"Datalore"
this one was a quick bit i wrote up at work the other night when I got bored.
The overall bases I need to cover for one of my two final essays. “What were the five command decisions the United States made during World War Two?” 1. Germany First: The decision that in a war between Japan and Germany, we would attack the Germans first. This was done to convince Stalin we were his friends, and that we could be trusted. We did not want Stalin to strike a separate peace with Nazi Germany. Even though we were a naval power, and had minimal ground troops we committed ourselves to Germany first. It was believed that if Germany fell, then Italy and Japan would as well.
Problems: As stated, we had few ground troops as did Great Britain. Churchill was not interested in an immediate cross channel invasion, opting to protect the British Empire as a whole. Therefore Germany first became British Empire first. On the home front, FDR was eager to silence his critics in the republican party, so he agreed to go along with Churchill to help in election victories over the Republicans. Now Germany first was Republicans first. The place we first attacked along with out British allies was North Africa, namely Morocco and Algeria, which belonged to the Vichy French regime. Now Germany First was Vichy France/ North Africa first. After the victories there, Churchill wished for an invasion of Italy, the “soft underbelly” of Europe. America was still the junior partners in the alliance, so we complied again despite our wishes for a cross channel invasion in 1943. Germany first had no become Italy first.
2nd command decision: Mediterranean Campaign: As stated, done at the request of Churchill. Meant to protect British interests in Middle East, namely oil rich countries. Ultimately a waste of time, as Rommel would declare in 1943 when the Americans wanted to invade France, that their was no such thing as “Fortress Europe”. If the allies would have invaded in 1943 we would have had a much easier time with it.
3rd: Strategic Bombing Campaign: Brits bombed Germany during the day, and we bombed at night. Yet again a failed campaign. Don’t believe me? Believe these numbers; it took 10% of the American economy to destroy 10% of the German economy. We were bottlenecking them, but targeting all the wrong facilities.
4th: Unconditional Surrender: All this did was play into the hands of the Germans. One extremist plan was to divide Germany up into 5 pasture states. Take out all technology force them to all become farmers and listen to Bach (instead of Wagner). When Nazi propaganda chief Goebbles heard wind of the plan he informed the German people and outrage ensued. All it did was spurn them on to fight even harder.
5th: Finally, the dropping of the Atomic Bomb: We picked Hiroshima and Nagasaki for one reason. They were both cities not yet touched by the war. They might have lost sons of theirs in battle, but their had been no bombings in these cities for a very specific reason. They had been chosen for a very special demonstration of the full power of the United States. “You prefer another target, a military target? Then name the system!” This saved countless American and Japanese lives in the long run. Even after the 2nd bomb had been dropped, the Japanese military still would not agree to surrender. They threatened the emperor with his life when he attempted to. Finally one Admiral who was loyal to the emperor convinced the other to honor his decision. the accord struck with the Americans was that he would surrender, and we would allow him to stay in power until free elections would be held.
~oz
The overall bases I need to cover for one of my two final essays. “What were the five command decisions the United States made during World War Two?” 1. Germany First: The decision that in a war between Japan and Germany, we would attack the Germans first. This was done to convince Stalin we were his friends, and that we could be trusted. We did not want Stalin to strike a separate peace with Nazi Germany. Even though we were a naval power, and had minimal ground troops we committed ourselves to Germany first. It was believed that if Germany fell, then Italy and Japan would as well.
Problems: As stated, we had few ground troops as did Great Britain. Churchill was not interested in an immediate cross channel invasion, opting to protect the British Empire as a whole. Therefore Germany first became British Empire first. On the home front, FDR was eager to silence his critics in the republican party, so he agreed to go along with Churchill to help in election victories over the Republicans. Now Germany first was Republicans first. The place we first attacked along with out British allies was North Africa, namely Morocco and Algeria, which belonged to the Vichy French regime. Now Germany First was Vichy France/ North Africa first. After the victories there, Churchill wished for an invasion of Italy, the “soft underbelly” of Europe. America was still the junior partners in the alliance, so we complied again despite our wishes for a cross channel invasion in 1943. Germany first had no become Italy first.
2nd command decision: Mediterranean Campaign: As stated, done at the request of Churchill. Meant to protect British interests in Middle East, namely oil rich countries. Ultimately a waste of time, as Rommel would declare in 1943 when the Americans wanted to invade France, that their was no such thing as “Fortress Europe”. If the allies would have invaded in 1943 we would have had a much easier time with it.
3rd: Strategic Bombing Campaign: Brits bombed Germany during the day, and we bombed at night. Yet again a failed campaign. Don’t believe me? Believe these numbers; it took 10% of the American economy to destroy 10% of the German economy. We were bottlenecking them, but targeting all the wrong facilities.
4th: Unconditional Surrender: All this did was play into the hands of the Germans. One extremist plan was to divide Germany up into 5 pasture states. Take out all technology force them to all become farmers and listen to Bach (instead of Wagner). When Nazi propaganda chief Goebbles heard wind of the plan he informed the German people and outrage ensued. All it did was spurn them on to fight even harder.
5th: Finally, the dropping of the Atomic Bomb: We picked Hiroshima and Nagasaki for one reason. They were both cities not yet touched by the war. They might have lost sons of theirs in battle, but their had been no bombings in these cities for a very specific reason. They had been chosen for a very special demonstration of the full power of the United States. “You prefer another target, a military target? Then name the system!” This saved countless American and Japanese lives in the long run. Even after the 2nd bomb had been dropped, the Japanese military still would not agree to surrender. They threatened the emperor with his life when he attempted to. Finally one Admiral who was loyal to the emperor convinced the other to honor his decision. the accord struck with the Americans was that he would surrender, and we would allow him to stay in power until free elections would be held.
~oz
posted by ozporn at 12:20 AM
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