HIST 296 Notes PDF

Introduction →Consequences of WWII, around 60 million died, the winning side suffered greater casualties (China at 20 million and the Soviet Union at 27 million). British and French empires were leading the economy, after WWII new powers emerged, the United States and the Soviet Union. Warfare trans...

Introduction →Consequences of WWII, around 60 million died, the winning side suffered greater casualties (China at 20 million and the Soviet Union at 27 million). British and French empires were leading the economy, after WWII new powers emerged, the United States and the Soviet Union. Warfare transforms, the end of the war is more violent than the beginning. Development of nuclear warfare, development of rockets, and atomic bombs, creates no time to mobilize. Leading to the “permanent mobilization.” →Major themes: Empire, mobility, ‘rhythms’ of the war (economic developments and battlefield events happen at different paces), oil, food. The Empire seeks to maintain the status quo as other nations search to compete (Japan, Germany, Italy). Mobility over land and sea (e.g: 1940, German troops defeat France on the coastline, cannot reach Britain, U.S transports soldiers and equipment over the Atlantic Ocean, moving across the Pacific to get to the mainlands of Japan, the Japanese invade Asia and the Pacific). Rhythms (e.g: developing factories separately). Who has oil, who wants it, and who can get it (e.g: Japan goes to war in 1941 with the U.S and Britain because of oil). Food (Germany invaded the Soviet Union for resources in 1942, particularly food from Ukraine, Germany wants ‘living space’ for settlers). →Points to ponder: German Plan (General Plan East, death of 30 million Slavs, putting this into place in occupied Poland in 1939, ethnic cleansing). Auschwitz as an extermination and labor camp, usually would last 2-3 months. French troops advance to the frontline after Dunkirk. In the storming of Normandy the British and French got two beaches and Canada got Juno Beach. Operation Barbarossa is the largest land invasion undertaken; on the 22nd of June 1941, the Soviet Union was invaded driving in three different directions, massively destructive but not achieving in strategic terms. 1)​ Need to keep in mind the importance of turning statistics into people. 2)​ It is a global war, fighting across the world. To what extent was WWII an interrelated set of conflicts of remarkable scale? World War II or World Wars II? 3)​ Beware of mythical stories and reduce the War to stories of ‘genius’ generals. 4)​ What role did Canada and Canadians play in WWII? 5)​ Take care when reading maps of troops positions and dispositions. 6)​ No battle plan survives contact with the enemy. 7)​ How important was ideology? What extent was the War one of extermination? How central were beliefs about ‘race’? 8)​ To what extent was WWI a total war? 9)​ How were weapons and battlefields similar to WWI, how did they change? What is appropriate to target and what is not?  10)​ Were the allies sure to win because they could bring more soldiers and greater material sources to the fight? The Paris Treaties and their Legacies →Questions: Why does one side defeat another side in a war? What signals the end of a war? Why does one side surrender? Typically one side decides that the country is too devastated to continue. At the end of WWII political structure was completely transformed in Germany, Italy and Japan. Why do they adopt this position that they will fight until the bitter end unlike WWI? →WWI began with the grand duke Ferdinand and his wife in Sarajevo by the Black Hand. Austria-Hungary sends an ultimatum to Serbia, there are alliances and other complications and it erupts into WWI. Begins on July 28 1914 to November 11 1918. The central powers are Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire. The allied powers are France, Great Britain, Russia, Italy, Japan, Romania and the U.S. There is an invasion of France by Germany beginning almost immediately going through Belgium with the idea to take Paris. This fails and the front line established early on remains there for a number of years. →On the Western Front, the battlefield consists of trench warfare. In 1917 Russia fundamentally collapsed, the Bolshevik Revolution occurred—the claim was to end the war and have enough bread for all. The German Reich also collapsed, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire, there is a lot of instability politically. In the east Germany imposed on the Bolshevik government with the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in March 1918. It removed 25% of the Russian population, 35% of the grain producing region, 89% of the coal mines were removed, 26% of industry as well. →The U.S entered the war in April 1917, the long telegram. There were issues with unrestricted submarines and u-boats. There is the promise of vast numbers of American troops which changed the fronts. →Germany has settled things in the east with Russia and focused on the west. They try to defeat the allies before the Americans show up. There are a number of defenses launched, making some advances, but they are not sufficient enough and suffer enormous losses. By the late summer of 1918 things were bleak for the German Army. Tanks and aircraft are being produced. On the 8th of August there is an advance of 18km, the Germans are pushed back. German troops are also ready to surrender by this point, there are food shortages, civilian unrest. →On October 3, 1918, Paul von Hindenburg wrote that “in these circumstances it is imperative to stop the fighting in order to spare the German people and their allies unnecessary sacrifices.” There were strikes in 1916 in Berlin against the war, in January 1918 there was another one with about a million workers striking. The armistice line is drawn by the Germans and there are no enemy troops on German soil. It gives rise to the “stab in the back” myth, the claim that Germany had not really been defeated militarily, instead claiming that German politicians and Jewish-Bolsheviks (socialists, etc) had stabbed Germany in the back. Hindenburg explicitly said that they had been defeated, but then advocated this myth. Ludendorff also thought this but did the same. →There is pressure on politicians to create a peace treaty. Troops had to linger, but wanted to go home. In March 1919 Canadians riot over this in Kinmel Camp, Wales. There is an effort to come to a treaty to satisfy the allies. At Versailles they look to come up with the peace treaty. Wanting reparations and for Germany to not repeat this. The German Empire proclaimed at the end of the Franco-Prussian war, Germany was established in 1871. Prince William I is proclaimed the German Emperor at Versaille in the Hall of Mirrors, and the French use this as a sort of stab at Germany. Paris Treaties Pt 2 Wilson’s Fourteen Points →The start of the World War begins when Poland is invaded on September 1, 1939. Maudsley starts with Japan in China, we are taking the stance that it is a regional war. Once the French and British Empires engage, it turns into a global conflict. WWI begins in 1914, the U.S enters in 1917 on the side of the allies, Germany defeats Russia in 1917. The fighting is focused on the Western Front, Germany tries to defeat allies in the west before Americans can affect things. By 1918 there were a quarter million Americans coming per month. The German Empire collapses by October/November. →Wilson gives a speech in January 1919, Germans reject the terms so the war continues. Main terms are: decreasing armaments among all nations, Belgium to be evacuated and restored, return of Alsace-Lorraine regions and all French territories, create an independent Polish state and create the League of Nations. There are five Paris treaties, Versailles, Saint Germain, Trianon (Hungary, June 1920), Neuilly, and Sevres. Germans want to negotiate but it's either sign or move troops in. Hindenburg sees no way out so they sign. Key Terms of the Treaty →This is called the “diktat” by German politicians. The allies see Germany as the aggressor, they devastated Belgium and Northern France, and did so in the past as well. Military constraints are put on Germany, they cannot have more than 100,000 troops, territory was removed, democratic regimes were established in Eastern Europe, German army is not allowed u-boats, an air force, or tanks. Germany also has to pay reparations to France and Belgium in the War Guilt Clause. Poland did not exist before WWI, between Russia, Prussia and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but it is newly established. The Rhineland is demilitarized. Germany deeply resents these actions. Germany is no longer an empire, there are enormous political consequences, some of Russia is taken into the hands of the Poles. The Polish Corridor forms. European Security Concerns →France is not looking to be invaded again as well as receive compensation. Britain wants to return the international situation to what it was before the war, with free trade and movement of goods. They do not want anymore alliances with Europe, do not want to be involved in the war, the U.S also goes into isolation. The Soviet Union formed by 1921 and wants to export revolution, they see capitalist powers as threats. Germany has a strident opposition to Versailles, there is hyperinflation (especially bad in 1923) and currency is destroyed. German politics become more radical on the left and right, there is a fragile democratic regime (Weimar Republic) many people want this gone. Does Versailles make war inevitable? Was it a “Thirty Years War.” Events in the late 1920s caused this, especially the Great Depression and stock market crash. Invading Poland →September 1, 1939. Brings Britain and France into war with Germany. Why have things come to this? Looking broadly, the international order is being challenged. The international system is based on democracy, self-determination with minorities, the League of Nations should play an important role, and gives a dominant position to Britain and France. Britain and France have both extended their empires a bit. The French are ruling Vietnam and French Indo-China. →In 1931, Japanese troops occupied Manchuria. By 1923 Mussolini was in government, he would like to recreate the Roman Empire. Japan wants to expand its empire, Italy wants to create one, and Germany wants an empire in the east, all are inherently expansionist. Hitler came to power in 1933, Germany was the most industrialized and modern, and therefore seen as the biggest threat. Adolf Hitler →Father is a customs officer, born in Austria, wanted to be an architect/artist but was rejected. Joined the German army in 1914, his wartime experiences are very important for determining his cause. When Germany surrenders he has no idea what to do. He stays in the army for a period, not the offshoots. He was involved in the fighting of WWI and was wounded three times, by the end in hospital as he had been blinded by a gas attack. He was a regimental runner, carrying orders to the front line. German Turmoil →Attempted revolution from the left, Hitler was in Munich at the time. There are food shortages, not clear whether it is British blockades, warships stopping goods. There are two communist uprisings in Munich. Hitler is sent in 1919 as an intelligence officer to take a look at the German Workers Party at their meeting. He goes to the meeting, meant to be a fly on the wall, he strongly objects to something that someone says and ends up joining the party and becomes its leader by 1921. It Became known as the NSDAP. It is anti-communist and capitalist as it is a socialist party, as well as anti-Jewish. Strand of socialist thinking ends in the 1930 as the socialists of the party are executed. Strongly opposed to liberal democracy. He became a strong orator in beer halls, it was part of the political culture to listen to speeches. Fall of the German Reich →Unsatisfied powers: Germany, Italy and Japan. The threat that Britain and the U.S see comes from Germany. Hitler goes to Berlin to see Capp, but he wants nothing to do with Bavaria–he goes forth with his coup but it only lasts a couple of days before it falls. Munich is the home of the Nazi Party, many right-wing groups gathered here (e.g: German Worker’s Party which Hitler comes to lead, NSDAP). →The party is stridently nationalist and they despise Versailles. They opposed international capitalism and communism. Vehemently anti-jewish. By 1923 the party had over 50,000 members, drawing large crowds in beer cellars. Hitlers main attribute at this point is his oratory, there was no radio at this point (relying on the newspaper and pamphlets). Men, women, and a wide audience of people are enjoying Hitler’s speeches, not just soldiers. This leads to the beer hall putsch. The three main figures in the Bavarian political world are the head of the police, military, and government, who would become the German government. These figures met in a beer hall on the 8 of November 1923, they had gone a bit cold on a putsch. Hitler and Ludendorff want to proceed however. Munich’s Beer Hall Putsch →A group of Nazis are led into a beer hall, Hitler shoots two gunshots and says “the social revolution has begun” and the figures basically have to agree at the moment. Afterwards they organize against this. It is clear that Hitler and Ludendorff are gaining power. So they look to cease the post office, barracks, and then march to Berlin. The Nazis are marching to the Marianplatz. Four policemen die, fourteen Nazi’s die, they scatter and Hitler is picked up by the police and arrested to be put on trial. →Initially it was called the Ludendorff putsch. Ludendorff comes up with excuses to try to get out of charges. Hitler is sentenced for five years for treason, and only serves one. There are hundreds of visitors that see him incarcerated. During this he wrote “Mein Kampf”. During the trial he stood up and made speeches that the judge was quite sympathetic towards. 60,000 French troops go into the country because Germany has fallen behind on their reparation payments, he attacks them and Versailles, some of the troops are also African colonial troops. Electoral Support for the NSDAP →This varies a lot in the 1920s and early 1930s. Hitler does not launch a putsch again, instead wants to find power through legitimate electoral means to get rid of democracy. They do not hide this goal to the public. Hilter also decides that he cannot attempt these things without the support of the army and police. →1924: Nazi’s banned briefly after the putsch, winning 6.5% of the popular vote or 32 seats of 472. By December they have 14 seats. 1928: there has been a period of relative peace, winning 12 seats or 3% of the vote—begin to look irrelevant. 1930: 107 seats are won due to economic collapse on Wall Street or 18.3%. 1932: 37.3%, 230 seats out of 608, can legitimately claim that they are serious competitors in government. There is a president and a chancellor. By November 1932, they had 196 seats. The party seemed very simple, they would provide bread and work, the Versailles hatred also helps, as well as anti-communist rhetoric as people are scared that they will take their property. Nazi’s promise order in a chaotic society. They start to look more attractive than they did earlier. →They develop their propaganda for voting, electioneering towards women. Becomes unclear who can be the chancellor by 1932, the president is now Hindenburg, however he is now 85 and wants to avoid appointing Hitler as chancellor. Hitler is not even a German so he sees him as lower status, however German politicians want him appointed and say that he won’t really do anything as he will be contained. →With the Great Depression, there is a 232% increase in unemployment. A large number of people are desperately looking for a quick solution that the Nazi’s offer. Addressing Germany’s Military Leaders →German Army is the most important institution in all of Germany. Hitler needs their support. He wanted to reinstate conscription and did not tolerate any opposition, removing democracy as it is a “damaging cancer,” the desire for living space for the German people (belief is that there is living space in the east), and war with the Soviet Union. Very opportunistic, limited as they have limited troops, submarines, etc. Hitler wants to gear up the economy to support future wars. The Hossbach Memorandum (1937), Hitler lays out his ideas. Solidifying Power →There is a fire in the Reichstag, how this came about is a historical debate, most historians have decided that the fire was set by a communist/anarchist uninvolved. This was very convenient for the Nazis as they could use it as anti-communist propaganda, arresting communists and sending them to concentration camps. The following year Hindenburg dies, Hitler assumes overall control of the German state, a president and chancellor rolled into one, no one opposes him. →There are restrictions on personal liberty, free expression, right to assembly, privacy of postal and telegraphic communications, warrants for house searches etc. This was to prevent communism by their rhetoric. Hitler gets complete power over the army, however more people are in the SA than the army and there is concern. The Night of the Long Knives →A series of assassinations that all happen in one night (400) to anyone that opposed Hitler, the army is happy as the SA is gone. Key figures of the social part of the NSDAP are murdered in things such as factories. In March 1935, Hitler rejected the Versailles Treaty disarmament clauses and pursued ‘open’ rearmament. Germany Goes to War →Germany needs more living space and thus must go to war for it as it is not readily available. There are basic German tactics in international diplomacy which are to isolate a country diplomatically, and then exploit the (supposed) grievances of the ethnic Germans in that country (e.g: Poland, Czechoslovakia). ​ Austria →In March 1938 the ‘Anschluss’ occurred in which Austria was absorbed into greater Germany and no longer exists. There is a meeting between Hitler and the Austrian president, the idea is to have a plebiscite but the Germans send in troops over this and there is very little opposition to this. At the time of the Versailles Treaty, the Austrians would have joined them but the concerns of the allies was that Germany would become too strong with them together. There is a lot of sympathy for Austria joining with Germany, therefore. East Prussia has been divided as Danzig was administered by Germany and Poland. There are borders with the Soviet Union, Romania, and Hungary. →The next target was the Sudetenland which was part of Czechoslovakia. There were a significant number of ethnic Germans as the state was created at Versailles, the Nazi government claimed that Germans here were being badly treated, there was a crisis in 1938 as a result of German threats. Czechoslovak Crisis​ →Ostensible issue was the rights of the Sudeten Germans. Hitler wanted to have a small war against them to use the army, Britain wanted to avoid a war, except for a small group around Winston Churchill, they regarded Munich as a great betrayal as the interested parties were meeting there for a settlement. France is unwilling to act unless the British do. In Munich there was a conference in September 1938. →Benito Mussoloni, Hitler, the French Prime Minister and the British Prime Minister were present, there was no Czech or Soviet Union representative who had a military agreement with them. It was essentially a carve up. Stalin was not present or the President Benes. The Munich Agreement is signed. Chamberlain (British Prime Minister) thinks that he can handle Hitler. German Troops Enter Sudetenland →Get a very positive response when they enter. It is not just Germany that benefits as a result, there is some Czech territory given to Hungary and Poland. There is still an independent state, but it is less extensive. There were also intense Czech fortifications along the border with Germany, they had significant arms and manufacturing abilities, but this was lost and it became much weaker after the Munich agreement. ​ →In March 1939, German tanks entered Prague. The western part was part of the German state and the eastern part was a puppet state, this was important as Hitler broke his word. The British and French see this as very threatening and aggressive. They now view German expansion as a threat to their interests and the existing international order. Hitler also wants to seize control of Poland. Earlier, German Polish relations were reasonably friendly with a non-aggression pact in 1934, but five years later they were not interested. ​ Poland →Multinational states formed out of territories reaching Germany, Austria and Russia. At one point it was the largest European state, at the end of the 18th century it was carved up. It disappeared as a political entity until 1918 when Poles took the lead and established independence. There is strong resentment towards them in Germany and the Soviet Union as they took their territory. It was a dictatorship as there was a military coup in 1926 with harsh anti-Jewish laws. In 1939 when Poland refused to become a German vassal state, Germany seized Danzig as the means to force a confrontation and insisted it be returned to Germany. The Poles do not want to be a vassal state which was the assumption of German policy makers, a satellite state, but they fought hard for their own state, they did not bend. On March 25, 1939, Hitler told Germany to prepare for all out war with Poland. ​ Nazi-Soviet Pact →The Nazis in Germany and Soviets had waged propaganda wars against each other, but in August 1939, the Nazi-Soviet pact was signed. Signed by German foreign minister Ribbentrop, there is a secret part of the agreement which is about the carve up of Easter and Northern Europe, most immediate point being that Germany will invade Poland, and the Soviet Union will as well to be divided between the two of them. The Germans do this to have some insurance in case of British and French aggression against them, as they do not want the Soviet Union to attack as well. The military force would buy too much. →The opposing forces of Poland were the Germans with 54 divisions (6 Panzer divisions), Poles had 41. Divisions include around 18,000 troops. Germans outnumber the Poles. Germans have 2,000 airplanes and Poles have 313. Germans have 15,000 tanks, Poles have 310. Polish training is somewhat outdated as well as the approach to warfare. Poles are intending to fight hard. →German invasion on the first of September 1939. Germans can come from a range of directions including East Prussia with the Polish corridor. On the 17th of September the Soviets invaded as well. Germans from the west and Soviets from the east. The Poles were simply outnumbered, and the invasion was settled by 2-3 weeks. German work on aircraft and tanks in the Soviet Union at this time. Germany was invading Poland with its ideological enemy. Hitler also expected the British and French to not declare war on the 3rd of September after an ultimatum. Blitzkrieg (Lightning War) →A war of quick penetration with tanks, combined with aircraft and mobile troops carried by trucks, motorized infantry, artillery. The Germans hardly use this term, instead Bewegungskrieg or the war of movement. It was aggressive and rapid operations, the approach of linking all of the arms together was a “all arms approach.” However, the war with Poland is not an example of this which occurs with France. The actions of the army and the airforce were not very well coordinated. There was little support of the German Army by the airforce, the concern being that they would attack their own troops not the Polish troops, and they had a shortage in supplies. If it had gone on for a couple more weeks the problems would have been very serious. →20% of the German army is motorized but 80% is marching. Their guns and equipment are transported by horses. That is the reality throughout WWII. Poland: 70,000 killed, 133,000 wounded, 700,000 taken prisoner, 217,000 to the Soviet Union. Germany: 11,000 killed. Brest-Litovsk on the 22nd of September gave a salute. Consequences for Poland →Absolutely devastated, 6 million died or one fifth of the population. There are tens of massacres of civilians and troops. Germany is looking at the population as slave labor for them, many Polish priests, teachers, police, academics, are executed as there is a class war. It is devastating for Poland. Also in 1940, Hitler was concerned that there were British actions, he wanted to prevent Sweden exporting iron ore to Germany, Britain may invade Norway to stop this so they invaded first. Denmark was attacked and occupied as well, it was over in a few hours. By April 1940, troops were in Norway and Poland, but they wanted to invade France. The Changing Battlefield →In March 1935 Hitler rejected Versailles disarmament clauses and pursued ‘open’ rearmament. Germany would have an army of 36 divisions, plus building a range of weapons (a typical German infantry division in 1941 had close to 18,000 men). Germany built an air force, the Luftwaffe. →Italy challenges international order, Mussolini launches an unprovoked attack on Abyssinia, the only independent nation of Africa in October 1935, establishing what is basically a genocidal regime. Japan has also taken control of Manchuria. There are three unsatisfactory powers. Germany has not yet invaded anywhere, but it is preparing to, even if this is unclear to American and European policy makers. The 1930s can be seen as a new age of imperialism. The Italians look to recreate the Roman Empire, they want to establish colonies specifically in Africa. Japan had a considerable empire by 1931, in Korea and Manchuria. Germany, the long term aim, is to dominate Europe, looking to an empire in the east. →Germany and Britain signed a naval agreement in 1935, the German Navy would stay under 35% of British naval strength. This policy making was called appeasement. Making a settlement with Germany to agree to certain demands to keep the peace. Britain did not consult with France on this, the French regarded this as treachery. From this point on, Germany is on the march. The Rhineland was demilitarized, by 1936 German troops marched into this land. Territory was seized by Germany in Czechoslovakia, Austria-Hungary joined to create greater Germany in 1938. First Moves →The German troops march into the Rhineland, although very weak militarily. If there is any opposition from the French they were to go back. The French don’t want to act without the British, but they are disinterested and nothing happens. A civil war also erupts in Spain, Italy and Germany provide military support, German pilots and soldiers get experience fighting in Spain. German dive-bombers are being used. The Nazi’s are supporting General Franco who is effectively a fascist. →The great powers (Britain and France) are desperate to avoid a major conflict after WWI. The only people that would benefit from this conflict would be the Soviets, U.S, and Japan. They want to: 1.​ Rearm: ensure they could negotiate from a position of ‘defensive strength’ 2.​ Restore: more economic harmony, restore some of the damage done by the stock crash between the U.S, Britain, and France. 3.​ Appease: fashion a set of concessions to Hitler that will be sufficient to tie Germany into a long-term peace. → Germany pursues comparative respectability by hosting the 1936 Olympics. As well as showing off the German Pavilion at the Paris World’s Fair. They are not seen as pariah state at this point. Hossbach Memorandum →Who wrote it? When was it written? What was the audience? Why was it written? Reflecting on how context matters. Written by Colonel Hossbach who was an aid to Hitler, it is recording the main parts of the discussion that take place in the Reich Chancellery, this is a high level policy discussion. Picking out the most important elements of the discussion, a memorandum for the record. Hitler always has a thought that his life may be short, and describes this document as his last will and testament. Looks to expand the German racial community and needs more space. Germany’s survival seems dependent on getting more space, otherwise they will diminish culturally. If you are a senior Nazi, it is a world of struggle. If Germany is not winning, it is losing. →The aim is autarchy, having all one’s own resources and not participating in the world economy. This is a driving force for Japan. According to Hitler, the great lesson of history is that expansion could only be achieved by breaking down resistance and taking risks, the attacker will always come up against a possessor. Germany’s problem could only be solved by means of force. →The memorandum has no grand planning, it instead raises opportunities. The first explicit German aggression is against Poland, the expectation is for Poland to become a satellite nation, but the Poles will resist. Fundamentally, there is war coming. →Germany and Japan, after their actions in the Pacific and Asia, will acquire vast territories, basically empires. It takes a long time for the allies to take them back. How are they occupying this territory so quickly? Waterloo 1815 →British, Prussian and Dutch troops fight against Napoleon’s French troops. They are using muskets and cannons, the fighting is very personal. There is a lot of smoke as well, and it gives locations away immediately. In the early 19th century, you had to concentrate forces to fire. A line of infantrymen were to fire at the same time to carry a greater weight, with multiple lines. It’s over in one day. 1 in 4 died in the coalition forces, the French even worse, the level of casualties was large. Russo-Japan War →We now see trenches that are quite elaborate. There is a massive shift in firearms, the typical musket was accurate from 30-50 yards, now with a rifle one could fire 20-30 times a minute with 1,000-1,5000 yards. A battalion of 1,000 men could fire 200,000 shots. Machine guns are also developed. The British Vickers machine gun could fire 250-300 rounds per minute, it was auto-cooling so you could shoot as long as you had ammunition. It would fire 250-300 rounds per minute, a German MG 08 could fire 500 per minute. →Artillery is more lethal, packing high explosives, shells would explode into shrapnel. You could fire 15 rounds a minute with a French 75 mm gun. The recoil system absorbed the recoil so you did not have to reposition and could fire again immediately. Later in the war, aircraft would tell people how accurately they were firing, this was called ‘spotting’. There were crewed radios in use. The defensive dominates for much of WWI, the trench systems are extremely difficult to break through. Artillery was used to try to destroy enemy barbed wire. →Newfoundland Regiment fought at the battle of the Somme. They were the second wave with 752 of them. The next day at roll call there were 56 left, the German machine gunners had made it to their trenches and were sweeping. In August 1914, 27,000 French troops died on a single day. By 1918 people had figured it out. Invasion of France →23 of June 1940, the German invasion of France began on the tenth of May. German efforts to defeat the French Army in WWI failed, but it developed into a decisive campaign in WWII. The French Army is seen as the greatest effort against the Germans. Policy makers in Washington D.C are shocked because they believed that the French would hold, as well as to Stalin–he signed the non aggression pact hoping they would fight with the British and French and cripple eachother so he could pick up the pieces. Germany winning in six weeks was unprecedented. Germany and the Polish Campaign →Not a triumph of military supermen, lingering effects of WWII propaganda and writings of German generals. It is also very different to what was seen with the invasion of Poland, which was portrayed (at the time) as Blitzkrieg, it was not, but rather a stumbling effort. In the Poland campaign, the German forces did not have enough supplies, if the war had gone one for a couple more weeks they would have been short of ammunition, the inspector general of the air force (Luftwaffe) said that the aircrews would have run out of bombs. Only the end of the Polish campaign saved the army and airforce from collapse. →Poland is defeated anyway. Britain and France have declared war, Hitler wants to attack France as fast as possible, but it seems very daunting (training troops, getting supplies), the weather turns and the invasion is delayed. How are the Allies to win the war? They have more supplies and resources. They began to blockade Germany, but the Nazi-Soviet pact changes the balance as they were allowed to trade. Germany is getting oil supplies from the Soviet Union, when they would generally get it from Romania. Britain and France have more productive economies than Germany, so they fight a defensive war for a period to build up forces, expect the Germans to attack and then grind out the war. →The German plan is much different from this, going back to Prussia. The Prussian way of war (since they were always short of resources), was to win the war quickly, surrounding the opposing army and destroying it. Fight a rapid war, front load it. It blocks supplies when surrounded. Period of “Phony” War →Britain and France outproduced Germany, getting supplies from the U.S In September 1939 and in May 1940, there was a phony war. There is no fighting going on, Germany is training its forces, recovering tanks, planes, etc. France could have done well if they invaded Germany while forces were on the Eastern Front, but it was not the strategy they were to go for. France also built up very strong fortifications to ensure Germany could not invade France along a section of the border, this was called a “maginot line.” This works as the Germans do not attack in this direction as it would have been very difficult to break through. →The allies have more troops, airplanes, artillery, etc. However, the Allies have not coordinated well. There are French, Dutch, and Belgian troops that have not worked together, Belgium wants to stay neutral like how Holland did in WWI–being left alone. It looks like the Allies were leading in manpower. →In WWI the Schlieffen Moltke Plan was used. The idea was to sweep around Paris and trap the main French army. Encircling the territory. In 1914, the troops were moving by foot and it was very demanding as an operation. In 1940 the “tip of the spear” was provided by Panzer forces. The bulk of the German army was marching with horse and cart, and then the Panzer forces gave the motorized cutting edge. The troops can move in trucks or halftracks, the artillery is carried forward, everyone is motorized so their speed is vastly increased. General Maurice Gamelin (Allied Commander) →He thinks that the Germans are going to repeat what they did in WWI, sweeping along the coastline and then the back. The Allied plan is to move British and French troops north to avoid this. There is an extension to send French troops to Holland as well if Germany invades there. The expectation was that the Germans would come through Belgium and troops would meet them there. →The Manstein Plan, the best German general, came up with the Sickle Cut plan. Germans invade Belgium drawing French and British troops north, but the main German force comes through the Arden forest, sweeping and trying to reach the channel. Then a part of the Allied army would be surrounded. This was a plan expected from the Germans looking at their military history. Manstein’s superiors reject him from bringing this up so often and promote him to get him out of their rank. Hitler hears about this, likes the plan, and the German Army shifts to the plan. →The conception is that it will improve their position, but not allow them to win the war. It would give them harbors for submarines and such to use against the British. To win militarily, success is earned by concentrating a greater weight of force than the enemy at a single point. There are thirty divisions coming into Holland and Belgium to get troops to come north. But forty four divisions were in the Ardennes. At this point they use Pervitin, an amphetamine. →On the tenth of May 1940, the invasion went through Belgium, Luxembourg, and France. As troops advanced into Belgium, refugees were moving south. The Germans have created a huge traffic jam going through the Ardennes. Most of the tank forces were through in three days, reaching the river. The Germans didn't need to bring artillery forward as they had dive bombers as a ‘flying artillery.’ Unlike Poland, there are communications between troops on the ground and the airforce. Radio was fundamental. In Poland, the air force had not played this role as they were afraid of bombing German troops. This is where the notion of “lightning warfare” came from. German Troops Cross the Meuse →This was done on May 13, 1940. By the next morning, tanks and trucks can cross due to bridges constructed overnight. Messages were sent via enigma machines over radio. Conservative commanders in German did not want to drive for the channel, they wanted infantry to catch up. But speed itself was a weapon, so he disobeyed orders and proceeded. The head of the German army in this section, allows him to do reconnaissance force, but the Panzer commanders do not do this, they drive for the coast without infantry—the Allies are acting too slowly to catch them. →On May 20 1940, Germans arrived at Abbeville. Effectively cutting off the French, British, and Belgian troops in the war. 80% of the army is moving like this. The halt order is said by General von Runstedt. Hitler is concerned about the gap between tanks and infantry, so he orders a two day halt. In effect the panzers do not move for three days. This gives the opportunity for British and French troops to get off of the beaches of Dunkirk. →The German army commander in chief, Brauchitsch, thought this was folly. However, they wanted to conserve the Panzers as there was still the French army in the south. The air force was supposed to break enemy resistance. The coast was an important factor, it was a barrier. In the Soviet Union these barriers do not exist. A total of around 340,000 troops were evacuated. By the fourth of June the Germans had taken Dunkirk. Fall of France and Occupation →The last day of evacuation at Dunkirk is the 4th of June. The Germans launch a major assault on the 5th, driving south. The French have lost 61 divisions in the north, there are still 64 in the south, but they are up against the German army of 142 divisions, outnumbering them by 2 to 1. By this point the element of surprise is gone, both the British and French know what is coming, but they are outnumbered, they are also not defending as well. German troops reach Paris on the 14th of June. The commander withdraws. →Italy declares war on France on the 10th of June, attacking in the south as well. The French surrendered on the 22nd of June, 1940. The railway car is the same one that the Germans surrendered in 1918. Fundamentally, the fighting continued well after Germans crossed the river, but the campaign was over within 4-5 days. Vichy France →Marshal Petain became the Prime Minister of France, becoming a dictator of sorts. The establishment of Vichy France in the south, which was run by the French. The Germans are happy here, much different than Poland, they are content with the French running this zone. Petain talks of a moral rebirth of the nation with democracy coming to an end, senate voted for him to have full power. Vichy turns over French Jews to the Germans later. Petain is tried for treason at the end of the war. Petain believed that France had lost its way in the 1930 and this was an opportunity for rebirth. Poland essentially disappears, with many killed and displaced, or being used for slave labor. Why was France Defeated So Quickly? →Commanders of the French army were taken by surprise and stunned, but the army fought very hard, but they were simply outnumbered. Has the nation become pacifist? They still fought very hard. Are German mechanization, specifically tanks, superior? French tanks, generally, were better—tanks usually fight in groups however, and German tanks had radios, the French tanks did not. Commanders in the tanks would wave different flags, they do not have coordinated operations. →The Allies outnumbered the Germans in terms of tanks and artillery. The French Char B was supposed to be the best, against the German Mark III it was more powerful. In Somme, it was held by both the French and Germans for a few days, a Char B destroyed a bunch of German tanks, it was hit 144 times but the armor held, most vulnerable on the back. →Commanders also mattered, the German commanders were generally forward, even if commanding a Panzer division of 200 tanks with motorized infantry and artillery. General Rommel and Guderian, even senior German commanders saw what was going on and communicated by radio with headquarters forwardly. On the 14th of May, the German tanks crossed the river and Guderian talked to Von Runstedt. The Commanders of Britain and France were too slow and could not come to a firm plan. →The defeat of France is a military defeat, the Manstein Plan has paid off. They were able to drive rapidly across France, split the Allies into two, had radios in all of their tanks, invented the Panzer division, and got through the Ardennes relatively easily. The times when the Germans just failed to do something, they were too slow. Motorized artillery, infantry, and anti-tank weapons, and the speed helped to defeat the Allies. This is a German way of war, “war of maneuver.” The Germans had also had a practice run with the invasion of Poland. The British and French did not. Allies missed the traffic jam in the Ardennes, breakthrough at Sedan and did not counterattack Panzer divisions as they drove through the coast. →Another factor was that the German Army had officers at all levels using their initiative; it is better to execute a poor plan rapidly than a good plan slowly. The British and French Army do not operate this way, it is very rigid. Germans were often portrayed as robotic, as their actions were designed to allow commanders at all levels to show good judgment, the expectation is that the person on the ground sees what is going on and therefore can decide the best course of action. “Think for yourself.” What is Britain To Do? →Their strategic position was gone with the fall of France. Would they seek terms with Germany? On the 10th of May, the Prime Minister Chamberlin was replaced by Winston Churchill. The 25-28th of May things are looking very bleak. Churchill’s foreign secretary was Halifax, and he wanted to try to negotiate with the Germans via Mussolini as things were looking hopeless. Churchill was opposed to any terms at all. The evacuation from Dunkirk was getting underway at this time though, and the idea of there being more troops is on the precipice. A debate over three days leads them to the conclusion to not discuss terms. On the 28th of May he said “we shall go on and we shall fight it out here, or elsewhere.” →He also gives a speech when the Dunkirk evacuation occurs. The British public hear of these speeches through a speaker impersonating him. Mers-el-Kebir →What if the Germans take command of the French fleet? The British decided to sink it in Algeria. On July 3, 1940, they were asked to surrender their fleet, there was refusal and over 1,000 Frenchmen were killed. This impresses the U.S however, it seems to not be a waste that they are sending supplies. The British have dominion and empire support, they are not fighting alone. Looking to surround Britain via submarines to block food and bombings, they want to launch an invasion. Germany is not a great naval power however, the British have their own Maginot Line called the English Channel. Germany has never done an amphibious operation like the Japanese for example. →Hitler is baffled that the British are continuing to fight. With his service chiefs, he directs a landing operation against Britain. “The English Air Force must be reduced…unable to produce any significant attack across the German crossing.” Hitler had a “Last Appeal to Reason” speech on July 19, 1940, it was translated to English and pamphlets were dropped over the country. Operation Sealion →Involved 250,000 troops, 60,000 horses, 35,000 vehicles, landing on a 200 mile front. Putting mines in certain places to try to keep the British at bay. Germany lost a good chunk of their navy in Norway. The idea of Rhine Barges was adapted, put into the English channel. Britain’s Battle →Germany sees it as fundamental to have command of the air as the British air force could attack barges. Without command of the air it becomes very risky. The first step is to destroy the British Royal Air Force, then transfer efforts to economic targets, terror assaults on cities to convince the population to make peace, then invade after that. This led to the largest air battle, known as “The Battle of Britain” as an air war, it was a battle of attrition. One side wears out their other or one side keeps going and the other decides it is not worth it (e.g: Russian invasion of Ukraine). There is no decisive moment. In mid July 1940, Germany had 1,600 aircraft bombers and 1,100 fighters. The British have 700 Hurricanes and Spitfires. Key Issues →The qualities of the fighters are comparable. The British have an advantage in that if they are shot down, the pilot can bail out of their aircraft with a parachute. They land on British territory. If you are a German pilot, you will be captured. Britain also has a radar system that gives them a definite edge in managing the battle. They have access to Ultra intelligence information, not reading the German codes at this point, but they can do traffic analysis which is looking at the volume of radio traffic and trying to pinpoint forces. A major event occurs on the 7th of September when they bomb London and other cities. →Trying to inflict a price on the Germans whenever they launch a bombing attack. The Germans would like big air battles, but the British are looking to avoid this. An issue with the management of the battle, Germans have radar but it’s not as sophisticated as the British system. A system involves people and machines, working together. Churchill talks of how they were “fused together into a…elaborate instrument.” The key German innovation are Panzer divisions. →The British have the Dowding system, named after the Air Chief Marshal. It was a processing system that then passed information down. The basic idea of radar was having towers that transmit radio waves that hit German planes that bounce back and are processed by receivers along with people watching on the ground with binoculars as a backup. They look at the height and direction, etc, which is sent to a filter center in a bunker underground. From the filter center the information is sent to the lower levels to reach an air field, someone there rings a bell and they take off, knowing where they go, the height, and the amount of planes there were. Chain Home Radar →Being a radar operator was a skilled occupation as it is hard to tell the altitude of aircraft. There were plotting tables to map out where crafts were, it was a three dimensional thing. The British were typically 20 minutes ahead. Bentley Priory was in charge of the HQs for fighter command. If the British did not have this, pilots would have been on patrol looking for enemy airplanes, it was tiring and used fuel. →The radar system allowed for pilots to be on the ground and then scramble. They typically flew a couple of missions a day as there was not enough fuel to fly all day. A fifth of the pilots were not British, there were 145 Polish pilots, over 100 Canadians, but one in five died. William McKnight graduated from UofA, graduating medical school and then leaving to join the airforce, flying a Hurricane. He flew in France and over Dunkirk to protect Allied troops evacuating, in four days he shot down six German airplanes, ultimately shooting 17. It was typical for fighters to be outnumbered. He was offered to teach back home after going on a number of missions, but he did not want to do it–feeling a link to his comrades and commitment. German and British Air Campaigns →The German Campaign does not have a clear focus, the goals are continually shifting, ideas of blockade, forcing a political settlement and preparing for an invasion were there, but they weren’t getting rid of radar stations. In July 1940 there were attacks on ships in the English channel. The main phases were the 13th of August - 6th of September as on the 7th there was a shift of large daylight and night attacks against London. The Stuka dive bombers proved too slow flying over Britain, so many were shot down that they were withdrawn from the battle. Bomber crews accidentally dropped bombs on London, the British see this as a provocation and want to respond, so they bomb Berlin. It was militarily ineffective, but it happened over four nights. →There is retaliation against the British attacks on Berlin, so the switch to bombing London. It was believed in the 30s that if you brought enough arial power to bomb a city, the civilians would panic and demand peace, the Germans are experimenting with this notion. Terror bombing on a large scale to incite negotiation. This does not pan out, the most intense fighting was on the 15th of September 1940, a series of attacks on London. 60 German airplanes are shot down and Operation Sealion is called off and the invasion is gone, they do not have air supremacy. →It was an experiment to see if the air weapon would work. The attacks on London are known as the Blitz and there are 59 consecutive attacks at night. This was a mistake, the air weapon is not sufficient to bring an end to the fighting. The German air force was designed to support the German Army, they instead needed to try strategic bombing. Germany had a tactical air force, the British developed a strategic bombing force, by 1943 they attacked Hamburg and the British attacks aided by the U.S in the day. Significance of the Battle of Britain →No invasion in 1940. The British defeated the German force by not losing. This is the same with Vietnam and the states. The Germans have withdrawn and it is a major setback. Even in July 1940, before the battle had picked up in intensity, the commander in Chief of the German Army talked to Hitler about invading the Soviet Union, he began to get orders for the German military to begin planning this. Hitler does not understand why the British continue to fight as they could not take back land. He believes that the British are hanging on as they see salvation in the form of the U.S and the Soviet Union, if they are defeated the hope is gone for the British. Germany will invade the Soviet Union in part to defeat Britain. The Asia Pacific War →Serious fighting began in China in 1937, fighting them until they surrendered in 1945. In the Pacific theater, there are about 25 million deaths, about 6 million are combatants, but the majority are civilians. Of that total, 1 million Japanese troops and civilians will die. China saw 15 million deaths. Hitler is directly responsible for 10,000 deaths, Stalin 8 million, by September 1, 1939, 4 million have died. By the 22nd of June, Hitler had caused 600,000 deaths, by this point 7 million Chinese civilians had died. The losses were staggering, and the Chinese government contends that the numbers are even higher. It was an extremely brutal and long running war. Invasion of China 1937 and the Attack on Pearl Harbor →Hitler declares war on the U.S a few days after Pearl Harbor, the Soviet Union and Germany are at war as well. The Japanese didn't only attack Pearl Harbor, but they launched invasions in the Dutch East Indies and Malaya. The conflict escalates enormously. Japan: The Meiji Restoration (1862-1912) →The modernization of Japan has begun. The emperor returns after shogun rule, western technology and ideologies have been adopted. Political leaders are eyeing resources in China. Modernization is occurring as Japan saw how China was carved up by western imperial powers (or at least had to grant trade concessions). The Opium Wars forced the Chinese to allow an opium trade and in 1911 the Qing Dynasty fell and warlords were leading different regions of China. Japan is modernizing and looking to expand its empire. →The main islands were in the empire as well as Korea and Taiwan by 1914. They got some islands in the Pacific because they were on the side of the allies in WWI and allied with the British in 1902, but this went away in 1920. Various concessions were obtained in China as well for trade. Japan and WWI →The outcome of this war was regarded as unsatisfactory; they got some German colonies in the Pacific but had aimed for more. A group of radical nationalists grew in power in the 20s and 30s, saying that Japan had been taken advantage of, similar to Italy. Also, at Versailles, the Japanese had introduced the Racial Equality Clause, but it was rejected. This was principally due to the U.S, which was a highly segregated society at the time, there were Black troops at the time but they were still separated, the same goes in WWII. There was also mistreatment of Japanese immigrants in the U.S, there was segregation of white and asian children in San Francisco school and all immigration from Japan was banned at one point. There was then a Washington Conference, leading to the Nine Power Treaty. Japan has now signed a navy that is no more than 60% of Britain’s navy. They agree to “...respect the sovereignty, the independence, and the territorial and administrative integrity of China.” →There is now political instability in Japan, extreme nationalism takes root with a readiness to adopt violent solutions. There is an ambivalence to modern developments, some leaders in the navy and army are interested in the weapons, and others are more concerned with the morale of troops. There is no one in Japan like Hitler or Mussolini, from this a semi-chaotic system emerged. Japan was an unsatisfied power. Japan does not have oil, grow enough food to feed the population, as well as other shortages. They could either expand their empire, or establish trade. →There are tensions between the Navy and Army in Japan, the army thinks that they will be engaged in a war with the Soviet Union as a natural enemy. The Navy is interested in going south, moving into South-East Asia. Two coups were attempted in the 30s (1934 and 36). Fundamentally, the end of parliamentary power ended and it was transferred to the military. Manchuria →Territory is seized by the Japanese here. It was a source of foodstuffs, it was under the control of a war lord, there are members of the army in Manchuria because of concessions China was forced to make. Japanese Army officers arrange for a confrontation with the war lord, which led to a full scale invasion. The officers that maneuver this were not directed by those in Tokyo to do this, it was their own initiative. It became known as Manchuko. The Japanese Prime Minister did not want this, he wanted to negotiate, thus he was assassinated by military officers. →In 1932 there was a Cabinet of National Unity. Decision making tends to be slightly chaotic, but the power resides with senior military officials. A mixture of bureaucrats and military leaders. In the Liaison Conferences, foreign policy was decided by senior military officials, they held the most power in society. Second Sino-Japanese War →Chinese officials decide to get rid of foreign influence and Chiang Kai Chek leads Chinese nationalist into a confrontation with Japanese troops on the Marco Polo Bridge in Beijing, and the skirmish turns into a full war. The CCP was also in China and so the Japanese were also fighting them, the majority was conducted by the nationalists however. The Japanese Army is fighting in China when the assumption is that they will be fighting the Soviets. →In 1937 there was a major escalation in Shanghai. This was the start of loss of life in China, on average 5,000 were killed everyday for the next eight years. This was urban warfare on an enormous scale (475,000 Chinese troops and 250,000 Japanese troops). This continues for two and a half months. The Soviet Union was funding and providing materials for the Chinese nationalists (not the communists) to try to weaken the Japanese. Nanjing →The Japanese prevail and move to the capital of Nanjing. There is little fighting here, but there were massacres as civilians and troops were killed with women raped. The death toll was around 100,000-300,000, the massacres continued for weeks. By 1939 there was a stalemate. Many of the main cities and ports had been taken by the Japanese, but they had not been able to get an unambiguous victory and the communists and nationalists were still fighting against them. The central concern for Japan, until their surrender, was China. →Japan wants to create a ‘new order’. Japan is seeking to dominate Asia. By 1942, Japan had a huge empire, greater than Germany. The greater east asia co-prosperity sphere, looking to get rid of the Dutch. What was realized in these countries is that if the Dutch got rid of then the Japanese would invade. The troop losses by the end of 1941 (China 1 million and Japan 320,000). It was a complex political relationship, Japan tried to establish a puppet government in Nanjing. The Japanese government and military can’t agree on what they are trying to achieve, so there is a stalemate and little politics. →There was always a fear in the Soviet Union that they could be attacked by Japan. The Soviet Union was also very dangerous, Japan was fascist and did not think they could co-exist with a communist state. Japan had signed in 1936 the Anti-Comintern Pact with Germany that was a joint coalition against the Soviet Union. Siberia could provide resources. Soviet pilots also assisted in the war. There was a disputed border with Mongolia and Manchuria, there were many battles over this as Khalkhin Gol involved over 100,000 troops. By 1941 there was a Treaty of Neutrality, though they never fully trusted each other. The Tripartite Pact was signed September 1940, with Germany, Italy, and Japan—though they never closely cooperated. The Japanese do not tell Hitler that they are going to attack Pearl Harbor. The Germans don’t tell the Japanese they are invading the Soviet Union. More on the Pacific Theater Tripartite Pact →Also known as the Berlin-Rome-Tokyo axis. The Japanese foreign minister a couple months before claimed that totalitarianism would win over democracy, stating that the two could not coexist as ideologies or economic systems. The Japanese have taken Manchukuo, Taiwan, various Pacific islands (with Saipan playing a major role later on) and certain cities in China after the Marco Polo Bridge Battle. →The U.S was increasingly disturbed by Japan taking these territories, some 30% of Japanese exports go to the U.S and 40% of U.S exports go to Japan—they are dependent on each other economically. By 1940 there was a stalemate in the war with China, the Japanese army is better equipped and trained so the Chinese nationalists were doing hit and run tactics instead. The Japanese tried to defeat the nationalist party, taking the capital, attacking the economy and using terror attacks with strategic bombing, and now they try to block aid reaching Chinese nationalist forces. →One source of supplies is coming via French Indo-China. It was a colonial nation, by this point Vichy troops were being sent, but they did not have the same military power as French troops before. Therefore, the Japanese sent troops into the North of Indo-China to stop supplies crossing the border. The U.S is angry at this. The key policy for them was the open door policy, allowing free trade in China and no foreign interference and establishments of colonies that can make concessions. Now, the two powers see a massive rise in tensions. The U.S takes economic action, restricting sales of oil and scrap metal for armaments, being meeting in Washington to see if an agreement can be made. Oil is fundamental, 94% of Japan's oil comes from outside of Japan, 80% coming from the U.S. →Japan then moves into Southern French Indo-China. Now, all exports of oil are under embargo. Japanese assets in the U.S are frozen as the moves into Indo-China are viewed as acts of aggression. A portion of the Japanese are ultra-nationalist and are vehemently opposed to surrender, if a policy maker was to propose backing out they might be assassinated. The Dutch East Indies are a major supplier of oil, they have little military resistance after being destroyed by the Germans. There is rubber in Malaya and oil in Burma as well. Japanese policy makers look to move south to get their resources themselves. However, there is a complication as the Philippines was in effect an American colony, along with Puerto Rico and Guam. If Japanese invasion forces moved south, they would have to pass American bases. →The Americans have a large fleet and Congress has been passing bills that show that the American navy will be larger than the Japanese by 1942. Some factions in the army believe that they should go into the Soviet Union from Manchukuo. What is Japan To Do? →In the Tripartite Pact in Article 3, they explicitly say that if the three powers were attacked by an outside power not involved in the war then all would have to help. There was a general imperial attitude of racial superiority, with Japan believing that they were superior to the Chinese. Moving south was also a display of imperial power. The U.S is distressed, they have the largest economy but there are still lingering effects of the Great Depression, they are looking to have a two ocean Navy. However, in the states there is anti-war sentiment that increased in 1941. Politically it seems impossible to declare war on Japan or Germany, public opinion is not aligned with this. The U.S is still supplying Britain with war weapons, food, etc. In late 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union and a billion dollars worth of aid was provided to the Soviet Union. Supplying over 200 million to nationalist China in terms of loans and direct support. The U.S administration is giving money to its allies but not declaring. →There is a rapidly changing situation in Europe with France falling and Britain is under a lot of pressure—their top priority is to not get invaded, not exactly supporting colonies. So the Japanese saw the weakened French and British colonies and saw opportunity. There was pressure from Germany for Japan to join in the fighting in 1941, and attack from the east into Siberia to make things more difficult. The Japanese resist this, and so on the 22nd of August, Hitler tells his generals that Japan is “weak, cowardly, irresolute…let us think of ourselves as masters.” The alliance was one of words not beings. Japan's main ally is Germany and Germany’s enemy is the Soviet Union, but had signed a pact—making an illogical arrangement. There was no meaningful cooperation between the two.If it looked like Germany was about to be victorious in the Soviet Union, then the Japanese may want to get in, but they never got there. Japan’s Decision →Decision is made to go south, not just attacking British, French, and Dutch colonies, but make sure that the U.S does not interfere, and thus attack the Philippines. And ensure the American fleet cannot interfere with these various actions. Ideally going south they can surround China and prevent supplies. →A new Japanese cabinet was formed on October 18, 1941. When General Tojo became the prime minister, he had been pressing for war. Prince Konoye had a conversation with Tojo, trying to stiffen Konoye’s resolve. Any other course of action is dishonorable, even if the chances of victory are limited it must be done. The architect of Pearl Harbor pressed hard for no war in the United States, he had attended Harvard and lived there. At that point Yamato looked at what gave them the best shot even though chances of victory were low. By the 5th of November negotiations soured, and they decided if there was no progress by the 29th of November then it would be war. →They wanted to put the American fleet out of action for six months with Pearl Harbor and the other conquests. The action against the American fleet was peripheral, they wanted the colonies in the south more. By the 1st of December, negotiations had failed. There was an Imperial Conference and the decisions were ratified. After the conference the invasion fleets were readied. The fleet attacking Pearl Harbor had left a couple days ago (November 26). American code breakers had broken the diplomatic code and knew at the very least that something was coming. Inconceivable that all of these attacks could be done simultaneously. They sail 275 miles north of Hawaii. The fleet was enormous with six aircraft carriers and well over 300 aircraft. Japan’s Drive for Empire Admiral Yamamoto →Try to attack the U.S fleet to seriously affect the morale of the American people. Wants it so that the U.S cannot oppose the drive south. Erecting a “defensive perimeter” opposing American and British warships, at some point the U.S will decide that it's not worth it and will look to a peace settlement for Japan to stay in control of the region. To ensure the drive south is effective, Yamamoto wants to put the Pacific fleet out of commission for a time. Many senior officials do not like his plan, but he threatens to resign if they do not go through with it. Attack on Pearl Harbor →A Japanese fleet was to follow a northern path to stay out of main shipping lanes, maintaining radio silence. Reaching a point 275 miles from Hawaii, the American base is at Pearl Harbor. Submarines are also involved. There is a new battle fleet as six large aircraft carriers are combined, he has over 300 aircraft and this is how the attack is conducted. Squadrons of airplanes take off from carriers, make a cohesive group and fly 275 miles to Pearl Harbor and attack. The element of surprise was key, they went 4000 miles and had tankers to ensure ships could refuel, Americans had no idea this was possible. →They had 130 dive bombers (bombs were also adapted to penetrate the armor plating of U.S warships), 40 torpedo-bombers (most important, fly above water that drops a torpedo to go to a warship they are attacking, they adapted them to shallow waters), 100 high-level bombers. The first attack was on December 7th at 7:55 am and the second at 8:54. It was a revolution in naval warfare. Japanese warships do not see any American warships, only aircraft. Big deck aircraft carriers were used. There were concentrated mass forces like Panzer Divisions, nothing like this has been seen before. The British had attacked Italian warships using one aircraft carrier, they used biplanes which were very slow and would have been shot out of the sky by Japanese state of the art aircraft. →The U.S are taken completely by surprise. The Japanese were seriously underestimated based on race, with one Colonel believing they were white mercenaries. There were also attacks on American air bases. Six battleships were sunk or grounded, two seriously damaged, 188 planes lost, there were no aircraft carriers damaged however, over 3,000 Americans were killed. On the 6th of December, 1941, FDR received overwhelming support to go to war against Japan when they were formally isolationist, bringing American opinion together. It was a triumph of military operations, but a strategic disaster as Japan faced the U.S and Britain. There had been Japanese troops landing in Thailand a few hours ahead of the attack on Pearl Harbor (as well as Malaya, Hong Kong, Singapore, the Philippines and Guam). On December 15, Japan invaded Burma, attacking the Dutch East Indies, taking a key oil field. Hong Kong falls on Christmas Day, Manila falls in January. America intercepts Japanese radio, there were a number of candidates to attack, no one thought they would attack all of them. U.S Response →By the end of 1943, four of the battleships were raised, modernized and back in action. Also since they attacked Malaya they were at war with Britain and the U.S. This was typical of Japanese tactics, facing the problem in China by escalating militarily. The opposing forces were swept aside, for example in Malaya, Japanese forces flooded south and Singapore fell. 70,000 troops surrendered and 35,000 Japanese were attacking. Normally a three to one ratio is needed for the offensive to win, but they still surrendered. It was a huge humiliation for British forces. Japanese Triumphs →Hong Kong and Guam have fallen, the Philippines surrendered by 1942, the Dutch defeated by March 42 and Burma in April. They established an empire larger than the Roman empire at this point. They now had control of oil, principally in the Dutch East Indies. However, they now faced the U.S with the most powerful economy, exporting 60 million tons of steel each year, 4.8 million motor vehicles. Admiral Yamamoto understood that troops to take over Washington was not feasible. So he said for the first few months he would “run wild” but had no expectation of success. When FDR gives his speech to Congress on the 8th of December, he does not declare war on Germany, instead says there is a state of war with Japan, but then three days later signs a declaration of war with Germany and Italy. On the 11th of December Germany declared war on the U.S Germany Declares War →The Tripartite Pact was important here, as if Japan was attacked by another power they would come to their aid, but they themselves have attacked another nation, not been attacked. There was no obligation, but Hitler did it anyway. Germany was at war with Britain, the Soviet Union, and the U.S who all had bigger economies than Germany. What is the reasoning? In the Summer of 1941 Germany wanted Japan to attack the Soviet Union, but they went south. There were troops in Manchuria in case Japan attacked, but since they attacked the United States, the troops in Siberia were shifted west. Hitler detests FDR, he sees him as a puppet of American Jews, the U.S was already providing arms to the British and the Soviet Union. He thought the U.S was going to go to war with Germany shortly anyway. Key point, they were practically at war anyway was the argument. The navy was already in the war but the country was not. Operation Barbarossa →There was an undeclared war in the Atlantic, July 1941, before Pearl Harbor, the presence of any German submarines or u boats were to be sunk. In October a U.S Destroyer was sunk as it was convoying British troops. 1,200 troops needed to get to the Middle East, so they went to Halifax and were put on American boats with American troops, going around Africa and sailing to the Middle East. The Navy is already in the war. Part of Hitler’s thinking is that in effect, they were already fighting in the Atlantic and the U.S was providing war material, and even in the 1920s Hitler thought that the U.S would be the biggest threat in the long run. He thought Japanese actions in the Pacific would keep the U.S tied down. →The nature of the war was transformed, Germany occupied much of Europe using these new tactics, latest versions of mobile warfare, tanks, motorized infantry, artillery, the dowding system, and Japan has developed the notion of concentrated attacks by aircraft carriers. On the 10th of December, two large British warships were near Malaya to try to prevent additional troops and supplies from the Japanese, they were supposed to be accompanied by aircraft carriers, two flights of aircraft came to bomb these warships. The action is rapid and both ships are sunk. What is the most important month in the war? December 1941, there is a transformation of the war as it becomes global. Operation Barbarossa →Invasion of the Soviet Union, with Germany and its allies (Hungarians, Slovaks, Italians, Romanians, Finns). There are 3.3 million German troops, and 2.7 million Soviet troops, it is a massive series of encounters. Even before the Battle of Britain became serious, the Chief of the German High Army wrote in his diary that if they could not get air supremacy then they would have to smash the Soviet Union so that Britain would not survive in the war. Without an ally in Europe how could Britain ever invade? They do not have enough land forces. That was the logic of the Germans at this time. Britain was relying on the U.S and the Soviet Union for supplies. Germany invaded the Soviet Union to try to get to Britain, this was being thought out in July 1940, after the Nazi-Soviet Pact. The German Army has just defeated France, which was the power Germany was primarily concerned with as they were the biggest threat in WWI. The Soviet Union was much less of a military concern in comparison. They wanted to get the war over within 6-10 weeks. →Some of the generals are tasked with preparing a plan, but it was not a definite decision. Germany has taken control of France, Yugoslavia and Greece, Norway, and Poland. They couldn’t do it in 1940 so they waited a year, they wanted to obtain more soldiers from allies and stockpile. Petain (the dictator of France) and Franco in Spain met with Hitler. Hitler is trying to persuade Vichy troops to fight alongside German troops. These efforts fail, Franco does not want to commit Spanish troops. →There is also German diplomacy with the Soviet Union. When Minister Molotov meets with Hitler, there is a tentative offer to join the Tripartite Pact, adding the Soviet Union to Germany, Italy, and Japan to concentrate forces on India to defeat the British. They have interests in Romania and the Balkans, so the Germans become suspicious of Soviet intentions, from the German perspective Soviets cannot be trusted. Romania has a lot of oil that is supplying Germany. This does not go well from the German view. →Germany decided to invade the Soviets as they cannot be trusted. However there is so much land mass. Germany defeated Russia in WWI, so it wasn’t unreachable. The decision was made on the 18th of December 1940. Crushing with a quick campaign, the aim was to reach a longitudinal line to create a defense line against Asiastic Russia, well beyond Moscow. Generals offer strong support for this. As well as the desire to persuade the British to throw in the towel, there was a long running German interest in getting territory in the east to secure living space for the German racial community, as well as resources such as oil. The worldview of the Nazis is that it is a dog eat dog world, a “endless struggle of races,” and Jewish Bolshevism is frowned upon. The ideological struggle against Marxism is still present despite the Soviet Pact. Slavs are seen as inferior. General Plan East →This is fundamental in General Plan East; it was commissioned by the head of the SS Henrich Himmler. After the Soviet Union was invaded this plan was to be put into place, it involved driving and removing 31 million Slavs to Siberia, as well as millions of Poles, Czechs, Belarusians. If Germany wins in the East, the killing increases in pace. Removing “the chaff” to stop consuming resources and bring in German settlers. German warrior farmers are supposed to inhabit these colonies/settlements, plans for railways and motorways between defense settlements. If the local population could be Germanized they could act as slave laborers. “Alien races…it is a divine commandment to be obedient to the Germans, as well as honest, hard-working and well behaved.” Poland →This settlement idea is already taking shape in Poland, people have moved out to make way for German settlers. There is also the Hunger Plan, Ukraine is seen as a “bread basket” and it was to feed Germany and their troops. There was the starvation of millions of people planned by German chief Herbert Backe, Ukrainians were “useless eaters.” The move East is nothing like the invasion of France. Josef Stalin →Stalin had pursued many murderous policies. It was a totalitarian state. There was a policy of “revolutionary terror,” Stalin is described as paranoid seeing enemies everywhere. There is a purge of the Red Army where senior Soviet Commanders were executed or sent to Gulags. There is a new kind of agriculture imposed in the Ukraine, when this was resisted by farmers, millions of them died of famine. It was a state imposed famine. They were victims of the “Holodomor.” Stalin would ally with Britain and the United States who were fighting for democracy, what took shape was an alliance between the three of them which held because of the overriding objective to defeat Germany. Ideologically it made no sense, the defeat of Hitler was principal. Soviet Diplomacy →The Nazi-Soivet Pact of 1939, but now the Germans are preparing to overthrow it by invading in 1941. Barbarossa Pt 2 →There was a forced industrialization plan to survive against imperialist wars. There was a lot of effort in the 20s and 30s to think about fighting future wars. The leading military figure was General Tukhachevsky who wrote “The Future War,” he would be executed by Stalin. Four of the six leading Soviet Army commanders are executed, lower level officers are sent to the Gulag for a period. The Red Army was in poor shape due to this in the late 1930s and early 1940s, many had been purged. →There was a build up in terms of armaments. They needed to catch up or be crushed was Stalin’s thinking. The Red Army increased in size in January 1938 there were 1.6 million and by 1941 5.4 million, however, there were 14 million reservists (those with six months of military training that could be brought into the army fairly quickly. The best Soviet tanks are better than the German tanks by some distance. There were, however, a lot of obsolete weapons and tanks, the models were too old. The T-34 tank for example was extremely tough, shells would just bounce off of them, you would have to get behind them or bombard them with artillery. 85,000 of these were produced over the course of the war. German Tiger tanks were only produced to 1,600. These tanks are also not equipped with radios. They communicate via colored flags. Issues →The training standards had fallen and the Soviet Union had added a large chunk of Poland to its borders. Their defenses were not completely built, and also have not coordinated with tanks, artillery, and infantry. Soviet thinking was to put armies, tanks, and aircraft close to the border to quickly attack and get into enemy territory. The Soviet military performance was also not as good. They were regarded as having fought well against the Japanese in 1939, but did badly when invading Finland in 1939. The Finns resisted an outfought the Red Army in the early stages of the war. The Germans looked at this performance and it seemed that they were not an effective fighting force. →The fighting was mostly done in difficult terrain with many lakes and forests. Eventually the Red Army gets their act together and defeats the Finns, there is a peace treaty signed in 1940. Why Invade in 1941? →Soviet Armed forces do not seem to pose much of a threat with Finland, look at the purges, and the German victory over the French Army. Hitler was also aware that his time would be short and he may be assassinated, there were German concerns over the expansion of the Soviet Union. Molotov’s visit to Germany as well with the rejection of the Tripartite Pact seemed threatening. The decision was made to invade the Soviet Union in December, 1940. Also concerned for room for the German racial community. The idea is to clean out the ethnic Slavs to make room for German settlers. Operation Barbarossa →The intention of Operation Barbarossa was military victory and a war of annihilation. The war was huge by this point, when they invaded in June 1941, there were clashes of 8 or 9 troops, the size of the front was around 3,000 km. The scale is staggering. Every 4 out of 5 German soldiers that die in the war, die in the east. The Soviet losses were around 26-27 million people. Argued that this was a new kind of increasingly ideological total war, one of ethnic annihilation. The German Army is a criminal organization. →Hitler believed that the Soviet Union was being run by inferior Jewish Bolsheviks controlling dull peasants. He believed that Slavs and the area East was the right of the German race. He was now free of having to collaborate with these people. →In the German Embassy in Moscow at 3:30 am a telegram arrived instructing the ambassador to inform Soviet leadership that Germany was now at war with them and that German forces were inside the Union. In the 1920s and early 1930s, the two had cooperated and had secret bases to develop tanks and aircraft. Stalin had been giving masses of evidence that the Germans would invade. It is hard to hide 3.6 million German troops on the border. Information from British sources to Stalin (not allied) though that they were just trying to stir trouble, they were continuing negotiations with the Nazi-Soviet pact, believing that the buildup of troops was to put pressure on Stalin to give Germany better terms in the Pact. Stalin had 2.7 million troops on the Western Border, he was taken by surprise along with the forces. →There is a very large wetland area that you want to avoid. So forces were to go north and south of them, historically they go north and swing towards Moscow. The idea is to push beyond Moscow and establish a line. There are two major efforts, one towards Ukraine and one in the North to Leningrad and Moscow. The basic idea was the German Army was to trap the Soviet Army to the west of two major rivers, encircling the army, similar to France. Germany wants to avoid a war of attrition as they do not have the resources. They wanted to get them from the Union. 6-10 weeks was the objective. The size of the front was 2,900km, the distance from the German border to Moscow is over 1000 kms. In France the Panzer forces were able to encircle the French and British up to the sea, they could only push towards the mountains. Late Start to Barborossa → German forces invade the Balkans and Greece, sweeping aside resistance, they were there as Italy invaded Greece and things went badly. The nature of the war was one of ethnic annihilation not just a military project, Jewish intelligentsia were to be eliminated. 60% of the prisoners taken by the Germans were to die, 50% of the POWs taken by the Soviets will die as well. →It takes days to get the troops across the border. There were roughly 3.5 million German troops and 700,000 axis troops. Typically the Red Army is outnumbered with 2.7 million in the West. 20% of the German army is recognized, there are 750,000 horses involved in Operation Barbarossa. The German army at this point is very experienced with Poland and France. They were a well organized and well oiled machine. The invasion begins on the 21st of June. →There are rapid advances early on, the first few days the Panzer forces advance many kms. The Battle at Brody is the largest tank battle, the Soviets are fighting very hard, even if it is unorganized. The British, who strongly oppose communism, say that they will help the Russians. The Nature of the War in the East →The largest military invasion in history. Over 3 million German troops, 700,000 Axis Allies (Romanians, Hungarians, Italians). Soviets are caught by surprise with major advances made by the Germans. Destruction of Soviet airplanes in the first week, the army quickly advances from three directions. 155 miles in five days for Army Group North, Army Group Center 440 miles in 6 weeks, though slower for group south. It seemed that they had won early on, there were massive losses for the Soviets, 600,000 killed, wounded or missing, and more than 10,000 tanks. The German Army was rapidly marching east, however, they were on foot. The bulk of the Army was on foot. Plan Adjusted →By the end of July, the plan of attack was changed, moving forces south (the ones that were heading for Moscow), it created a massive encirclement. Repeatedly, the Soviets were under command not to retreat, so Germans would punch through forces and encircle them. It produced the capture of over 600,000 Soviet troops, it took the German Army towards the south so there was a halt on Moscow, where German Army leaders wanted the focus. It is picked up again on the second of October, called Operation Typhoon. →Kiev is encircled. 310,000 at Smolensk. It was largely because Stalin refused to retreat. General Zhukov wanted to retreat, Stalin did not, so the general was moved to another position. In the fighting in Belgium and France when Allies were encircled they tended to surrender, Red Army troops did not surrender until they were out of ammunition. Of the themes of the early fighting is the Red Army being inept, but the troops fought hard—doing their best to break out. German forces were also suffering losses. “Often one did not know who was encircled, the Bolsheviks or us!” In the course of 1941, there were a total of 3.2 million Soviet prisoners taken. The majority of them were dead by February 1942. It was basically neglect, they were put in armed camps and ignored. German Success and Setback →There were major German successes, but by the end of September it was clear that the German Army had not broken through Soviet lines and the system had not collapsed. General Halder “if we knock out a dozen of them, the Russians put up another dozen…we underestimated Russia.” There were over 400 Soviet divisions by this point, there were more in the field at the end of 1941 than at the start of Operation Barbarossa. If something could not be moved to the east the Red Army looked to destroy it, such as factories. There were problems with supply. →German and Soviet railways did not use the same gauge (the distance between the rails). So German engines could not be put onto the Russian system. They were key to supplying the German Army so the Red Army destroyed rails and engines. The Germans had to adjust the gauge of the railways. The roads were also bad, it was not like France which was motorized. They were not paved, and if it was dry there was dust that impeded the Panzers. There was a division in the first week, half of the Mark III’s were out of business and a quarter of the Mark IV’s were done, the air filters could not cope. It slowed things down significantly. →They would sacrifice themselves relentlessly over territory that did not matter, fundamentally. The notion that these people were different (slavic), but were very tough fighters on a different level of Germans. “The enemy is fighting with the utmost stamina and courage,” the crude frontal assaults decreased by 1942. Officers and commanders were unskilled militarily and had to follow orders to not get assassinated, particularly in 1941. The Soviet Army is deeply inflexible. The Einsatzgruppen were behind the Army that shot mass numbers of Jews. →By the first of September, Operation Typhoon, began on the second of October 1941. The German Army was not intending to fight in Moscow. They wanted to surround it and let disease and starvation do the work. There were initially large successes, but the Autumn rasputitsa (season of mud) had begun in earnest. They stole horses and carriages from peasant farmers, as well as food supplies. Many civilians died of starvation due to this. The Last Throw →Attempt to get around Moscow, a few units get within sight of Moscow, seeing the Kremlin. The German Army had reached the combination point, they could not go any further (troops or supplies exhausted). Panzer Cores were completely exhausted physically and psychologically. Advancement does not necessarily mean winning “winning ourselves to death.” →The Soviets launched a winter offensive, they were originally small-scale but saw the struggle of German troops so more were sent. There was a danger of retreats turning into a rout, it didn’t as the Red Army was not competent at launching coordinated attacks. By the 8 of December Hitler formed a defensive line, there were still major supply problems, they prioritized ammunition and fuel over winter clothing. There were many cases of frostbite. The Soviet losses in 1941 were enormous, over 20,000 tanks were lost, 40% of the population, 35% of productive capacity. There were around 900,000 German losses, however. About 3.5 million set out at the beginning of Operation Barbarossa. 63,000 German troops were killed in July. →Ultimately, Operation Barbarossa failed. The Soviet political system had not collapsed. Initially, when German troops were in Ukraine, they were received positively by many people as Stalin had murdered millions of Ukrainians, but German occupation was even more brutal. There was a switch for the population as well, it was a war of ethnic annihilation. Josef Goebbels was the Propaganda Minister, and wrote that it was a war of attrition, Blitzkrieg has not done its job, now fighting with their backs to the wall. In November Hitler has a meeting with the Army Commander and understands he cannot win the war he set out to win. Nature of the War in the East →Tanya Savicheva lived in Leningrad along with her family and was well known as a symbol of what happened in the city. All of the members of her family died of starvation except for her. The city was surrounded in September 1941, and stayed that way until 1944. The siege was partly lifted in 1942. 800,000 women fight with the Red Army. German Aims →They wanted to isolate and subdue Leningrad by terror bombing and starvation. It is the same idea the Nazis have for Moscow, starving the citizens to death along with disease. Ideology trumped over military logic. Soviet resistance was “an effective alibi” for the “terrible fate” that awaited Leningrad. 200,000 people died between January and February. “Even the business of the military…was directly subservient to his ideology of extermination.” Olga Berholtz does radio broadcasts in Leningrad, the nature of the Soviet regime, her husband was killed in the purge of 1938, she was imprisoned and lost her baby due to being beaten by Soviet police. Prisoners of War →There were 5.7 million Soviet troops made prisoners of war, around 3 million of them died. This was the responsibility of the German Army. 5,000 Soviet prisoners were dying each day. Food supplies were inadequate along with water and shelter. 3 million German soldiers were captured on the Eastern Front, 50,000 of them marched through Moscow. →Partisans were Soviet troops that escaped capture but were behind the front line and formed resistance groups to attack supplies. For each German soldier killed by a partisan, 50-100 “communists” should be killed. The very large scale murder of Jews begins on the Eastern Front when they are shot against open pits in the Soviet Union, about 1 million are shot in 1941. The Axis troops are also involved in these actions. Romanian troops were involved and murder 25,000 people in Odessa in October 1941. Romania is seriously involved in this fighting. Nazi Ideology and the Holocaust →The fighting and the ethnic war of annihilation are bundled in with the Holocaust. The Holocaust begins on the Eastern Front. The victims of the Holocaust were Jews (not only), sent to both concentration camps and extermination camps. Concentration camps were economic opportunities. Some were victims of the general plan east. People typically last two or three months working. →After the Nazi’s come to power, Germany becomes an echo chamber. It is not a democratic society. There were three messages, life is a struggle and the weak succumb to the strong, the Jews are looking to harm the German racial community, and the community should strive for purity, those that threaten it must be removed. The first group removed are children, the euthanasia program was established, killing those “unworthy of life.” First those with mental and physical disabilities, the idea that these people were wasting money. →The program was conducted through institutions such as Hadamar, thousands of disabled people were killed by gassing, by carbon monoxide. A Catholic bishop preached against this in August 1941, but it then became secret. They were Germans, but were in the Nazi view, disabled. Early Actions Against the Jews →The Jews helped bring Germany’s WWI defeat was the line of thinking. It was also a racial viewpoint. There is a long history of anti-semitism, in the 13th century it centered on religion as they do not accept Jesus as their savior. Nazi Germany has a racial anti-semitic view, you cannot change religions and get out of this, race is what mattered. The Jews can “pollute” the German national community and “taint the blood.” Nuremberg Laws were passed in 1935 surrounding marriage, as well as hereditary lines. The pressure against Jews throughout the 30s is building, they want to drive them out of Germany, even though the population is less than 1%, proportionately more Jews fought in WWI as well. People lost jobs, some emigrated. →Things got serious in November 1938 with the Kristallnacht, many were murdered and men were sent to concentration camps, housing political enemies of the Nazi’s. It was the first time that Jews were imprisoned simply because they are Jewish. Synagogues are destroyed, Jews are generally humiliated, it becomes a massive systematic effort. A week after Kristallnacht, “if no other country will take them in they are surely going sooner or later to their complete annihilation.” There are three instances when Hitler referenced the Jewish attacks. They focus their attacks on the communists as they think it is electorally better. The language shifted from removal to annihilation, but it was not originally part of German planning. →Removal to extermination. Forced resettlement was used at first, many were sent to places that were inhospitable, the Lublin Reservation which was a corner of Poland, or to Madagascar. Also thought of pushing them into the East of the Soviet Union to Siberia. The proposals were not working logistically. Nazi Worldview on Struggle →One must fight and struggle to live. The purity of the German racial community was crucial. There was a glorification of strength, conquest and dominance. Existing moral restraints are done away with. It opened the floodgates of murderous actions to racial communities. In 1939, before the invasion of Poland, Hitler gave a speech saying that if a war broke out it would be doomed to the manipulation of the Jews and thus the race must be annihilated in Europe. Wannsee Conference →Not where the policy is fleshed out, rather who is responsible for what. It was held in January 1942. It essentially is working out logistics and details. They were aiming for a cost efficient genocide. The key goals for the regime were expansion and racial purity. It brought military and socio-political actions together. The Jewish population of Europe in 1933 was around 9,500,000. At the start of Barbarossa, there were groups designated (special groups) that were behind troops that dealt with political enemies and Jews of military age, they could be shot. Very rapidly, there are Einsatzgruppen shooting people into pits. It was originally just men of age, but it extended to women and children. 2 and a half million Jews were shot to death. One way to do this was mass execution and experimented with gas vans, running exhaust into the back of them. This was the most common method in German extermination camps as well. Zyklon B was used, it was a pesticide. Done at Auschwitz. →They had motive, opportunity and the means. It was a state directed operation. The mass murders were conducted in gas chambers. There was an effort to exterminate the Roma people as well, Soviet POWs that were test subjects. War at Sea and Mobility →Supplies, oil, aircraft, etc, must get across the Atlantic somehow. Mobility is a large theme in WWII, the inability to have this is a major influence on the war and how the fighting plays out. The Axis wants to blockade resources and vice versa. The U.S on Japan had the largest submarine victory as they blockaded them. This action is also in the Pacific. →In WWI U-boats were sent out to attack any enemies, but they looked to organize as they did with tanks that had radios. U-boats are being commanded by naval officers in the Chateau de Pignerolle. You could gather u-boats into a uniform force. The Battle of the Atlantic →Begins in September 1939 with European fighting until 1945. It became a battle of attrition. Lightning battles are often an anomaly. The U.S sends massive amounts of supplies across the Atlantic and the Pacific, unlike the Germans who couldn’t even make it across the English Channel. Convoys became very popular, but the u-boats posed a threat to Britain. Overall there was a crucial strategic point, to get troops from North America to Britain you had to cross the Atlantic, over 1 million, Britain was a sort of floating aircraft carrier. They crossed the Atlantic in mere days. Troops were put into ocean-going liners. →The expectation before WWII was that battleships would be crucial and threaten convoys. To win naval encounters you have the strongest battle fleet. However, for the Germans the u-boat was the most effective and the submarine campaign for the states. There was also an expectation that surface warships searching for submarines, ASDIC (sonar) was an effective weapon as well. Sonar however, cannot tell you how quickly submarines are approaching once the encounter has already started. Escort vessels were used against u-boats, but there were always shortages of these. The Canadian navy in 1941 played a central role in escorting convoys. Plan Z →Produced in 1938 after the Munich Conference. The German navy wants this plan completed by 1948 using battleships, destroyers, aircraft carriers, but this does not happen as war breaks out in 1939. Germany did not build any aircraft carriers in WWII. The head of the u-boats was grand admiral Karl Donitz, he became the new Fuhrer. Anglo-German Naval Agreement →June 1935, idea of the German navy being 35% of the British naval strength. Germany is allowed to start building u-boats again. By 1939, ones that were fit for the Atlantic were around 30, some having been reworked. Type seven u-boats had a diesel engine, and used electric batteries beneath the water. On the surface it can go faster than a convoy, but underwater it can only stay underwater for a day. Submarines spend most of their time on the surface to recharge their batteries. Dontiz wanted a