World War II
25 October 2004 (Lecture
#25)
o
USSR
dislikes – wants a mainland attack to distract Germany from it
o
US
and UK not strong enough for a mainland attack yet
o
Front
comes to a standstill
o
US
mobilizes – US economy so strong that it easily outpaces the Axis
§
Overproduces
Japanese 10:1 in capital ships
§
Doolittle
badly hurts Japanese moral; they thought US could not possibly touch their
homeland
o
Midway
strips Japanese of sea power
o
Guadalcanal
secures vital US shipping lanes
o
German
subs thwarted by convoys and because their code is broken
o
US
subs destroy Japanese supply and shipping lines and blockade Japan
o
Germany
invades Italy and sets up defensive lines south of Rome
o
Takes
the Allies years to break through
o
Japanese
lose over 98% killed in most campaigns prior to the summer of 1944
§
When
they were about to lose an island, they would charge in a bonsai attack
(essentially suicide)
§
Stopped
in 1944 as the Japanese begin to just hole up (still refuse to surrender)
o
After
six weeks, beachheads secured
o
In
the next six weeks, France was recaptured
o
Germany
was unprepared to fight a two-front war and rapidly fell in on itself
o
87%
of Allied military deaths belong to the Soviets (14.5M)
o
40-50M
killed total
o
38%
of German casualties due to extermination of German citizens by Hitler
Conclusions