Technology and the

Second World War ______

Wartime

Conferences

The Second World War was a total war, which means that everything a nation has, literally, is aiming toward one thing and one thing only… winning the war. What comes next discusses what a total war looks like and the roles technology played in determining the nature of World War Two.

Technology & World War 2

Technology & World War 2

If World War One taught anything, it was that Industrial production, both quantitatively and qualitatively, and delivery and deployment technology were the keys to winning the war.

The facilities for production and distribution were to become targets during the war.

The first economic priority of each nation became production of war materials and making sure the front had the necessary supplies.

The nations that best managed that, and had the greatest amounts of resources, were the winners at the end of combat.

Technology & World War 2

Astronomical amounts of airplanes were made by the USA, Japan, Britain and the U.S.S.R.

Similarly, the production of ships that the USA made is mind blowing. During one point in the war a Liberty Ship, which was a freighter ship, was launched each day somewhere in the USA.

Technology & World War 2

Massive bombardment of Industrial centres, planners learned, did not really have the sought-after effect.

German war production actually increased, despite the bombing efforts done by the Allies, until 1944.

Technology & World War 2

Establishing naval blockades was an effective way to limit the enemy’s ability to make war.

If World War 1 suggested that the key to twentieth century warfare would be economic strength, then World War 2 made that an absolute rule.

Technology & World War 2

If the mother of invention is necessity, then the nursery for new products was most definitely World War II.

In the First World War, the technological weapon of combat was the machine gun. The machine gun would, more than any other weapon, define the combat’s nature in that war.

The Tools of War

The order of the day was defensive strongholds. Battles became battles of attrition.

Technology in the Second World War also defined the nature of warfare.

The Tools of War

Stalemates became a thing of the past when the highly- mobile airplane and tank came around. These were the new state of the art.

The Tools of War

Nations in the inter-war years, and especially during the war, competed, not just to produce the most airplanes, but the fastest, most manoeuvrable and with the greatest payload.

The Tools of War

Controlling the air became equal to controlling the seas in the earlier eras of warfare.

On land, the trenches defended by machine guns and artillery became irrelevant. The modern tank battalion, called Panzers in Germany, could destroy entrenched troops in a few hours, if not in a few minutes.

The Tools of War

Tanks were necessary to attack, and then defend, the massive tracts of land that were at stake in Europe and North Africa.

During World War I, millions of lives were sacrificed for basically no land gains.

The Tools of War

During World War II, the casualties were great, but covered thousands of square miles of terrain. The sense of useless slaughter created by World War I in combat was absent in World War II.

The Tools of War

Tanks were clearly not suitable in the Pacific Theatre. The aircraft though, was so important that the naval aviation, which was planes on aircraft carriers, became the key feature of the war.

The Tools of War

As a result of the belligerents’ use of naval aviation efficiency, some sea battles were lost, or won, almost entirely.

Vital to the Battles of Britain and the Atlantic were some “high tech” developments, like radar and sonar.

The Tools of War

The Tools of War

Crucial to victory against the Luftwaffe were the early warning that came from the radar systems, made by the RAF.

A key role in the British victory was the mathematicians’ skill to break the Enigma codes.

The development of the nuclear bomb was the ultimate tool of war.

It not only brought a quick end to World War II, but it helped symbolised how important the technological development was during the war.

Even more importantly, it signified the incredible possibilities regarding future wars.

The Tools of War

Modern means of mass communication grew out of the 1930’s. Leaders like Hitler and Mussolini often used the tactic of displaying mass rallies.

The Nazis at Nuremburg taught their followers with the Nazi view of the future. Hitler often used the radio to his own advantage.

Communications

Roosevelt knew the power of mass radio communication, since he used “fireside chats” to help restore confidence in the American way during the Great Depression.

Those same tactics were used during the war. To keep the population “onside” was a feature of the modern war.

Communications

Roosevelt, Churchill, and unfortunately, Hitler, all used the radio to rally the home front.

During the darkest times of Hitler’s attacks in London, Churchill’s inspirational speeches had a special effect on the people in Britain.

Communications

Information, (sometimes deceptive), that is spread to influence the opinion of the public, is propaganda. During the war, propaganda was used on, and by, both sides.

Communications

Through radio commercials and posters, people were encouraged to conserve resources for the war and to control their gossip…just in case the wrong ears would hear what they were saying.

Communications

For the first time ever, leaders legally charged other leaders for immoral actions during a war. The Allies set up a war crimes court in Nuremberg in 1946. For crimes relating to starting the war, and, most importantly, for crimes committed during the Holocaust, 177 Nazis were charged.

War Crimes

Great care was taken to give the Nazi’s access to the process of Western law.

Of the 177, three were set free. The rest were all declared guilty. Many were placed in prison for a long period of time, while others were hanged.

War Crimes

Allied leaders met all over the world to talk about war aims and strategy during the war. A list of the conferences is coming…

The most important conferences were the ones that included the Big Three Nations:

Wartime Conferences

1. NEWFOUNDLAND, AUGUST, 1941

In August, 1941, Churchill and Roosevelt met on a battleship off the coast of Newfoundland to talk about common war aims. At that time, the US was not at war.

At the end of the conference, a statement of common aims came about. It is known as the Atlantic Charter…

Wartime Conferences

... Which, for the United Nations, would later become the model.

This statement of war aims were the Fourteen Points of World War II.

The Grand Alliance between USA and Great Britain had now begun.

Wartime Conferences

2. CASABLANCA, JANUARY, 1943

In January, 1943, Roosevelt and Churchill met at Casablanca and agreed that Germany must be forced to surrender unconditionally. This decision may have prolonged the war in the long run, since it put Germany in the position that it had nothing to lose.

Wartime Conferences

Churchill did not want to repeat the mistakes that were made in 1918 and 1919, so he was adamant that it be done.

Roosevelt wanted the Casablanca Declaration, which dealt with Germany’s surrender.

Wartime Conferences

3. QUEBEC, AUGUST, 1943 They met again in August of 1943, in Quebec City, to discuss the (secret) progress of the A-Bomb. 4. CAIRO Roosevelt, Churchill and a Chinese leader, Chiang, met up to discuss the Eastern War.

Wartime Conferences

5. TEHRAN, NOVEMBER-DECEMBER, 1943 This was the first of the Big Three conferences. To establish cordial relations between the Soviet dictator and western leaders was the first accomplishment.

Decisions about Germany were pushed aside for a later conference. The following, however, was decided:

Wartime Conferences

1. Polish Frontiers would be formed by the Curzon Line

in the East Frontiers in the west would be moved westward to help compensate for losses to the U.S.S.R. The new western frontier was to be the Oder-Neisse Line.

Wartime Conferences

The U.S.S.R was taking back what had been lost to Poland in 1921. The Second Front. The Second Front was agreed upon by the USA and Britain. Later, this would become the basis for the Normandy landings.

Wartime Conferences

3. The Pacific War

The Soviets agreed to take part in the Pacific War.

6. YALTA, FEBRUARY, 1945

The Big Three met from February 4-11, 1945 in Yalta, which is in the southern U.S.S.R. This was the most important conference of the war.

Wartime Conferences

For some of his positions, Roosevelt dealt with much criticism. The decisions fall into 2 categories: a) Europe-related decisions: 1: Formalized the approach to dividing Germany. The Morgenthau Plan (1944), which suggested to divide Germany into small states, was dropped during this.

Wartime Conferences

2: After the war was over agreed to War Criminals Trials at Nuremburg, 3: Stalin promised to participate in the Pacific War. 4: Approved the idea of disarming Germany. How to come about that was to be determined at Potsdam.

Wartime Conferences

5: Stalin promised that, after the war in Soviet liberated Europe, there would be free elections. A lot of controversy appeared over this. Roosevelt so badly wanted Stalin’s help in the Pacific that he did not press him on the issue of the status of eastern Europe after Soviet liberation.

Wartime Conferences

Wartime Conferences

(Remember that Roosevelt had no idea if the A-Bomb would work or not, or the potential it might have) 6: Regarding Poland, decisions were finalized.

United Nations decisions: 1: The Dumbarton Oaks organizational plan for the United Nations (August-October 1944) was approved. 2: Agreed to meet in San Francisco in April to make a United Nations Charter.

Wartime Conferences

Wartime Conferences

7. POTSDAM JULY-AUGUST, 1945 This conference was different, since Roosevelt had died and was replaced by Harry Truman, and Potsdam was in Germany.

For Britain, Churchill had been attending the conference during a British election, that he ended up losing. He got replaced part way through the conference by the newly elected P.M., Clement Attlee.

During the Conference, the following was accomplished: Steps to disarm Germany and deprive her the ability to make war by…

1: Dismantling her war industries 2: War reparations

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3: Denazification 4: War Criminals Trial 5: The Allied Control Council, which was to govern Germany, was defined. The above discussion was to lead up to a Peace Conference…but it was never held. Potsdam then became the framework for peace.

Wartime Conferences

The Americans at first tended to turn a blind eye to Easter European issues, in an attempt to get Soviet help in the Pacific.

Americans believed that another 12 months of conventional war was needed to defeat Japan. They had many doubts concerning the A-Bomb.

Once the test in new Mexico proved it successful, all of the above was changed.

Wartime Conferences

And… that’s the end of that…

Now it’s all Peace, Prosperity, and Puppies…. For about 15 minutes. Then we find new people to hate.

Wartime Conferences