THE STORY OF WORLD WAR II

Donald L. Miller and Henry Steele Commager

Preface:

Chapter 1: The Nazi Juggernaut

* Jap, Ger, and Italian aggression, expansion, and justification

*Spanish Civil War = WWII precursor

*Rape of Nanking: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/223038.stm

A. The Failure of Appeasement

B. War

*German/USSR non-aggression pact and invade Poland in 1939…Italy

invades Albania (empire building)

C. The Belligerents

*Allies had larger army and navies, but Germany’s mechanized troops,

panzers, industrial power and air power were # 1…full econ focus on war

for 6+ years

D. Poland

*Overwhelmed, outgunned, outmaneuvered in 4 weeks…motorized division

and air power were innovative and decisive. Warsaw attacked.

*Molotov-Ribbentrop Treaty: Partitioned by Ger and USSR who was anxious

for more buffer space in Baltic region

*France and Britain honor treaty and declare war on Germany

*Katyn Forest murders

*Soviet paranoia and treachery. Slavomir Rawicz’s memoir The Long Walk:

A True Story of a Trek to Freedom (and movie: The Way Back)

E. Finland

*Finland refused subservience…it battered and embarrassed USSR with

200k Red Army dead vs. 20k Finnish dead…6 month war…cedes land

F. Denmark and Norway

*Stood no chance…Vidkum Quisling (traitor) led Norway to Nazism

*B/F/P forces landed, but withdrew…May 10, Churchill to PM and his Blood,

Toil, Tears, and Sweat Speech (Victory at all costs…Without victory there is

no survival…)

G. Low Countries

*Low Countries invaded and conquered.

*Dutch resisted, but gave up after “Terror Bombing” of Rotterdam and

threat of more destruction.

H. Dunkirk

*Evac at Dunkirk, Fr (400K B/F/P) May-June 1940…665 civilian and 222

naval vessels rescue men, but not material

*Hitler held back von Rundstedt’s tanks…bad geography (canals, swamps)

I. The Fall of France

*BBC Fall of France Animated Map

*Maginot Line outflanked.

*Poor leadership and poor morale. PM Paul Reynaud Resigns and Marshall

Philippe Petain collaborates (dies in 1951 at 95)

*French Resistance Movement vs. Collaborators and Vichy France

*Charles de Gaulle resists, escapes, sets up ‘Free France” with this symbol:

Chapter 2: Britain Stands Alone

A. The Blitz

*The Battle of Britain (1st great air battle in history) most of 1940…staved off

invasion (German Operation Sea Lion)…united British people…WC praises

RAF: “…never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many

to so few.”

*What was terror bombing like? Ask Ernie Pyle (page 41).

*Did Hitler really want to invade UK?

B. The Atlantic Lifeline

*FDR must balance his goals with series of neutrality acts.

* Battle of the Atlantic: merchant marine, subs, mines, battleships, cruisers,

convoys

*Royal Navy, by summer 1941, had control of surface, but not below

*mines, subs, coastal batteries, and land based planes

*Deal: Destroyers for Bases Agreement in Sept 1940 (50 American ships for

99 year lease of various British bases)…still not sufficient…so…

C. Lend-Lease

*Lend-Lease Act in March 1941…massive shipbuilding endeavor in America

(jobs program). UK transformed from last outpost of defense to forward

operating base.

*American Merchant Marine: Liberty Ships (supply/troop transport ships

like SS. John W. Brown) were quickly created…more made in 1943 than total

Brit supply.

*By 1943, US made more planes than all other nations combined

D. War in the Mediterranean

*Mussolini boasted of Mediterranean Sea as “Italian Lake”…not true after

losses of friendly French Fleet at Oran, Algeria and Libya, then Italian Navy

at Cape Matapan, Greece and Taranto, Italy (under heel).

E. Desert and Mountain Victories

*Rick Atkinson’s Liberation Trilogy: Volume One: An Army At Dawn

*Operation Torch in North Africa (November 1942 to May 1943):

*BBC Animated Maps: Operation Torch

*Combined forces (Brit/Can and Americans): vice on Axis

*General George S. Patton, Jr. (speech) and Admiral Hewitt

*Italians (and Germans) whipped out of North Africa by spring of 1943

F. Terror in the Balkans

*Hitler rescues Italians in Greece…Brits and Greeks w/d to Crete…Hitler

attacks Crete with airborne troops (for the last time). B/G w/d, again.

G. Defeat

*NA and Middle East were critical: oil, ports, air fields, Suez Canal

*Field Marshal (FM) Erwin Rommel (Desert Fox) and his Afrika Korps

rampaged across Northern Africa to Egypt

*WC replaces Gen Archibald Wavell with Claude Auchinleck (British 8th

Army) after siege of Tobruk is not broken. After considerable action, Tobruk

surrendered 28K Brits.

H. El Alamein and Beyond

*BBC Battle of El Alamein Animated Map

*WC replaces Gen Sir Claude Auchinleck with Gen Sir Harold Alexander

*Gen Bernard Law Montgomery takes command of 8th Army…surprise

attack….11/1942: leads Second Battle of El Alamein, Egypt…then Rommel is

chased back 1,400 miles to and evac’d from Tunisia.

*WC calls it “the end of the beginning” (text) speech (first Brit victory!)

Chapter 3: From the v

A. The Attack on Russia

*Operation Barbarossa = Hitler’s greatest gamble (reckless?) broke pact,

stunned Stalin—immobilized for 10 days (see Constantine Pleshakov’s

Stalin’s Folly: The Tragic First 10 Days of WWII on the Eastern Front).

*Nazi’s strategic goal: destroy SU/Communism (lebensraum) and Britain’s

last continental lifeline, all while destroying Slavs and Jews.

*Red Army: half on offensive, half on defensive, all in chaos. Stalin planned

1942 offensive.

B. The Bloodiest Front in History (see maps)

*More deaths on E Front than all other combined.

*3M Gers (Ital, Rom, Huns) surprise 3M defensive Soviets…3 pronged

attack: FM Wilhelm Von Leeb to Baltic region toward Leningrad; FM Fedor

von Bock east to Smolensk to Moscow; FM Gerd von Rundstedt south to Kiev

in Ukraine, Caucasus/Crimea, and Black Sea (Stalingrad)

*Initial success (Deaths, POWS ((675K), territories, key points), but “Defense

in Depth” countered Wehrmacht’s Blitzkrieg tactics, so Hitler orders

“Annihilation Battles.”

C. The Battle of Moscow (October ’41-January ‘42)

*Fierce fighting. Suicide delay missions. Massive defensive works. Gov’t

relocated, but Stalin and (Stavka) other remained in Kremlin (Russian for

fortress) to dictate “Not One Step Back” Field Order 227.

*Ger maneuvers for encirclement, not frontal assault or strategic bombing.

*Under Georgy Zhukov, Red Army CTR attacked early December, push back

50-200 miles…breaks myth of Nazi invincibility

D. Guerillas and Scorched Earth

*Nazis not expect nor where they prepared to battle such guerillas.

*Brutality backfired on Nazis. Partisans. (see: Defiance: The Bielski

Partisans or movie)

*Evac’d food, people, factories/equipment, cattle, etc east of the Ural

Mtns….converted industry and forced labor…increased production…soon US

Lend-Lease: boots, trucks, cars, tires, locomotives, rolling stock.

E. Leningrad (read WM’s account in Miller, page 68)

*See Anna Reid’s Leningrad: The Epic Siege of WWII, 1941-1944.

*See Elena Skrjabina’s Siege and Survival: The Odyssey of a Leningrader

*See William Lubbeck’s At Leningrad’s Gates: The Story of a Soldier with

(German) Army Group North

*Leeb’s Army Group North (with FM Carl Mannerheim’s Finns) encircled,

pummeled, froze, and starved a city of 3M for 900 days. 1-2M dead.

*You don’t know what suffering and hunger are...

F. Stalingrad (August 1942-February 1943)

*See Antony Beevor’s Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege: 1942-1943

*Rundstedt/Nazi’s most successful offensive in terms of territory, production

destroyed, POW, killed…Hungary/Ital/Romanians help.

*After taking port of Odessa and Sevastopol, moved to Volga

River/Stalingrad/Caucasus Oil Fields…then Moscow!

**Miller: “With Sevastopol and the whole of the Crimea secured, the Germans prepared for a giant movement that was intended to outflank Moscow from the south, cut communication with the Urals, secure the Volga River and its valley, and capture the rich oil fields of the Caucasus, bringing the Soviet war machine to a halt. No campaign on a more prodigious scale, involving larger armies, and bringing richer rewards, had been seen.” (71)

*FM Vasily Chuikov and sniper Vasily Zaitsev defy Nazis in Stalingrad see:

William Craig’s Enemy at the Gates or movie)…urban/rubble

warfare….supreme ferocity on both sides plus freezing temps. Chuikov:

“Germany’s only mistake was strategic…Hitler got command.”

*Soviet CRT attack begins in mid-November…pincer cuts off 6th Army (von

Paulus)’s supply/comm. and psych impact. FM von Manstein’s rescue

breakthrough failed…Goering air lift failed…late January 1943, Paulus

surrendered remnants of a might host (91K sick/weak Nazis…200k

killed/lost). Soviet’s lost 500k.

*Details: page 80.

Chapter 4: The Rising Sun

A. Pearl Harbor, Hawaii

*Japan (Emperor Hirohito and Gen/PM Hideki Tojo) took the FDR/US

ultimatum to w/d from China and Indochina and embargo as declarations of

war.

*So, IJN Commander Isoroku Yamamoto planned Pearl Harbor

attack...massive, secret, necessary blow to disillusion US people and stagger

US military….6 carriers, 2 waves: 183 then 171 fighter, dive bombers,

torpedo planes…”Tora, Tora, Tora” Jap for Tiger = successful attack (movie)

…Yamamoto’s awoken a sleeping giant quote controversy.

*After Japanese surrender, Tojo suicide attempt failed, upon Tribunal’s

sentence of death: “[I]t is natural that I should bear entire responsibility for

the war in general, and, needless to say, I am prepared to do so.

Consequently, now that the war has been lost, it is presumably necessary

that I be judged so that the circumstances of the time can be clarified and

the future peace of the world be assured.”

*Daniel Inouye (Jap-Am kid) witnessed attacks, said: “You dirty Japs!”

*Popular and unanimous Congressional support for war (except…..Jeanette

Rankin)

*Pearl Harbor statistics: page 99

B. Bataan

*

*Bataan Death March…beheadings, buried alive, brutalized wounded/sick,

about 750 Americans and 5K Filipinos. POW/starvation camps…Camp

O’Donnell & Cabanatuan

*Dr. Lester Tenney “If I had to do it all over again, I’d commit suicide.” (111)

*1945: The Cabanatuan Prison Raid

C. Wake Island

*Japanese needed Guam, Wake (Alamo-like defense) and Midway for

strategic airfields

*Took Hong Kong from Brits on Christmas

D. Singapore

*Island City…impenetrable jungle and fortifications with Royal Navy off port.

*Guns did face land, too, but wrong ammunition

*Just as important: IJA taking Singapore as IJN attacking Pearl Harbor

E. The Dutch East Indies (Indonesia)

*Japs want: oil, rubber, food resources…air fields, ports, offensive/defensive

territory…launch invasion of Australia and keep Allies from using it as

staging base.

*South East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere….farce…oppression through IJ

Empire

F. The Doolittle Raid

*April 18, 1942: Lt. Col Jimmy Doolittle (aviation expert): B-25 USA Air

Corps Bombers launched from USN Carrier Hornet…Tokyo attack, then

landed in China…all landed in China or Siberia…Japs killed 250K Chinese in

retaliation for helping this crew.

*Psychological attack more than strategic assault.

G. Coral Sea

*May 1942

*Coral Sea is northeast of Australia.

*Tactical tie, strategic Allied victory.

*Jap and US both lost one carrier and damaged a carrier (etc)…1st naval

battle where surface ships didn’t shoot at each other…all

planes...significance? prevents Japs from invading Port Moresby on southern

cost of New Guinea (Dutch East Indies) and USS Yorktown gets quick repair

and fights at Battle of Midway (decisive).

*Animated History map

H. Midway

*June 1942

*1st IJN defeat since 1592….key was US intelligence and might

*USN sunk 4 IJN Carriers and lost one (Yorktown)…tactical and strategic

Allied vic.

*Major morale boost for USN personnel, politicians, and people

*USS Enterprise

I. Retreat in Burma (also see page 592-594)

*BBC Animated Map: Burma

*Burma Road: a key road (unpaved, mtns, jungle) used to get men, money,

and supplies from India/Allies to China….contested….recapture and

Ledo/Stilwell Road added.

*Life Magazine Article and Images (here)

*Main road: Port of Rangoon to Mandalay, Burma to Kunming/Chunking,

China

*Pre war: Flying Tigers: Gen Claire Chennault….Nurse Emma Jane Foster

(The Last Mission)

*With IJA controlling Burma Road, only the “Hump” could supply

Allies/Chinese…Calcutta to China (video)…flew C-46 and C-47

*Dr. Carl F. Constein (Fleetwood, PA): Hump Pilot (interview) (book)

*Otha C. Spencer: Hump Pilot (book)

*US Gen “Vinegar” Joe Stillwell’s pursuit and retreat was heroic but a

failure

*Elite Allied Units:

*Brit Gen Orde Wingate’s “Wingate’s Raiders/Chindits”: guerillas

*Amer Gen Frank D. Merrill’s “Merrill’s Mauraders”: guerillas

Chapter 5: The Hard Way Back

A. Guadalcanal (Solomon Islands)

*

*August 1942. Famous 1st Marine Division.

*Fierce and constant…’pestilential hellhole’…take and secure Henderson

Airfield

*USN departs…”Bastogne was considered an epic in the ETO, writes

historian William Manchester, a Marine veteran of the PTO. “The 101st

Airborne was surrounded there for eight days. But the Marines on

Guadalcanal were to be isolated for over four months. There have been few

such stands in history.” WM’s Goodbye Darkness: A Memoir of the Pacific

War

*USMC Sid Phillips’ You’ll Be Sor-ree! A Guadalcanal Marine Remembers

the Pacific War

*Adam Makos’s Voice of the Pacific: Untold Stories of the Marine Heroes of

WWII

*Lt. Col Lewis “Chesty” Puller

*USA/USMC 60K troops with 1.6K KIA. 4.7K WIA. 9K battle

fatigued/infection

*IJA lost 25K

*Blunted IJA expansion, saved Australia.

*Churchill: “Great battles are those that, won or lost, change the entire

course of events, create new standards of values, new moods, new

atmospheres in armies and in nations.”

B. Anonymity

*Grave Registration with James Jones on Guadalcanal:

*”The dead were from another regiment, so men from my outfit were picked

to dig them up. That was how awful the detail was. And they didn’t want to

make it worse by having men dig up the dead of their own. Unfortunately, a

man in my outfit on the detail had a brother in the other outfit, and we dug

up the man’s brother that day.” (154)

*To accept anonymity, along with all the rest he has to accept, is perhaps

the toughest stop of all for the combat soldier…It is one of the hardest

things about a soldier’s life.”

C. New Guinea (August 2942-January 1943)

*Australian territory

*Protect Port Moresby (southern tip) and air fields!

*Bloody and filthy fighting: MacA: “The dead of Bataan will rest easier

tonight.”

D. Invasion!

*Map page 161

*Operation Torch: Proof democracies can produce competitive soldiers

E. Death of an Army

*Patton/Bradley and Monty combined to force Rommel out of NA:

Evac/surrender Tunis

*70K Allied casualties for 266K POW and 60K KIA/MIA.

*NA was secure for Allies…next jump? Sicily

*Beloved war correspondent, Ernie Pyle’s account of soldiering in NA.

F. The Battle of the Atlantic

*Map: page 169

*Churchill: U-boat period only thing that really scared him.

*NYC, Miami, etc…refused blackout…Nazi U-boats sank shipping near coast

at will

*Highest casualty rate = Merchant Marine…convoy system worked, but

Admiral Doenitz’s U-boats production increased and wolf pack strategy

worked (on surface, spread in line, find target, attack on surface (faster,

better visibility). They only went below when attacked or alone.

*1942: 1000+ Allied ships sunk for only 86 U-boats

G. The Capture of U-505

*U-505: Surprise off coast of Africa…only Allied captured U-boat

*Intelligence jackpot: Enigma machine and codebooks, etc

*US production, B-24s, special force of ‘search and destroy teams,”

intelligence improvements, communication, radar, sonar, etc combined to

destroy U-boats

*27491 out of 39000 (including 2 of Doenitz’s sons) sank in U-boats. 5K

POWS. Allies lost 2775 merchant ships and 175 war ships

Chapter 6: The Dead of Tarawa

A. Prelude: The Aleutians

*Attu, Alaska: 2400 Japanese KIA, 29 POW, Banzai/self-grenade vs 1700 US

Cas.

*Kiska, Alaska: Japanese secretly evacuated

B. Rabaul

*Key island chains: Solomon (Guadalcanal, Bougainville), Gilbert (Tarawa),

Marshall (Wake, Kwajalein), Caroline (Truk), Mariana (Guam, Saipan,

Tinian), Philippines (Luzon, Mindanao), Palaus (Peleliu), Volcano (Iwo Jima,

Chi Chi Jima), Ryukyu and Japanese islands.

*Grand Strategy = US Army General MacArthur drives up New Guinea from

Australia to Philippines…while US Navy Admiral Nimitz (from Central

Pacific) used carriers, marines, and planes to drive west to Philippines and

Japan mainland

*By 1943, USN is largest and most powerful—ever. Larger than all others,

combined.

*Rabaul = Fort located on eastern edge of New Britain Island off Papua New

Guinea

*German then British then Australian then Japanese territory: main Japanese

military center: Allies isolated/bombed/avoided it.

C. Tarawa (November 20-23+, 1943)

*Bloody amphibious assault of Tarawa (Gilbert Islands): Operation Galvanic

*”We were losing, until we won.” –General Julian Smith on Tarawa…3.5 days

of ferocious, constant, hand to hand combat. Intense: screams, stench,

smoke, death, heat…

*Betio (assault beach or junk yard?)

*US Marine Frank Filan’s Pulitzer Winning Photograph: (Island of Tarawa)

*US Marine Norman Hatch’s Academy Award Winning Stunning Footage

(With the Marines of Tarawa). FDR approved its release.

*With victory, US offensive continued toward Japan

D. The Dead of Tarawa

*USMC and USN 3,407 causalities (1K dead) vs. IJA 4K dead

*Significance:

1) Dedicated mindset of civ and mil.

*”We must steel ourselves now,” the New York Times warned,

“to pay [the] price.”

*Robert Sherrod of Time and Life “It…seemed that there was

no way to defeat the Japanese except by extermination.”

2) Change tactics:

*Greater and more accurate preliminary naval fire and

bombing, frogmen/underwater demolition teams to clear

obstacles and scout beaches and tides, more and better

amphibious assault vehicles. (213).

Chapter 7: Up The Bloody Boot

*Rick Atkinson’s Liberation Trilogy: Volume 2: The Day of Battle

A. (“Mud, Misery, and Death”) BBC overview animated map

*July 1943: Operation Husky in Sicily

*largest amphibious assault to date: 161K men in Sicily

*Allies have air and naval superiority vs. 300K Axis troops

*Italian Campaign: Allies: 312K cas. German’s 435K dead. Destroy

history.

*Monty (8th Army) & Patton (7th Army; slap) race to Messina, Sicily; Nazis

evac to Italy

*Mussolini ousted in July, Hitler orders dramatic rescue of him by

Waffen-SS Major Otto Skorzeny

*FM Pietro Badoglio took over, signed armistice on September 3

*Nazis invade with SS units, 20 top line divisions, and manhunt of Jews

*80% of Jews survive, no thanks to Pope Pius XII

*Mud, rain, snow, mnts, rivers…German FM Albert Kesselring’s delay and

attrition campaign vs. US Army General Mark Clark’s Fifth Army and

Monty’s Eighth

*Allies build combined 55 miles of bridges (in 20 months of fighting in Italy).

B. On To Naples

*September-October 1943: Operation Avalanche in Italy (mainland)

*While Monty distracts Germans in toe/boot of Italy, Clark’s Plan (7 mile gap

between landing forces) was to use multinational amphibious attack at

Salerno (port), Kesselring knew it, prepared defenses, and staged a brilliant

counterattack with panzers and Luftwaffe.

*It nearly failed, just like Tarawa assault…vain/ambitious Clark called in

every favor for air and naval support to fire a defensive ring around Salerno.

*Corps Commander General Dawley replaced with General John Lucas

*John Steinbeck was a war correspondent.

C. Slogging Forward (and Upward)

*Photojournalist Robert Capa (not to be confused with Frank Capra and

“Why We Fight”). He said: “Between Naples and Rome, Mr. Winston

Churchill’s ‘soft underbelly of Europe was pregnant with hard mountains

and well-placed German machine guns. The valleys between the mountains

were soon filled with hospitals and cemeteries.”

*Exhaustion: “It’s not a very healthy sleep; you might call it a sort of coma,”

said combat artist Bill Mauldin of the Stars and Stripes. Quote page: 227.

*Ernie Pyle’s account of the terrain and living/dying conditions, see page

226.

D. Anzio and Monte Cassino

*Tour pictures and accounts

*Next plan = Operation Shingle; designed to outflank Nazis to attack

Rome…

*Anzio amphibious attack to break stalemate at Gustov/Winter defensive line

—January 1944…landed 50K Allies—surprised Nazis with landings behind

their lines, but didn’t advance quickly (consolidated for counterattack

instead) and Germans moved in reinforcement…artillery duel…crowded

beachhead. Stink of bloated/rotten dead. US = 59K cas. Trapped by

sea/beach/mnts/mud/artillery fire. Clark should be blamed for not explaining

the situation to subordinates who lead it.

*Sadly, Allies had to level Monte Cassino and abbeys to defeat Nazis

*Assault eventually succeeded; Allies drove northward….

E. On To Rome

*Clark ignored Alexander’s order to take Alban Hill instead of Rome: glory

hunter.

*Was it worth it? No. Page 235: Eric Sevareid (CBS) “a senseless slaughter.”

*Remarkable feat: 1st time Italy was attacked/conquered from the south…

broke 3 major (and many minor) defensive lines: Volturno, Gustov (Winter),

Gothic (Green)

F. The Gothic (Green) Line

*August-Dec 1944: Operation Olive in Northern Italy. Allied pincer

movement. Defeat Nazis, but it took till the spring of 1945 and 40K

casualties.

*Bill Maudlin on war: “Don’t think of him as a stat which changes 38,788

casualties to 38,789, think of him as a guy who wanted to live every bit as

much as you do.” (246)

*Japanese American units fought bravely in Italy. 442 nd Combat Regiment or

here

*Only black division to see combat in Europe was the “Buffalo Soldiers” 92 nd

Infantry Division….1st unit as 370 Combat Team…plagued with race issues

and didn’t succeed. Why? Some say prejudiced leaders like General Almond,

others—like Clark—claimed black incompetence and cowardice. Truth?

Chapter 8: The Air War

A. Winged Victory

*8th Air Force deployed from England. 15th Air Force deployed from Italy.

*FDR and WC, at Trident Conference in Casablanca in January 1943:

*Decided that Allies needed air superiority before invasion of France

*Carl Spaatz (Commander of USAF in Europe) and Air Marshal Arthur

Harris (Chief of the RAF Bomber Command) argued that air power

alone (via strategic bombing offensives) could defeat Nazis…

General George C. Marshall (US Army Chief of Staff; highest advisor

to FDR) disagreed….

*Spaatz and “Bomber” Harris were beholden to post-WWI Italian General

Giulio Douhet’s “Winged Victory Theory” (strategic bombing) of breaking

civilian’s morale, war making ability with surprise, brutal, and continuous

air attacks of strategically important industrial/economic/population centers.

Rationale: Be swift and brutal to win war faster….the “American way”:

*Famed British historian John Keegan: “It combined moral scruples,

historical optimism, and technological pioneering, all three distinctly

American characteristics.

*WC reluctantly agreed to and justified this ‘terror bombing’ (strategic

bombing)

*Brits bomb at night….US by day

*4 Main Bombers in Europe:

*Brits made Stirling and Lancaster Bombers:

Stirling:

Lancaster:

*Yanks made B-17 Flying Fortress and B-24 Liberator

B-17:

*Sergeant Paul Revere Gordon, ball turret gunner, POW for 2.5

years.

B-24:

*US top secret Norden Bombsight ($15K each @1.5B total investment)

(TED Talk); code-name Operation Window (tinsel for anti-radar); fighter

plane protection; pathfinders; convoys: safer, paralyzing raids in German

Ruhr pocket, etc

B. Hamburg, then Berlin

*Operation Gomorrah: Hamburg, Germany Firestorm: 45K (civ) dead…400K

homeless (more dead in ten days at Hamburg than 6 year of war in

England.)…

*Next? Berlin November 1943 to May 1944…

*better defended, deeper in Europe, no fighter escorts, ctr-attack

(Messserschmitt 109)

*A Higher Call (heroic? humanitarian? idiotic?)

C. The Americans Arrive

*Paul W. Tibbets, Jr.

*Led US bombing campaign (RR yard in France August 1942, then

Hiroshima)

*B-17: 10 man crew (2 off, 8 enlisted), 30 tons, 5K pounds of bombs, 2 pilots,

navigator, bombardier, radioman, gunners: top turret, 2 waist turret, ball

turret, and tail

*Flight: @ 20K feet high = -50 degrees…electrically heated suits…alpaca

coats/pants, sheepskin boots/etc…not pressurized cabin…vomit/saliva

froze…oxygen deprivation w/o mask

D. To Hell and Back

*Progression of attack:

*1st enemy fighters, 2nd flak (1200-1500 guns and 88mm guns on RR

cars) 3rd: fighters on way back

*Feelings?

*Constant fear. High causality rates. AAF survey: 40% were afraid

every time.

*Afraid of what? Being a coward. Physical harm or capture.

*Why continue? patriotism, friends, and get quota and go home

*Relief not happiness

*25 to 30 to 35 missions: requirements increased

*Consider Joseph Heller’s Catch-22

E. Our Father, Who Art In Heaven

*Regensburg-Schweinfurt Air Raids (Aug-Oct 1943) (thesis)

*Bloody (both sides, mostly at Schweinfurt), savage, significant

*Enormous losses: Hap Arnold continues raids…we need long range

fighter escorts!

*P-47 Thunderbolt surpassed by P-51 Mustang (to Berlin and back!)

Feb 19-26 *“Big Week” = thousands of bombers, long range fighters

equipped with new radio direction finding, began focus in almost

exclusively on aircraft factories and oil refineries, targets the

Luftwaffe had to come up and defend….the bait and kill.

*German Armaments Minister Albert Speer: relocated factories and homes:

increased production…Hitler/Goering dumped money/scientists into V

weapons.

F. The Death of the Luftwaffe

*Allies needed and got air superiority before D-Day Invasion.

*Ike to troops:”If you see fighting aircraft over you, they will be ours.”

*By 1944, Luftwaffe was crushed.

*Ike, Supreme Commander Allied Commander, overruled Spaatz and Harris

to support Sir Arthur Tedder’s “Transportation Plan” to destroy RR

tracks/communications network in Normandy and Northern France.

Chapter 9: The Great Invasion

A. Planning

*BBC Animated Maps: Operation Overlord in Normandy

* Rick Atkinson’s Liberation Trilogy: Volume 3: Guns At Last Light

*Origin: Quadrant Conference (Quebec, April 1943). Picked beaches

(Normandy, not Calais...secretive, massive planning and training efforts

*At Tehran, Iran (with Stalin) on November 1943, promised Stalin D-Day

attack in May/June 1944…2M Allied men in England so far…practice runs

called Operation Tiger

B. The Landings

*

see: here.

*16M tons of supplies, 5K vessels, 50K vehicles, 11K planes, 175K men in

ONE DAY vs. 55 German Divisions (10 to 1 advantage)…miracle of planning,

organization, supply, secrecy, deception.

*Ike’s Order of the Day for D-Day.

*Allies left southern English ports in troopships…then 10 miles out loaded

into Landing Craft, Vehicle, Personnel (LCVP) or Higgins Boats…

*

US troops @ Utah Beach (fewer casualties; 200; weaker defenses)…it was

easier than Omaha Beach (naval bombardment was too short…B-17 not hit

enough targets…cloud cover…men: dropped off with too much gear, too

deep, too early, seasick, fear

*German mortars, machine guns, and artillery pre-sighed beaches and draws

(exists between hills/cliffs)…it was key to get off the beach (but avoid exits =

traps) after destroyers cleared exits and the Germans could be attacked

from behind.

*Robert Capa pictures of landings at Omaha…only 10 of 106 pictures were

saved

*

*900 evacuated on 1st day. Allies thousands of casualties and missing (2K

from Omaha…800 of that 2K from 116th Regiment of the 29th Division (PA

unit)…featuring the Bedford Boys…Army Historian General S.L.A. Marshall

interviewed participants: consensus: “close to disaster”. (See also Sgt, later

Dr., Forest Pogue)

*Stephen Ambrose’s D-Day: The Climatic Battle of WWII

*Cornelius Ryan’s Longest Day: The Classic Epic of D-Day, June 6, 1944

*

*Alex Kershaw’s The Bedford Boys: One American Town’s Ultimate D-Day

Sacrifice

Chapter 10: From Normandy to Germany

*Rick Atkinson’s Guns At Last Light Pictures: D-Day to Nazi Surrender

*29 th Infantry Division

A. The Battle of the Bocage (hedgerows, boxed fields)

*Mulberries = artificial harbors...(engineering marvel)….Omaha ones were

swept away in storm…needed Cherbourg’s harbor ASAP.

*No one on American/British Staff had been to Normandy…aerial pictures

didn’t help…

*Fighting in Hedgerow/Bocage? Tough: obstacles, snipers, mines (teller),

tanks subject to panzerfaust, zeroed/sited mortars, artillery fire, and

machine guns

B. The Second Battle of Britain

*Just after D-Day: V-1 (Vengeance Weapon) Rocket (Cruise missile) radio-

controlled, long range rocket hit/terrorized London.

*How many? 100/day in June-December 1944…8K in total….400/mph…

2,300- altitude.

*2nd Battle of London (tactical/terror attacks…no strategic impact…20K

causalities)

*V-1 attacks lasted 80 days

*V-2: faster, bigger, no warning capability…couldn’t be shot down

*German scientist Wernher Von Braun’s A-10 missile: 2,800 mile

range…nuclear capability—soon!—he emigrated to US….

C. Breakout

*Patton’s 3rd Army to Brittany (other big peninsula in NW France) and back

*Missed opportunity = Falaise (France) Pocket

*Germans had just ctr-attacked at Mortain then not w/d. Instead of

Canadians closing gap (with pincer) or Bradley allowing Patton to do

so, he called air/artillery strikes. This Battle at Falaise was end of

Normandy Invasion/OP/Campaign: German y lost 500K, Allies lost

210K with 125K US

D. The Liberation of Paris

*Road to Paris: Open (German 7th Army destroyed)…Allies land in Southern

France, too (Operation Dragoon)…just 100 days after D-Day…3 huge Allied

Armies on 250 mile front on German border (vs. fortified/defensive works =

Siegfried Line/Westwall)

*Danger! Too much success, too fast!...Cherbourg port was too far away to

sustain supplies/fuel to advancing front…Red Ball Express = 450

mile/24hour trip on (2.5 ton) deuce-half truck… convoys…lights out…

carried: rations, ammo, gasoline (mostly African-American Drivers: 23K use

6K trucks)…replaced after Antwerp/other ports activated.

*

E. At The Siegfried Line (assault on Germany proper; note the dragon’s teeth)

*761st Armored Unit (Black, 1st such in combat) under Patton…Patton’s takes

Metz (WWI citadel/town), but no breakthrough. Monty opens Antwerp…

Allies vs. Entrenched/fixed German positions

*Bloodiest, hardest battle is near Aachen, Germany in Huertgen Forest

(Sept-Dec ’44)

*Example: US 28th Division with 31K casualties.

*Last battle on Western Front before Battle of the Bulge (Dec ‘44-Jan

45)

*Ike permits Brit FM Montgomery’s audacious (war ending?) “Operation

Market-Garden” to cross the Rhine River into Germany at this bridge in

Arnhem, Netherlands instead of taking Antwerp’s Scheldt River Estuary

(and sea/port access) first.

*BBC Battle of Arnhem/Operation Market Garden Animated Map

*Book map on page 330

*Cornelious Ryan’s (Arnhem, Belgium =) A Bridge Too Far

*

*Only after failure of Market-Garden and despite repeated warnings of

logistic breakdowns due to far off Cherbourg port and exhausted Red

Ball Express, does Monty pursue clearing of Germans around

waterways of Antwerp

F. The Huertegen Forest (Operation Queen, it followed breakout from Normandy)

*Forest = 20 miles north/south by 10 miles west/east

*September to December 1944

*Overlooked, bloody precursor to Battle of the Bulge (later in the Ardennes

Forest)

*Major defeat for US Army…no tactical or operational success in this battle.

Article.

Chapter 11: The Battle of the Bulge

A. BBC Article

B. Basically, Germany’s last western offensive….Operation Autumn Mist…in the

Ardennes Forest of Belgium and Luxembourg…

*Must do during freezing/snowy/cloudy weather, at weakest position of

Allied line, before the Red Army crushed the remnants of Nazi Germany’s

defenses in the East

*This is Hitler’s gamble on attacking, splitting, scattering, and scaring the

Allies ((as Panzers drove across the River Meuse to Antwerp, Belgium)) and

then trying to broker/negotiate a (separate) better peace plan than what the

Soviets would permit.

*Almost worked, for 4 days, sort of…

*The attack nearly crossed the River Meuse…exhausted fuels

supplies….but routed many Allied units (40K cas/POW), until Allied

reinforcements arrived to push back and 101st held on at Bastogne,

plus clouds gave way and then supplies were airlifted to front line

units.

C. Significance?

*German war machine was exhausted; Allies remained united; Germany

would be invaded, destroyed, occupied, divided; Holocaust exposed

D. Malmedy Massacre (Belgium)

*Fatal Crossroads: The Untold Story of the Malmedy Massacre at the Battle

of the Bulge

Chapter 12: The Marianas

A. The Invasion of Saipan

*A decisive event in the sweeping American offensive

*Needed it to get airfields to bomb Japan.

*All well-defended, with banzai charges. Bloody battles.

*As important to Allied victory over Japan as Normandy was to

Germany…9 days apart from each other …inaugurated a year of

unprecedented carnage for Americans…fueled by revenge and racism.

*B-29: Superfortress

*

*1st intercontinental bomber

*Needed Marianas to launch/land these planes on strategic bombing

campaign.

*Admiral Nimitz and Hap Arnold (Army Air Force) argued air craft

carriers, subs, and B-29s would blockade and bombard Japanese home

islands into submission w/o mandatory invasion with ground troops.

They were hopeful, but wrong.

*Key Marianas islands: Saipan, Guam, and Tinian

*Large, volcanic islands, fortified, mountains, fields, native population

*Saipan Invasion: Like Normandy Invasion: 800 ships, 1K planes,

100K sailors and airmen, 127K Marines and Army

*Black Marine units (51st and 52nd) not trusted by USMC Commandant

Thomas Holcomb, but saw combat as they supplied men at the

beaches and shot back.

*new Marine Commandant Alexander Vandegrift: “The Negro

Marines are no longer on trial. They are Marines, period.”

(369).

*Admiral Nimitz: “The enemy met the assault operations with

pointless bravery, inhuman tenacity, cave fighting, and the will to lose

hard.” (364).

B. The Battle of The Philippine Sea (featuring The Great Marianas Turkey Shoot!)

*IJN’s First Mobile Fleet spotted in Philippine Sea (between Phil and

Marianas)

*Like Hitler’s Operation Autumn Mist in Ardennes, the Japanese plan

was to defeat Allied forces, protect what they already possessed

(Saipan/Guam/etc) and broker favorable peace deal in Operation A-

Go.

*IJN FMF (under Admiral Jisaburo Ozawa) had 9 Carriers/430 planes/13

cruisers/28 destroyers/25 subs vs. US 5th Fleet (under Admiral Raymond

Spruance) 15 carriers/900 planes/7 battleships/21 cruisers/69 destroyers

and superior intelligence.

*Two Day Engagement:

*Day 1: “Great Marianas Turkey Shoot” (June 19th, 1944) Admiral

Spruance decides to cover landings at Saipan, while directing Admiral

Marc Mitscher’s Task Force 58 to engage them. “Great Marianas

Turkey Shoot” because within 8 hours US planes shot down 373

Japanese planes…greatest carrier battle of WWII (ever)…US lost 30

planes…

*Day 2: “Battle of Philippine Sea” (June 20th, 1944) Admiral Mitscher

dispatched 216 planes from 10 carriers in ten minutes…at range of

300 miles…found and destroyed remnants of Japanese force with little

loss…MM boldly turned on the runway lights of carriers…confused,

but most landed safely or were saved.

*Significance? One of the supreme, lopsided naval victories of

any war, ever.

C. Taking Saipan

*Patrick O’Donnell’s Into The Rising Sun: In Their Own Words, WWII’s

Pacific Veterans Reveal the Heart of Combat

*Brutality. Civilians in crossfire. Rough terrain and fortifications.

Flamethrowers.

*Americans landed on southwest beaches of Saipan, then secured Aslito

airfield.

*Saipan had been an artillery fight, punctuated by savage, close-in fighting

and more and larger banzai charges than veterans in the Pacific had ever

experienced.

*USMC Major General Holland “Howling Mad” Smith led V Amphibious

Corps (2nd and 4th Marine Divisions); He relieved subordinate US Army

General Ralph Smith (leading center of 3 divisions; 27th NY National Guard

unit) for failure to press forward vigorously. Inter-service feud ensues. In

turn, Holland Smith never held combat command again.

*Largest banzai attack of war = 3K vs. 27th Army Division…kill wounded,

too.

*Hara-kiri…only 600 Japanese survived/surrendered in war to this point.

*Over, July 9, 1944: 16,525 American causalities (with 3,426 KIA or missing.

Only 921 of 40K surrendered

*Nature of battle: At Tarawa, 57% of US cas were bullets…At Saipan,65% of

US cas were artillery and mortars…and 5x as many knife and bayonet

wounds.

*Ernie Pyle transferred to Marianas/Saipan…immediate sensed the

inhumanity of this theater’s fighting: “In Europe we felt our enemies,

horrible and deadly as they were, were still people. But out here, I’ve

already gathered the feeling that the Japanese are looked upon as something

inhuman and squirmy—like some people feel about cockroaches or mice.”

(381)

D. Marpi Point

*Scared Into Suicide

*Northern part of island, 4K panic-stricken civilians escape to Marpi Point.

Mass suicide

*See Robert Sherrod of TIME

*Wrote most influential piece of journalism of the Pacific War, called

“The Nature of the Enemy” (384-387)

*Significance of Battles of Saipan, Guam, and Tinian? Japanese home

islands will be defended to the death.

E. Pacific Strategy (as of June-August, 1944)

*Guam as also taken, at cost of 1,744 Americans dead.

*Few Japanese POWS: last one surrendered in 1972!

*Tinian, just 3 miles south of Saipan, was taken 9/1 . 1st B-29 airfields were

constructed.

*After Saipan, Hideki Tojo’s Government falls, replaced with Lt. Gen Kuniaki

Koiso.

*FDR: General MacArthur trumps Admiral King (Chief of Naval Operations)

and Nimitz: Invades Philippines (“I Shall Return”) instead of invading

Formosa/Taiwan

*MacArthur wants revenge, honor, liberate POWs, airfields, ports

*Biggest intelligence failure of war + most savage fighting +

worthless = Peleliu

*Supposed easy invasion; supposedly important to enable

invasion of Philippines

*Reality: since MacArthur’s forces ALREADY landed at Leyte

Island in

Philippines in October, Peleliu invasion was strategically

unnecessary.

*Nimitz sent them anyway.

*It was a ridiculous risk with high losses in savage

fighting.

*10K Marine/Army casualties for island of no value.

*USMC Eugene Sledge’s With The Old Breed: At Peleliu and

Okinawa

Chapter 13: A Marine in Peleliu

*

*Operation Stalemate II (September to November 1944) at Peleliu (Palau Islands,

east of Phil.)

*Same time as Operation Market-Garden and Battle of Hurtgen Forest

*American Hero’s Film: Peleliu (Sledge and Burgin)

*HBO’s Peleliu: An Unnecessary Sacrifice

*HBO’s The Pacific: Peleliu Assault Episode

*See also: R.V. Burgin’s Islands of the Damned: A Marine At War in the Pacific

and USMC Robert Leckie’s Helmet For My Pillow

A. USMC Eugene Sledge’s With The Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa

*Huge intelligence blunder = Admiral Nimitz didn’t cancel Peleliu attack

even though it was heavily defended and strategically worthless now that

MacArthur invaded Leyte and NOT Mindanao islands in

Philippines….supposed to be 3 days of fighting, so conventional methods

were used/expected…3 days of bombardment, landings, capture airfield,

isolate and destroy remnants of Japanese resistance…that wasn’t the case…

*USMC Eugene Sledge’s classic combat memoir With The Old Breed: At

Peleliu and Okinawa (“Old Breed”= veterans of battles of Guadalcanal and

Cape Gloucester in new Britain during rainy season…then Pavuvu for RR)…

then to Peleliu

*K/3/5/1 Marine Division…also Bill Sloan’s Brotherhood of Heroes

B. The Landing (intro and map)

*Island is 6 x 2 miles

*Defenders? 10.5K Japanese (engineers, Manchuria’s best = famed

Kwantung Army)

*Intricate strongholds, hidden caves 5-6 stories deep into Umurbrogol

Mountain featuring “Bloody Nose Ridge” = took more American causalities

than Omaha Beach…landed abreast: 1st, 5th, 7th Marines… (later 81st US

Army Division helped) vs. mines, booby traps, machine guns, mortars,

artillery

C. Bloody Nose Ridge

*Assault the island beaches, ridge, and lagoons for what? Airfield and death

toll.

D. Into The Umurbrogol

*Retched conditions: heath, sand, disease, lack of clean water, constant

attacks/shots

*At Peleliu and after, Japanese changed strategies to defense in depth

*Plan? Lure Americans in…attack from hidden fortified positions with

zeroed/sighted weapons…realization? Japan wouldn’t win war, but

would try to bleed out Americans and demoralize the home front.

*High casualties.

*Why? Stubbornness of USMC Col. Chesty Puller and General

Rupertus (both wounded)…trying to take the 5 parallel ridges of

Umurbrogol mtns via frontal assaults (victimized by interlocking fields

of Japanese fire from ridges/caves)…thankfully Col. Harris and Gen.

Geiger overruled Puller and Rupertus and changed attack to:

*North to south attack plan, tanks, flamethrowers

*Puller was finished and 1st Marine Regiment was nearly

destroyed.

*Sledge argued the war in the Pacific was less about racism and more of

hatred due to Japanese savagery, mutilations, shooting of stretcher bearers,

infiltration, booby traps, etc that caused tension.

*By the numbers?

*His unit, 64% causality rate.

*1 Am causality and 1600 rounds of ammo fired for 1 Jap KIA.

*All for? No strategic/morale influence.

*Last Japanese survivors surrender in 1947.

*Peleliu didn’t/hasn’t gotten enough attention because of focus on

MacArthur’s invasion of the Philippines and Eisenhower’s drive to the

Siegfried Line: “But Peleliu, as Sledge says, must not be forgotten. One of

the most murderously fought battles in all of history, it is a frightening

reminder of the debasing consequences of unrestrained war, war fought

without let up or conscience” (412).

*Tom Lea’s Two-Thousand Yard Stare:

*

Chapter 14: The Return

A. Admiral Marc Mitscher’s Task Force 38’s success at Luzon, Formosa, Okinawa

enabled…

* General MacArthur’s promised “I Shall Return!”

*October 20th, 1944 at Leyte he returns and gave ”Strike” Speech (page 415)

*US Third Fleet protected his flanks, while US Seventh Fleet landed his

Sixth Army

*Landed more men in one than Operation Overlord

*Why? Liberate Americans and Filipinos. Ports, airbases, training

grounds.

B. The Battle For Leyte Gulf

*Before landings conclude….

*Greatest and most decisive naval battle ever: Leyte Gulf…3 days…

Japanese northern pincer (via San Bernardino Strait) and southern

pincer (via Surigao Strait)…plan is to attack Mac’s landed

troops/supplies because a decoy Japanese fleet was to distract and

lure US Third Fleet under Admiral “Bull” Halsey north away from

beaches…last Japanese attempt to save southern empire/sea routes…

*”Tin Can” (destroyers) Sailor’s Finest Hour: they and light carriers

attacked(!) the pincers…sank IJN’s 4 Carriers, 3 battleships, 10

cruisers, 11 destroyers

*First Kamikaze (Divine Winds) attacks.

*James D. Hornfischer’s The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors: The

Extraordinary WWII Story of the US Navy’s Finest Hour

*Documentary (Tin Can Sailors Will Not Be Forgotten)

C. The Fight For Leyte Island

*MacArthur lost 15K cas to Japan’s 65K KIA in direct action and ‘mop up’

operation

*Gritty fighting…rice paddies, mtns, earthquake, typhoon

D. Liberation

*At Luzon, 9 January 1945 to March 1945 ,MacArthur landed 275K vs.

Japan’s General Yamashita’s (the “Tiger of Malaya” notoriety) 280K…who

retreated to eastern mountains…gave up Manila and planned delaying,

bloodletting battle...largest in Pacific war.

*US Army’s Sixth Ranger Battalion and Filipino guerillas liberated 513

POWs at

*Gordon L. Rottman’s The Cabanatuan Prison Raid—The Philippines,

1945

*1st Cavalry Division liberates Manila’s Santo Tomas Prison of

Bataan/Corregidor Army nurses (page 426)

*William E. Breuer’s The Great Raid: Rescuing the Doomed Ghosts of

Bataan and Corregidor

*Taking Manila (city of 800K)…difficult and bloody urban warfare and

civilian reprisals…just like human and physical devastation of Warsaw and

Stalingrad…killing of their own Japanese-Filipino children!...hospitals

ablaze…torture

*Corregidor island fortress taken in Feb, 1945

E. The Los Banos Raids

*POW camp: 42 miles southeast of Manila.

*Rescue…ground troops and amphibious extraction, paratroopers, and

Filipinos saved 2,147 people and killed the 250 Japanese garrison troops. 4

American cas. Perfect?

*Gordon L. Rottman’s The Los Banos Prison Camp Raids—The Philippines,

1945

Was the the Battle of Luzon/Philippines worth it? B-29s didn’t need it’s airfields to

get to Japan, but it’s loyal population, POWs, geography, deep harbors, and

training grounds would be helpful in preparing for invasion of Japan. Plus revenge

and ego! Japan lost 400K. US lost 40K casualties. MacArthur hanged General

Tomoyuki Yamashita.

Chapter 15: The B-29s

A. The Plane

*US ports/airbases in China, Marianas (Saipan, Tininan, Guam), Iwo Jima,

Okinawa—between June ’44 and August ’45…firebombing of mainland

Japan…blockades…demoralizes and incapacitates Home Front.

*Marianas= Forward bases of USN and USAAF….Seabeas (Navy

Construction Battalions) transform islands into military facilities…Guam’s

Apra Harbor becomes 2nd busiest in world…Tinian’s airstrip becomes largest

in world

*B-29 = best, biggest, longest, widest, heaviest (60 ton) plane in world. 4:

2200 horsepower engines, 10 tons bombing capacity, 357mph, 16 hours of

flight, 3,800 mile range, pressurized cabins, 1 controller of all gun turrets,

40K feet altitude

*Famous Pilots: Major Robert K. Morgan (of Memphis Belle memoir) and

Colonel Paul Tibbets. PT perfected its capabilities in test flights.

*Cost $ more in R/D than Manhattan Project. $1M a plane.

B. Fear

*Even General Curtis LeMay couldn’t’ get China based B-29s effective/worth

it (ate up their own fuel supplies delivered from the “Hump”) and bases

subject to Japanese attacks anyway. Thus, they needed to secure key

islands….

*Marianas islands were essential and logical for plan to attack Tokyo (50%

of industrial and 20% of population)

*Severe wind currents, storms disrupted B-29 attacks, as well as kamikaze

(head on)

*All eleven men were usually scared—and for good reason. (Read 444-446)

C. Fire Sticks

*LeMay loves B-29 and strategic bombing, so after he replaced Hansell, he

changed bombing tactics = drop at 25K feet, not 30K…see your target and

firebomb them….not good enough, so reduce it to 5K feet and attack at

NIGHT!...use napalm (6 pound canister)…no gunnery /ammo… especially in

March ’45 to create firestorm/holocaust…each plane = 20K pounds of

gasoline + chemicals (thanks Standard Oil and Du Pont companies). For

horror, see James Bradley’s Fly Boys.

*Successful, but severe updraft pushed please (too fast) upward…but 100K

people killed, 1M wounded, 16 square miles (2/3 of Manhattan-NY)

burnt/leveled…1st time man-made technology approached nature in its

destructive capacity (read 456-461)…LeMay continued bombing, day and

night of 6 of 7 largest Japanese cities (ancient capital of Kyoto exempted) for

total of 105 square miles (Germany: 79 sq miles)…lost 136 B-29s

D. The Blockade

*Cut off trade/supply/communication/transport routes with B-29s deploying

5-7K of total 12K mines (magnetic, pressure, acoustic) especially in

Shimonoseki Strait.

*Submarines (featuring 2% of USN personnel, but sunk more Japanese

shipping than all others combined)…sank 1,256 ships, 167 combat ships, 4

carriers, 1K tankers/transports/cargo ships…4 of 8M tons of merchant

shipping sunk by subs.

*Blockade was more effective than bombing: men, oil, medicine, equipment,

food, supplies, nitrates, rubber, coal, iron, etc

*By 1945, Japan’s five great ports handled less than 1/8th of of their 1941

trade; ¾ of Japanese fishing fleet was destroyed. Couldn’t feed itself.

E. For The B-29s

*Argument for Iwo Jima (26K USMC cas) was that 2,400 emergency landings

of B-29s

(with 27K airmen) were safely landed and repaired.

Chapter 16: Make Them Remember

A. Target: Ploesti

*Fact: Oil is the blood of war.

*Hitler lacked fuel for fighters, tanks, trucks, etc.

*35% of Nazi oil from Ploesti (synthetic production, too)

*Except for one daring 1943 raid on Ploesti, Romania, Allies didn’t strike at

Nazi’s strategic oil resources until April 1944….most heavily defended area

in Europe…eleven refineries, rail yards, tank farms, pumping stations, and

ANTI-AIRCRAFT BATTERIES.

*8th Air Force, based in England…strikes oil, industry, transportation,

population

*15th Air Force, based in Foggia, Italy…strikes Ploesti oil fields in

spring/summer ’44.

*Last raid is on 9.19.’44 because the Red Army overran it.

B. The Red Tails

*Tuskegee Airman…fighter protection for B-24s that flew bombing missions

*All black 99th Pursuit Squadron, later attached to 332nd Fighter Group

*Not properly trained or equipped, but ridiculed and segregated…

couldn’t perform to its best

*White racists/commanders/pilots claimed TA were not aggressive,

capable, trustworthy

*Cpt. Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. (son of only black Army General) took control of

training

*P-51 Mustang with distinctive red tail fin

*After Ploesti, Red Tails escorted bombers to Austria, Poland, Germany

*Never lost a bomber to enemy fighter action

*66 of 450 RT’s were KIA, another 33 forced/shot down and were

POW.

*RT’s shot down 108 German planes.

*Presidential Unit Citation for courage in combat

C. Dresden And The End (February 13-15, 1945)

*Operation Clarion = one of most controversial operations of warfare, ever

*Dresden fire/t bombing of small/med Ger cities: 8th and 15th AF/RAF…bomb

and strafe

*Leaders disagree:

*Generals Spaatz and Arnold: yes = break German will...Generals

Doolittle and Eaker: No = not strategic, inhumane/baby killing…

General Marshall and FDR: Yes = to ensure all Germans feel pain of

this war (unlike WWI)-FDR to Sec of War Stimson: it’s “of the

utmost importance that every person in Germany should realize that

this time Germany is a defeated nation….The fact that they are a

defeated nation, collectively and individually, must be so impressed

upon them that they will hesitate to start any new war.” (page 481)

*2.3.45: Berlin bombed by 900 B-17s of 8th and 15th AF (35K) KIA

*2.13-15.45: Dresden bombed by 8th and 15th AF (at least 35K) KIA

*Dresden: historic architecture, parks, buildings, hospitals, homes

*US Army POW Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.’s experience is captured in his

book,

Slaughterhouse Five, or the Children’s Crusade (satirical, anti-war

novel)

*Raids stop on 4.16.45: Allies have no more targets: total cost of

bombing on Axis: 650K Germans KIA (20% were kids) + 800K injuries

vs. US lost 18K bombers and fighter planes for 76K cas + Brit losses

(vs USMC with 75K cas for entire war)

*Strategic bombing worked.

Chapter 17: From The Volga to The Oder…Eastern Front (READ THE CHAPTER)

citation

A. Post Stalingrad

*After the 2.2.1943 Battle of Stalingrad (or Kursk?), Germany suffered

irreplaceable losses in men, morale, and material…retreated/defeated…on

defensive until May 1945.

*England/US fed/equipped Soviets via Lend-Lease Aid

*7,800 planes, 4,700 tanks/tank destroyers, 170K trucks, Ms of

military boots and shoes, 1M tons of steel, and 2.25 M tons of food

*With new armies/conscripts and and equipment, Soviets took/held

offensive.

B. The Liberation of Russia

*As the Soviets were destroying von Paulus’ German Sixth Army in

Stalingrad, the Soviets ctr-attacked at Leningrad (900 day siege—9.8.41 to

1.27.1944) AND THEN fought the largest tank/land battle in human history

at the Battle of the Kursk in 7/1943.

*Bloody fighting drives Germans from Steppe, Caucasus Mtns, Crimea,

Ukraine, Baltic, Poland, Central Europe, and Balkans; in other words, the

Soviets drove the Germans from river to river: the Volga to Don to Dnieper

(“Knee—yea—pier” to Dniester (“Knee-yea—steer”) to Vistula to Danube to

Oder to Elbe. Why not the Rhine?

*

*Germans lost 1M in Easter Front in first half of 1944

*By June 1944, Soviets are fighting in Poland, Finland, Romania, Bulgaria, &

Hungary

*June: Mannerheim Line breached; Finns got quit/switch, but Gers

continue.

*August: Romania conquered; Romanians got quit/switch

*Brits liberate Athens/Greece: Greeks join Allies

*By end of 1944, Eastern Front was flipped…land, advantage, men,

provisions, armaments, and momentum

C. Into Germany

*Vast/rough geography, ferocity of Eastern Front—dwarfs Western Front

campaigns

*Soviets: Biggest ctr-offensive in history got to Warsaw swiftly but Stalin

didn’t help Poles who rose against Germans…why????.....Nazis killed 200K

and destroyed this city.

*Lack of Soviet assistance/ability (?): paved way for Soviet forces and post

war politics.

*Leading Soviet Generals (later Marshals): Rokossovsky, Zhukov, Konev

Chapter 18: Across The Rhine

A. “Clean “Em Out”

*Yalta/Crimea Conference in February 1945

*

*2nd of 3 wartime confs of Big Three (Tehran/1943 and Potsdam July

1945)

*WC, Stalin, and FDR plan for final offensive: unconditional surrender,

dismember Germany, meet at Elbe, occupy territory (Stalin gets East

Europe).

*In Berlin Bunker, after failure of Ardennes/Bulge offensive, Hitler promises

new “miracle weapons’ to swing tide of war…pleaded for Gers to fight for

Fatherland and family…reality: 26 weakened Ger Divisions vs 85 Allied

Divisions on W Front alone

*Rhine River Crossing into Germany: 3.7 to 3.17.45: Most important bridge

in the world.

*Gers didn’t blow Ludendorff (railroad) Bridge (near Remagen/Bonn)

so Allies took/used …US 9th Armored Division exploited (it crumbled

10 days later).

*

*Furious Hitler: Kesselring replaces von Rundstedt as Ger Commander

*Allies exploit bridgehead. Fill Rhineland. Encircle and split Ruhr industrial

lands.

*Ike and Bradley took Ruhr and 325K Ger POWS (largest mass

surrender of war)…the end featured Monty liberating most of Holland

and drove to Bremen and Hamburg…US 1st and 9th Armies to Elbe

River and await Red Army…Patton’s 3rd Army (Tankers, notably) went

to Austria…Gers/Nazi collapse, fanaticism (razor suicide-SS) is

feared…fraternization…Volkssturm = old/young/weak....but Ike

needed more manpower (frontline troops), so certain black units were

created and served in combat….integrated, somewhat, but not in

Patton’s 3rd Army.

*Last, easiest paratroop action: troops dropped on Wesel…Robert Capa was

there

*WC pleaded w/ IKE to let Monty take Berlin (60 miles and 100K lives away)

…but IKE reasoned it not worth it…Yalta Conf: Russians get it and meet at

Elbe River, but IKE did permit Monty to take Lubeck—cutting across base of

Denmark so Soviets were excluded.

B. The End In Italy

*Should there have been a start? Hitler’s dream of protracted battles

influencing a separate peace with Western Allies (vs. Soviets) was a costly

nightmare for everyone.

*Brit Supreme Commander Gen/FM Alexander, US General Mark Clark and

Brit Gen Monty did the best they could in the Italian Theater (a sideshow?)

with the ‘small’, stripped, racially/ethnically/lang. diverse American 5th Army

and British 8th Army.

*

*Final assault on Gothic Line, near Bologna, led by Jap-Am 442nd,

white 473rd, and AA 370th (Buffalo Soldiers/92nd Inf. Division) Infantry

Battalions

*JA: Nisei (second gen Jap-Am) born in Hawaii and Mainland…

100K in internment camps (70K were native born citizens) and

none relocated from Hawaii (50% of pop there)

*Daniel Inouye and others went to 100 Infantry Battalion

(fought in Italy: Salerno, Anzio, Monte Cassino) = “Purple

Heart Battalion”

*Success spurred 442nd Combat Team…resolved Hawaiian and

mainlander animosity.

*Heroic Rescue: One of the most daring rescues in

modern military history: Enduring 1,400 casualties, they

defeated SS tankers/troops to rescue 217 US soldiers in

the summer of 1944 called the Battle of Vosges (Vu-jah),

near Bruyères (Brewi-ya)in Eastern France, France

for the “Lost Battalion of Texans.”

*See Young-Oak Kim

*These mixed units helped break Gothic Line in Italy.

*Kesselring ‘retired/recuperating’: Replacement Ger Gen Vietinghoff

couldn’t win...permitted local peace deals..Mussolini and mistress

Clara Petacci captured by Partisans near Lake Como and executed

near a gas station.

*

*Vernon Baker-MOH and Daniel Inouye: valor, sacrifice, & patriotism (page

509-15)

C. No Wonder The Flowers Were So Beautiful

*Holocaust: Walter Rosenblum’s (photographer) individual car ride in

Munich countryside led to his discover and US 7th Army liberation of

Dachau…he photographed it….retaliation….guilt of food-induced deaths….

*Dachau (1933-1945): Work and political/death/torture/medical experiment

camp…gas and crematorium…US Lt. Col. Walter J. Fellenz upon learning

that the ashes were used to fertilize gardens said: “No wonder the flowers

were so beautiful.”

*Gen Henning commanded Ger citizens walk through camps and do burial

duty.

*Recommend:

1. Gerda Weissmann Kline’s All But My Life: A Memoir (A Jew

enduring the camps, marrying a liberator, and loving life.)

2. Leo Bretholz’s Leap Into Darkness: Seven Years On The Run

In Wartime Europe (A Jew on the escaping/evading/leaping

from death train.)

3. The Diary of Anne Frank/The Diary of a Young Girl.

4. Wladyslaw Szpilman’s The Pianist (Memoir of a Polish Jew

musician/composer surviving the Warsaw Ghetto.) (movie)

*Extremism of SS, its loyalty to Hitler, and viciousness of camps led Allies,

like AA 761st Tank Battalion Captain John Lang and others to take no SS

prisoners…(page 519)

*Who knew? When?

*Edward R. Murrow radio reported atrocities vs. Jews in Dec. 1942.

*Initial car gassings and shootings not fast enough: by 1942 Final

Solution under Adolf Eichmann and Heinrich Himmler (SS) perfect

slave labor and death camps like Auschwitz (10K dead a day in 1943)

*Total of war murders? 15M…at least 6M Jews, 3M Poles, 1M Serbs,

4M+ Soviet POWs, M+ Gypsies, Slavs, mentally ill, and homosexual,

political dissidents….unprecedented pogrom:

* Historian Victor Davis Hanson” “While other countries –the

Soviet Union and Mao’s China—would eventually murder more

than Hitler’s Germany, no country killed so efficiently , so

scientifically, so rapidly, and so completely based on race,

ethnic background, physical and mental impairment, and

sexuality.” (520)

*WC: Holocaust is “the greatest and most horrible crime ever

committed in the whole history of the world.” (520) Yet, he and

FDR didn’t deviate from strategic, terror, and tactical bombing

to destroy concentration camps…anti-Semitism and focus on

war winning strategy swayed them….controversial then and

now. Should it be?

*4.12.1945:

*FDR died

*IKE, Patton, and Bradley toured 1st Am liberated con camp:

Ohrdruf

*Patton vomited. IKE grew pale and silent

*IKE ordered surrounding troops and asked POTUS Truman to

send Congressional delegation to tour that camp…atrocious,

inhumane, gruesome like: Buchenwald’s skin lamp…irony: a

cultured people could be so cruel and barbaric.

D. The Whirlpool of Destruction

*Soviets take Berlin 4.22.1945.

Bloody/destructive/hate-filled/vengeance/barbaric/rape

*See Cornelius Ryan’s The Last Battle and Antony Beevor’s The Fall

of Berlin 1945 and Berlin: The Downfall 1945

*Am and Soviets soldiers meet at Elbe River (Torgau = “Tour Go”) on

4.27.1945

*5.1.1945: Radio Hamburg broadcasts news of Eva Braun (cyanide) and

Adolf Hitler (gunshot) suicide in Berlin bunker…Joseph Goebbels and his

wife arranged to be shot by SS after they poisoned their six children.

Admiral Doenitz = Fuehrer. Later, gives up.

*War correspondent Virginia Irwin and Andrew Tully and GI driver John

Wilson explored Berlin before and after Red Army dominated it. Rape,

pillage, murder at cost of 350K Soviet and Polish soldiers (page 527). She

wrote “A Whirlpool of Destruction” for the St. Louis Dispatch on May 9-11,

1945.

*

*5.7.1945 in Rheims, France, Gers sign unconditional surrender. Next day is

V-E Day.

*Tremendous celebrations in Europe and America. Not so much in

PTO.

*Without Germany’s attack on Soviet Union, the Nazis would have won their

war.

*Without Japanese attack on the United States, Japan would have won their

war.

Chapter 19: Iwo Jima

A. The Final Battles (2:00) (10:00 use just first 7 mins) (2hr 15 min, if interested)

*Iwo Jima: needed as refuge and attack base (B-29s)

*8 square miles of volcanic beach, rock, and Mont Suribachi…700 miles

from Tokyo

*Black volcanic sand/ash, flat land…free fields of fire

*US casualties: 28,686 (w/ 6,821 KIA).

*USMC’s costliest battle ever. First time US cas exceeded Japanese cas.

*Lt. General Holland “Howlin’ Mad” Smith is Commanding General

B. Iwo Jima

*

*D-Day Feb. 19, 1945.

* Iwo Jima Assault Plan:

*Frogman (USN underwater demolition: “half-fish, half nuts”…no

scuba gear! daylight…collect sand samples, map shoals, blow mines

and obstacles, draw fire to expose enemy positions.

*Air and Naval bombardment (‘soften it up.’ Didn’t work.)

*3rd, 4th, and 5th Marine Divisions attack, take air fields, isolate

Suribachi, destroy.

*AP Photographer Joe Rosenthal’s famed “Flag Raising” Picture on Mount

Suribachi (555’ high): Joe Rosenthal’s

(second flag)

*Island today:

*Brutal: Unlike Army Medics in Europe, PTO Navy Corpsmen, after being

targeted at Guadalcanal, were armed with carbines and .45 caliber

pistols…”

*Iwo Jima” in Japanese means “sulfur island”…barren, blasted, stinking,

mangled bodies: no retreat or cover…Like Peleliu: Marines ON island, but

Japanese IN island.

*Japanese General Tadamichi Kuribayashi was commander of Emperor

Hirohito’s Palace Guard

*

*Long/proud Samurai Family tradition.

*He fortified Iwo Jima and Suribachi (7 levels of tunnels, mutually

supporting positions, stock piles, and 1K gun ports)

*”[When the invasion comes] every man will resist to the end, making

his position his tomb.” (page 541)

*21K Japanese vs. 75K+ American Marines

*Various artillery pieces, mortars, and machine gun nests: intense,

gruesome.

*”Cornered Rat Defense,” just like at Peleliu…let Americans land,

make it rain metal, and drain American blood. This is a battle of

attrition.

*He traveled to and knew America. “The US is the last country in the

world that Japan should fight….Each man will make it his duty to kill

ten of the enemy before dying: until we are destroyed to the last man

we shall harass the enemy with guerrilla tactics.” (page 542)

*Flag Raising Situation:

*1st picture was by Lou Lowery. Too small a flag and Sec of Navy Forrestal

wanted to secure it as first American flag flown over Japanese island

*2nd (famous) picture by Joe Rosenthal and filmed by Sergeant Bill Genaust

*Flag Raising Picture: Much needed boost to morale…Americans were

impatient, exhausted, troubled by intensity and no end in sight views of

war….still 30 more days of fighting, but this picture fueled America’s

willingness and righteousness.

*Code Talkers (Navajo): rapid, reliable, secret communication system (Comanche

used in Normandy and Rhine River Valley)

*Value of Sacrifice at Iwo Jima?

*”Dinah Might”, the 1st of many B-29s (65 tons!) to emergency land…They

kissed the ground that USMC didn’t think worth spitting on!

*Admiral Chester Nimitz” On Iwo Island, uncommon valor was a common

virtue.”

*D + 34, last 300 Japanese sneak attack, killed 30 sleeping

airmen/crews/etc/seabees.

*27 MOH

*Captain Williams Sanders Clark: “Why? Why must we be such fools?

*Officially: Battle is over March 25, 1945…, now onto Okinawa…

Chapter 20: Okinawa

A. Okinawa

*Island is 60 long x 2 to 18 miles wide. Okinawan’s not ethnically Japanese,

but ruled since 1879 and treated like second class citizens. 450K Okinawans

& Japanese colonists.

*April to June, 1945:

*3 months of being the greatest air, naval, and ground battle in

history

*US had 50K cas, 110+K Japanese soldiers KIA, 160K civilians KIA

*Significance? It foretold nature of Allied invasion of Japanese homeland.

*John Basilone story (The Pacific)

*Eugene Sledge story (The Pacific)

*Preparation:

*Bloodless taking of Ulithi (U-lith-EE) atoll (110 square miles of

anchorage) (not Peleliu) was now the staging ground for assault on

Iwo Jima and then on Okinawa. Okinawa was to be the staging

ground for invasion of mainland Japan.

*1,500 ships, 500K men, covered 30 square miles, from 11 ports,

amphibious invasion the size of Operation Overlord

*Press was repressed: no news of kamikazes until 4.13.45 by Nimitz (even

then it went to back page because of FDR’s death)

*Okinawa island: featured fields, hills, mountains, natives/civilians, forced

laborers, Japanese soldiers, obstacles, bunkers, fortifications, and Shuri Line

(“Shuri Castle”)

*Japanese propaganda deceived Okinawans to fight for them. Americans =

devils.

*April 1, 1945 Landings:

*Thought to be fierce resistance. It wasn’t. Middle and northern tip of

island secured quickly, but not the southern part. Japanese General

Mitsuru Ushijima-suicide, but only after luring Americans to his stout

and intricate defensive positions (hills, ravines) along the Shuri Line

(castle in middle) and bleeding Americans on ground and at sea.

*US Army General Simon Bolivar Buckner, Jr. KIA (CW connection)

*Journalists: Robert Sherrod and Ernie Pyle (challenged Jack Dempsey; KIA

4.18.45)

B. Floating Chrysanthemums

*Desperation:

*Operation Ten-Go: Mass suicide plane missions…kamikazes and baka

bombs (565-)

*Jap desperate suicide missions: baka bombs (1 Man glider bombs)

( and Kamikazes (pilots, at this point were mostly college grads!?) for

severe “kikusui’ (floating chrysanthemums)

*USN Admiral Mitscher had 2 flagships (Bunker Hill and Enterprise) shot

out from under him: American carriers, unlike British w/ steel decks, had

wooden decks for speed, maneuverability.

*At Okinawa, Japan made 3K kamikaze sorties plus 5-6K regular sorties…

they lost 7,830 planes for sinking 36 American ships and damaging 368

others, including 13 carriers, 10 battleships, and 5 cruisers….9,731

American causalities = 1/7 of USN total for WWII.

*Admiral Halsey, later, said” Kamikaze was the only weapon I feared in the

war.” It caused anxiety, insanity, hysteria, breakdowns.

C. Slaughter On The Shuri Line

*Marines and Army push south against the Shuri Line (castle in middle)

*Most intense and continuous (4-5 days in a row) shelling of PTO-both sides

doing it…high concentration of fighting men in action…erratic nerves at

repeated attempts to take Sugar Loaf Hill near Shuri Castle and General

Ushijima‘s HQ (page 580)

*Combat photographer was shelled and injured (Life): W. Eugene Smith

(page 581)

*Rationale of why they fought: great depression, love, honor, respect, etc

(page 584)

*Japanese and Okinawans: most feared US weapon? Flamethrowwer: 95

pounds, 2 triggers, napalm

*Without a doubt, Battle of Okinawa, especially Shuril Line and below,

indicated the nature of a US invasion of Japanese home islands

*US total casualties and MIA:

*Army: 4,675

*USMC: 2,928

*USN: 4,907

*Plus 36,613 wounded combatants and non combatants

*Japanese total casualties:

*107,539 KIA

*Countless civilians KIA or wounded

*Countless Japanese suicides in caves/etc.

Chapter 21: The Setting Sun

A. Burma

*C.B.I. Theater: China, Burma, India

*At Quadrant (Quebec) Conf: FDR and WC put Lord Luis Mountbatten as

Supreme Commander in Southeast Asia and “Vinegar” Joe Stilwell as

Commander of Chinese and American forces for counteroffensive vs.

Japanese in Burma.

*Stilwell had led heroic retreat, in spring of 1942, from Burma.

*Stilwell organized “Flying the Hump” airlift over Himalayas.

*Tense relations between Stilwell and Chiang Kai-Shek.

*By late 1943, Allies need Burma Road. Start building it from Ledo, India to

existing, enemy-held Burma Road. Ledo/Stilwell Road: not finished,

controlled until January 1945.

*

*Defeat Japanese in Burma/Tie down 1M Japanese in China:

*British MG Orde Wingate’s “Chindits” Raiders/Guerillas

*US Version = Gen Frank D. Merrill’s “Merrill’s Marauders”

*General William Slim’s 14th Imperial Army

B. Hell Ships and Dog Cages

*Japan: As war expands and they lose men, conscription increases and slave

labor used. Natives and Allied POWs->slaves.

*Cruelty: POW status not indicated on Japanese transport ships, so they

were attacked by Allies.

*19 of 21K killed at sea by “friendly fire’…brutal conditions: dis,

starv., murder

*”Hell Ships” by Forrest Knox = From Bataan Death March to POW

camp to hell ships to slave labor (page 596)

*Private William R. Evans and Melvin Rosen’s account of transport

ships horrors is unmatched. (page 597-600)

*Few of the 1619 survived the trip or camps in Japan.

*Lester Tenney’s story of coal mining and deception (page 600-601)

*Atrocities:

*38% of the 36,260 Americans captured/interned by Japanese died.

*1% of the 93,941 Americans captured/interned by the Germans died.

*Unfair?

*B-29 Airmen were particularly tortured/executed/experimented upon

*Navigator of B-29 Rover Boys Express, Ray “Hap” Halloran

was shot down over Tokyo on January 27, 1945. (page 602-606)

67 days in cage, zoo, but Omori POW Camp in Tokyo Bay..saved

his life?!

C. Decisions

*On 5 June 1945, General Curtis LeMay ended incendiary campaign against

Japan’s six largest cities, having turned them into charred wastelands, so he

attacked smaller cities. This destroyed 60 more cities, killed 1M people, and

displaced 10M. They also targeted industrial, transportation, and military

positions.

*Psy Ops?

*LeMay dropped leaflets as well as bombs. (page 606) ->Death,

defeatism, terror.

*Atomic Weapons?

*POTUS Truman’s call: Yes. No hesitation or regrets.

*Clear choice: Keep bombing/blockading and invade or use atomic

bombs.

*At planning meeting on 18 June 1945: Gen Marshall proposed

2 stage invasion of Kyushu (“Olympic”) on 1 November 1945

and Honshu (“Coronet”) on 1 March 1946. This was Operation

Downfall. It featured 1.7M assault troops, entire Pacific Fleet

and British Fleet, 5K planes…enormous, unprecedented, “epic

carnage’ would ensue as Japanese put forth greatest effort to

fortify, mines, booby traps, suicide squads, 5K Kamikazes

reserved for that purpose. Every civilian to fight to the death.

*Japan didn’t want unconditional surrender (like Germany/Italy accepted):

shame

*Atomic Mission Planning:

*Colonel Paul Tibbets: Tinian practice runs dropping bombs (509th

Composite Group) and hard banking turns…led attack on

Hiroshima….General Leslie Groves was the administrator of Los

Alamos, NM’s Manhattan Project since 1942. 509th practices in

desolate Utah…Tibbets and test pilot/training exercise leader Charles

W. Sweeney knew of the atomic bombs…Sweeney led attack on

Nagasaki…..secure area/compound where they scientists assembled

the bomb and luxurious camp for mission members on Tinian.

*Controversy: Drop it or not? No: horror, civilian deaths/wounds,

Japanese are going to cave in soon anyway. Yes: must accept

unconditional surrender like German (Palawan Massacre and belief

that Emperor Hirohito was like Hitler…no debate on ethics of the

bomb in Truman’s circle of advisors.

*1st bomb is “Little Boy”/uranium via USS Indianapolis at Tinian 26

July 1945…then rest of parts and 2nd bomb by air. Both bombs use

nuclear fission.

*Truman’s “Potsdam Declaration”: Japanese leaders ignored it…some

debate among advisors…but all say: no to unconditional surrender

*Hiroshima bombing via Tibbets in Enola Gay and Sweeney piloted

The Great Artiste to drop scientific equipment, other plane (no pilot)

remote controlled to take pics by George Marquardt…bomb was 4.5

tons…dropped at 8:16am 6 August 1945 detonated at 1,900 feet

above the ground, 43 seconds after it was released…instant

incineration, huge shockwave, purple mushroom cloud

*Upon return, General Carl “Tooey” Spaatz pinned D.S.C. onto

Tibbets. Smiled.

D. “Everything Into Nothing” (PICTURES/TOURISM)

*Effects and eye witness account destruction, death, and radiation poisoning

*Dr. Michihiko Hachiya and his wife Yaeko (621-624)

*Truman: “If they do not now accept our terms they may expect a rain of

ruin from the air, the like of which has never been seen on this earth.” (page

625)

*Confusion: 2nd Bombing was planned for Kokura on 8.11.1945, but bad

weather bumped it up to 8.9.1945. Tibbets had handed commander control

to Sweeney…who flew Fred Bock’s Bockscar and FB flew Sweeney’s The

Great Artiste because it still had intricate scientific equipment in it. Even

William L. Laurence of NY Times got it wrong stating Sweeney dropped it

(“Fat Man”/plutonium) out of The Great Ariste even though WLL was in that

plane!

Chapter 22: Victory (VJ Day to follow VE Day)

A. The Forgotten Bomb

*The B-29 Bockscar, flown by Chuck Sweeney, dropped Fat Man, a

plutonium bomb on Nagasaki. Unlike lift off and return of Enola Gay, there

was no fanfare.

*Mission was a near disaster because of a series of mistakes and issues that

almost prevented it and ruined the return, landing, and careers of the

airmen.

*Fat Man was 10’ 8” long and 5’ wide. It weighed 10,300 pounds. Named

after WC.

*Fiasco in rendezvous (3rd plane at right location, but wrong elevation)…3

passes @ Kokura…drop at Nagasaki (Norden Bombsight)

*Mushroom cloud to almost 60K feet high, but 1.5 miles off target and at an

industry

*Landed on Okinawa with 7 gallons of fuel left…chewed out by LeMay…

covered up this fiasco.

*W double atomic bombings and a Soviet Declaration of War and invasion of

Manchuria, Emperor Hirohito eventually accepted Potsdam Declaration

surrender terms.

*Total losses of life in WWII: 60M (40M civilians), 25M Russians, 15M

Chinese, 6M Poles, 4M Germans, 2M Japanese. Yugoslavians 2M. (best

estimates)

*”Millions of innocents died in calculated acts of violence and annihilation…The Germans, the Russians in Germany [and Poland], and the Japanese in China murdered political and racial enemies in staggering numbers. To defeat fascist and fascist-style regimes, the Allies lost twice as many fighting men as the Axis, among them 409,399 Americans. It was too much death to contemplate, too much savagery, and suffering…for those who had seen the face of battle and been in the camps and under bombs and had lives—there was a sense of immense relief. They had survived the greatest explosion of violence in human history, a war so terrible that even the atomic bomb was seen by some as an insurance of deliverance.” (page 640).

*Without the atomic bombs, LeMay would have scorched Japan to

NOTHING.

*Author Donald L. Miller’s dad served in the Army Air Corps. He said: “Think of the survivors of the German death camps cheering our troops,” he wrote his wife, “and then think of Nagasaki. The war was insane but we had to fight it—and to the finish. No regrets.” (Page 642)

B. Liberation

*Although Emperor Hirohito spoke, for the first time ever on the radio, of

Japan’s surrender on August 15th, many POWs didn’t believe it. Rescue

missions in between August 28 and September 2 nd/ official signing of

surrender document day.

*Commander Harold Stassen, under Admiral Bull Halsey, liberated

American POWS in Tokyo/etc like “Hap” Halloran and Robert

Goldsworthy.

*General Jonathan Wainwright rescued (return 4 days earlier by

Soviets from Manchuria POW camp). For post-Bataan Death March

loss of Corregidor Island in Philippines back in 1942, he feared

disgrace, but MacArthur embraced him and promised command when

he wanted it. In fact, on the USS Missouri on September 2nd 1945,

MacArthur posted JW and AE Percival (British Commanding General

of Singapore when it fell to Japanese) in positions of honor and gave

them the pens used to sign the surrender document. After signing,

MacArthur offered a few key remarks.

*Tibbets and Sweeney had no regrets, not racist, or particular hatred of

Japanese people...just love their leadership, government, society, and did

their duties: end war ASAP. (Page 646-647)

C. “I Remember The War”

*Ray “Hap” Halloran’s return to home, emotional issues, and return trips to

Japan helped.

*Hardships of Robert Crichton. He never could bring himself to finish his

memoir of The War.

BBC Legacy of WWII