea GERMANY USSR FRANCE ESTONIA I TA LY North Caspian Sea TUNISIABlack Sea Sea LATVIA S PA I N DENMARK IT B a l t LITHUANIA TURKEY IRISH GER. U S S R AT L A N T I C MOROCCO SYRIA PERSIA TIBET FREE OCEAN IRAQ STATE B R I TA I N NETH. POLAND RIO DE ORO ALGERIA L I B YA EGYPT AFGHANISTAN NEPAL NEJD BEL. G E R M A N Y (Saudi) LUX. SLOVAKIA OMAN HUNGARY F R A N C ESWITZ. FRENCH WEST AFRICA ANGLO - ASIR HADHRAMAUT I N D I A EGYPTIAN YEMEN CAMEROONS (British mandate) YUGOSLAVIA ROMANIA GAMBIA SUDAN ADEN PROTECTORATE Black Y ALB. Sea PORTUGUESE GUINEA NIGERIA FRENCH ABYSSINIA FRENCH SOMALILAND CEYLON BULGARIA GOLD EQUATORIAL BRITISH A L SIERRA LEONE SOMALILAND LIBERIA AFRICA ITALIAN PORTUGAL DA SOMALILAND COAST UGAN KENYA (to Italy) CAMEROONS INDIAN S PA I N (French mandate) G R E EC E T U R K E YM e d i te TANGANYIKA MOROCCO BELGIAN O C E A N(British mandate) (to France) TUNISIA r CONGO NYASALAND (to France) r a n e a n DODECANESE SYRIA ANGOLA NORTHERN RHODESIA S e a (to Italy) CYPRUS IRAQ (to Portugal) ALGERIA PALESTINE (to France) LIBYA SOUTH SOUTHERN MADAGASCAR RHODESIA (to Italy) AFWREICSATBECLHAUNADNA- EGYPT PORTUGUESE EAST AFRICA SWAZILAND El Alamein, where Rommel is UNION OF BASUTOLAND defeated by Montgomery in SOUTH AFRICA November, proves the decisive The German city of battle of the Desert War. Cologne suffers the The island of Malta is bombed relentlessly by the Germans. The first of many massive air only British naval base raids. A number of Allied between Gibraltar and leaders, notably Sir Arthur Egypt, it survives the \u201cBomber\u201d Harris, put onslaught and remains their faith in a strategy an active threat to Axis of bombing Germany convoys to North Africa. into submission. I n 1941, what had begun as an essentially European conflict fighting lay ahead. The Japanese then attempted to secure their vast became a world war. In the six months from December 1941, perimeter by luring into battle and destroying the US Pacific Fleet, the Japanese conquered swathes of the central Pacific and the Far but in two crucial naval encounters (Coral Sea and Midway\u2014May East, and humiliated the British, the Dutch, and the United States. and June 1942 respectively) they were first halted and then decisively In the aftermath of the attack on Pearl Harbor, on December 7, defeated. They were now obliged to defend an ocean empire 1941, Hitler declared war on the United States. Churchill correctly which might be attacked at any point by the gathering might of recognized this as a turning point in the war, although much hard the American war machine. 154","THE SHIFTING BALANCE 1942 1942 US naval forces intercept the Japanese fleet at Midway and stop its advance across the central Pacific. It is the loss of four aircraft carriers that most damages the Japanese. Alaska (to US) CANADA NEWFOUNDLAND M O N G O L I A MANCHUKUO U N ITED STATES The US government begins OF AMERICA a program of forcible KOREA PACIFIC relocation and internment of HINA both Japanese Americans and JAPAN Japanese nationals following the attack on Pearl Harbor. OCEAN BURMA BRITISH HONDURAS AT L A N T I C DOMINICAN REPUBLIC Formosa MEXICO CUBA VIRGIN ISLANDS Mariana Islands Hawaiian Islands HAITI LEEWARD ISLANDS OCEAN (Japanese mandate) (to US) IAM FRENCH PHILIPPINE GUAM Marshall Islands GUATEMALA HONDURAS WINDWARD ISLANDS INDOCHINA ISLANDS Caroline (Japanese mandate) EL SALVADOR NICARAGUA BARBADOS BRITISH TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO NORTH BORNEO BRITISH GUIANA ALAYA BRUNEI COSTA RICA VENEZUELA DUTCH GUIANA PANAMA SARAWAK Islands FRENCH GUIANA (Japanese mandate) COLOMBIA Gilbert Nauru Islands ECUADOR TERRITORY DUTCH EAST INDIES OF NEW GUINEA UAY BRAZIL Solomon PERU BOLIVIA PAPUA Islands Ellice The USS Wasp is torpedoed while supporting US troops on Guadalcanal. PARAG PORTUGUESE Islands WESTERN AMERICAN Fighting on the island continues for six TIMOR SAMOA SAMOA months before the Japanese withdraw. New Hebrides Fiji AUSTRALIA New CHILE Caledonia URUGUAY THE WORLD IN DECEMBER 1942 ARGENTINA Axis powers and allies Allied air and naval The Battle of the Axis conquests to Dec 1942 forces are based in Coral Sea in May is Allied states Australia\u2019s Northern a boost for the US. It Allied conquests to Dec 1942 Territory. Its capital loses one carrier, the Area under Japanese control, Lexington, but proves Dec 1942 Darwin is the target of Neutral states two bombing raids in that the Japanese Frontiers Sep 1939 February and March. navy can be halted. The point which the Americans chose to attack was the Solomons mourning following the destruction of Sixth Army at Stalingrad. chain. On August 7, 1942, US Marines stormed ashore at Guadalcanal, In North Africa, the \u201cTorch\u201d landings by the Allies in Morocco and the first move in an epic struggle that marked the beginning of the Algeria, and the British victory at El Alamein (November 1942), American reconquest of the Pacific. were followed by a protracted fight for Tunisia that was not concluded until May 1943. The Allies were victorious, capturing The initiative was gradually, but definitely, passing from the Axis thousands of German and Italian prisoners. Hitler had now suffered to the Allies. Guadalcanal was secured on February 9, 1943. In a second Stalingrad, this time on the shores of the Mediterranean. Germany six days earlier, Hitler had declared four days of national 155","THE SHIFTING BALANCE 1942 TIMELINE 1942 Japanese Conquests in Asia and the Pacific \u25a0 The Final Solution \u25a0 Malta and the Mediterranean \u25a0 New Guinea and the Solomon Islands \u25a0 Midway \u25a0 Battle of the Atlantic \u25a0 El Alamein \u25a0 Torch Landings in North Africa \u25a0 Guadalcanal \u25a0 Stalingrad JANUARYCorregdor Island is FEBRUARY MARCH APRIL MAY JUNE seized by the Japan. FEBRUARY 7 MARCH 8 APRIL 15 MAY 5 JANUARY 2 President Vidkun The Avro Lancaster King George V awards Japanese forces land Japanese forces Quisling abolishes the enters service. It will the island of Malta on Corregidor, the capture Manila in Norwegian constitution become the principal the George Cross island fortress in the the Philippines. and establishes bomber used on night for its \u201cheroism and Philippines, which JANUARY 11 a dictatorship. raids over Germany. devotion\u201d in the face of surrenders the Germans begin relentless German and following day. Operation Drumbeat, Japanese Arisaka rifle MARCH 8 Italian bombing raids. aimed at destroying Japanese forces Japanese celebrating shipping along the east capture Rangoon, German bomb damage the fall of Corregidor coast of America. the capital of Burma. in Valletta, Malta MAY 7 JANUARY 20 FEBRUARY 8 MARCH 11 APRIL 18 Battle of the Coral Sea. The Red Army attacks Japanese forces based General Douglas Doolittle Raid, launched Drawn battle fought Axis forces along the in Siam begin the MacArthur leaves from US carrier Hornet, between US and Eastern Front. invasion of Burma. the Philippines, with bombs Tokyo. Japanese carrier aircraft his staff, declaring, APRIL 21 to the east of New JANUARY 20 FEBRUARY 15 \u201cI shall return.\u201d First \u201cMilch cow\u201d Guinea. Japanese call At a secret conference Despite claims U-boat, U-459 heads off intended landings at Wannsee, chaired by of impregnability, for the Atlantic carrying at Port Moresby. Reinhard Heydrich, key Singapore falls to supplies for other Nazi ministries discuss the Japanese. 70,000 U-boats. US carrier Yorktown JUNE 4\u20137 the \u201cFinal Solution\u201d to soldiers are captured. on fire at Midway Battle of Midway. the Jewish problem. Japanese attempt to JANUARY 26 MAY 12 win control of the The first US troops Axis armies smash island of Midway, but land in Britain. the Soviet counter- are heavily defeated, offensive along the losing four carriers to 156 Kharkov Front. the US Navy\u2019s one. MAY 26 In North Africa, Rommel attacks the Gazala Line. Surrender of Singapore Japanese navy sextant to the Japanese MAY 30 MARCH 17 The first 1,000- General Douglas bomber raid by MacArthur is appointed the RAF commander of the devastates combined Allied forces Cologne. in the Southwest Pacific by Roosevelt. Doolittle Raid, first US bombing raid on Japan FEBRUARY 23 MARCH 20\u201323 JUNE 10 Arthur \u201cBomber\u201d Harris British convoy from Germans launch major takes over Bomber Alexandria to Malta offensive in Ukraine to Command. He is a suffers heavy losses as gain access to the oil keen proponent of it nears its destination. reserves in the the area bombing Caucasus region. of Germany\u2019s centers of population. JUNE 25 Eisenhower appointed commander-in-chief of US forces in Europe.","TIMELINE 1942 \u201c If I am told to \ufb01ght regardless of the consequences, I shall run wild for the \ufb01rst six months or a year, but I have utterly no con\ufb01dence for the second or third year.\u201d ADMIRAL ISORUKU YAMAMOTO, COMMANDER OF THE JAPANESE COMBINED FLEET, PREDICTING THE COURSE OF THE WAR TO PRIME MINISTER KONOYE, SEPTEMBER 1940 JULY AUGUST SEPTEMBER OCTOBER NOVEMBER DECEMBER JULY 9 AUGUST 7 SEPTEMBER 12 OCTOBER 13\u201318 Chinese Nationalist US First Marine Battle of Bloody Ridge German Sixth Army forces defeat the Division lands on on Guadalcanal. US occupies most of Japanese in Jiangxi Guadalcanal in the troops repel concerted Stalingrad. Province. Solomon Islands. Japanese attack. JULY 15 German U-boats in Resupply air bridge the mid-Atlantic to China, operated by General Claire Chennault\u2019s \u201cFlying Tigers,\u201d gets under way. Australian submachine- OCTOBER 23 NOVEMBER 8 Troops and ships at gun for jungle warfare The Allies are victorious Allied invasion of North the Torch landings at the second battle of Africa (Operation SEPTEMBER 12 El Alamein. Torch) begins with DECEMBER 12 British liner Laconia landings in Morocco Germans launch carrying Italian POWs and Algeria. Operation Winter is sunk off Africa by Storm to relieve the U-156. Many of the Sixth Army. survivors are rescued by the U-boat. JULY 27 AUGUST 13 SEPTEMBER DECEMBER 21 First clash between Roosevelt gives the Germans advance As German attempts Australians and go-ahead for the slowly through the Japanese on Kokoda Manhattan Project\u2014 ruins of Stalingrad. to relieve the Sixth Trail, New Guinea. research into building They are met by fierce Army come to the atom bomb. Soviet resistance as nothing, Hitler buildings change refuses to allow AUGUST 13 hands several times in General Paulus to Remnants of Pedestal the course of a day. attempt to break convoy reach Malta from Strait of Gibraltar. SEPTEMBER 15 OCTOBER 26 M3 Grant tank used in out from Stalingrad. US carrier Wasp Drawn naval battle off North Africa Monty, Rommel\u2019s new torpedoed off the Santa Cruz Islands. DECEMBER 31 opponent in Egypt Guadalcanal by The US carrier Hornet 10 NOVEMBER Japanese decide to Japanese submarine. is sunk. German troops start to evacuate their troops AUGUST 13 occupy Vichy France. from Guadalcanal. Montgomery assumes command of the 19\u201322 NOVEMBER Vicious streetfighting British Eighth Army. Operation Uranus. in Stalingrad Soviet offensive AUGUST 19 encircles German Sixth British and Canadian Army at Stalingrad. raid on French port of Dieppe is a failure. SEPTEMBER 22 OCTOBER 30 The Soviet defenders British boarding party AUGUST 23 of Stalingrad, already recovers German Germans enter confined to a narrow codebooks from suburbs of Stalingrad. strip of land along the sinking U-559. Bombing has already west bank of the Volga, reduced much of the are split in two by the city to rubble. German advance. AUGUST 30 Rommel launches attack on British Eighth Army south of El Alamein. 157","THE SHIFTING BALANCE 1942 The Japanese Onslaught Japan\u2019s imperial designs in the Pacific were based on a simple calculation: the United States had to be presented with a fait accompli that would be too difficult to reverse. This did not allow for the fact that the Americans would fight back, and that their economic and military power would overwhelm Japan. Triumph of the Rising Sun A s one Japanese \ufb02eet made 03K EBY oMxO MtiEtlNeT 7pt\/10pt In spite of plentiful evidence from the Sino-Japanese for Pearl Harbor, a second one THE FALL OF SINGAPORE War, the colonial powers in the Far East underestimated headed for southern Thailand the strength and expert coordination of the Japanese and northern Malaya. At dawn on On February 15, 1942, General Percival campaign in the Far East and the Pacific. December 8, 1941, two divisions of joined the \ufb02ag party for a rendezvous at General Yamashita\u2019s 25th Army landed General Yamashita\u2019s headquarters, set up BEFORE at Singora and Patani, in southern in Singapore\u2019s Ford Motor Factory. In the Thailand, and a third in Khota Baru, lunchroom, which was packed with To coincide with the Pearl Harbor strike, in northern Malaya. Japanese camera crews and journalists, the Japanese planned simultaneous Percival agreed to a cease\ufb01re and signed offensives in the Far East and the Paci\ufb01c, British commanders in Malaya had the instrument of surrender. He spent the heading both southeast and southwest. foreseen the possible Japanese use rest of the war as a POW in Manchuria, of Singora and had planned to move but was present on board the battleship IMPERIAL JAPAN into Thailand to forestall them. But Missouri to witness the \ufb01nal Japanese Japan\u2019s desire to build an empire had been the Japanese caught them fatally off- surrender, on 2 September 1945. evident as early as September 1931, with its balance and they never recovered. invasion of Manchuria ff\u000132\u201333 and, \u201c The drop-outs became more subsequently, China ff\u000140\u201341, in 1937. The Japanese enjoyed complete numerous. They fell by the command of the air. Command of the hundreds in the road \u2026 \u201d PLAN OF ATTACK sea was secured on December 10 when The idea now was to advance southwest Japanese aircraft sank the battleship SERGEANT SIDNEY STEWART ON THE BATAAN DEATH MARCH OF APRIL 1942 down the Malayan peninsula, before Prince of Wales and the battlecruiser branching right and left into Burma and the Repulse (Force Z) as they attempted, the British Commonwealth. It was to included Java, Sumatra, Timor, Borneo, Dutch East Indies. From Formosa a second without air cover, to break up Japanese be the greatest and most humiliating the Celebes, and the western half of principal thrust would aim southeast through landings on the east coast of Malaya. military defeat in British history. New Guinea, all of which fell within the Philippines to link with the southwest thrust the American, British, Dutch, and in the East Indies. Subsidiary drives would Little resistance On December 25 the British colony Australian (ABDA) command under secure Guam in the Marianas, Wake Island, north of Hong Kong had surrendered to General Wavell. The Japanese landed of the Marshalls, and would extend Japanese The Japanese were now able to mount Major General Sano\u2019s 38th Division. at will, had command of the air, and, control to the Gilbert Islands. additional seaborne invasions on the The Japanese celebrated their victory having defeated an Allied naval west coast of Malaya to harry and cut with an orgy of killing and rape. squadron at the Battle of the Java Sea ULTIMATE CONTROL off the retreating British. The General The Dutch were Japan\u2019s next colonial on February 27, 1942, dominated the The overriding Japanese aim was to secure Of\ufb01cer Commanding (GOC) Malaya, target in the Paci\ufb01c. Dutch possessions sea. Victory in the Java Sea accelerated primacy in its chosen sphere of in\ufb02uence, to Lieutenant-General Arthur Percival, the conquest of the Dutch East Indies, defeat the Western colonial powers and, proved ineffective. Morale was further whose civil administration surrendered if necessary, Russia. China was to be subdued undermined by the sheer speed and unconditionally on March 8. and incorporated into the Japanese Empire, relentless pressure of the Japanese while other Asian states were to exist within an advance, which carried them to the Advance to the Philippines Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere ff\u0001146\u201347 naval base at Singapore in just 58 days. under Japanese leadership. Asia was to be Singapore surrendered on February 15, To the north of the Dutch East Indies, wrested back from Western colonialists, with the loss of 138,000 troops from the Japanese invaded the Philippines, demonstrating the huge industrial and a US possession, though largely economic strides being made by Japan. self-governing, on December 8. The combined US and Filipino forces, commanded by General MacArthur, could not check the Japanese advance and withdrew into the Bataan peninsula, where they held out until April 1942. Nearly 80,000 US and Filipino troops went into captivity, Sinking of HMS Prince of Wales The Prince of Wales\u2019 crew abandoned ship on December 10, 1942, after an attack by Japanese bombers and torpedo-bombers of XXII Air Flotilla. 158","THE JAPANESE ONSLAUGHT many of them dying in the subsequent divisions, which withdrew to the rivers American General Stilwell. They had AFTER \u201cdeath march\u201d out of Bataan. The last United States\u2019 stronghold, the island Salween and Sittang, until they were entered Burma to secure the Burma Within just six months, and with feeble fortress of Corregidor, in Manila Bay, resistance from the Allies, the Japanese \ufb01nally surrendered on May 6, 1942. forced to abandon them in February. Road, which was their only land link were in control of a substantial area of the Paci\ufb01c Ocean by April 1942. Less than a month before the In early March 1942 the British with China. Also joining forces were surrender of Singapore, the Japanese CONSOLIDATING POWER 15th Army invaded Burma with the Lieutenant-General Alexander took the tanks of the Seventh Armoured To the north the Japanese threatened the hope of gaining vital resources, such as Aleutians and the approaches to Alaska; in the command. He decided to abandon the Brigade, which had arrived in Rangoon west they were encamped on the borders of rubber and oil. Opposing India; to the south they menaced Australia them were two weak capital, Rangoon, shortly before 166\u201367 gg. Now they needed to consolidate the enormous defensive perimeter on the Japanese shell and retreat with A vital weapon in Japan\u2019s initial conquests the city was boundaries of their conquests. They gambled The relentless bombardment that, faced with the scale of the Japanese of Singapore by Japanese \u201cBurcorps,\u201d as his in the Far East was the highly mobile, evacuated. On Blitzkrieg, the United States would abandon troops implied that they any hope of \ufb01ghting back 162\u201363 gg. army was called, lightly armored, Type 95 tank. It had May 19, having had a huge supply of shells. This was a dangerous overland to India. a crew of three, top speed of 28 mph (45 covered 600 miles overestimate but Singapore capitulated nevertheless. It was the longest kph), and a main armament of one 37 mm (960 km) retreat in British gun and two 7.7 mm machine-guns. in nine weeks, military history. the survivors of The British and Indian troops were \u201cBurcorps\u201d crossed the Indian frontier exhausted and short of supplies, while at Tamu, in the Chin Hills. The long the Burmese troops had begun to withdrawal was halted at last by desert in droves. In this epic endeavor the monsoon, which, however, also Alexander was assisted by the Chinese prevented the Japanese armies from Fifth and Sixth Armies, under the advancing into India. ALASKA br Jun 7, 1942 (to USA) N USSR Japanese land br Jun 7, 1942 USA) on Attu Japanese land Sea of (to Okhotsk on Kiska Islands Attu Aleutian Kurile Islan Kiska bp Jun 3, 1942 Diversionary Japanese yu Islands air raid on US base at MONGOLIA A Dutch Harbor N MANCHUKUO ds Yellow River KOREA Vladivostok Peking Sea of Japan 7 Jan 20, 1942 CHINA Yellow Tokyo 1 Dec 7, 1941 Sea Japanese invasion Yangtze P Japanese attack on of Burma Nanking JA Pearl Harbor Chungking Shanghai Hawaiian Islands East bq Jun 4\u20136, 1942 (to USA) INDIA China Bonin Islands Midway US victory at Battle of (to USA) Midway. Japanese lose Mandalay Burma Road Sea Ryuk 5 Dec 25, 1941 four carriers Macao Volcano Islands Formosa Lashio (to Portugal) Surrender of Hong Kong BURMA Hanoi Hong Kong 3 Dec 22, 1941 2 Dec 10, 1941 Wake (to USA) 4 Dec 23, 1941 Pearl Harbor (to Britain) Marshall Islands (to Britain) Hainan Main invasion force lands Japanese landing Wake Island falls to Manila in the Philippines Mariana Islands on Guam second Japanese attack Rangoon SIAM outh China Sea Bataan DEC 24 6 Jan 2, 1942 FRENCH Fall of Manila Bangkok INDOCHINA PHILIPPINE Guam (to USA) PACIFIC OCEAN Saigon ISLANDS bn Mar 8, 1942 Kwajalein S DEC 16 (to USA) DEC 20 Palau Japanese landings at Lae and Salamaua in Penang DEC 8 Medan M A L AYA JAN 11 JAN 30 New Guinea Caroline Islands (to UK) JAN 11 Sumatra Sarawak APR 12 (to UK) 8 Jan 23, 1942 C DUT Singapore B o r n e o Halmahera APR 19 Japanese take Rabaul, Gilbert Islands (to Britain) Balikpapan Celebes Hollandia NE NEW SANRraBecaliFwhsabiminmpBaaercuialrhtacalukghinaoafen(tSoJoAANluos2mt3raolina\/BI sriltwmaainhna)edinrsesothuethy eersntabbalisseh GUINEA Ceram Lae 9 Feb 15, 1942 H Batavia Java Sea Amboina FEB 19 New Guinea PAPUA Fall of Singapore E Java Surabaya Japanese offensive in the Pacific and Far East (to AUST.) With a well-conceived strategy, Japanese forces A ST Bali Timor raced down through Southeast Asia with great speed, dominating on land, at sea, and in the air. In bm Feb 28, 1942 IN D IES Port Moresby just six months they had carved out a huge empire. Japanese invade Java Santa Cruz KEY MAY 3 Islands Under Japanese control Dec 1941 FEB 10 Darwin MAR 8 N bl Feb 27, 1942 FEB 18 e w (to Battle of the Java Sea. Cairns Coral Sea Japanese defeat defeat bk Feb 19, 1942 Townsville HFreabncrei\/dUeKs) makeshift Allied squadron First Japanese bombing raid on Darwin Under Japanese control Jun 1942 AUSTRALIA bo May 7\u20138, 1942 Japanese invasions and landings Route of Pearl Harbor carrier \ufb02eet 0 1000 km Battle of the Coral Sea. Naval battle 0 1000 miles Brisbane Carrier battle is indecisive, Bombing raid but Japanese call o\ufb00 attack on Port Moresby Perth","Japanese soldiers celebrate The New Japanese Empire Jubilant Japanese troops claim a captured US artillery piece as they celebrate the fall of Corregidor on May 6, On the face of it, the inhabitants of the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere had simply exchanged 1942. An island fortress in Manila Bay, in the Philippine one set of masters\u2014the colonial powers\u2014for another, their Japanese conquerors. Each nation held its Islands, Corregidor had been the last US stronghold own views on the new leadership but rarely did this prove a challenge for the Japanese authority. to surrender to the Japanese invasion. BEFORE By the time the Japanese had control in the C onquest brought with it a host Indeed, some were more \u201cequal\u201d than dependent on the Japanese. The Paci\ufb01c Ocean, they had already gained a of administrative dif\ufb01culties. others and very soon it became clear Thai prince Wan Waithayakon was, good 10 years\u2019 experience in administering Order had to be maintained, who those people were. This came to nominally, the representative of an conquered territory in Manchuria. independent state that was allied with government machinery replaced, light in November 1943 at the \ufb01rst, and Japan and, as a reward, had been IMPERIAL GAINS granted territory from neighboring Now the islands of Guam and Wake, the markets supported and stimulated, only, Greater East Asia Conference held Laos and Burma. Philippines, French Indochina, Burma, Thailand, Malaya, the Dutch East Indies, most of New and economies placed on a footing in Tokyo, Japan. Declaration of war Guinea and Papua, the Bismarck archipelago, and parts of the Gilbert and Solomon Islands that bene\ufb01ted the conqueror. During this conference, which lasted The head of state of occupied Burma, were also in Japanese hands ff\u0001158\u201359. Ba Maw, was initially a genuine Japan promised much but delivered two days, it transpired whose side the enthusiast for the Co-Prosperity JAPAN\u2019S EMPIRE THEORY Sphere, declaring war on both Britain The drive toward a \u201cGreater East Asia absolutely nothing. The Co-Prosperity visiting representatives supported. and the United States on August 1, Co-Prosperity Sphere\u201d ff\u0001146\u201347, which 1943. This would have been greeted had been promoted by the Japanese armed Sphere was merely a convenient mask Chang Chung-hui, the prime minister with a hollow cheer in the parts of forces and in nationalist circles before the war, Burma and Thailand where thousands did contain a genuine belief in the mission of for Japanese imperial 12 THOUSAND of the 61,000 of Manchuria\u2014 of the local population were used as Japan, as the \ufb01rst Great Power in Asia, to lead ambition, and none of prisoners of war employed effectively a slave labor, alongside Allied prisoners other Asians to independence from foreign rule. its populations drew Japanese colony of war, on the construction of the Burma Railway. Huge numbers of 160 any material bene\ufb01t on the Burma Railway died. since 1930\u2014was these men died completing the task. from association with a puppet of the The head of state of the occupied Japan. In fact, the 90 THOUSAND of the 270,000 Japanese. This Asian laborers died\u2014a third of much-vaunted the total first employed. was also true of \u201cprosperity\u201d \ufb02owed Wang Ching- only one way\u2014toward the Rising wei, the premier of Japanese-occupied Sun. Nor did the representatives of the China. The Indian nationalist Subhas occupied peoples\u2014all of whom were Chandra Bose, the Bengali founder of chosen by the Japanese\u2014carry equal the Indian National Army, was in a weight in the eyes of their conquerors. different political position but no less","THE NEW JAPANESE EMPIRE Philippines, Jos\u00e9 Laurel, had been urged INDIAN NATIONALIST LEADER (1897\u20131945) AFTER by the legitimate president Manuel Quezon, who was in exile, to feign SUBHAS CHANDRA BOSE The initial enthusiasm prompted by Japan\u2019s cooperation with the Japanese, but had six months of conquest in 1941\u201342, was gone over to them and declared In 1939 Bose was president of the rapidly dissipated by the reality of cynical, independence from the United States. Congress Party but two years later he went brutal, and arbitrary Japanese rule. to Germany to seek recruits for his Indian However, the majority of the Filipino National Army (INA) among Indian prisoners CHINA\u2019S WAR YEARS population harbored little ill-feeling of war. Bose arrived in Japan in 1943 on a The model, established in Japanese-occupied toward the Americans and took pride German submarine and continued to seek China in 1937, had systematically exploited in their Westernized culture\u2014in the new recruits from Indian troops who had for pro\ufb01t those territories in which Japanese Japanese victory parade one Filippino been taken prisoner while \ufb01ghting for Britain armies were strong enough to impose their band had played Stars and Stripes in Malaya and Burma. Nevertheless, it was control. The majority of Chinese su\ufb00ered under Forever. The Philippines was the only the Japanese who retained control of the Chinese Nationalist corruption, Communist occupied territory that saw large-scale INA, not the Indian politician. Bose died in austerity, or Japanese \u201crice offensives.\u201d guerrilla resistance to the Japanese. a plane crash in roughly 1945\u2014the exact date is disputed. BENGAL FAMINE Japan\u2019s problem areas By mid-May 1942 the British had been driven future President Sukarno of Indonesia, The Japanese had been halted at the out of Burma. Fearful of a Japanese invasion of Among the colonies excluded from the were offered a role in government in gates of India, an obvious target after India by way of Bengal, the British stockpiled Greater East Asia Conference in Tokyo the fall of 1943. A number of the invasion of Burma. Under the food for themselves and burned crops on the were Indochina\u2014which remained strategically important territories, British Raj, the subcontinent, with a under Vichy French administration\u2014 including Hong Kong and Singapore, population of 350 million, had needed Malaya, and the Dutch East Indies. were meanwhile absorbed into the a security force of only 250,000 troops, Malaya\u2019s large Chinese population, new empire and run by the military. and most of those were stationed on which included a small but effective Communist guerrilla movement, \u201c For them there was only one deterred the Japanese from allowing way to do a thing, the Japanese them to experiment with self-rule, way; only one goal and interest, no matter how contrived it might be. the Japanese interest.\u201d Meanwhile, the Muslim Malays, BURMESE PRESIDENT, BA MAW, ON THE FAILURE OF THE CO-PROSPERITY SPHERE who were not hostile to the Japanese, were fobbed off with vague promises of future independence, as were their co-religionists in the Dutch East Indies. The continuing campaign in New Guinea against the Americans and Australians precluded a similar promise, although a handful of nationalists, among whom was the STARVING BENGALI WOMAN AND CHILD, 1943 the Northwest Frontier. From the onset Burmese border. In October Bengal was hit of war, both Indian princes and the by a cyclone that ruined the harvest. Rice vast majority of the population had prices soared, and some 2.5 million Indians backed Britain overwhelmingly. Over died. In the event, the Japanese invasion of two million Indians\u2014making up the India was averted by the Allies 248\u201349 gg, world\u2019s largest volunteer army\u2014had and the Bengal famine need not have happened. joined the armed forces and served with distinction in Africa, the Middle East, THE INDOCHINA WAR Italy, and Burma. But following the disasters in Malaya, Singapore, and The French colony of Indochina comprised Burma, the leader of the National Congress Party, Mahatma Gandhi, modern Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. During demanded that the British leave India. World War II the Communist guerrilla Britain\u2019s refusal to accede movement of the Viet to this demand led to calls for a \u201cnon-violent\u201d rebellion, Minh, led by Ho Chi followed by the arrest of the Congress leaders in August Minh, received Allied 1942. It took 57 battalions two and a half months to support in \ufb01ghting the restore order. This was proof, if indeed proof were needed, Japanese. After the that at the end of the war the anticipated independence for Japanese surrender India would have to be honored. in 1945 326\u201327 gg, Ho Chi Minh set up the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. In 1946 the French returned to their colony, and in the HO CHI MINH ensuing Indochina War the Viet Minh fought resolutely for independence, forcing out the French in 1954. Vietnam was divided between Support for Britain north and south, and before long the United Indian troops arrive in Singapore in December 1941. After the fall of Singapore, some of them were States had involved itself in the area. persuaded to join the Indian National Army. 161","THE SHIFTING BALANCE 1942 BEFORE Coral Sea and Midway Having conquered its vast empire in the To secure their vast Pacific perimeter, the Japanese sought to lure into battle and destroy the US Paci\ufb01c Ocean, the Japanese high command Pacific fleet. In the two crucial naval encounters of Coral Sea and Midway, in May and June 1942, now had to \ufb01nd some way of consolidating the Japanese were first halted and then decisively defeated by US carrier task forces. its extensive defensive perimeter. T he Coral Sea was the gateway which they aimed to use THE DOOLITTLE RAID to Port Moresby in New Guinea, On April 18, 1942, 16 B-25 Mitchell bombers, control of which would isolate as a base for seaplanes to under the command of Colonel James Doolittle, Australia from the Allies. While the took o\ufb00 from the carrier Hornet, sailing north of Japanese Invasion Group took troop cover the Port Moresby Midway Island, some 650 miles (1,000 km) transports to Port Moresby, covered away from Tokyo, and \ufb02ew on to bomb the by the light carrier Shoho, the Carrier operation. On May 4 Japanese capital and three other targets. Striking Force, under command of Admiral Yakagi and comprising the Fletcher launched air The aircraft had been stripped of much carriers Shokaku and Zuikaku, was to equipment and given auxiliary fuel tanks. But cruise into the Coral Sea and past the strikes on the landings when the Hornet was spotted by a Japanese Solomon Islands to prevent any US patrol vessel, the raid was launched early. attempt to interfere with the invasion. at Port Moresby before After dropping their bombs, the aircraft ran Thanks to the American interception out of fuel before they could reach their and decryption of Japanese JN25 naval turning south to join intended landing strips in China. signals traf\ufb01c, which was codenamed \u201cMagic,\u201d the US Navy was fully aware the Lexington. THE DOOLITTLE RAID of the thrust of the Japanese plans. For the next two days, THE MIDWAY KEYHOLE Initial clashes The raid settled a strategic argument in the Japanese and US carriers Japanese high command. The Hornet\u2019s launch Admiral Chester Nimitz, commander- point had been in the Midway \u201ckeyhole\u201d in in-chief of the US Paci\ufb01c Fleet, ordered hunted each other with the Japanese perimeter ff\u0001158\u201359. The a concentration of forces in the Coral gap had to be closed, so an offensive against Sea, which comprised Admiral Fletcher\u2019s no success. But on May 7 Midway was to be launched immediately. Task Force 17, with the carrier Yorktown, Admiral Fitch\u2019s Task Force 11, with the the Japanese found and carrier Lexington, and Admiral Crace\u2019s Task Force 44, with US and Australian attacked Task Force 44, cruisers and destroyers. assigned to harass the Nimitz intended to concentrate his forces by May 4. But the Japanese Invasion Group off Port Japanese heavy cruiser Mikuma moved \ufb01rst, on the previous day, occupying Tulagi in the Solomons, Moresby, sinking a The hulk of the Japanese heavy cruiser Mikuma, The Douglas SBD Dauntless fighter bomber destroyer and a tanker. which was abandoned on May 6 following three Sailors on board a US carrier service a Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bomber. In the Pacific war, the Dauntless At 11am on the same air strikes from the carriers Enterprise and sank more shipping than any other weapon and was the US Army\u2019s main dive bomber until 1943. day, 53 Douglas SBD Hornet. This was the last Japanese casualty Dauntless dive bombers in the Battle of Midway. from the Lexington and Yorktown found the light carrier Shoho, and sank it. The next morning, both sides found each other and launched air strikes immediately. The Lexington and Yorktown were bombed by 33 Aichi D3A dive bombers (codenamed \u201cVal\u201d by the Allies). The Lexington suffered a hit that sliced through four decks. At midday it was torpedoed twice. Ninety minutes after that, it was racked by a huge explosion, abandoned, and sunk by a US destroyer. The Japanese carrier Shokaku had also been hit, putting it out of action for the next six months. The US Port Moresby. carrier Yorktown had also The Japanese also believed been heavily damaged but that both of the American was repaired at Pearl carriers had been sunk at Coral Harbor in just 45 Sea, which encouraged Admiral hours. For the \ufb01rst Yamamoto, the Japanese commander- time in naval history, in-chief, to press on with his plans to two \ufb02eets had fought capture the island of Midway, in the a battle without even central Paci\ufb01c, which offered a base seeing each other, within striking distance of Hawaii. at a range of nearly Yamamoto\u2019s plans were complicated 200 miles (320 km). and failed to integrate his four carriers with the rest of his major surface units. Japan\u2019s next move He dispersed his forces with the aim of The Japanese had won luring the US into a trap and launching a tactical victory\u2014with a surprise attack, but he remained only one small carrier ignorant of American dispositions. lost, they had fared On the other hand, thanks to \u201cMagic\u201d better than the intercepts, Admiral Nimitz had a clear Americans\u2014but they picture of his enemy\u2019s dispositions. had been forced to Assembling northeast of Midway with abandon their attack on the carriers Hornet, Enterprise, and the","CORAL SEA AND MIDWAY patched-up Yorktown, Nimitz set his own \ufb01rst US carrier strike failed to \ufb01nd USS Yorktown ship. On 7 May a Japanese submarine trap for the four Japanese carriers, under its target as a result. A second attack, Smoke billows from the I-168 \ufb01nally sank the beleaguered the command of Admiral Nagumo. In by 41 unescorted Douglas TBD-1 bridge of USS Yorktown American carrier while under tow. the small hours of June 4, still unaware Devastator torpedo bombers, was following a direct hit by of the approach of the US carrier task intercepted by Nagumo\u2019s \ufb01ghters with Japanese dive bombers The Hiryu\u2019s moment of triumph was forces, Nagumo launched an air strike the loss of all but six of the bombers. launched by the carrier brief, however. The carrier was found on Midway to soften up its defenses. Hiryu, on June 4, 1942. by US dive bombers from the Enterprise, The final showdown hit repeatedly, and set ablaze. Its crew It was not until 8:20am that Nagumo carriers arrived abandoned ship after a huge explosion, received news of the US carrier force to But this apparently suicidal attack overhead. Within and the Hiryu was sunk by Japanese the northeast, and changed course. The had pulled the Japanese \ufb01ghters down \ufb01ve minutes the destroyers the next day. The initiative, almost to wavetop level. At 10:30am, Kaga, Akagi, and both at sea and in the air, had passed The horizon mirror Soryu were put is divided in two, with Nagumo\u2019s decks still a hive out of action. The to the US naval forces. of activity, criss-crossed by fuel next day the Akagi vertically. One side has lines, dive bombers from was abandoned clear glass for sighting all three American and sunk; the Kaga the horizon; the other was abandoned at 4:40pm; the Soryu Japanese sextant had sunk ten minutes earlier, ripped side is mirrored, to An invaluable navigational apart by massive internal explosions, reflect the sun. aid, a sextant can be taking with it 718 sailors. Only the Hiryu survived to launch an attack on used to determine one\u2019s the Yorktown, which set the carrier geographical position. ablaze. A second attack from the Hiryu It works by using two scored two hits on the Yorktown\u2019s port mirrors to calculate the side. The crew were forced to abandon sun\u2019s altitude at noon, which then produces a reading on the scale on the arc. The telescope points to the horizon mirror. The sun, sighted in the index mirror, now appears in alignment with the horizon, and a reading can be taken. The index arm slides along the The arc of a sextant is 60\u02da of a circle. AFTER sextant\u2019s arc until the sun is located (In Latin sextans means one sixth.) in the index mirror and, therefore, A scale is marked along the edge, which The Battle of Midway saw the US Navy can determine both latitude and longitude emerge clear-cut victors over the Imperial appears in the horizon mirror. to within 200 m (0.1 nautical mile). Japanese Navy. That victory was counted in one currency alone\u2014aircraft carriers. 3,500 Japanese sailors and airmen were killed at A SEVERE BLOW TO JAPAN the Battle of Midway. In one day the balance in the Paci\ufb01c had 300 American sailors and been restored. The Japanese had mistakenly airmen were killed at believed that the Americans would give up, the Battle of Midway. and that the war in the Paci\ufb01c would be a short one 166\u201367 gg. From now on, US expertise and productive capacity would prove more than a match for Japanese staying power. US SUPREMACY IN THE PACIFIC By January 1943 US front-line air strength in the Paci\ufb01c had overtaken that of Japan and, in November of that year, Admiral Koga lost 75 percent of the bombers he despatched against the American landings in the Solomons 165\u201366 gg. By 1944, the US were deploying 11,442 aircraft against a Japanese total of 4,050. In the campaigns of that year 230\u201331 gg, US air power remorselessly chewed up the Japanese bomber arm. 163","THE SHIFTING BALANCE 1942 BEFORE Guadalcanal Despite greater losses to the Japanese at Commanded by Lieutenant-General Vandegrift, the First Marine Division landed on Guadalcanal on the Battles of the Coral Sea and Midway, August 7. The small Japanese garrison was swiftly overcome and the US marines gained control of the American superiority on the ground in airfield. The retaking of the island immediately became the utmost priority for Japanese high command. the Paci\ufb01c remained marginal. G uadalcanal was surrounded named Henderson Field in honor of a American carrier in flames PLAN FOR ATTACK on three sides by other islands. marine killed at Midway. On August 24 The USS Wasp was torpedoed by General MacArthur was keen to take over most Together, these formed a con\ufb01ned the second major naval engagement the Japanese submarine I-19, south of the US Navy and hit the main Japanese channel, which US sailors nicknamed of the campaign\u2014the Battle of the of Guadalcanal, on September 15, base at Rabaul, on the New Guinea island the \u201cSlot.\u201d Once the troops were ashore, Eastern Solomons\u2014took place east of 1942. She had taken two direct hits, of New Britain. The navy, however, opted for the US Navy had to resupply them in narrowly missing one more. The a more modest approach. these dangerous, con\ufb01ned waters. crew abandoned ship and she was sunk by USS Landsdowne. NEW PLAN On the night of August 8\/9, off Savo MacArthur\u2019s proposal would force the navy Island, the Japanese surprised the US Gualdalcanal, when the to take unnecessary risks in con\ufb01ned waters. \ufb02eet covering the landings, sinking four Americans intercepted a Instead the navy favored a step-by-step ships and damaging another two. Their Japanese \ufb02eet bringing advance up the Solomon Islands, to the east, superiority in night-\ufb01ghting techniques reinforcements. They while MacArthur took on the northeastern side and the destructive power of their Long sank a carrier, a cruiser, of New Guinea. The two would then converge Lance torpedoes\u2014the most advanced and a destroyer, and on Rabaul in a bid to overcome the Japanese. of the time\u2014gave them the edge. downed some 60 enemy aircraft for the loss of 20 of their own. DIVISION OF COMMAND The US retaliates On land there was also ferocious The relevant areas of command in the Paci\ufb01c \ufb01ghting, not least for a feature near were established at the start of July 1942. Task Ten days later the Japanese began to Henderson Field which the Marines One, allotted to the US Navy, involved the capture pour reinforcements into Guadalcanal, dubbed \u201cBloody Ridge.\u201d Meanwhile of the Solomon island of Guadalcanal, where supported by naval guns and aircraft, the Japanese were building a new air\ufb01eld. which pounded the air\ufb01eld, now American M3 light tank on Guadalcanal The M3 tank entered service with the US Army in 1941 and also saw service with the British and other Allied armies during World War II. Its main armament was a 37mm gun plus four machine-guns.","GUADALCANAL KEY Task One: the capture of Guadalcanal A r c B i s me laargcok Approximate limit of The island lay at the southernmost tip of the group, h i p Japanese control Sep 1942 and was just outside the Japanese area of control. The Japanese base\/garrison departure point for the operation was, therefore, New Kavieng PACIFIC Japanese landing\/advance Zealand, which offered a fairly safe approach. Allied landing\/advance Bismarck New Ireland 1 Jan 23, 1942 OCEAN 9 Nov 12\u201315, 1942 Battle the nightly convoys of Japanese destroyers bringing reinforcements to Sea Japanese landing 2 Jan 1942 Two night naval actions Guadalcanal continued. On the night Rabaul at Rabaul result in heavy US losses, Series of Japanese but Japanese convoy loses landings on Bougainville six out of 11 transports of October 11\/12, in the Battle of Cape Buka Island S olomon 5 Aug 8\u20139, 1942 Esperance, an American cruiser and destroyer force surprised a Japanese New Britain Torokina Kieta Choiseul Battle of Savo Island. Japanese 3 May 1942 cruiser squadron, opening \ufb01re at the Gasmata Bougainville defeat US and Australian pointblank range of 5,000 yds (4,570 Santa Isabel I naval force covering Japanese landings m). The battle was not an unquali\ufb01ed Solomon Sea s l Guadalcanal landings on Tulagi and victory, but did much to restore Guadalcanal Shortland Island ands 7 Oct 23, 1942 battered US morale. Japanese forces, now up to 20,000, launch fresh attack Trobriand Munda Point Malaita on Henderson Field Changing fortunes Islands New Georgia Russell Islands Henderson Field 8 Oct 24\u201326, 1942 Goodenough On October 26 two larger \ufb02eets 4 Aug 7, 1942 Guadalcanal Battle of Santa Cruz. clashed during the Battle of Santa New Woodlark Americans lose the Cruz, in which four Japanese carriers Guinea US landing on Guadalcanal. Marines carrier Hornet lost 100 of their aircraft. Of the two US capture airstrip being San Cristobal Nendn\u00b8 ISsan carriers involved, Enterprise was badly damaged and Hornet sunk. Louisiade constructed by Japanese bk Feb 1\u20137, 1943 6 Sep 13, 1942 talaCnrdusz Utupua The Japanese also launched a series of About 11,000 Battle of Bloody Ridge. Vanikolo heavy attacks on the Marines defending Ferocious Japanese Archipelago Japanese troops Rennell attack driven o\ufb00 successfully evacuated N from Guadalcanal Henderson Field. They \ufb02ew in aircraft based elsewhere, but the Marines held 0 300 km out and, after reinforcement, even 0 300 miles counterattacked. Battleships Hiei and Kirishima, with an escort of a cruiser Machete AFTER and 14 destroyers, were also sent to US marines based on Guadalcanal were issued with bombard the air\ufb01eld on November 12. machetes for cutting through vegetation. It was so dense In January 1943, the Japanese commander American codebreakers and radar gave in places, that it took a handful of men several hours to on Guadalcanal moved his headquarters warning of their approach and they clear a path of just a few metres. to the neighboring island of Bougainville. were engaged by a US squadron. The By February the Japanese cut their losses Japanese lost two destroyers and the Guadalcanal proved to be decisive. One and quit Guadalcanal altogether. battleship Hiei. The Japanese kept up last attempt to land troops was made, the pressure the following night, their on November 30, before the Japanese MASS EVACUATION warships plastering Henderson Field high command decided not to risk Starved of reinforcements and supplies the with over 1,000 shells. But the air\ufb01eld any more heavy units or transports Japanese troops on the island had lost heart. The on bombardment or reinforcement climate and conditions in the jungles were very Coastwatchers, planters, traders, missions. This, and the fact that the poor and, as rations dwindled, the men fell prey and colonial officials, living in the United States were now building up to tropical disease. The \u201cTokyo Express\u201d\u2014 Solomons during Japanese occupation their own men and supplies, meant a name invented by American sailors for the played a vital role, reporting enemy that the defeat of the Japanese ground nightly convoy of Japanese destroyers that naval and air movements by radio. forces was only a matter of time. brought in reinforcements to Guadalcanal\u2014was running in reverse, taking o\ufb00 the sick and the remained operational and the next Spoils of war wounded. In an operation that rivaled the Allied day its \ufb01ghter-bombers attacked the US troops display a Japanese flag on Guadalcanal. The evacuation of the Gallipoli peninsula in January withdrawing Japanese \ufb02eet and sank island was cleared of the enemy by February 7, 1943, 1916, the Japanese removed some 12,000 seven out of 11 troop transports. exactly six months after the first marines landed there. starving survivors from Guadalcanal. On November 14\/15 a Japanese task FINAL PUSH force clashed with an American task Yet again, the Japanese had begun as the force, whose major units were the stronger combatant but had frittered away battleships Washington and South their initial advantage in a series of piecemeal Dakota. A savage m\u00eal\u00e9e ensued, in initiatives. Neither did they fare well against which Washington scored enough hits MacArthur\u2019s troops in New Guinea, in their on the battleship Kirishima for her to bid to secure Port Moresby 166\u201367 gg. have to be scuttled the next day. 165 The four surviving Japanese troop transports were run aground, landing only 2,000 men\u2014a trivial return for so great an investment. The two battles of","THE SHIFTING BALANCE 1942 BEFORE New Guinea offered the Japanese an 9 mm barrel anchor for their southern perimeter and a base from which to threaten the Allies\u2019 Barrel shroud strategically signi\ufb01cant port of Darwin. Side-loading FLAWED STRATEGY magazine The initial Japanese plan\u2014to occupy and secure Port Moresby on New Guinea\u2019s Pistol grip southeastern tip\u2014had been checked by the Allies at the battles of Coral Sea and Midway Defending Australia ff\u0001162\u201363. Already, the underlying strategic dilemma facing the Imperial high command The Japanese never intended to invade Australia. However, they were aware that the capture of Port was having an impact: in order to secure the Moresby, New Guinea, would isolate Australia from the US, while securing an important stretch of Japan\u2019s Japanese perimeter they had no choice but to defensive perimeter. It would also provide a major strategic route between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific. destroy the US Paci\ufb01c \ufb02eet in a major battle, and this they had so far failed to do. T he Japanese drive through the having been built in the Paci\ufb01c in the months following Northern Territory as well. A NEW APPROACH the attack on Pearl Harbor led to The Americans had already Determined to continue, the Japanese were forced to develop another strategy. In July a conviction among Australians that frustrated the Japanese 1942, they landed on the northern coast of New Guinea and struck out, overland this time, their nation was a target for invasion. navy\u2019s efforts to capture for Port Moresby in the south. Their military therefore underwent a Port Moresby and thereby 0K 3E YB OMXO MT IETNL TE 7 P T \/ 1 0 P T rapid expansion and, by mid-1942, to secure a strategic route DARWIN BOMBED Australia had raised 11 infantry and between the Indian and Although the Japanese had no plans to invade Australia\u2014they feared the task three armored divisions. Paci\ufb01c Oceans, when they was beyond the capacity of their military\u2014they saw the continent as an American aid defeated them at the Battle obstacle to their objectives in the Paci\ufb01c. of the Coral Sea, and at In particular, they feared the threat The British collapse in the Far East Midway a month later. posed by Darwin, the only major port capable of reinforcing the Allies as they meant that Australia was forced to Japanese military losses resisted the Japanese advance. With Darwin out of action, the Japanese turn to the United States and, from forced the high command believed they stood a greater chance of maintaining their hold on the region. February 1942, the Americans assumed to abandon any immediate On February 19, 1942, Japanese strategic responsibility in the Paci\ufb01c. plans to alight on the southeastern tip American presence in Australia carrier-borne aircraft attacked Darwin, The US forces maintained a big presence in Australia sinking the US destroyer Peary and seven A month later General MacArthur of the island. However, on July 22, throughout the Pacific campaign. Here, US Army Air transports. Despite a number of such Force fighter pilots, based in Northern Territory, inspect attacks, lasting well into 1943, Darwin arrived to assume command of the 1942, they tried again, when elements a map before going out on patrol. remained a vital source of supply in the Paci\ufb01c until the end of the war. Southwest Paci\ufb01c Area, and all of of the Japanese 18th Army landed on trail is a daunting prospect. Days of sweltering heat and humidity are 166 Australia\u2019s combat units in the theater the north coast of New Guinea, at followed by freezing nights, while endemic tropical diseases present a were placed under his command. Buna and Gona. One of the largest constant threat to health. The Australian islands in the world, Clash on the Kokoda Trail General Thomas Native bearers offered vital logistic New Guinea was General MacArthur was equally concerned with New Guinea. He Blamey, nominally support to the Allies. They came to divided between decided to build up forces on the island as a necessary prelude to an offensive commander of the the aid of the troops, carrying heavy Dutch and Australian against the main Japanese base at Rabaul, in New Britain. However, the Allied Land Forces, supplies and escorting injured soldiers administrations and Japanese forces on New Guinea were now probing inland, and on June 22 effectively had no down the Kokoda Trail to safety. much of it was still they encountered and clashed with a battalion of native troops. control over US unexplored. The The build-up gathered momentum on strategy and few Australians served Japanese plan was to capture Port both sides. The Allies sought to deny the airstrip at Kokoda to the Japanese, on MacArthur\u2019s staff. By 1945 nearly Moresby by means of an overland who seized it on July 29. Some 2,500 Japanese troops, commanded by Major a million US service personnel had advance through the passes of the General Tomarito Horii, then advanced on Port Moresby along the Kokoda passed through Australia, with Owen Stanley range of mountains, many US miltary bases which separate New Guinea\u2019s north and south coasts. The range was crossed by the Kokoda Trail, a 60-mile (95-km) track rising to a height of over 7,000 ft (2,000 m). Even today, crossing the Japanese jungle boots The going was often tough, through dense, boggy jungle terrain. Soldiers were issued with lightweight jungle boots, with quick-drying canvas uppers and rubber soles.","DEFENDING AUSTRALIA Austen sub-machine-gun Prolonged assaults on the outnumbered a secondary Japanese landing at Milne AFTER The Australian-produced Austen (from \u201cAustralian\u201d Allies were the order of the day. On Bay, on the eastern tip of New Guinea, and \u201cSten\u201d) had the barrel, body, and trigger mechanism both sides, however, the majority of was fended off by two Australian Victory in New Guinea ended the threat of the Sten combined with features of the German MP 40. the casualties were claimed by tropical brigades reinforced by two squadrons to Australia and now cleared the way for It could fire single shots or fully automatic rounds. disease. Quinine, still the principal of \ufb01ghter aircraft. This proved the \ufb01rst General MacArthur to focus on the great anti-malarial drug in use by the time in World War II that the Japanese Japanese stronghold of Rabaul. Folding stock had experienced a reverse on land. Australians, was in short supply. Moreover, the Japanese high command MACARTHUR\u2019S DEMANDS CHALLENGED Shoulder rest The art of air-dropping supplies was had decided to concentrate on the \ufb01ght MacArthur wanted more men and materials in its infancy and enormous for Guadalcanal. Horii did not survive for his advance through the Solomon Islands and Trail. Horii\u2019s forces outnumbered quantities were \u201cfree-dropped\u201d the withdrawal. Along with several of the Bismarck archipelago. However, this started the Allied defenders by \ufb01ve to (without parachutes) in the wrong his senior of\ufb01cers, he drowned while a bitter interservice dispute in Washington, one. By August 12 he was within places. Meanwhile, the passage of so crossing the Kumusi River. which lasted until March 1943, when Operation 30 miles (50 km) of his objective many troops reduced the trail to a Cartwheel 230\u201331 gg was put into action. but was meeting increasingly tough fetid quagmire. The Japanese around Buna and Gona resistance. The \ufb01ghting on the trail was de\ufb01ed the exhausted Australians and NEW AREAS OF COMMAND bitter. The Japanese tactical manual Japanese withdrawal Americans throughout November. The Scheduled to begin in June 1943, Operation had changed little since the campaign arrival of a new commander on the Cartwheel rede\ufb01ned the command in Malaya. Pinning the enemy with Horii never reached Port Moresby. He ground, Lieutenant General Robert responsibilities in the Paci\ufb01c. Admiral Nimitz frontal attacks, they felt for the \ufb02anks, withdrew partly under Allied pressure Eichelberger, revitalized the offensive. was made overall commander for the entire aiming to engage them from the rear. and partly because his superiors wanted Gona was taken in early December and theater; General MacArthur was responsible But Horii had a strict timetable, which him to establish a jungle fortress at Buna fell just under a month later. for the Southwest Paci\ufb01c Area; and Admiral left him little or no time to out\ufb02ank Buna and Gona. At the end of August Halsey was entrusted with operations in the his Australian and American enemy. South Paci\ufb01c Area, including an advance on Cautious advance An Australian infantryman armed with a Bren gun 12,000 The number of moves forward on the Kokoda Trail, which saw some of Japanese troops the most savage fighting in the most inhospitable terrain killed on the Kokoda Trail in 1942. encountered in the war in the Pacific. 2,850 The number of Allied troops lost on the Kokoda Trail. The majority of them were Australian soldiers. MacArthur\u2019s \ufb02ank. Rabaul remained the ultimate target for Operation Cartwheel, but by the time most stages had been successfully carried out, the Allies deemed the taking of the base no longer necessary, and that it should be isolated and neutralized instead.","THE SHIFTING BALANCE 1942 America Organizes for Victory Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States swung into action, mobilizing troops and reorganizing its economy, industry, and civilian population for war\u2014and victory. A wave of patriotism swept the country and by 1942 America was on a war footing, and experiencing massive social and economic changes. BEFORE P robably the biggest change war 30 3,000 120 brought to the United States was 25 2,500 When war began in 1939, the United States economic. The need to produce Number in thousands 1941 100 was ill-prepared, but as Hitler\u2019s armies 1941 1942 stormed through Europe, America began the necessities of war\u2014tanks, shells, 1943 1943 to shift from its neutral position. 1942 1944 1944 aircraft, landing craft, and warships\u2014 20 1943 2,000 1945 80 EMERGING FROM DEPRESSION Number in thousands In 1939 America was emerging from economic galvanized industry and moved the 1944 depression. Unemployment, stemming from 1945 the massive global downturn, was still high and country out of economic depression 15 Number in thousands of tons 1,500 60 manufacturing depressed. Following the fall of France ff 82\u201383, a peacetime draft was into a boom economy. Using a series introduced and from March 1941 America provided arms and supplies to Allied nations of War Power Acts to override state and 10 1,000 40 1941 through the Lend-Lease Act ff 142\u201343 and 1942 edged closer to war. On December 7, 1941, the local authorities, President Roosevelt 1945 8 MILLION The shifted industry onto a total war footing. 5 500 20 number of unemployed in the US in 1940. This Working hours grew from an average reduced the consumption of goods, which raised the levels even further. of 38 hours a week in 1939 to 47 hours 0 0 0 Planes Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor ff 148\u201349. in 1943, factories operated a three-shift Tanks Warships The following day the US declared war on the Axis powers of Germany and Japan. system, and millions were recruited into EMPLOYMENT RESTRICTED the labor force, so much so that by drafted into the armed forces and sent Soaring production rates In 1939 married women were not expected to US industrial output soared between 1941 and 1945. work. In some communities, laws prohibited 1943 unemployment had disappeared. around the world to \ufb01ght. One of the Mass-production techniques from the auto industry married women from working in banking, were applied to munitions so that thousands of tanks, local government, insurance, and teaching. Black Small workshops and manufacturing most marked social changes was the jeeps, and warships rolled off the production line. Americans faced severe discrimination. They made up less than 10 percent of the labor force, businesses were transformed into increased visibility of women. Some and were restricted to low-paid, low-status work in both the southern and northern states. high-tech factories, where mass 200,000 joined the armed forces, production enabled weapons and serving in the Women\u2019s Army Corps armored vehicles to be produced (WAC) or as pilots with the newly Welder\u201d became iconic images used for recruitment purposes during the by the thousand. 100 formed WASP war, but despite the importance of Production soared, THOUSAND armoured vehicles (Women\u2019s Airforce women\u2019s war work, they were rising by nearly 30 were produced from 1940-45 Service Pilots), consistently paid far less than men. percent between 300 THOUSAND aircraft were 1941 and 1945 and produced from 1944-45 ferrying military by 1944 the US aircraft from was producing 41 BILLION rounds of ammunition factories Prejudice and patriotism more than 40 were produced from 1941-45 to airbases, or in the navy. On the The demands of war also brought black Americans into more skilled jobs for percent of the world\u2019s armaments, so home front, millions of women entered the \ufb01rst time, as black people in their thousands moved north and west to ful\ufb01lling Roosevelt\u2019s aim to make the labor force, many of them for the work in the new factories. Prejudice, however, was rife. Black Americans America \u201cthe arsenal of democracy.\u201d \ufb01rst time, particularly married women saw distinguished service in all the armed forces but in a racially Visible women and those with children. Most went segregated military many were placed into the defense industries, working in in menial jobs and barred from the same facilities as white service At the start of the war, US armed forces shipyards, military aircraft personnel. Despite the establishment of a federal Fair Employment Practices were small in number and poorly manufacture, and munitions factories, Committee by executive order in June 1941, black defense workers were equipped. Unlike some other Allied doing skilled work such as welding often paid far less than white workers. nations, the US had no tradition of and riveting\u2014something previously peacetime conscription. Even so some thought of as unsuitable for women. 12 million men and women were \u201cRosie the Riveter\u201d and \u201cWanda the KEY MOMENT THE INTERNMENT OF JAPANESE AMERICANS When World War II broke out there were were forced to sell their property and 19 MILLION The approximately 120,000 Japanese people businesses and were moved to internment number living on the west coast of the United States, camps or relocation centers. Some Japanese most of them in California. However, Americans protested this action through the of women in the labor force in 1944. For following the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, courts but without success. By 1944 the mood a vitriolic anti-Japanese mood swept the was changing. Japanese Americans were \ufb01ghting many the work was physically tiring and country. In response, Roosevelt agreed that with Allied troops and, following a Supreme Japanese Americans should be classed as Court ruling that stated that internment of low paid, but \u201cRosie the Riveter\u201d and her \u201cenemy aliens,\u201d and in February 1942 people whose loyalty was not in question was Executive Order 9066 was passed that unconstitutional, American relocation camps call \u201cWe can do it!\u201d galvanized US women. enabled the US Army to remove Japanese were closed and families began to return inhabitants from certain areas thought to be home. Anti-Japanese feeling continued for The in\ufb02ux of some 700,000 black vulnerable to Japanese attack. As a result, all some time after the war but in recent years, Americans into white urban areas also Japanese Americans living on the west coast many people have received compensation. caused racial tensions and con\ufb02ict. Matters came to a head in 1943 when race riots broke out in Detroit, Michigan, and in New York City, foreshadowing the problems that would appear again after the war. In April 1942 Roosevelt spoke of how 168","AMERICA ORGANIZES FOR VICTORY Riveting Rosie Millions of women entered the American labor force during the war. Some worked in more traditional areas of women\u2019s work such as assembling radios; others worked as welders and riveters. everyone in the United States\u2014\u201cevery man, woman, and child\u201d\u2014was in action on the home front. Government propaganda urged every American to do their part by joining up, entering war industries, or recycling and saving resources. Rationing was introduced and people threw themselves into the war effort. As silk stockings vanished, women stained their legs and drew \u201cseams\u201d up the back of their calves. Wartime skirts grew shorter to save material and zippers disappeared as the metal was needed for the military. Waging war was costly and Americans were told to buy war bonds and victory stamps to meet the costs. Hollywood also assisted. Stars such as Clark Gable and Frank Sinatra added their voices to the drive to buy war bonds and entertained troops who were serving abroad. By 1945 the US public had given some $135 billion in war bonds. AFTER The war cost the United States billions of dollars and nearly 416,800 lives but it was to turn it into a superpower. GLOBAL DEFENSE America came late into the war but US forces fought in every theater, including the Paci\ufb01c 230\u201331 gg, Europe, and Asia, 312\u201313 gg. The cost was partly \ufb01nanced through war bonds, which people were constantly urged to buy. NEW TECHNOLOGY Within the US, war stimulated new developments in weapons technology, and led to the creation of the atomic bomb 322\u201323 gg. US WAR BONDS POSTER 169","","EYEWITNESS 1942\u201343 Women in Industry More than 6 million American women joined the factory workforce during World War II, many working as welders, engineers, and machine operators in the aircraft, shipbuilding, and munitions industries. In Britain, the figure was about 2 million. Working in munitions was particularly dangerous: in the US some 37,000 women were killed and 210,000 permanently disabled. \u201cI loved getting into the challenge of getting dirty and getting into the work. I did one special riveting job, hand riveting that could not be done by machine. I worked on that job for three months, ten hours a day, six days a week, and slapped three-eighth- or three-quarter-inch rivets by hand that no one else would do. Our department had a majority of women. Many of them had no training at all, particularly the older women. We had women in our department who were ex-schoolteachers, artists, housewives. I\u2019d sit them down and show them how to use the drill press, the size drill to use, the size of screw, the kind of rivets \u2026 Then I would go back and check to see if the riveting was okay, and if there were \u201dany bad rivets, they had to take them out. AMERICAN RIVETER RACHEL WRAY, ONE OF THE FIRST WOMEN HIRED AT CONSOLIDATED AIRCRAFT (CONVAIR) \u201cI was told I had to go to work on Group One. That group was nicknamed the Suicide Group on account of the many workers who had been blown up, killed, maimed or blinded \u2026 I would be working with highly explosive gunpowder for making detonators \u2026 Eleven went to Group Five Powder but I had to wait for a guide to take me to Group One. It was then I noticed that she only had one hand and a finger missing off that. I asked her what had happened and she made up some story or other. I later found that she had had them blown off when she went to work on Group One \u2026 \u2026 Outside we had to leave our coats, shoes, bags, money, hairclips, and anything metal in the Contraband Place \u2026 One day I was given a red box to carry with one person in front and behind carrying red flags walking along the clearways, taking them to be stored in magazines to be used later. I didn\u2019t know what I was carrying. There was a massive explosion and I dropped the box and was shocked to see a young woman thrown through a window with her stomach hanging out. Luckily the box, which contained detonators, \u201ddid not explode or we would have had our legs blown off \u2026 BRITISH FACTORY WORKER MABEL DUTTON DESCRIBING WORK AT RISLEY ROYAL ORDNANCE FACTORY, WARRINGTON A wartime workforce Wearing trousers and snoods for safety, women check the nose cones of Douglas A-20 planes in a US factory. War production brought women into jobs previously only held by men, and their contribution was enormous. 171","THE SHIFTING BALANCE 1942 BEFORE Secret Armies In 1939, an incident occurred on the The Special Operations Executive (SOE) was formed in July 1940 at the behest of Winston Churchill, who Dutch-German border that compromised instructed its agents to \u201cset Europe ablaze.\u201d SOE\u2019s primary purpose was to undertake sabotage and Britain\u2019s intelligence networks in Europe. broadcast and disseminate \u201dblack propaganda\u201d in occupied territories. FATAL DISCLOSURE T he principal purpose of Churchill\u2019s \u201c The question of relations \u2026 is delicate. Two o\ufb03cers of the British Secret Intelligence brainchild was to support the Service (SIS) were lured over the border by SS resistance movements in those Various secret services were trying to men masquerading as Allied sympathizers, countries of Europe and the Far East under the command of Colonel (later General) Walter Schellenberg. The SIS men were taken that were occupied by Germany and do di\ufb00erent things, but sometimes had prisoner and under heavy pressure, disclosed its allies. By the summer of 1944, vital information about British intelligence operations. This compounded the di\ufb03culty of SOE employed some 10,000 personnel, gathering information inside occupied Europe after the German Blitzkrieg ff\u000176\u201377. to do them in the same places; rivalryapproximately 50 percent of whom were either agents in the \ufb01eld or those SIS RESISTANCE waiting to be dispatched. was the inevitable result.\u201d The Special Operations Executive was perceived as the answer, but its establishment An ideal role for women PROFESSOR M.R.D. FOOT, HISTORIAN OF SOE caused severe problems within British intelligence. SIS, whose remit was low-pro\ufb01le Just under one third of SOE\u2019s total information-gathering, regarded the new personnel were women. Selwyn Jepson, agency as amateurs whose sabotage activities who was SOE\u2019s chief recruiting of\ufb01cer with resistance movements would attract until 1943, accorded female recruits in unwanted attention from German military the \ufb01eld absolute equality with men, intelligence. From the outset, the two agencies observing, \u201cIn my view women are regarded each other with mutual suspicion. very much better than men for the work. Women, as you know, have a far greater capacity for cool and lonely courage than men.\u201d In the \ufb01eld, an SOE network, or \u201ccircuit,\u201d depended on three key \ufb01gures\u2014a courier, a radio operator, and an organizer. Most of the female \ufb01eld agents in France worked as couriers, who traveled around as messengers and liaison of\ufb01cers. Because they were constantly on the move, the couriers ran the highest risk of being stopped and arrested. In this situation, women usually found it easier to invent plausible cover stories and tended to attract less attention than men, who, from early 1942, were liable to be picked up by the Germans on the streets and sent to Germany as forced labor. Women were also less likely to be searched than men were, and thus could more easily secrete messages. Know your enemy German infiltration Entitled \u201cHere is the Enemy,\u201d this US-produced poster (1942) depicts the cold face of a Nazi officer, in whose Circuits always ran a risk of in\ufb01ltration monocle is reflected the silhouette of a hanged man. by German counter-intelligence, even Anti-Nazi propaganda like this targeted civilians in the more so if they became unmanageably hope that they would join the fight against the Axis. large. One of the worst disasters to befall SOE was the betrayal of the \u201cProsper\u201d circuit around Paris, by its French \ufb01eld air-transport of\ufb01cer, Henri D\u00e9ricourt, which led to the arrest and execution of a number of agents. Portable radio Agents\u2019 radios were often modular, like this three- part German example (receiver, power supply, transmitter), which made them easier to assemble, disassemble, and transport. 172","SECRET ARMIES Cocking mechanism Unri\ufb02ed barrel the agency the nickname \u201cOh So Social.\u201d OSS used fewer women than Trigger guard SOE as \ufb01eld agents. A notable exception was Virginia Hall, who had the rare Liberty pistol distinction of working in the \ufb01eld for The .45 caliber Liberty pistol was made in both agencies. She also had a prosthetic huge quantities\u2014one million in total\u2014in foot, the result of a shooting accident in the US. The pistols were intended for use the 1930s. While on the run from the by OSS agents and resistance fighters in Axis-occupied territories. The single-shot pistol Now It Can Be Told 470 SOE agents were sent into was cheaply made. It Former SOE agents Jacqueline Nearne and Captain Harry the field in France. weighed 1 lb (450 g) and R\u00e9e play Felix and Cat as they reenact their wartime 39 of the SOE agents in France had a 4 in (102 mm) activities with the French Resistance in the 1944 film, were women. barrel. At times OSS Now It Can Be Told, made by the RAF film unit. agents used the pistol 118 of these SOE agents failed to to get better weapons Another example of Axis in\ufb01ltration return, 13 of them women. from their enemy. occurred in Holland, where captured SOE agents were forced to maintain Gestapo during her SOE days in France, Hollow pistol grip communications with headquarters in Hall signaled the agency\u2019s Baker Street for storing spare London, as if they were still at large. headquarters that she hoped \u201cCuthbert\u201d ammunition In their training, the agents had been would not be a problem. London instructed that, if captured, they should \ufb02ashed back, \u201cIf Cuthbert troublesome, plant code words in such messages. eliminate him.\u201d The agency had clearly This they did, but SOE chose to ignore forgotten that \u201cCuthbert\u201d was the the warning signals. As new SOE codename for Hall\u2019s prosthetic foot. agents parachuted into Holland, they found the Germans waiting for them. AFTER The Germans called this deadly and one-sided intelligence battle the SOE was wound up at the end of the war, Englandspiel (England game). but many of its personnel found a postwar home in MI6, the British agency charged with gathering intelligence abroad. SOE victories SOE AGENT PEARL WITHERINGTON SOE nevertheless had a number of DOUBLE AGENTS signi\ufb01cant successes. In 1943 SOE The postwar employment of SOE agents in MI6 agents led by Knut Haukelid were led to a succession of disasters, as the SOE parachuted into Norway to sabotage had been in\ufb01ltrated by agents working for Germany\u2019s program to develop an the Soviet Union, among them Kim Philby. atomic weapon with the \u201cheavy water\u201d Attempts to send agents behind the Iron produced by the Norsk Hydro plant. Curtain 340\u201341 gg, employing SOE methods The plant was subsequently \ufb02attened in the new Cold War 348\u201349 gg, were thus by Bomber Command, and the last doomed from the outset as some agents had stocks of heavy water were sent to already been identi\ufb01ed. Just as had happened the bottom of a Norwegian lake by with the Englandspiel, Soviet intelligence was Haukelid\u2019s men, who sank the ferry waiting for them or, as often happened, allowed on which they were carried. agents to remain at large In Greece, Italy, and France various until they had further SOE teams successfully derailed trains compromised MI6. and brought down railroad bridges. In Then they were pulled in. France, in June 1944, this activity was Similar problems occurred a signi\ufb01cant factor in frustrating German in the US, where former attempts to reinforce their troops \ufb01ghting OSS agents worked for to contain the Normandy bridgehead. its postwar successor, the Central Intelligence America\u2019s secret army RESISTANCE STAMP Agency (CIA). In 1942 the Americans set up the Of\ufb01ce 173 of Strategic Services (OSS), modeled on SOE and run by much-decorated World War I hero and postwar lawyer, General William \u201cWild Bill\u201d Donovan. Early recruitment for OSS was mostly from fashionably connected men and women on the East Coast, earning Resistance weapon supplies Members of the French Resistance gather to study the use and maintenance of various weapons dropped by parachute. They include a Sten MKII; Ruby, Colt, and Le Fran\u00e7ois pistols; and Colt and Bulldog revolvers.","THE SHIFTING BALANCE 1942 Espionage The British Special Operations Executive (SOE) and the American Office of Strategic Services (OSS) developed a wide range of communications equipment and an arsenal of ingenious weapons. Other agencies also developed an imaginative array of clandestine equipment; notable in this endeavor were the British MI9 and its American equivalent, MIS-X, which were established to aid the activities of escapees from prisoner of war camps and those personnel who were trying to avoid capture in occupied Europe. O1 False German identi\ufb01cation document produced for on a belt hidden under clothing. The trigger was activated O6 SOE TRANSCEIVER the head of OSS, General William \u201cWild Bill\u201d Donovan, to by a length of cable that ran to the user\u2019s hand. Obu Pencil (S-PHONE) MK IV (BRITAIN) demonstrate the US agency\u2019s expertise. O2 Handkerchief pistol, a 6.35 mm weapon that \ufb01red its bullet straight from map, on which the map would only become visible once the cartridge, located in the top section of the pencil. it was soaked in urine. O3 Suicide pill carried by British Obl Hidden knife inside a pencil developed by MI9, the SOE agents, concealed in an item of jewelry. The so-called escape and evasion agency; designed to be overlooked L-Pill (L for lethal) took just \ufb01ve seconds to take e\ufb00ect when during an initial search. Obm SOE pipe pistol, which was swallowed. O4 Ring with concealment, possibly used to fired by removing the mouthpiece and twisting the bowl hide microdot plans. O5 Playing cards with concealed maps that could be exposed by soaking. O6 SOE transceiver, a while grasping the barrel. Obn SOE concealment insoles device that could send and receive messages, with earth, that enabled the wearer to hide escape aids such as a knife headphones, and battery pack. O7 Clandestine blade kit blade and gold coins. Obo OSS \u201cBeano\u201d grenade, designed to explode on impact. Obp SOE lapel knife, which could be used by SOE and also acquired by OSS operatives trained hidden inside a patch on the underside of a jacket lapel. in Britain. O8 Battery-powered radio used by a German Obq .38-caliber glove pistol, designed for self-defense by US Abwehr espionage agent in Britain\u2014hence the English naval intelligence. It was fired at point-blank range by pressing labeling. O9 .25-caliber Webley belt pistol, worn the plunger into an opponent\u2019s body while striking a blow. O1 FALSE GERMAN IDENTIFICATION DOCUMENT MADE BY OSS (US) O3 SUICIDE PILL (BRITAIN) O4 RING WITH CONCEALMENT (BRITAIN) O2 HANDKERCHIEF MAP (BRITAIN) O5 PLAYING CARDS WITH O7 CLANDESTINE BLADE KIT (BRITAIN) CONCEALED MAPS (BRITAIN) 174","O8 SE 109-3 ABWEHR ESPIONAGE RADIO (GERMANY) O9 SPECIAL FORCES BELT PISTOL (BRITAIN) Obk PENCIL PISTOL (BRITAIN) Obn SOE CONCEALMENT INSOLES (BRITAIN) Obl HIDDEN KNIFE (BRITAIN) Obm SOE PIPE PISTOL (BRITAIN) Obo OSS \u201cBEANO\u201d GRENADE (US) Obp SOE LAPEL KNIFE Obq OFFICE OF NAVAL INTELLIGENCE AND PATCH (BRITAIN) .38-CALIBER GLOVE PISTOL (US)","THE SHIFTING BALANCE 1942 BEFORE The Holocaust Hitler\u2019s obsessive anti-Semitism can be At the start of his own political career in the 1920s, Hitler did not place overriding emphasis on his traced back to racial theories prevalent in anti-Semitism but, by the early 1930s it formed the bedrock of National Socialist philosophy. Once Austria and Germany during the late 19th century, which he absorbed in the years before World War I. NATIONALIST TENDENCIES Hitler became the German chancellor in 1933, it came to shape all aspects of the Party\u2019s program. In the immediate postwar years ff\u000120\u201321 T he advantage of hindsight leaves had created numerous Jewish these beliefs were the common currency of all no student of the period in any ghettos in Poland. The largest the parties of the German nationalist Right. doubt about the implications of was in the capital, Warsaw, THE JEWS OF EASTERN EUROPE Hitler\u2019s writing and speeches, or about where at least 40,000 Jews The Third Reich secured diplomatic and the impact of Nazi racial legislation died of starvation in 1941. military victories in 1938\u201339 ff\u000158\u201359, following his rise to power. But it is The huge territorial gains which placed millions of Eastern European Jews debatable whether a comprehensive made by Germany in the under Nazi control. Millions more were engulfed program for the complete physical summer of 1941, when it by Operation Barbarossa ff\u0001134\u201335. destruction of the entire Jewish invaded what Hitler called population of Germany had been set the \u201cJewish-Bolshevik\u201d Soviet HIMMLER\u2019S HENCHMEN out in any detailed form by 1939. Union and overran most of From June 1941 the systematic mass murder of The Final Solution European Russia, produced Jews began on the Eastern Front, sanctioned by the so-called \u201cFinal Solution,\u201d Himmler and carried out by Einsatzgruppen (SS What is beyond dispute, however, is a Nazi euphemism for the killing units). These squads rounded up and shot the fact that German military victories extermination of European thousands of Jews on a daily basis, and were in the \ufb01rst two years of World War II Jewry (die Endl\u00f6sung). The phrase came Death camp inmates responsible for at least two million civilian deaths. delivered into Hitler\u2019s hands the Jewish from a statement made by Himmler to The inmates of Auschwitz-Birkenau, an extermination population of much of Europe. In the Rudolf H\u00f6ss, the commandant of camp, await liberation by the Red Army at the end early stages of the con\ufb02ict the Germans Auschwitz, in early summer 1941, that of January 1945. At least two million Jews died in this Hitler had given orders \u201cfor the \ufb01nal terrible place, together with another two million Russian SS AND GESTAPO CHIEF (1900\u20131945) solution of the Jewish question.\u201d prisoners of war. HEINRICH HIMMLER Killing units and death camps Heydrich industrialized the killing, establishing extermination camps In the East, the massacres had at \ufb01rst based on the existing system of Himmler joined the Nazi Party in its early been undertaken by Einsatzgruppen, concentration camps. Clusters of days and, in 1928, was asked by Hitler to mobile killing units, often helped by camps were built in Poland\u2014among assume command of the Schutzsta\ufb00eln Latvian, Ukrainian, Lithuanian, and them Treblinka, Belzec, Majdanek, (SS). A close con\ufb01dant of Hitler, Himmler other local allies. At Odessa in fall Sobibor, and Auschwitz-Birkenau. soon became the second power in the Nazi 1941, for example, up to 80,000 Jews Another SS technocrat, Adolf state, heading the Gestapo and the Foreign were killed by men of Einsatzgruppe D Eichmann, and his subordinates Intelligence Service. In 1943 he became and troops from Germany\u2019s ally, organized the transportation to these minister of the interior and, in 1944, Romania, into which Odessa had been and other camps of Jews, Slavs, Red commander-in-chief of the Home Army. incorporated. These units were soon Army prisoners of war, Roma A fanatical anti-Semite, Himmler was deemed inef\ufb01cient, however, and an responsible for the execution of the \u201cFinal alternative sought. Arbeit macht frei Solution.\u201d Captured by the British Army on In January 1942, at a secret meeting The train tracks lead straight up to the forbidding main May 23, 1945, he committed suicide by in Wannsee chaired by Reinhard gates at Auschwitz-Birkenau in southern Poland. Over biting on a poisoned capsule. Heydrich, deputy head of the SS, the the entrance, as at other extermination camps, the sign Final Solution was systematized. reads Arbeit macht frei\u2014\u201cwork brings freedom.\u201d","0 200 km NORWAY THE HOLOCAUST (760) AFTER 0 200 miles Baltic Sea Kaiserwald As early as 1942, the routine removal SWEDEN Moscow and transportation of the Jews to the death camps was a fact known to every North Riga inhabitant of Nazi-occupied Europe. Sea DENMARK Jungerhof LIVING IN FEAR The knowledge in itself was a chilling (77) Copenhagen Kaunas deterrent to any individual who considered opposing the Third Reich and its allies, whether Ponar by violent or non-violent means. If arrested, the same fate that had overtaken the Jews B R I TA I N NETH. Neuengamme Stutthof Bialystok Vilna Minsk 178\u201379 gg would almost certainly befall them. (106,000) Maly Trostinets Ravensbr\u00fcck POLAND THE FULL HORROR Westerbork (3,000,000) By degrees, the Western Allies gathered a picture Sachsenhausen of the Final Solution from intelligence sources Amsterdam Bergen-Belsen Warsaw Treblinka USSR and refugees. But it was not until the summer of Berlin Chelmno Lodz (1,000,000) 1944, when the advancing Red Army overran \u00b4S Hertogenbosch Mittelbau-Dora Lublin the abandoned camp at Majdanek in Poland, Sachsenburg Sobibor Babi Yar Kiev where some 1.4 million Jews had been BEL. Mechelen Czestochowa Bar Kharkov killed, that the true extent of the horror was Majdanek Belzec presented to the Allied leaders. (24,387) Brussels Buchenwald Theresienstadt Gross- AUSCHWITZ LIBERATED Prague Rosen In the following months, the litany of liberated Drancy LUX. GERMANY Sosnowiec camps 300\u201301 gg, with their mounds of (160,000) Plaszow corpses and emaciated survivors, revealed the Paris (700) Auschwitz-Birkenau Cracow Lwow depths of Nazi degradation. At 3pm on January 27, 1945, Soviet troops reached Flossenb\u00fcrg CZECH. SLOV. Auschwitz-Birkenau, where they found 648 corpses and 7,000 survivors, 1,200 at Auschwitz Natzweiler Mauthausen (207,000) (70,000) Balanovka main camp and 5,800 at Birkenau. Those who Edineti could walk had already left on a forced march. Dachau Bratislava Odessa THE SHOES OF HOLOCAUST VICTIMS FRANCE Vienna HUNGARY (83,000) AUSTRIA (450,000) WAR CRIMINALS SWITZ. (65,000) Budapest The years that followed the end of World War II saw the establishment of the Jewish state of Bozen Jasenovac Danica Israel, in 1948, and the subsequent identi\ufb01cation and hunting down of Nazi war criminals Zagreb Djakovo ROMANIA 338\u201339 gg\u0001by the Israeli intelligence services and other international agencies. All too few of Fossoli Stara Gradiska Belgrade (470,000) Black the perpetrators were caught and placed on Sea trial but death has now claimed many. Tasmajden Bucharest 6 MILLION The number of Jews ITALY Jadovno Sajmiste who died during the Third (8,000) Reich\u2014about 40 percent of N YUGOSLAVIA BULGARIA the world\u2019s Jewish population\u2014 (60,000) and probably five million more people deemed undesirable by the Nazis. (48,000) 177 (Gypsies), political prisoners, and Sites of the Nazi death camps KEY Concentration camp homosexuals. The inmates of the death The Nazis had over 40 death camps, of which at least Extermination camp camps came from every part of eight were used for mass murder. In the cities, Jews were (8,000) Site of mass killing occupied Europe, their meticulously forced to live in ghettos before being transferred by rail. Ghetto logged railway movements providing Estimated number of Jews killed somber detail for historians. The camps children\u2014were gassed. In April 1943 Frontiers Nov 1942 were sometimes linked to industrial there was a rmass escape of prisoners Greater Germany Nov 1942 complexes run by the SS, and those from Treblinka. That month, there was Axis controlled territory capable of work on arrival were usually an uprising in the Warsaw ghetto, and Allied territory given a temporary stay execution. The those Jews who survived the \ufb01ghting Neutral territory rest\u2014the old, the in\ufb01rm, and were sent to extermination camps. \u201c \u2026 we asked whether our life was not a living nightmare, so unreal did this life appear in all its horror.\u201d MARIE-CLAUDE VAILLANT-COUTURIER, CONCENTRATION CAMP SURVIVOR, AT THE NUREMBERG TRIALS, JANUARY 28, 1946","EYEWITNESS July 27, 1942 Rounding up the Jews Jews in Eastern Europe, particularly Poland, were treated with appalling brutality. Initially herded into ghettos, from 1942 they were rounded up from the ghettos and either murdered or sent to death camps such as Treblinka and Belzec. Between July 22 and September 12 1942, some 265,000 Jews were rounded up from the Warsaw ghetto and sent to the gas chambers at Treblinka. \u201cMonday 27 July. The \u2018action\u2019 still continuing at full strength. People are being rounded up. Victims on Smozca Street. People were dragged from the trams and shot. One hundred dead (old people and the sick) at the Umschlagplatz [Jewish cemetery]. Huge numbers of dead at Ogrodowa Street. The remaining occupants were taken out, no notice was taken of their papers \u2026 Shooting all day. Dead on Pawia and other streets \u2026 How high will the numbers of deported become? Thursday 30 July. The ninth day of the \u2018action\u2019 that is continuing with all its fearfulness and terror. From five in the morning we hear through the window the whistles of Jewish police and the movement and running of Jews looking for refuge \u2026 From midday yesterday onwards the shooting has not stopped next to our building. A soldier stands at the corner of Zamenhof and Nowolipie Streets and abuses the passers by \u2026 By midday 4,000 people had been rounded up \u2026 Saturday 1 August \u2026 The 11th day of the \u2018action\u2019 that gets progressively more terrible and brutal. Germans are in the process of emptying whole buildings and sides of streets. They took about 5,000 people out of 20\u20132 and other buildings on Nowolipie Street. The turmoil and terror is appalling. There is a general expulsion of all the occupants of Nowolipie Street \u2026 The nightmare of this day surpasses that of all previous days. There is no escape and no refuge. The round-ups never cease \u2026 Mothers lose their children. A weak old woman is carried onto the bus. The tragedies cannot be captured in words \u2026 Friday 28 August. The acts of terror are continuing \u2026 Today we had a long talk with Dowid Nowodworksi, who returned from Treblinka \u2026. His words confirm once again and leave no room for doubt that all the deportees\u2026are taken to be killed and that no one is saved \u2026 Yesterday about 4,000 people were driven from Warsaw to their deaths \u2026 God! Are we really to be \u201dexterminated down to the very last of us? JEWISH DIARIST, ABRAHAM LEWIN, WHO PROBABLY PERISHED IN JANUARY 1943. Deportation Armed members of the SS force Jews out of the Warsaw ghetto in May 1943 for deportation to the death camps. This round-up followed a heroic armed resistance by those in the ghetto, which was ultimately defeated. 178","","THE SHIFTING BALANCE 1942 Malta and the Mediterranean The inhabitants of Malta found themselves under constant attack as the campaign in North Africa intensified. First the Italians, and then the Germans, from their bases in Sicily, launched incessant bombing raids on the island\u2014but on the ground the resolve not to capitulate grew ever stronger. F ollowing Italy\u2019s \ufb01rst bombing raid on breaking Malta\u2019s tough in June 1940, the threat to Malta from the air increased from January resistance. Based in Rome 1941, when the Luftwaffe moved into bases in Sicily. On January 10, 1941, from December 1941, the Ju 87s from Sicily attacked the dockyard at Valletta and damaged the carrier \ufb01eld marshal had some 400 Illustrious, which was in the harbor. This marked the beginning of a siege aircraft under his command. that was to last over two years, and which saw losses of over 2,000 aircraft He used these to in\ufb02ict huge to the Royal Air Force, the Luftwaffe, and the Regia Aeronautica collectively. losses on Allied shipping in Defending the island was dif\ufb01cult at the Mediterranean. He also best, but the British had to keep both garrison and population supplied. Every laid dense mine\ufb01elds around convoy to Malta needed a strong naval escort, and in the two years up to the Malta, virtually cutting the summer of 1942, over one third of the merchant vessels that were sent failed island off from supply. to reach the island. This left food in desperately short supply and Malta\u2019s By August 1942 General population endured severe rationing Rommel was at the height BEFORE of his success in North Africa, The Crown Colony of Malta lay 50 miles (80 km) from the southern coast of Sicily. having driven the Allied Strategically important from the start, its signi\ufb01cance grew as the con\ufb02ict widened. forces back to El Alamein AXIS AGGRESSION in northern Egypt. Losing Axis leaders were quick to see the potential of the island: whoever controlled Malta would also Malta at this critical stage control the Mediterranean. In seizing Malta, the Axis forces would deny the British the central Luftwaffe aerial view of Malta in the war would be a disaster for the Mediterranean and remove a major threat to their own supply lines to North Africa. The \ufb01rst Frequent air attacks were the basis of the Axis offensive Allies\u2014almost certainly leading to their bombs fell on Malta just a few hours after Italy entered the war ff\u000198\u201399, on June 10, 1940, against Malta. In the two-year siege, some 3,000 raids defeat in North Africa\u2014and yet such a marking the beginning of a long, relentless siege. were made in total. The Allies claimed to have shot down loss now looked imminent. BRITISH DEFIANCE Threats of an aerial attack had persuaded the over 800 Axis aircraft, with a loss of 1,100 themselves. British to move its Mediterranean \ufb02eet from Malta to Alexandria in the 1930s. However, the Operation Pedestal island remained the only British base between Gibralta and Egypt. As long as the campaign in as the bombs rained down. Another Malta was at the end of its fuel and North Africa ff\u0001124\u201325 continued, the British were determined to keep hold of Malta, threat to the island came from the sea. food resources. One last push would even though they knew the price of doing so would be very high. During the night of July 25\/26 1941, have to be made if the Allies were the harbor in Valletta became the target going to save the island and stay of Italian torpedo boats and \u201chuman in the game. On August 3, 1942, a Bomb damage in Valletta Malta\u2019s capital, Valletta, was a primary Axis target, not torpedoes\u201d\u2014torpedoes modi\ufb01ed to British convoy set sail from the Clyde least because its dockyard harbored Allied naval craft. The bombing of Malta was so intensive that the island carry a detachable explosive River to relieve Malta. became the war\u2019s most-bombed area. charge. The attack was aimed Codenamed Pedestal, the \ufb02ying from bases in Sardinia and Sicily, 21 U-boats, and squadrons of S-boats at the submarine anchorage, convoy comprised 14 fast deployed off the coast of Tunisia. The convoy also had to contend with and a convoy thought to be in merchantmen and the oil freshly laid mine\ufb01elds. the port, but was driven off by tanker Ohio, and was to be Malta saved the shore defenses in the only escorted by 24 destroyers, On the afternoon of August 13, three of the convoy\u2019s survivors arrived at major coastal defense action three aircraft carriers, two Malta. The tanker Ohio, barely a\ufb02oat but with her vital cargo of oil intact, fought by the British during battleships, seven cruisers, 6,000 The tonnage of bombs the war. and eight submarines. The that were dropped by the Luftwaffe on the island of Malta Renewed Axis efforts plan was for the heavy ships between March 20 and April 28 1942, to turn back when the group in a total of 11,819 sorties. The aerial bombardment reached the Sicilian narrows. limped in the next day. The feat of seamanship that brought it there eased, temporarily, in June Thereafter, Pedestal would earned the tanker\u2019s master, Captain D.W Mason, the George Cross. What 1941, when the majority be protected by four cruisers of Luftwaffe aircraft were and 12 destroyers. thrown into the opening Seven days after leaving phase of Hitler\u2019s offensive The George Cross Britain, as the convoy was against Russia, Operation The George Cross\u2014the passing through the Straits Barbarossa. But six months highest award for civilian of Gibraltar, it was spotted later bombing was back to gallantry\u2014was given to the and shadowed. A savage its earlier intensity. people of Malta in 1942. battle ensued, starting with Nevertheless, the British the German U-73 sinking submarines and aircraft based in Malta the British carrier Eagle on August 11. continued to disrupt the Axis supply From the next day, the convoy was lines. Field Marshal Kesselring, German under constant attack from air and Commander-in-Chief South, was intent naval units, which included aircraft 180","M A LTA A N D T H E M E D I T E R R A N E A N HMS Warspite A seaplane launches from the deck of the battleship HMS Warspite. Deployed in the Mediterranean from 1940 to 1941, the ship escorted many supply convoys from Egypt to Malta, and back again. restored. Two more convoys reached Malta by the end of the year, and the island lived to \ufb01ght another day. Allied victory at El Alamein and the subsequent capture of Axis air\ufb01elds in Libya further eased the situation. The siege of Malta was not yet over but the island had been held against the odds, and food and other essential supplies were now reaching its defenders and citizens on a regular basis. King George V awarded the George Cross to the island in April 1942, in recognition of the heroism of its population. This was the only time that it has been awarded collectively. AFTER \u201cThis poor old hooker hasn\u2019t got remained of the merchantmen and The tremendous resolve of the Maltese many minutes now. I hope to warships in the convoy had taken heavy inhabitants, together with the concerted God she lasts long enough.\u201d punishment in the battle: two of the efforts of Allied forces, had kept Malta cruisers and a destroyer had been sunk; from falling during the Axis offensive. CAPTAIN DUDLEY MASON, COMMANDER OF THE TANKER OHIO, ON REACHING VALETTA HARBOR another two cruisers had been badly damaged, as had the aircraft carrier THE WAR IN NORTH AFRICA Indomitable. Despite such heavy losses, Royal Air Force operations from Malta were now however, Operation Pedestal had been a vital factor in the campaign against the Axis a success and Malta\u2019s ability to resist the forces in North Africa 182\u201383 gg, attacking force of the Axis onslaught had been not only their land troops but also the essential supply convoys that were sent to reinforce 0T 3E CBHONXO TL OI TGLYE 7 P T \/ 1 0 P T Rommel\u2019s Afrika Korps. HUMAN TORPEDO MALTA\u2019S NAVAL BASE RESTORED The eventual defeat of Axis forces in North Nicknamed the maiale (pig) because its crew sat astride the craft\u2019s casing in specially the Italians launched a daring raid of three Africa 186\u201387 gg and the invasion of Sicily operators found it so di\ufb03cult to steer, the designed diving suits. On arriving beneath their human torpedoes on the harbor at 210\u201311 gg and, subsequently, the Italian Italian \u201chuman torpedo\u201d was a modi\ufb01ed target vessel, the crew detached the charge, Alexandria, damaging the British battleships mainland 212\u201313 gg, removed the Axis air torpedo with a detachable explosive charge \ufb01xed it to the ship\u2019s bottom like a limpet mine, Queen Elizabeth and Valiant so badly that in place of a normal warhead. A two-man and set a time fuse. On December 19, 1941, they were out of action for several months. Civilian casualties on Malta were relatively light thanks to its excellent air-raid shelters, which were dug into the island\u2019s soft sandstone rock. threat once and for all. This meant that, from the summer of 1943, Valetta could once again be used by the Allies as a major naval base. 181","THE SHIFTING BALANCE 1942 BEFORE El Alamein The Western Desert Campaign began The campaign in the Western Desert reached a stalemate, and both sides paused to make good their toward the end of 1940, with an Italian losses. The offensive resumed in May 1942 for the last time. The following fall Rommel was to invasion of Egypt. Since that time, the face an enemy who commanded a more numerous, better-equipped, and better-motivated army. advantage had passed \ufb01rst to the Allies, then to the Germans and Italians. R ommel moved \ufb01rst and attacked Rommel considered asking the British Versatile artillery on the night of May 26\/27. The \ufb01eld commander, Lieutenant-General The German 88 mm anti-aircraft gun INITIAL CONFLICT battle line ran south for 35 miles Neil Ritchie, for terms, but his situation was used to great effect in targeting Although the Allies were successful in forcing an (55 km) from Gazala on the coast to Bir eased when the Trieste Division opened aircraft. The gun proved deadly when Italian retreat in February 1941, this had not Hacheim, a forti\ufb01ed box held by the First a corridor through the mine\ufb01elds. the Germans used it as an anti-tank been enough to secure their victory outright. Free French Brigade. Rommel caught weapon against the Allies during the Instead they now came face to face with General the British off guard south of Bir Rommel was still caught in a position Western Desert Campaign. Erwin Rommel\u2019s Afrika Korps ff\u0001124\u201325. Hacheim as 21st Panzer Division overran known as the \u201cCauldron.\u201d The British Third Indian Motor Brigade\u2019s position, delayed with fatal results, and it was withdrew from Bir Hacheim ROMMEL\u2019S FIRST OFFENSIVE while two more panzer divisions fanned not until June 5 that Ritchie attacked Rommel was able to Despite having orders to stay on the defensive, out across the desert, wheeling in a the Cauldron at Sidra Ridge and Aslagh pentrate the Gazala line in Rommel immediately took advantage of what he northeast direction, toward Tobruk. Ridge; both attacks were repulsed. strength and resumed his saw to be a weak Allied defence and launched northeast thrust toward Tobruk. a series of attacks that resulted in driving the 200 THOUSAND men were at Back on the offensive on June 6, Recognizing that the battle was lost, Allies out of Libya. One stronghold remained, Montgomery\u2019s disposal for the Rommel overran two Indian brigades Ritchie reinforced the Tobruk garrison Tobruk, which was immediately besieged. Battle of El Alamein. and destroyed the artillery of the Fifth and withdrew into Egypt. On June Indian Division. After the Free French 20\u201321, Rommel stormed Tobruk, taking OPERATION CRUSADER 100 THOUSAND men were under 33,000 prisoners; the loss of Tobruk With the balance of power constantly shifting Rommel\u2019s command; half were was the Eighth Army\u2019s worst defeat. from one side to the other, the year ended Italian and deemed unreliable. with Allied efforts to relieve Tobruk. New Allied command Although they were successful, yet again, the In the center of the Gazala Line, victory fell short of ending the con\ufb02ict for good. Rommel personally led an armored Following the fall of Tobruk, General drive, con\ufb01dent that enemy mine\ufb01elds Auchinleck, the commander-in-chief Advancing British tanks would protect his \ufb02anks and rear. By in the Middle East, then took personal A British Valentine infantry tank raises a cloud of sand. nightfall on the 27th, however, he had command of Eighth Army and, during Valentines were extremely reliable and a number of been pushed back onto the mine\ufb01elds the course of July, halted Rommel\u2019s them motored over 3,000 miles (4,800 km) on their and the box held by 150th Brigade. drive into Egypt at the First Battle of own tracks in the pursuit of the Afrika Korps, having defeated the Axis forces at the Battle of El Alamein.","EL ALAMEIN AFTER TECHNOLOGY stretching from the sea LANDMINE to the Qattara Depression, Mine\ufb01elds were a vital \u201carea denial\u201d a salt marsh at the In November 1942, following defeat at weapon. The simplest type was a small canister with a few ounces of explosive. bottom of a line of cliffs. the Second Battle of El Alamein, Rommel Buried in the ground with just its sensor exposed, it reacted if it was stepped on. It was clear he would was forced to retreat toward Tunisia. A \u201cbounding\u201d mine contained fragments of metal and was buried underground in attack as soon as he felt a steel mortar tube. On being \ufb01red, the mine was blown into the air where it was strong enough. ROMMEL\u2019S \u201cGOLDEN BRIDGE\u201d detonated at waist height. Large anti-tank mines were detonated by the pressure of Montgomery\u2019s plan Montgomery 184\u201385 gg\u0001pursued cautiously, a tank passing over them. The most basic but failed to out\ufb02ank his retreating enemy. method of mine clearing was by hand. A slow and dangerous process\u2014well-laid Churchill now replaced The task was furter hampered by heavy mine\ufb01elds were covered by defensive \ufb01re\u2014this often happened at night. Auchinleck with General 25 PER CENT The casualties Harold Alexander as among Montgomery\u2019s infantry commander-in-chief in the Middle East, and at El Alamein. Tank and artillery crews appointed General and engineers also suffered. Bernard Montgomery to command the Eighth rain, which made o\ufb00-road movement di\ufb03cult. Advance at El Alamein Army. Montgomery was quick to show Moreover, the British losses sustained at British infantry burst through a smoke screen with fixed bayonets. The ground is marked by the tracks of the his mettle by halting the latest El Alamein had been heavy and a pell-mell tanks which advanced ahead of them. offensive, launched by Rommel on pursuit might have given Rommel the chance El Alamein. By July 27, having fought themselves to a standstill, both sides October 30\/31, to the south of Alam to turn on the Eighth Army, in\ufb02icting more were digging in, preparing to regroup. The British held a crucial advantage: Halfa Ridge. Montgomery employed a damage. Thus Rommel was given a \u201cgolden operating nearer their base meant that reinforcements and supplies reached coordinated defense of tanks, artillery, bridge,\u201d the coast road to Tunis. By this time, them sooner than those of the Afrika Korps, whose supply lines were now anti-tank guns, mines, and ground- however, Operation Torch 186\u201387 gg was dangerously overextended, some 1,200 miles (1,930km) from Tripoli. Rommel attack aircraft. Rommel broke off the well under way, and eventual Axis surrender was now also restricted to a narrow front of some 40 miles (65 km), offensive on September 2. He now just a matter of time. found himself in a strategic double bind. He could neither advance nor retreat, while his enemy was preparing to go on to the offensive. Montgomery\u2019s plans for battle differed markedly from those employed earlier in the campaign. Rather than playing Rommel at his own game of Blitzkrieg, for which British armored formations \u201c We are going to \ufb01nish with this chap exhibited no great \ufb02air, he aimed to Rommel once and for all. It will be quite easy. There is no doubt about destroy his enemy, once and for all, it. He is de\ufb01nitely a nuisance.\u201d in a grinding set-piece battle. It would GERMAN PRISONERS AT EL ALAMEIN GENERAL BERNARD MONTGOMERY, AUGUST 1942 open with an infantry-artillery assault, supported by heavy tanks, whose task it was to destroy the \ufb01xed defenses of the Afrika Korps and their garrisons. to the campaign in North Africa on Only after the conclusion of this October 26, the day that Montgomery \u201cdog\ufb01ght\u201d would the main body threw in more tanks to reinforce his of armor march forth into the battle. main thrust. After a week of bitter On October 22, \ufb01ghting, the Afrika 1942, Eighth Army 10,000 men of Afrika Korps Korps had been \ufb01elded nearly were killed, and reduced to a 200,000 men, 1,000 15,000 wounded. strength of 35 tanks, front-line tanks, 2,350 men of the Eighth and Montgomery 2,300 artillery pieces, Army were killed and had hacked through and 530 serviceable 8,950 were wounded. the center of aircraft. The Afrika Rommel\u2019s front. By Korps numbered some 100,000 men November 2 he was ready to retreat, with 520 tanks, nearly 300 of them but Hitler forbade withdrawal, forcing Italian, 1,200 artillery weapons, and Rommel to commit the last of his some 350 serviceable aircraft, mostly armor to block the northern corridor. Italian. The Afrika Korps had also lost Throughout the battle Montgomery Rommel as its commander, since he had been receiving virtually \u201creal time\u201d had been invalided back to Germany information on Rommel\u2019s dispositions, with a stomach ailment. via Enigma intercepts. Con\ufb01dent in The Second Battle of El Alamein the knowledge that the Germans were now counterattacking in the north, The battle began on October 23 with Montgomery concentrated his main an artillery bombardment of 450 effort on the corridor in the south. guns, which preceded a main push By mid-afternoon on November 7, along the coastal road and a Montgomery\u2019s armor was driving diversionary attack to the south. up into the Afrika Korps\u2019 rear, forcing The Afrika Korps was not distracted Rommel to order a full withdrawal by the diversionary attack and held along the coast road. The retreat was fast on the coast. Rommel returned to continue for 2,000 miles (3,200 km). 183","THE SHIFTING BALANCE 1942 BRITISH FIELD MARSHAL Born 1887 Died 1976 Bernard Montgomery \u201c Our mandate \u2026 is to destroy the Axis forces in North Africa \u2026 It can be done, and it will be done!\u201d MONTGOMERY ADDRESSING HIS TROOPS IN NORTH AFRICA, 1942 P ossibly the best known of the Expeditionary Force (BEF). There was British generals of World War II, very little \ufb01ghting, but Montgomery Bernard Montgomery, often foresaw a possible defeat and prepared known simply as \u201cMonty,\u201d had been his men for a tactical retreat\u2014and was a professional soldier for more than 30 proved right when German troops years when Britain declared war with advanced into the Netherlands in May Germany in 1939. 1940, forcing the British and French to retreat to Dunkirk (see p.78) and then After training at the Royal Military across the Channel to England. College, Woolwich, London, he joined the Royal Warwickshire Regiment in In 1942, taking control of North 1908 and \ufb01rst witnessed active service Africa was crucial to opening up the in World War I. What he saw on the Mediterranean to Allied shipping. The battle\ufb01elds of France and Belgium had German army, under General Erwin a profound in\ufb02uence on his approach Rommel, was advancing toward as a commander. Not only was he Alexandria, on the northern coast seriously injured early in the war of Egypt, and the uncoordinated but he also witnessed the horri\ufb01c tactics of the Eighth Army was conditions and pointless casualties that doing little to stop it. After he con\ufb01rmed his belief that successful was appointed commander campaigns needed careful preparation of the Eighth in 1942, and tactical training of the men rather than sheer force and repetitive drill. \u201dMonty\u201d Field Marshal Sir Bernard Law \u201cThe capacity and Montgomery in May 1945, will to rally men wearing his trademark and women to a battledress and beret with common purpose.\u201d the badge of the Royal Tank Regiment alongside his field marshal\u2019s badge. MONTGOMERY\u2019S DEFINITION OF LEADERSHIP At the conclusion of World War I Montgomery had been promoted to the rank of temporary lieutenant colonel, but his unconventional and sometimes arrogant approach often antagonized his superiors. His skill as an of\ufb01cer, though, was seldom in doubt and when war broke out in 1939, he commanded the 3rd Infantry Division. Escape from Dunkirk Montgomery and the 3rd Division spent the early months of World War II in Belgium, forming part of the British 184","BERNARD MONTGOMERY Montgomery managed to transform The desert war TIMELINE the campaign by designing cohesive, Montgomery watches the advance coordinated battle plans for both the on German lines in North Africa in O\u0001 November 17, 1887 Born Bernard Law army and air units. He also made it his 1942. He used the tank for forward Montgomery in Kennington, London, the son business to improve morale, personally observation in the Western Desert of an Anglo-Irish Anglican priest. visiting as many of the units as he Campaign, and in the invasion of Italy. could, and replacing his of\ufb01cer\u2019s cap O\u0001 1908 After studying at the Royal Military with an informal beret. Academy, Woolwich, he joins the 1st Batallion, The Royal Warwickshire Regiment. El Alamein O\u0001 August 1914 World War I begins. Montgomery Once his forces were in place he goes to France with his regiment but is seriously established a reinforced stronghold at injured in fighting on the Belgian border and Alam Halfa, west of Alexandria, and hospitalized in England. He is awarded the DSO once again his foresight saved the (Distinguished Service Order). day. Rommel attacked Alam Halfa at the end of August 1942, O\u0001 1916 Returns to the Western Front. a couple of weeks after Montgomery\u2019s arrival, Combined forces O\u0001 1918 Temporarily promoted to lieutenant- but was forced back. The US provided colonel and appointed Monty resisted the Sherman and Grant Chief of Staff of the temptation to attack the tanks. The tank shown 47th London Division. retreating Germans, and here is Montgomery\u2019s was criticized at the time for Grant M3A3 tank. O\u0001 1927 Marries indecision, but he used the time Elizabeth Carver. The to plan a major offensive, which following year they drew on plans devised by his have a son, David. predecessor, Claude Auchinleck. Germany\u2019s industrial O\u0001 1937 Elizabeth This came in October, when he heartland. Unusually, Montgomery dies of judged the time right to \ufb01ght at El however, the operation septicaemia from an Alamein (see p.182). After 12 days was poorly planned and insect bite. of intense \ufb01ghting, the Battle of El executed, which led to the defeat at Alamein proved to be decisive, to the determination of Allied soldiers Arnhem, further tensions with the O\u0001 October 1938 allowing Montgomery to go on to and German strategic over-expansion Americans, and losing the chance to capture Tobruk and Tripoli, and forcing as to his generalship. And with US advance in to Germany that year. Montgomery is the Axis surrender in Tunisia. As a troops now forming the majority of the result he was knighted and promoted Allied forces in Europe, it was General Final years promoted to rank of MONTY IN 1915 to the rank of full general. Eisenhower who took personal major-general and sent to command of ground forces. In May 1945 Montgomery accepted Preparing for D-Day the surrender of the Germans in command British forces in Palestine. Still in command of the 21st Army northern Germany, Denmark, and the From North Africa, Montgomery Group, however, and now promoted to Netherlands. After the war he continued O\u0001 September 1939 World War II begins. turned his attention to the invasion \ufb01eld marshal, Montgomery led to serve as Chief of the Imperial General Montgomery is sent to France with the British of Sicily and southern Italy, which was Operation Market Garden (September Staff, and later as deputy supreme Allied Expeditionary Force (BEF). also vital to securing the Mediterranean 1944)\u2014the campaign to capture bridges commander until his retirement in 1958. for the Allies. There was tension in the Netherlands and to push on into O\u0001 June 1940 The BEF is forced back to Dunkirk between him and the American by the German Western Offensive; Montgomery commanders, Patton and Bradley, manages the retreat of II Corps to England with which left him frustrated at the lack of minimal casualties. planning, and the Americans angered by his high-handedness and caution. \u201c With stout hearts, and with O\u0001 July 1942 Winston Churchill chooses Nonetheless, Allied troops advanced enthusiasm for the contest, Montgomery as commander of the Eighth Army through Italy in the fall of 1943; but by let us go forward to victory.\u201d in North Africa. the end of the year the advance had slowed because of bad weather and O\u0001 October\u2013November 1942 Montgomery\u2019s poor communication between decisive victory at the Battle of El Alamein earns the British and American forces. him a knighthood and promotion to the rank of full general. Montgomery\u2019s experience was then needed back in Britain for \ufb01nal MONTGOMERY TO TROOPS ON THE EVE OF D-DAY, JUNE 5, 1944 O\u0001 1943 After successfully capturing Tripoli and preparations for the invasion of Tunisia, Montgomery and the Eighth Army take Normandy (see p.254 and p.258). As part in the Allied invasion of Sicily, and later that commander of the 21st Army Group, year lead the landings on mainland Italy. he improved the Allied invasion plan, Operation Overlord, in June 1944. He O\u0001 June 1944 Is made commander of ground was always to argue that his scheme forces in Operation Overlord, the invasion for the breakout from Normandy of Normandy. succeeded, but victory owed as much O\u0001 September 1944 Oversees Operation Market L\u00fcneburg Heath Garden, to capture bridges over the rivers of As commander of the 21st Army group, Montgomery Nazi-occupied Netherlands, and to advance reads the terms of surrender to delegates of the across the Rhine into Germany, but suffers German forces on L\u00fcneburg Heath, in northern defeat at Arnhem. Germany, on May 4, 1945. O\u0001 May 4, 1945 In a tent on L\u00fcneburg Heath, in Lower Saxony, Germany, Montgomery accepts the German surrender of forces in northern Germany, Denmark, and the Netherlands. O\u0001 1946 Granted a peerage, taking the title Viscount Montgomery of Alamein, and becomes Chief of the Imperial General Staff. O\u0001 1958 Aged 71, Montgomery retires. O\u0001 24 March 1976 Dies at his home near Alton, Hampshire, aged 88. 185","Torch Landings Operation Torch was the largest Allied amphibious operation of the war thus far. Conceived in American troops come ashore London, in July 1942, it marked the beginning of the final stages of the campaign in North Africa, Behind American troops landing at Arzeu, near Oran, is which culminated in the surrender of the Axis forces in Tunisia, in May 1943. a landing craft assault (LCA). This small craft had quiet engines and would have carried about 35 fully equipped infantry for this initial assault on an enemy-held beach. T he Torch landings consisted of German intelligence failed to appreciate that such a strategy would only drive Kesselring dispatched troops from the three Task Forces\u2014Western, Central, and Eastern\u2014landing the signi\ufb01cance of this Allied armada. the Vichy government further into the island of Sicily to hold Tunisia, toward respectively at Casablanca, Oran, and Algiers. The size of the operation was Until Central and Eastern Task Forces Axis camp, did not agree. The landings which General Rommel was retreating, immense, involving over 100,000 men and 120 vessels. Sailing at high speed, passed through the Straits of Gibraltar were launched on November 8, 1942. shadowed by Montgomery. under formidable air cover, the convoys reached their pre-assault positions during the night of All three met with British airborne troops were dropped without being intercepted by U-boats. November 5\/6, the The US troops of Western Task Force, varying degrees ahead of the Anglo\u2013American First BEFORE Germans had who landed at Casablanca, waded ashore of resistance, but Army, but they failed to link up with The Torch landings in North Africa were agreed by the Americans and British in the assumed that carrying the Stars and Stripes under the on November 9, ground troops, enabling the Germans absence of an alternative\u2014they were still unprepared for a cross-Channel invasion. this was another illusion that the French colonial troops Admiral Darlan, to establish a strong defensive line. The MAINTAINING PRESSURE attempt, in the would not fire on them. In fact, heavy the Vichy High Allies had been hoping to make a swift The landings marked a third signi\ufb01cant stage in the Allies\u2019 campaign in North Africa, which style of Operation fighting ensued until November 11. Commissioner, had already seen desert action in Libya ff\u0001 124\u201325 in 1940 and, more recently, at the Pedestal, to run ordered a cease\ufb01re 6 Nov 8, 1942 S PA I N battles of El Alamein ff\u0001182\u201383. supplies to Malta. Doubts now crept after being taken into protective custody Western Task Force 6 Nov 8 ,1942 A SECOND FRONT lands in Morocco. After The Allies still planned for a Second Front, in in, with a new intelligence assessment by the Allies. In spite of counter-orders overcoming resistance by Centre Task Force attempts to 1943, but in the meantime the Torch alternative local French forces, begins land at Oran, but does not would provide employment for the growing envisaging a landing at Tripoli, in Libya. from Vichy, the greater part of the eastward advance US Army in Britain and also for a substantial secure beachhead until 10 Nov part of the British home reserve, which could On November 7 intelligence concluded French forces obeyed Darlan. Now it take on an offensive role now that the danger of a German cross-Channel invasion had receded. that there would be landings in North was the Allies\u2019 turn to be taken by Africa, although Hitler, who believed surprise. Field-Marshal Albert Gibraltar Tangier British mountain howitzer US WESTERN S PA N I S H US CENTRAL Allied troops often found TASK FORCE MOROCCO TASK FORCE themselves held up by strong German positions in rugged, Casablanca Port Lyautey Melilla Oran mountainous terrain. Mortars Rabat Tiemsen Fez and howitzers were vital in Sa\ufb01 M O R O C C O dislodging them. Marrakesh 186","TORCH LANDINGS thrust through Tunisia to join hands KEY MOMENT with the Eighth Army, advancing from El Alamein, but the rapid build-up of VICHY FRANCE German reinforcements ensured that the Tunisian campaign now became The rump French government, formed Attila. Most of the Vichy French clung a bitter slogging match. by Marshal P\u00e9tain after France surrendered to the terms of the armistice, which had to Germany on June 20, 1940, was based been signed with Germany in the Final offensive in the spa town of Vichy, 75 miles (120 summer of 1940, only as long as Hitler In January 1943, having completed km) northwest of Lyon. (Paris was still the remained the master of Europe. At the his withdrawal to Tunisia, Rommel o\ufb03cial capital.) It controlled about two \ufb01fths \ufb01rst indication of the shrinking of his planned a spoiling attack that would of unoccupied France and the French power, they held themselves ready to destroy the Allies\u2019 offensive capacity colonies. Pro-collaboration, P\u00e9tain\u2019s defend the long-term interests of and consolidate the German hold on administration was known as the \u201cVichy France in a swift change of allegiance. Tunisia. On February 14 General von government.\u201d It survived until the Torch Arnim\u2019s Fifth Panzer Army launched landings, after which the whole of France VICHY POSTER RECRUITING FRENCH an attack on the inexperienced US II came under German control in Operation PEOPLE TO WORK IN GERMANY Corps at Sidi Bou Zid, while Rommel\u2019s Afrika Korps advanced through the Kasserine Pass, and on toward the the Allies, the two German leaders frontal assault, Montgomery Tebessa province. It was a rude baptism were uneasy partners and their out\ufb02anked the Mareth Line, but of \ufb01re for the raw Americans, who offensive lost momentum. the Axis managed to extricate were very roughly handled by von On February 22 Rommel conducted most of their forces to a defense Arnim and Rommel. Fortunately for a skillful withdrawal, leaving 6,000 line hinged on the Wadi Akarit, American casualties. This was the which was breached by 4th last German offensive in North Africa. Indian Division on April 5\/6. For two AFTER Thereafter it was a matter of squeezing weeks the Allied and Axis forces traded the life out of the Axis forces, a task punches as the Axis perimeter around tailor-made for Montgomery, Tunis inexorably shrank. The \ufb01nal who now became 39 THOUSAND Allied soldiers came Allied attack The Tunisian campaign had exposed subordinate to the ashore at Oran in Algeria. opened on April the frailty of US troops and their senior Allied commander 22. Tunis fell on commanders when faced with battle- in North Africa, 35 THOUSAND Allied soldiers landed May 7; Bizerta, 45 hardened veterans of the Afrika Korps. the US General at Casablanca in Morocco. miles (72 km) to Eisenhower. 33 THOUSAND Allied soldiers came the northwest, STRONG LEADERSHIP Montgomery\u2019s ashore at Algiers in Algeria. was taken on the One American commander, General Patton, who adversary at same day. Final took command of II Corps after the reverse at Alamein, Rommel, now left the theater resistance collapsed on May 13, when Kasserine, exhibited qualities of leadership on grounds of illness, leaving General the Italian First Army laid down its that marked him out for command of US Seventh Hans-J\u00fcrgen von Arnim to hold on arms and surrendered to the Allies. Army in the invasion of Sicily 210\u201311 gg. Mareth Line casualty behind the Mareth Line, the German More than 250,000 prisoners were Stretcher bearers of the Indian Medical Service come forti\ufb01cations running from the shores taken. Hitler, who had for a long time NEW THREAT TO AXIS to the aid of a Gurkha wounded in the assault on the of the Gulf of Gabes to the slopes of the considered North Africa a sideshow, For the Axis, the Tunisian campaign exposed Mareth Line, April 1943. The tough Gurkha troops had a Matmata Hills, a distance of some 30 had reinforced the Afrika Korps too the bankruptcy of Hitler\u2019s strategy. The fearsome record of bravery with the British Eighth Army. miles (50 km). After failing with a little and too late. capture of eight Axis divisions, kept there at the F\u00fchrer\u2019s insistence, left Italy and its o\ufb00shore The North African arena islands with no immediate prospect of adequate 6 Nov 8, 1942 Sardinia I TA LY The Allies invaded North Africa from the west, landing on defense, while major Allied forces were now the Atlantic coast of Morocco and the Mediterranean coast available for operations across the entire sweep Eastern Task Force meets with bq May 10, 1943 of Algeria. The Germans sent troops to Tunisia to prevent of the Mediterranean. The only question was, only light resistance during these troops from linking up with the British Eighth Army. where would they choose to land? landings at Algiers Having withdrawn to Cape Bon, Axis forces US EASTERN 7 Nov 10, 1942 GERMAN surrender 5TH ARMY Germans land in Tunisia TASK FORCE Bizerta Sicily B\u00f4ne Philippeville Algiers Cape Bon N Blida Bougie Tunis 0 M eRelizane 0 Constantine bp May 7, 1943 En\ufb01daville Allied forces capture Tunis Crete 300 km T U N I S I A d i t eUS 1ST ARMY Kasserine Sbeitle Malta 300 miles (to Britain) A L G E R I A r r a nBiskra e a n S e abn Feb 22, 1943 US forces halt Axis counter-o\ufb00ensive in Kasserine Pass Gafsa Sidi Bou Zid bm Feb 4, 1943 8 Nov 13, 1942 2 Jun 21, 1942 4 Oct 23\u2013Nov 2 1942 Sfax 8th Army reaches 8th Army recaptures Tobruk Germans and Italians Allied victory at Maknassy Tunisian border take Tobruk El Alamein Gabes 9 Nov 23\u2013Dec 13, 1942 Mareth Rommel makes stand at El Derna Medemine Gazala Tobruk Sollum Sidi Barrani KEY Tripoli Agheila, but is eventually Benghazi Jebel El Mersa Matruh Alexandria Homs out\ufb02anked by 2nd New Akhdar El Adem Allied advance\/landing Zealand Division El Alamein Gazala Line Buerat Bir Hacheim GERMAN BRITISH Cairo Axis advance\/landing AFRIKA KORPS 8TH ARMY Axis front line October 23, 1942 bl Jan 23, 1943 Axis front line March 20, 1943 5 Nov 4, 1942 Qattara 3 Aug 30, 1942 Axis front line May 3, 1943 8th Army enters Tripoli Depression Mareth Line 8th Army starts Rommel\u2019s attack on bo Mar 22\u201326, 1943 El Agheila pursuit of retreating El Alamein halted New Zealand and British force bk Dec 26, 1942\u2013 Axis forces out\ufb02anks Axis defenders of the Mareth Line L I B YA Jan 16, 1943 1 May 26, 1942 EGYPT Rommel makes stand near Buerat, but is Start of Rommel\u2019s o\ufb00ensive again out\ufb02anked against the Gazala Line","\u201cOne Day of War\u201d A Red Army soldier feeds a small child in a devastated village retaken from the Germans. This still is from \u201cOne Day of War in the Soviet Union\u201d a propaganda film shot on June 13, 1942, by a team of 160 Russian cameramen.","SAVING THE SOVIET UNION Saving the Soviet Union AFTER Operation Barbarossa, Germany\u2019s invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, had done much to reduce the The price of survival was costly. The country\u2019s productive capacity, striking significant blows to its steel and coal industries. Thanks to its Germans had occupied and pillaged almost limitless resources and huge Allied aid, however, the Soviet Union was able to survive. European Russia, while the Soviet Union had ruthlesssly stripped its own territory F rom June 1941 to November Propaganda poster, 1942 for the waging of war. 1942, the Red Army\u2019s strength Emotive posters were printed, in which the population at the front grew considerably of the USSR were exhorted to make heroic sacrifices CIVILIAN HARDSHIP from 2.9 to 6.1 million men. Mere to aid the war effort in the name of Lenin and Stalin. Elderly men, women, and children worked manpower, however, would have punishing hours sustained by the most been meaningless without Russia\u2019s the last engineers left the Kharkov meager rations. In a characteristically Soviet ability to preserve an industrial works, \u201ctrudging along the railway contradiction between the development of base with which to equip, arm, and tracks,\u201d the \ufb01rst 25 T-34s rolled off sophisticated technology and the most primitive continuously sustain the Red Army. the Chelyabinsk production lines. living conditions, scientists in Moscow were working on an atomic bomb 348\u201349 gg\u0001while In August 1941, Hitler had A slow and harsh recovery switched his main effort from the collective farm workers were tilling center to the south of the Soviet The men and women who \ufb01elds with methods little changed Union and, in the process, had dealt since the Middle Ages. a potentially crippling blow to its migrated with their factories coal and steel production, which A PRICE WORTH PAYING declined in the winter of 1941 by 63 suffered immense hardships. Despite such hardship, the percent and 58 percent respectively. huge civilian e\ufb00ort contributed Discipline was harsh. An edict of to the devastating German In turn, this change of focus defeat at Stalingrad in placed the central Moscow-Upper December 26, 1941, made absence 1943 192\u201393 gg that marked Volga region beyond the reach of the beginning of Hitler\u2019s decline. the German Army. After the without leave punishable by up to German retreat from Moscow in SOVIET CIVILIAN MEDAL December 1941, the Soviet Union eight years imprisonment. It is not retained the central region, which, Arctic convoys along with the industrial regions of surprising that, in spite of heroic A chilly watch on a British cruiser escorting an Arctic the Urals and the Kuznets Basin, in convoy to the Soviet Union. This lifeline, opened in western Siberia, was suf\ufb01cient to efforts, there was a sharp fall in total August 1941, ferried thousands of tanks, trucks, and provide the Soviet Union with the aircraft around North Cape to Archangel and Murmansk. manufacturing resources that decided industrial output by some 50 percent. the outcome of the war. It was The mainstay of the Soviet Union\u2019s tank nevertheless, a close-run thing. Even by 1945, coal and steel production armies, the T-34 was a superb machine, which went through the war without any BEFORE had not returned to the levels of 1940. major modi\ufb01cation. It was fast and agile, with broad tracks that reduced ground The Germans had planned for the invasion Nevertheless, in 1942 Soviet armaments pressure to a minimum. It had a range of the Soviet Union as early as December of 186 miles (300 km), nearly twice that 1940, their initial objective being to defeat production, exploiting huge stocks of the German Panther and three times that the Red Army in the \ufb01eld. of the Tiger. Its design was hugely in\ufb02uential, accumulated before the war, surpassed with later Panthers adopting its excellent HITLER\u2019S AIM sloping armor, which o\ufb00ered greater Operation Barbarossa ff\u0001134\u201335, had it As soon as the Panzers moved off that of Germany: 24,400 Soviet tanks protection against gun\ufb01re. succeeded, would have swallowed colossal tracts of the Soviet Union\u2019s agricultural land and their start lines in June 1941, a special and armored \ufb01ghting vehicles to 4,880 the greater part of its strategic industries for the Third Reich. Victories in the opening weeks Russian unit had begun to move heavy German; 21,700 aircraft to 14,700; 4 of the war in the East threatened just that. industry lock, stock, and barrel, from million ri\ufb02es to 1.4 million. This could FATAL DECISIONS The severity of the Russian winter had the western and not have been hampered Germany\u2019s advance in 1941 and this, coupled with the Soviets\u2019 determination to central areas of Under the terms of the \u201cLend-Lease achieved without defend their land and people displayed during the German drive on Moscow ff\u0001140\u201341, European Russia Act,\u201d the United States supplied the US aid to the Soviet spurred on further resistance. At the same time, the Soviets focused on saving their war beyond the Ural Soviet Union with three quarters of Union through economy, aided by prewar planning, ruthless organization, and heroic self-sacri\ufb01ce. mountains, out of its total copper requirements between Lend-Lease. By May reach of German 1941 and 1943. Much came via the 1945 the Americans armor and aircraft. Trans-Siberian railway. had shipped over The problems raised 16 million tons of by this huge effort were eased by a supplies, including locomotives, rails, prewar program for the strategic and machine tools. American agriculture relocation of heavy industry, aimed at also provided \ufb01ve million tons of food, balancing the output of traditional enough to give each Red Army soldier industrial centers with that of the rations for every day of the war. raw-material and new manufacturing zones that lay beyond the Urals. 0T 3E CBHONXO TL OI TGLYE 7 P T \/ 1 0 P T Combining resources THE T-34 Thus it was possible to \u201cmarry\u201d evacuated plants with factories in the eastern regions of the Soviet Union. For example, at the beginning of July 1941, the armored plate mill at Mariupol, in the southern Ukraine, was moved to the new industrial complex at Magnitogorsk, east of the Urals; and the huge tank plant at Kharkov was transferred to the tractor factory at Chelyabinsk, which also accommodated part of the Kirov plant evacuated from Leningrad. It became popularly known as \u201cTankograd.\u201d Just ten weeks after 189","THE SHIFTING BALANCE 1942 The German Drive to the East In June 1942 Hitler launched his summer offensive against the Soviets. Ignoring Moscow, he ordered his armies to advance southeast towards the oilfields of the Caucasus. They made steady progress across the steppes of Ukraine until August when they reached the city of Stalingrad on the Volga. I n May 1942 Stalin ordered the Red units of the German Navy. In May 1942 withdrawal. He was convinced that the Crossing the Don River Army\u2019s Southwest Front to retake the city was besieged by the Eleventh Red Army was on the verge of collapse German infantry cross the Don River during the drive to Kharkov by attacking from the Izyum Army with 10 infantry divisions and but chose to ignore the simultaneous Stalingrad and the Caucasus. Following the devastating salient. This bulge in the German front 120 batteries of artillery, including the seepage of Germany\u2019s strength in the defeat at Stalingrad, German Army Groups A and B had been created during the Soviet 800 mm \u201cGustav\u201d railway gun. East in order to bolster its position were forced to withdraw well to the west. counter-offensive in January 1942. The in the West. As a consequence, the Southwest Front was commanded by The infantry assault on Sevastopol German Army in the East would have Fold-down windshield Marshal Timoshenko, who launched took place on June 7, after \ufb01ve days of to depend increasingly on the unreliable his attack on May 12. But the Germans artillery bombardment and air strikes. troops of Germany\u2019s allies, the contained the Soviet thrusts and, on It was not until June 30 that the Romanians, Hungarians, Italians, May 17, delivered a counterblow with Germans broke into the city, occupying Spaniards, and Slovaks. converging attacks into the Izyum it on July 3. In the Soviet withdrawal, salient, which cut off the Soviet many of the defenders were evacuated Germany\u2019s summer offensive, spearheads. Over 250,000 prisoners by small boats, a Dunkirk-like \u201cmiracle\u201d Operation Blue, was launched on June were taken and every Soviet armored on the Black Sea. 28, 1942. Field Marshal von Bock\u2019s formation in the pocket was destroyed. Army Group B was to advance toward Operation Blue Voronezh and down the grasslands At the southern end of the Eastern between the rivers Don and Front was the Black Sea port of Hitler had every reason to be buoyed Donets (the Don-Donets Sevastopol, bypassed in Barbarossa, then by the tide of events. He was determined corridor) in the direction isolated by a \ufb01ve-division blockade and to take what had been denied him in of Stalingrad, while Field 1941. There would be no more talk of \u201cIt was \u2026 the most desolate and mournful region.\u201d A NAZI ON THE DON-DONETS CORRIDOR BEFORE Tow hook Watertight hull Hitler\u2019s strategic plans for 1942 were ambitious and included seizing the oil Based on the Volkswagen Type 1, this \ufb01elds in the Middle East, so destroying amphibious vehicle was suited to all kinds the basis of British power in the region. of terrain. It had four-wheel drive\u2014the front wheels doubling as rudders in water\u2014and FIRST BATTLE OF KHARKOV a propeller to the rear. This spectacular example of geopolitical overreach began with Operation Barbarossa ff\u0001134\u201335, when the Soviet Union lost its third city, Kharkov, which fell to the German Sixth Army on October 24, 1941. OPERATION BLUE The summer campaign of 1942 was codenamed Operation Blue. In F\u00fchrer Directive No.41, Hitler stated that the principal British codebreakers got wind of German plans and notified Stalin, but he dismissed it as disinformation. aim of the campaign, having destroyed the Soviet Union\u2019s defense potential, was to \u201ccut them off, as far as is possible, from their most important centers of war industry.\u201d 190","THE GERMAN DRIVE TO THE EAST TECHNOLOGY 3 Jun 28 Livny 5 Jul 6 N0 150 km Kursk KATYUSHA ROCKET Start of German Germans reach the Don 0 150 miles summer o\ufb00ensive opposite Voronezh The nickname \u201cLittle Katie\u201d was given (Operation Blue) 8 Aug 23 to the Red Army\u2019s \ufb01n-stabilized rockets, VORONEZH FRONT which were launched from rails mounted German 6th Army on heavy trucks. A Katyusha division was Voronezh reaches Volga north capable of \ufb01ring a barrage of 3,840 of Stalingrad projectiles (230 tons of high explosive) SOUTHWEST FRONT up to a range of 3.5 miles (5.5 km). 9 Aug 23 Although the launchers were slow to reload, Belgorod USSR Volga they were mobile, which meant that they 4th Panzer Army could be easily relocated before the enemy ARMY GROUP B Don prepares to attack had a chance to return \ufb01re. Kharkov Stalingrad from the south Marshal List\u2019s Army Group A drove for the Don crossings east of Rostov. By 2 May 17 Izyum Stalingrad STALINGRAD FRONT 6 July Army Group B had reached the Dnepropetrovsk River Don opposite Voronezh. The Germans launch attack Donets advance seemed like a rerun of the on Izyum salient summer of 1941, with the Red Army falling apart on the \ufb01rst armored ARMY GROUP A impact. Von Bock, however, fretted that fresh Red Army formations might UKRAINE NORTH CAUCASUS FRONT attack his exposed left \ufb02ank from 1 May 8, 1942 Rostov Voronezh. He obtained permission Elista from Hitler to secure the city with Germans launch o\ufb00ensive armored formations detached from Odessa in the Crimea, recapturing 6 Jul 23 Kerch on May 16 Sea of German 1st Panzer Army captures Rostov General Friedrich Paulus\u2019s Sixth Army. Azov TRANS-CAUCASUS FRONT But determined Red Army resistance CRIMEA Kerch drew von Bock into a slogging match that threatened to dislocate Operation Sevastopol Novorossisk Maikop Mozdok Blue\u2019s timetable. On July 13 Hitler 4 Jul 4 Black Sea 7 Aug 9 Caucasus Germans secure Sevastopol, besieged Germans reach oil\ufb01elds around Maikop, but installations have been since previous November destroyed by retreating Soviets The Eastern Fr ont KEY The Germans advanced with considerable force during Soviet front line May 8, 1942 the summer of 1942, making the Russians withdraw Soviet front line Jul 22, 1942 beyond the Izyum salient. The Eastern Front receded Soviet front line Aug 23, 1942 well into the Caucasus and on toward Stalingrad. German advance intervened, replacing von Bock with AFTER Field Marshal von Weichs. Meanwhile, General Paulus was ordered to turn east On August 9, just six weeks after the toward Stalingrad, providing further start of Operation Blue, First Panzer protection for the German left \ufb02ank. Army had reached Maikop, 320 km (200 miles) southeast of the town of Rostov. In the Don-Donets corridor the Red Army was now threatened by a series OILFIELD DISAPPOINTMENT of encirclements on the scale it had The Germans captured the Soviet Union\u2019s most suffered in Operation Barbarossa. westerly oil\ufb01elds, only to \ufb01nd that they had been wrecked by the retreating Red Army. They Vital delays in the proposed schedule now lacked the fuel to maintain the momentum of Operation Blue gave the Red Army of their advance, and were never to reach the an opportunity to develop an effective principal sources of oil beyond the Caucasus. strategy for the defense of Stalingrad. 1 MILLION The total With enormous dif\ufb01culty, the recently number of appointed chief of the Soviet general German soldiers who fought the Soviets staff, Marshal Vasilevsky, persuaded in the wider battle of Stalingrad. Almost Stalin that more orders to \u201cstand fast\u201d one tenth were later taken prisoner. regardless of the strategic situation invited further catastrophe, and that THWARTED INTENTIONS it was vital for the Soviet forces in Operation Blue had started well, but was delayed the corridor to withdraw. because of sti\ufb00ening Red Army resistance and Hitler\u2019s obsessive shu\ufb04ing and reshu\ufb04ing of his Each vehicle came equipped with a 5.6 MILLION men were deployed Threat to Stalingrad mounts forces over an increasingly extended front. snow shovel for tackling large snow drifts, on the Eastern Front by the German forces were reorganized and redeployed, and a paddle, which came in useful for Soviet Union. On July 23 Rostov, which the Red resulting in substantial logistical di\ufb03culties. steering the Schwimmwagen should the Army had lost and then retaken in the Troops desperately needing to sustain the drive engine fail when in water. 6 .2 MILLION men were deployed \ufb01ghting of the winter of 1941\u201342, fell into the Caucasus were, instead, committed to by Germany and the Axis to Army Group A almost without a the \ufb01ght for Stalingrad 192\u201393 gg. German Schwimmwagen powers during the war. \ufb01ght. Hitler ordered Army Group A The Schwimmwagen (literally \u201cswimming car\u201d), designed and First Panzer Army to drive for the 191 by Ferdinand Porsche, could tackle snow, mud, and water oil\ufb01elds in the Caucasus, while Army obstacles, and so was ideal for the Russian campaign. Group B advanced toward Stalingrad. Neither side could have foreseen the horror that would face them there.","THE SHIFTING BALANCE 1942 Soviet Triumph at Stalingrad The battle for Stalingrad, was to become one of the most savage conflicts of World War II. Neither dictator\u2014Hitler or Stalin\u2014could afford to lose the city whose name was so inextricably linked with Soviet pride. Defeat for either side would mean a crippling, perhaps fatal, blow to morale. W hile the German First Panzer \u201c Stalingrad is no longer a town Army was bearing down on \u2026 it is an enormous cloud of Maikop, in the Caucasus, its burning, blinding smoke.\u201d Sixth Army\u2014much of whose transport had been temporarily transferred to AN OFFICER OF THE GERMAN 24TH PANZER DIVISION, OCTOBER 1942 Army Group A\u2014was moving slowly down the Don-Donets corridor toward Stalingrad, an industrial city that straggled for some 20 miles (16 km) along the west bank of the Volga River. The first assault Vinnitsa, in the Ukraine, the mood Deputy Supreme Commander-in-Chief Germans taken prisoner was jubilant. Morale was boosted once of Soviet Armed Forces and was now Over 100,000 German troops surrendered at Stalingrad. By August 19 General Paulus, now more on September 5, when a Russian in overall command of the entire Losses and casualties suffered by the Sixth Army were reinforced by Fourth Panzer Army, was counterattack, designed to drive off Stalingrad sector. His plan envisaged dwarfed by those among the Italian and Romanian poised to begin his assault on the city. the German forces north of Stalingrad, a wide encirclement of the Axis forces armies screening the flanks of the Stalingrad pocket. Four days later, following a raid by 600 was thrown back with heavy losses. on the Lower Volga and the destruction aircraft, German troops entered the of the Sixth Army in Stalingrad. outskirts of Stalingrad and also carved Soviet counterattack out a salient to the north of the city On the same day, the immensely along the western bank of the Volga. Stalin remained determined to hold tough and able General Chuikov was At Hitler\u2019s forward headquarters at Stalingrad, whatever the cost. On appointed as the new commander of September 13 he sanctioned a plan the Soviet 62nd Army in Stalingrad. BEFORE presented to him by Zhukov, who Fighting in the city intensi\ufb01ed, and the in August had been appointed First battle for Stalingrad now became every After the start of Operation Blue, Army Group B was inexorably drawn deeper into the quagmire at the center of which lay the industrial city of Stalingrad. RETREAT AND DEFENSE As Operation Blue ff\u0001190\u201391 came to an end, early in September, Army Group B\u2019s spearhead closed in on Stalingrad. Here, the advance stopped; the Red Army had retreated as far as it was going to. By November 1 there were \ufb01ve Russian armies defending Stalingrad and two German armies\u2014Sixth and Fourth Panzer\u2014\ufb01ghting their way into the city. HEAD TO HEAD The Germans were on the brink of a battle for a major Soviet city, which Stalin had vowed to defend to the last\u2014in this he was resolute. Hitler, meanwhile, appeared to be mesmerized by the city that bore the name of his rival dictator. Departing from the policy of Blitzkrieg ff\u000176\u201377, he committed his army to one of attrition. The decision proved to be a disaster for the German Sixth Army.","SOVI ET TR I U M P H AT STALI NGR AD soldier\u2019s nightmare, a bloody, house- KEY MOMENT between them to be carried out on the Zhukov had assembled a counterattack to-house \ufb01ght in which the advantage passed to the men of the Red Army. SURRENDER OF PAULUS east bank. The Germans reached the force of over one million men, amply The Germans edged painfully toward By promoting Paulus to \ufb01eld marshal on river itself, at the southern edge of the armed with new guns, tanks, and the steep western banks of the Volga. January 30, Hitler intented to sti\ufb00en his Attrition replaced Blitzkrieg, which had resolve\u2014no German \ufb01eld marshal had city, 11 days later. But the battle had aircraft. The next day these were proved so effective in the summer and ever surrendered in the \ufb01eld. Paulus was fall of 1941, and at the beginning of exhausted, however, his nerve shredded. by now become, for them, a struggle released against the German \ufb02anks 1942, the Germans had given the On the morning of January 31, sta\ufb00 Soviet Union the opportunity to prepare o\ufb03cers of General Shumilov\u2019s 64th Army whose cost far exceeded its strategic or of the Stalingrad salient. for the con\ufb02ict and to mount effective arrived at Paulus\u2019s headquarters to discuss resistance against the enemy. surrender terms with his chief-of-sta\ufb00, tactical value, remorselessly sucking in General Schmidt. Two hours later, Soviet The Germans weaken General Laskin arrived to take Paulus\u2019s units that were essential for sustaining Destruction of Axis forces formal surrender, marching him and other Paulus established his headquarters in sta\ufb00 o\ufb03cers to Shumilov\u2019s headquarters. the dwindling hopes of a breakthrough By November 23 the Soviet forces had a huge department store a few hundred yards from the Red Army ferry points in the Caucasus. By mid-November closed their trap, after which time they that plied back and forth at night, bringing out some 35,000 wounded Sixth Army had shot its bolt. concentrated on blocking the efforts of 13,500 guns were brought At the same time German intelligence Army Group Don to break through to in by the Soviets. 1,400 aircraft were used was becoming aware of a Red Army the Sixth Army captured within. With to defend Stalingrad. 894 tanks were used in build-up on the this done, in January the counterattack. northern and 450,000 The number of 1943 the Red Army during the battle and returning 65,000 southern \ufb02anks men from those began the systematic reinforcements. By November the Germans had chopped Chuikov\u2019s of the Stalingrad countries allied to Germany who lost destruction of the command on the western bank into four groups, forcing communications salient, which their lives on the Eastern Front\u2014a high forces trapped inside were screened by price to pay for supporting Hitler. Stalingrad. On Romanian, Italian, January 31, having and Hungarian armies of dubious been promoted to \ufb01eld marshal by Hitler value. Zhukov\u2019s preparations for the just the day before, Paulus gave up; counterblow, codenamed \u201cOperation German losses in the Stalingrad pocket Uranus,\u201d had been characteristically amounted to 20 divisions and over rigorous and ruthless. The lives of 150,000 men. Of the 108,000 who the defenders of Stalingrad had been surrendered and were marched into traded for time, while the Soviet high captivity, only 5,000 survived to see command waited for the arrival of a the end of the war. Six more divisions, frost to harden the ground for armor including two Luftwaffe formations, and for the Allied landings in North had also been destroyed outside the Africa to tie down German reserves area of encirclement. in Western Europe. By November 18 For their part, Germany\u2019s allies on the Eastern Front\u2014the Hungarians, Street fighting in Stalingrad Italians, and Romanians\u2014had lost four Red Army soldiers advance cautiously over mounds of entire armies, and with them, possibly, rubble in Stalingrad. So fierce was the fighting that troops any desire they might originally have rarely exposed themselves to enemy fire in this fashion. felt to play an active role in Russia. AFTER A major turning point in World War II, the Battle of Stalingrad was the worst defeat the German Army had suffered up to that time and it delivered a heavy blow. LOW GERMAN MORALE For three days, German radio broadcast an uninterrupted program of solemn music. The Germans decided not to release the letters sent by the survivors from Soviet POW camps, which were intercepted and destroyed. SOVIET FUTURE SECURED The boost to the Soviets was immeasurable, giving them the impetus to overcome the Germans again at Kursk 226\u201327 gg\u0001in 1943. They owed their success, in part, to General 2 MILLION The estimated number of casualties to Russian and Axis forces during the 199-day battle. Zhukov 228\u201329 gg, whose military genius had secured the fate of the Soviet Union. It was Zhukov who later captured Berlin and the Reichstag in 1945 304\u201305 gg.","EYEWITNESS September 23, 1942 Stalingrad Between August 1942 and February 1943 German and Red Army forces fought in the streets of Stalingrad. Fighting centered on a massive grain silo, the train station, a giant department store, and Mamayev Kurgan hill overlooking the city. Initially German troops had the upper hand but ordered by Stalin to take \u201cnot one step back,\u201d Red Army soldiers defended their city fiercely. \u201c13 September. A bad date, our battalion was very unlucky. The katyushas [Soviet rocket launchers] inflicted heavy losses this morning: 27 killed and 50 wounded. The Russians fight with the desperation of wild beasts; they won\u2019t allow themselves to be taken prisoner, but instead let you come up close and then they throw grenades. Lieutenant Kraus was killed yesterday, so we have no company commander. 16 September. Our battalion is attacking the grain elevator with tanks. Smoke is pouring out of it. The grain is burning and it seems the Russians inside set fire to it themselves. It\u2019s barbaric. The battalion is taking heavy losses. Those are not people in the elevator, they are devils and neither fire nor bullets \u201dcan touch them. GERMAN SOLDIER WILLI HOFFMAN, OF THE 94TH INFANTRY DIVISION, ON THE BATTLE FOR THE GRAIN ELEVATOR \u201cAn attack began in the morning [19 September] and lasted 48 hours. The enemy was moving inexorably towards the summit in six files. At times it seemed to us that they were invincible. But the sixth file did not hold out under our fire, and we rushed into the attacks \u2026 Most of the German soldiers appeared to be drunk and threw themselves in a frenzy at the summit. After each round of bombing there would be a moment of dead silence \u2026 But then the hill would come alive again like a volcano, and we would crawl out of the shell holes and put our machine guns to work. The barrels of the guns were red-hot and the water boiled inside them. Our men attacked without waiting for orders \u2026 It was mass heroism. We lost many men as a result of direct hits on shell-holes \u2026 The slopes of the kurgan were completely covered in corpses. In some \u201dplaces you had to move two or three bodies aside to lie down. RUSSIAN SOLDIER NIKOLAI MAZNITSA, OF THE 95TH RIFLE DIVISION, ON THE DEFENSE OF MAMAYEV KURGAN A ruined city The aerial bombardment by the Luftwaffe in August 1942 had left Stalingrad in ruins. Then in September that year, fighting began inside the city, with combatants battling in shattered buildings and factories. 194","","","6 THE ALLIES TURN THE TIDE 1943 In the USSR fierce fighting continued as the Germans retreated. Meanwhile the US battled Japan in the Pacific, while Allied air and sea power secured the North Atlantic. The Allies took the offensive, invading Italy and bombing Germany cities.","THE ALLIES TURN THE TIDE 1943 THE ALLIES TURN THE TIDE The Allies Despite constant A successful counter- launch raids to bombing Albert offensive by the Red Army Speer is able to disrupt specific increase German at Kursk effectively ends German targets. war production. He the possibility of a German This includes moves production raids in Northern underground and victory in the east. Europe, as well further east, out as on dams and of the range of industrial targets Allied bombers. in the Rhineland. Y EUROPE A W ICELAND OR FINLAND EN N D E NORWAY W SWEDEN S ic Sea FINLAND BRITAIN Faeroe Islands AT L A N T I C POLAND USSR (to Denmark) GERMANY FRANCE ESTONIA OCEAN I TA LY Caspian Sea North TUNISIALATVIAS PA I NBlack Sea PERSIA Sea DENMARK B a l t LITHUANIAIT TURKEY AFGHANISTAN IRISH NETH. GER. U S S R MOROCCO SYRIA TIBET FREE IRAQ STATE B R I TA I N BEL. POLAND ALGERIA L I B YA EGYPT NEPAL GE R M A NY RIO DE ORO NEJD INDIA ESWITZ. SLOVAKIA (Saudi) LUX. HUNGARY OMAN F R A NC FRENCH WEST AFRICA ANGLO - ASIR EGYPTIAN YEMEN ROMANIA CAMEROONS BULGARIA (British mandate) YUGOSLAVIA GAMBIA SUDAN ADEN PORTUGUESE GUINEA PROTECTORATE Y ALB. NIGERIA FRENCH A Black Sea SIERRA LEONE EQUATORIAL ABYSSINIA FRENCH CEYLON LIBERIA SOMALILAND L AFRICA PORTUGAL GOLD DA BRITISH COAST CAMEROONS SOMALILAND S PA I N (to Italy) (French mandate) UGAN KENYA ITALIAN SOMALILAND MOROCCO M e d GREECE TURKEY BELGIAN i terra TANGANYIKA TUNISIA an Sea CONGO (British mandate) (to France) n e DODECANESE NYASALAND CYPRUS SYRIA IRAQ ANGOLA NORTHERN INDIAN RHODESIA (to Portugal) (to France) ALGERIA PALESTINE SOUTHERN MADAGASCAR (to France) EGYPT RHODESIA LIBYA SOUTH OCEAN AFWREICSATBECLHAUNADNA- PORTUGUESE EAST AFRICA SWAZILAND UNION OF BASUTOLAND SOUTH AFRICA The French After victories in Roosevelt, Committee of North Africa the Allies Churchill, and National Liberation Stalin meet in in Algiers is founded by shift their attention to Tehran to discuss the invasion of Sicily. the Free French. It Following the conquest the Allied wartime of the island in August, becomes the French the Italian government strategy and signs a secret armistice Provisional Government- postwar planning. with the Allies. in-Exile on June 2 with de Gaulle at its head. T he beginning of 1943 marked the geographical high point dislodged them from one island after another: Woodlark Island, New of Nazism. But in February the remnants of the Sixth Army Georgia, Bougainville, and so on. In August US troops landed on the surrendered at Stalingrad. That summer, Hitler gambled on a massive Island of Kiska only to find that the Japanese had already left. tank battle to eliminate the Russians from Kursk, but failed. US In the Atlantic, the U-boats had been mauling British convoys marines continued the perilous, laborious task of retaking the islands since 1940. But in the spring of 1943 Allied sea and air power drove of the Pacific that began in 1942. At first the Japanese defenders the U-boats out of the North Atlantic: the highway between Britain fought for every scrap of beach and jungle, but the Americans and the US was now secure, and preparations for D-Day could begin. 198"]