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Strategic Issues During Ww2

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This essay will discuss four important strategic issues as they relate to U.S. and British strategy development and application during World War II. First, this essay will show the importance of understanding the current environment when framing a strategic problem. Second, how adherence to Clausewitz and Sun Tzu contributed to disagreements between U.S. and British strategist. Third, how Allied sea power followed Corbett’s theory and how Douhet would have appreciated the Combined Bomber Offensive. Fourth, the Casablanca Conference was the most important strategic conference of World War II. Understanding the current environment is the crucial first step in strategic design. Stark’s Plan Dog memorandum and Wedemeyer’s Victory Plan provide …show more content…

Corbett did not believe that navies could command the entire sea. He believed it was much more important to secure the lines of communication that best served the nation’s interest.9 The Allied strategy in the Atlantic focused on securing the safe passage of troop and material transport ships. Allied strategists understood that if troops and supplies could not get across the Atlantic any plan for a cross channel invasion would be pointless. To successfully achieve this, the strategists planned to defend the shipping lanes from German U-boats.10 This strategy of securing the sea faring lines of communication proved to be successful. By 1944 troop and material convoys were encountering negligible losses from …show more content…

Viewing this conference through the lens of the USAWC Strategy Framework shows its importance to the victory in Europe and Japan. The Casablanca Conference developed a grand strategy through solidifying the “Germany first” strategy in which Great Britain promised to focus full support on defeating Japan after the defeat of Germany.16 There were two main strategic objectives agreed upon at the Casablanca Conference. The first was Operation Husky and second dealt with the objectives that must be met prior to the invasion of occupied Europe. The Allies agreed to execute Operation Husky, the attack on Sicily. This would force the Germans to divert large amounts of resources to protect Italy. This would spread out and weaken German forces across occupied Europe.17 The second objective agreed upon at the Casablanca Conference was the four conditions that must be met prior to the invasion of occupied Europe.18 The outcome of this conference forced the U.S. military leaders to reduce the focus on the Pacific campaign and apply resources to the European theater of operations. The decisions made during this conference guided the Allies to victory in both the European and Pacific Theaters of

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In this essay, the following question will be discussed. Why did the Nazis choose to bomb London instead of the English Airfields, and how did this hurt them strategically? The following evidence and reasoning will discuss why the Nazis decided to take the course of action they did, and how it affected them in their conquest of Europe. The research will primarily be focused on the reasoning, and strategic effects of this decision by the Nazis, but will also discuss how the British used this to their advantage, and eventually won the battle of Britain. All of of the sources to be used in this paper were written far after the Second World War explosively concluded.

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From reading his book, I better understood the strategies, advantages and disadvantages of both sides, and the result of the attack. For example, one aspect of the British strategy that I learned which benefited the British was that before the British stormed the capital they managed to keep the Americans guessing as to where they would attack. They would take paths that were ambiguous in their destinations. This caused confusion with American leaders, such as William Winder. Another advantage the British had was the American’s failure to confront the British after their arrival at Patuxent.

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Due to Germany’s takeover of France, Britain’s need for help against Germany, and ending with Japanese aggression on Pearl Harbor, most of the isolationist vibes conceded and the United States fully intervened in foreign affairs and war. Britain began to run out of money, and Roosevelt, not wanting debts, came up with the lend-lease program, in which arms and ships that the US lent to the Allies would be returned when they are no longer needed, although food was also sent under this program (Doc I). This represented a full abandonment of neutrality, with 50 billion dollars worth of arms and equipment being sent to Britain in hopes of turning the war. Additionally, the Atlantic Conference, to illustrate neutral America losing neutrality, was

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This becomes evident in September, 1940, when President Franklin Roosevelt decided to enter into an agreement with the British ambassador (Doc. F). The agreement provided Britain with critical destroyer ships from the United States for eight valuable defense base stations. When President Roosevelt decided to provide Britain with the destroyer ships it indicated a siding with the allies, and will change the mindset of most Americans to ‘all aid short of war” as neutrality was breached. Also, this change of stance came with Britain being the last one standing against Hitler within Europe since people feared the war reaching the Western Hemisphere, if not kept within Europe. In consideration to keeping the war out of America, President Franklin Roosevelt will highlight how ‘we’ must do everything to help the British Empire defend itself (Doc. H).

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In Why the Allies Won, Richard Overy analyzes how the Allies regained military superiority and were able to win the war. The Allies won World War II because a wiser political leadership leveraged, through an adaptive and coordinated strategy, the technological and material superiority, capitalizing on Axis miscalculations and Allied military victories. In the book, the author extensively examines the decisive campaigns: the war at sea, the Eastern

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The U.S. had only sixteen warships ready; Britain’s navy had around a thousand. At this time, Britain was also at war with France, so although not all of Britain’s navy ships were fighting America, America was still outnumbered. To many, it seemed that America would need a miracle to turn out victorious. America, the unprepared army, against Britain, the largest navy in the world; any onlooker would agree that without a miracle, America would lose badly. The facts all pointed to America losing, but at sea, things were looking brighter for America.

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By November of 1942, we had an attack launched in North Africa. Britain and the U.S. began ‘tightening the noose’ around the Japanese by island hopping. In 1933, the U.S gained Victory at Guadalcanal in February, Bougainville in November, and Tarawa in November as well. After these victories, they had completed the attack in Africa. In November 1943, FDR, Churchill, and Stalin (also known as the big three) met in Iran, where Stalin was promised an invasion of France in 1944.

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Hitler was the main aggressor during 1939 who everyone appeased to, who is infamously known for his rise to power, his persecution of Jews, and his attacks on the world to dominate, that killed so many. Neville Chamberlain, the British Prime Minister, believed in the policy of appeasement and appeased Hitler at the Munich Conference which eventually lead to the start of World War II. The Western Powers responded to aggression with appeasement, and in 1939 the world was plunged into World War II, proving to the world that collective security is a better response to aggression. Hitler’s aggression was the main reason why Allied powers felt the need to appease. In 1930, after the Reichstag fire, Adolf Hitler rose to power because he was appointed

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Despite the fact that President Franklin Roosevelt was determined to keep the nation out of the conflict, a few months after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Congress declared war on Japan (Higley). After this declaration, the United States was fully committed to the war effort, both militarily and economically. Even so, some Americans still believe that the United States should have kept to their traditional policy of isolationism and could have “remained safely disconnected from the greatest conflict in human history” (Boren). Unfortunately, the reality is that the United States was too slow to respond to the aggression that was occurring in Europe and Asia, enabling the Axis powers to gain an advantage. Thus, by the time the United States decided to intervene, it was already too late have avoided the

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Instead the allies decided to bring rescue through victory, and did so successfully, shortly after the reports of the death camp spread. By looking at the context of the bombing debate the decision made was can also be

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One of the earliest causes of the Allied Powers victory was the failure of the German Schlieffen Plan. Its aim was to occupy the France, coming through the Belgium, and then, when these would be under their control, it would create one big front to fight with Russia. Unfortunately, everything went wrong, Belgium soldiers were extremely brave, what delayed the German advance. Germany did not manage to break through to France as quickly as it intented to. Due to the "Treaty of London", which guaranteed the independence of Belgium, Britain declared war on Germany.

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Operation Husky suffered from command and control problems affecting all aspects of joint function from its planning to its conclusion. Operation Husky was the most complex joint undertaking the Allied forces executed up until that point in WWII. While Allied forces fought together in North Africa, Operation Husky involved the largest amphibious operation to date. Complicating this were opposing viewpoints of American and British leadership, with American leaders advocating for an early cross-channel invasion and British leaders in favor of striking softer targets in order to force Italy out of the war. Eventually, Prime Minister Churchill triumphed and planning for the invasion of Sicily began in earnest.

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Their opposing views played a huge role in how each determined their approaches to their strategy for Germany. The British strategic culture was reflecting on the recent defeat of France and their retreat at Dunkirk. They were also bringing baggage along from WWI where they suffered massive casualties, while the U.S. arrived to the fight much later. Because of Dunkirk and WWI wounds, the British was very opposed to head on assaults. The U.S. had a completely different strategic culture that guided their Clausewitzian approach concentrating maximum forces against the Germans.

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