THE WAR DURING 1942

At the beginning of 1942 the Allies were on the defensive in all the theaters of war. In the Pacific, Guam and Wake islands had fallen to the Japanese in December 1941 (see Wake Island). The Japanese had also taken Hong Kong from the British, and much of the American fleet lay in ruins at Pearl Harbor. In the Philippines there were heroic defensive stands by Filipinos and Americans at Bataan and Corregidor. These forces were commanded at first by Gen. Douglas MacArthur and later by Lieut. Gen. Jonathan M. Wainwright. General MacArthur was appointed supreme commander of the southwest Pacific in March 1942 (see MacArthur). The Philippines finally fell in May. Also by May Singapore, the Netherlands Indies, Burma, and parts of New Britain and New Guinea were in Japanese hands. Australia was seriously threatened. Darwin in northern Australia was heavily bombed. Against all these advances American and British forces fought desperately. In Burma a small American volunteer group of fliers, the Flying Tigers, shot down hundreds of enemy planes. They were commanded by Brig. Gen. Claire L. Chennault. On April 18, 1942, carrier-based Army aircraft, led by Brig. Gen. James H. Doolittle, bombed Tokyo.

Battle of Midway Island

In June a strong invasion force of Japanese moved directly against the Hawaiian Islands. American ships, Navy planes, and Army planes from Midway Island fought a four-day battle against the invaders. The Americans lost the carrier Yorktown, a destroyer, and 150 planes. The invaders, however, were completely defeated. They lost 4 aircraft carriers, 2 heavy cruisers, 3 destroyers, and 275 planes. Meanwhile a Japanese force occupied the islands of Kiska, Adak, and Atka in the Aleutian Islands. This had little effect on the war. The battle of Midway ended serious Japanese expansion. Within two months American counterattacks began to force back the conquerors. United States Marines attacked the Solomon Islands in August. A month later American and Australian forces started to drive the Japanese out of New Guinea.

The Battle of the Atlantic

By 1941 the Allies had lost more than 3 1/2 million tons of shipping to German submarine attacks. In March 1942 Adm. Ernest J. King was named United States chief of naval operations. Admiral King led Allied efforts to win the battle of the Atlantic. Admiral Chester W. Nimitz had been given command of the Pacific fleet on Dec. 17, 1941, ten days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

The Battle for Egypt

In the Mediterranean area Axis airplanes had already blocked British use of the Suez Canal. Supplies for the British forces in Egypt, the Near East, and India had to be shipped around Africa. In January 1942 Germany's Field Marshall Erwin Rommel started a new drive to seize the Suez Canal. After losing Bengasi in January the British held the Nazis in check until May. Then a powerful attack engulfed most of the British tank force, took Tobruk, and moved into Egypt. In July the British were able to stop the drive at El Alamein. General Harold Alexander took command of the British troops in this theater in August. General Bernard L. Montgomery was named field commander (see Montgomery, Bernard). On October 23 the British started a devastating attack from El Alamein. Rommel's tank force was routed. By November 6 the British had driven the Germans from Egypt.

North Africa Invasion

American forces under the command of Lieut. Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower landed in French North Africa Nov. 8, 1942. They captured the strategic points in Algeria and Morocco in a few days. The Vichy government denounced the attack, and the Nazis occupied all France. Navy officers, however, kept the French fleet at Toulon from German use by scuttling it. The Allies captured the commander of the French navy, Admiral Darlan, in Algiers. The French in Africa soon ended all resistance. Darlan was assassinated by a French youth December 24.

The Russian Front in 1942

By the spring of 1942 the Soviet Union had regained one sixth of the territory it had lost in 1941. Then warm weather brought a new German assault. Sevastopol fell to the Germans in July. They also advanced to within 100 miles of the Caspian Sea. In August the Germans attacked Stalingrad (now Volgograd). The Red army in Stalingrad determined to fight to the last man. This bloody resistance stopped the German attack. By late autumn it became clear that Germany's supreme bid for victory had failed. In November the Soviets counterattacked.

THE WAR DURING 1943

Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands finally fell to United States Marines and Army infantry forces in February 1943. This ended six months of bloody jungle warfare. During the fight for Guadalcanal a large part of the Japanese fleet was destroyed. In the spring and summer of 1943 General MacArthur and Adm. W.F. ("Bull") Halsey worked closely together. Their aim was to drive the Japanese out of eastern New Guinea, the Solomons, and the Bismarck Archipelago. By early fall Allied efforts had cleared an outer ring of positions covering Australia. Meanwhile Americans and Canadians had also cleaned out the enemy force in the Aleutian Islands.

The Marine Attack on Tarawa

In November a Marine-Army force invaded the Gilbert Islands. A Marine division stormed ashore on Tarawa. This resulted in some of the bloodiest fighting of the war. The capture of the island cost the Marine Corps some 3,000 casualties. MacArthur's troops in the southwest Pacific continued their island-hopping attack into December. By the end of 1943 Australia was no longer threatened by the Japanese. Allied forces would soon be ready to invade the Philippines.

Success in the Mediterranean Area

In February 1943 General Eisenhower was appointed commander in chief of the Allied armies in the North African Theater of Operations. His objective to oust the enemy from North Africa was accomplished by May. (See also Eisenhower.) The Allies invaded Sicily in July. On July 25 Benito Mussolini was forced to resign as premier of Italy. King Victor Emmanuel appointed Marshal Pietro Badoglio to succeed Mussolini. The British 8th Army invaded southern Italy on September 3. Premier Badoglio's government surrendered its armed forces unconditionally on September 8. This knocked Italy out of the war, but the German troops in Italy continued to fight. The Allies were forced to battle their way up the Italian mainland throughout the fall and early winter of 1943.

Soviet Counterattack in 1943

The Soviet counterattack against the Germans gained full power by January 1943. The Soviets trapped the Nazi armies before Stalingrad, Kharkov, and Smolensk. By the end of the year they had reached the Polish border of 1939.

The War at Sea

The battle of the Atlantic was fiercely fought in 1943. The Germans kept 500 to 700 submarines prowling the sea lanes in wolf packs. They sank about 700 merchant ships before the Allies developed two good defenses against undersea attacks. First, the Allies bombed German submarine bases without letup. Second, they convoyed ships with long-range bombing planes. By the end of the year the Allies had almost ended the submarine menace in the Atlantic.

The War in the Air

The Allies were producing enough airplanes by 1943 to carry the air war into the heart of Germany. The mass bombing of targets deep in enemy territory was called strategic bombing. It had been introduced by the Germans early in the war. Now the Allies turned the strategy against the Nazis. In 1940 the Hurricane and Spitfire fighter aircraft of the RAF had proved superior to German fighters. The first American planes were not as effective, but the later Thunderbolt (P-47) and Mustang (P-51) were excellent fighters. For bombers the British used Lancasters and Halifaxes, which could carry one-ton and two-ton blockbusters. Early in the war the British made daylight bombing raids, but they suffered crippling losses. They then turned to night raids. The American Eighth Air Force preferred daylight bombing raids because targets could be hit more effectively. Americans flew in large numbers and in tight formations. The planes they used were the Flying Fortress (B-17) and the Liberator (B-24). At first the Eighth Air Force suffered serious losses just as the British had. When the Mustang fighter plane was brought into the theater, however, the Eighth Air Force was able to ward off attacks by the German Messerschmitt (ME-109) fighters. The Mustang, regarded as the best fighter of the war, could carry more fuel than other fighters. Thus it could fly escort for the bombers on their deepest penetrations into enemy territory. In 1943 the combined British-American bombing attacks began to take their toll on German industry. The British bombed by night and the Americans by day. This was called round-the-clock bombing.

Other Kinds of Air Warfare

The Americans also developed air transport on a world-wide scale. By the end of the war the United States Army Air Transport Command, with almost 3,000 planes, was flying a global network of 188,000 miles of routes. The Navy flew 420 planes over 65,000 miles of routes. In the China-Burma-India theater the Tenth Air Force flew over the Hump of the Himalayas, carrying supplies from India to China. In the attack on the Italian offshore islands and on the Italian mainland the United States Ninth Air Force used Marauders (B-26s). These flew in at low level and bombed ahead of invading or advancing infantry. This was called tactical or ground-support bombing. By 1943 the Allies were also using planes to carry their combat troops into action. Large transports (C-47s) carried paratroops who were dropped by parachute over their objectives. Air-borne troops were also carried in gliders towed by transport planes. The United States had a total of five divisions of air-borne troops.

THE WAR DURING 1944

In February 1944 Admiral Nimitz's forces advanced more than 2,000 miles from Hawaii to seize Kwajalein atoll and Eniwetok in the Marshall Islands. The next advance was some 1,200 miles to the Marianas. By mid-August Saipan, Tinian, and Guam had fallen to the Allies. New, long-range Superfortress planes (B-29s) were used to bomb Japan. Plans were made to seize the Philippines as a base for the invasion of Japan. The Philippines were invaded by General MacArthur's forces at Leyte Island in October. After savage fighting by land, sea, and air forces the conquest of Leyte was complete about Christmas Day 1944.

Soviet Advances

Throughout the early months of 1944 the main pressure upon the Germans was caused by Soviet attacks. One drive carried the Soviet armies to the Baltic States by spring. In the southwest they also drove deep into the Ukraine. Other drives neutralized Finland, took Minsk and Pinsk in Poland, and forced Romania to ask for peace. The Soviet Union also forced Romania to declare war on Germany August 24. When the Soviets invaded Bulgaria in September that country also declared war on Germany. The Soviets next plunged into Yugoslavia to unite with Yugoslav partisan forces under Marshal Tito. The Yugoslav capital, Belgrade, was captured October 20. The year ended with the Germans driven back to their own borders.

The Italian Campaign

Following the Tehran Conference, General Eisenhower was named supreme Allied commander in Western Europe (see Roosevelt, Franklin Delano). Britain's General Alexander was made commander of the Allied Forces in Italy. He and British general Sir Henry Maitland Wilson now moved to end the Italian campaign. An invasion force was landed at Anzio in January. Allied forces were pinned down on the beachhead, and by spring the attack looked hopeless. In May, however, a heavy attack broke through south of Cassino. The attackers joined the forces at Anzio and swept on to take Rome in June. The Allies now invaded France, and the Italian campaign became a containing operation. Allied troop strength was kept low, but the holding forces were charged with keeping German troops diverted from the main theater of war in Normandy.

The Normandy Invasion

Early on the morning of June 6 an invasion fleet of some 7,000 ships landed American and British divisions on Normandy beaches. Airborne divisions dropped behind the German lines. In the air Allies had complete command. This invasion was decisive and the outcome of the war in Europe depended upon its success. In the first week the Allies established beachheads between Cherbourg and the city of Caen along a 60-mile-wide strip. Within a week they drove about 20 miles inland. Casualties for the landing were about 15,000 out of some 150,000 engaged. The British captured Caen on July 9. The Americans broke out of their beachhead positions on July 25. Armored columns headed inland, and Paris fell to the Allies on August 25.

The Final German Defense Efforts

The Germans began to use new weapons against England: flying robotic bombs, called V-1s, launched from bases in France, and ballistic missiles, called V-2s, launched from The Netherlands. The V-bombs injured and killed thousands of English civilians and caused great damage (see Guided Missiles). East of the Rhine the Germans battled grimly to keep the Allies from entering Germany. In September, however, Allied troops crossed the German border east of Aachen. As the cold, wet season advanced the Allied drive slowed down. The Germans then launched a surprise counterattack on December 16. The main attack came south of Aachen in the Ardennes. The American 101st Airborne Division was surrounded at Bastogne. The battle of the Bulge, as this attack was called, ended in final German defeat in this region. The year ended with the Allied forces in the west and east ready to throw their weight into the drive which would crush Nazi power.

THE WAR DURING 1945

After driving the Germans from the Ardennes bulge the Allied armies advanced into Germany in 1945. By the end of March the Americans and British had slashed half way across Germany. The Germans also collapsed on other fronts. Budapest fell to the Soviets in February and Vienna in April. In Italy Mussolini was caught and shot by partisans April 28. The next day the Germans in Italy surrendered unconditionally.

Hitler Commits Suicide; Germans Surrender

Despite the utter hopelessness of the German cause Hitler remained defiant in his underground Berlin bunker. The Soviets attacked Berlin on April 21. To escape capture by the Soviets Hitler committed suicide the night of April 30. On May 4 General Montgomery received the surrender of the Germans in Denmark, The Netherlands, and northwestern Germany. General Alfred Jodl signed a surrender at Reims May 7. On May 8 President Harry S. Truman, Prime Minister Churchill, and Premier Joseph Stalin announced that General Keitel had surrendered unconditionally the day before. Now all attention turned to the Far East.

Defeat of Japan

Early in 1945 General MacArthur's forces in the Pacific landed an invasion force at Lingayen Gulf in Luzon. To recapture the island they took the same road the Japanese had used when they conquered the island four years earlier. Effective resistance in Manila ended in late February. It took many months, however, for the Americans to clear out the last pockets of fanatical Japanese resistance in the Philippines. Meanwhile Admiral Nimitz's forces seized Iwo Jima and Okinawa. At Iwo Jima Marine casualties were the heaviest suffered in any island invasion, almost 20,000. During the Okinawa campaign the Navy was attacked by kamikaze (suicide) bomber pilots. The Japanese fliers deliberately dived their planes into American ships. On July 26 Allied leaders met in Potsdam, Germany. They demanded that Japan immediately surrender or face utter destruction. Japan fought on. On August 8 the Soviet Union attacked the Japanese in Manchuria. At this point American scientists made a great contribution to the war effort. During the year they had released atomic energy in an atomic bomb (see Nuclear Energy). A trial bomb succeeded in a New Mexico test in July. On August 6 a B-29 dropped another on Hiroshima, destroying about three fifths of the city. Three days later a more powerful atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, leaving it in ruins. The Japanese accepted Allied surrender terms on August 15. On Sept, 2, 1945 (this date was September 1 in the United States), Japan formally surrendered aboard the battleship Missouri anchored in Tokyo Bay. General MacArthur signed as Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, and Fleet Admiral Nimitz signed as the United States representative. General MacArthur immediately established military occupation of the empire. American troops went ashore to liberate war prisoners and to make certain that the terms of surrender were complied with. All Japanese military forces were disarmed and sent home. The emperor and other government officials had to obey General MacArthur's orders. Japan's war leaders were arrested and held for trial.

World War II Cont.