1. Sea Power and Maritime Affairs
Lesson 5.10: World War II: U.S. Navy in North Africa, the Mediterranean, and the Atlantic,

2. Enabling Objectives
Illustrate the absolute priority given to keeping the sea lanes to Britain open and the effect of U.S. attempts to remain neutral prior to 1941.
Understand German U-boat strategy versus Allied convoy strategy in the Atlantic.
Distinguish the differences between “British War Attrition” versus American Plan for a direct confrontation with Germany.
Recognize Allied amphibious landings, Operation Torch to Operation Overlord, that assisted in ending the war in Europe.

4. Fascism Spreads in Europe
1932: Japan invades Manchuria
1933: Adolf Hitler and Nazi Third Reich replaces Weimar Republic.
1935: Italy invades Ethiopia
1937: Japan renews war with China.
Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini during Hitler's visit to Venice from 14–16 June 1934.

5. “Peace In Our Time” March 1938: Germany annexes Austria.
Sep 1938: Munich Crisis
March 1939: Germany occupies Czechoslovakia
April 1939 Italy occupies Albania
Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain

6. 1 Sep 1939: Germany Invades Poland6

7. War in Europe April 1940 Germany invades Denmark/Norway May 1940
Germany invades Netherlands, Belgium, and France
June 1940
France Falls to Hitler
Soviet Union annexes Baltic States
Soviet Union invades Finland
Summer 1940
Battle of Britain 7

8. Germany Invades Soviet Union
June 1941: Operation Barbarossa
3 million soldiers
3580 tanks
7184 artillery guns 
1830 planes  
750,000 horses
Winter in Russia… 8

9. Prime Minister Winston Churchill
“We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and the oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be.
We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender!”
- 4 June 1940

10. Enlisting American Help
U.S. neutrality,
March 1941, Germany 1st Strategy.
Lend-Lease Program
U.S. Navy Neutrality Patrols in the Atlantic
Admiral Ernest J. King in command
Undeclared naval war in the Atlantic against U-boats
Destroyers escort convoys
Anti-submarine patrol aircraft used to locate U-boats 10

11. Allied Convoys vs Wolf Packs
German U-boats hunt allied shipping in wolf packs.
Very effective when based out of France and Normandy.
Feb 1941: 500k tons of UK shipping sunk by U-Boats!
The “Happy Time” or Gluckzeit. 11

12. Competing Allied Strategies
U.S. preferred direct attack on Germany through western France
Russians desperately want a second front
British preferred a peripheral strategy
Attack Germany’s weak underbelly.
British were interested in saving the Suez
US wanted to go straight into Berlin through France
Churchill didn’t trust Russians, who were begging for a second front
Strategic bombing in Europe
Operation Roundup would have been an invasion of France in 1943; ultimately became Operation Overlord
British didn’t want another Dunkirk, hoped to bleed the Wehrmacht a little before going in 12

13. General George S. Patton
“When we land against the enemy, don't forget to hit him and hit him hard. When we meet the enemy we will kill him. We will show him no mercy. He has killed thousands of your comrades and he must die.
If your company officers in leading your men against the enemy find him shooting at you and when you get within two hundred yards of him he wishes to surrender – oh no! That bastard will die!”
Admiral Sir Andrew B. Cunningham
Rear Admiral H. Kent Hewitt
Major General George S. Patton
Lieutenant General Dwight D. Eisenhower
Some mistakes made
night landing confusing
Hewitt lost one destroyer, an LST, and an ammo ship
German army beat the Anglo-Americans in the race across the island to Messina and escaped to the boot of Italy.
Mussolini fell from power, and the new government negotiated a peace
Patton Speech 13

14. Operation Torch November 1942 – Feb 1943 Western Naval Task Force
General Dwight D. Eisenhower field Commander goes to Gibraltar to plan
Norfolk, Western Naval Task Force is assembled
Rear Admiral H. Kent Hewitt
Major General George S. Patton- tank driver
D-Day 8 November 1942
The target is Casablanca 14

15. Operation Husky and Avalanche
July 1943
September 1943
Admiral Sir Andrew B. Cunningham
Rear Admiral H. Kent Hewitt
Major General George S. Patton
Lieutenant General Dwight D. Eisenhower
Some mistakes made
night landing confusing
Hewitt lost one destroyer, an LST, and an ammo ship
German army beat the Anglo-Americans in the race across the island to Messina and escaped to the boot of Italy.
Mussolini fell from power, and the new government negotiated a peace 15

16. Operation Overlord – D Day
6 June 1944
5,000+ ships
150,000 Allied troops
Paris Liberated
25 August 1944
The Mediterranean campaign had lasted 20 months
Now it was time to plan for Overlord
During that time the Soviets had managed to hold the Eastern Front; meanwhile, periphery operations in the West had not dealt any crushing blows.
It was time to go in through France
Churchill still wanted to press through from Italy into Vienna; he wanted to beat the Russians to Berlin. We can see why in hindsight
Eisenhower, Marshall, and Roosevelt- we wanted to do the French invasion with two landings
Overlord and Dragoon
A fascinating story. Setup Patton with fake command in England. German intel really bad at this point 16

17. War Termination 12 April 1945 30 Apr 1945 4 May 1945 7 May 1945
FDR dies
30 Apr 1945
Hitler commits suicide
4 May 1945
Doenitz, sues for peace
7 May 1945
General Alfred Jodl signs surrender documents
Midnight 8 May, 1945
War in Europe ends
Yalta Conference, 4-11 Feb 1945

18. Battle History Video 1938-1945 Chapter 2 “Fire and Water”
Time 34: :48.

19. Enabling Objectives
Illustrate the absolute priority given to keeping the sea lanes to Britain open and the effect of U.S. attempts to remain neutral prior to 1941.
Understand German U-boat strategy versus Allied convoy strategy in the Atlantic.
Distinguish the differences between “British War Attrition” versus American Plan for a direct confrontation with Germany.
Recognize Allied amphibious landings, Operation Torch to Operation Overlord, that assisted in ending the war in Europe.

20. Questions ?
Questions?
1. The students should appreciate the complexities of strategy-making in a war where the three major allies (the United States, Great Britain and Soviet Russia) had many fundamentally different and even opposing goals.
It is especially important to grasp the fact that the surface harmony of Anglo-American cooperation hid many substantial differences in how to defeat the Axis powers and what should be the nature of the post-war world, including the relative military and naval might of the two countries.
2. The students should grapple with the fact that the announced policy and strategy of President Franklin Roosevelt was to defeat Germany prior to taking the offensive against Japan, but in fact the United States took the offensive against Japan as early as August, 1942.
a. The question of Navy-Army rivalry must be considered in explaining and understanding this phenomenon.
b. The personalities of the top uniformed strategists (General Marshall, Admiral King, Admiral Nimitz, and General MacArthur) must also be factored into this equation.
3. The students should fully grasp the differences between the British peripheral strategy, focusing on the Mediterranean and its littorals, and the American desire for an early cross-Channel landing in northern Europe. This study should include assessing the reasons for the 1942 landings in North Africa.
4. The students should comprehend that the Atlantic and Mediterranean wars were not Mahanian wars of battle fleets contending for command of the seas, and they should assess the reasons that this was the case, despite the pre-war planning on the Axis and Allied sides for capital ship engagements.
5. The students should fully appreciate both the conventional and the technological revolutionary aspects of the Allied ASW campaign in the Atlantic. This study should lead the students to fully reappraise the possibility of having made a cross-Channel invasion in 1942, as General Marshall wished.
6. As a result of the above examinations, the students should grapple with the question of the effects of inter-service rivalry on the conduct of World War II, and they also should gain an appreciation of the extent to which interservice cooperation (“Jointness” in the terminology of the 2000s) prevailed and facilitated the achievement of victory.
Next time: World War II: The US Navy in the Pacific,
Official Navy Photo 20