InNo+Global+War+Notes+Nicholas+Lim+3.1.11

= = = = =Summary of The War (Voki)= media type="custom" key="8567570" = The Great Fatherland War =

= Why Did Germany Attack the USSR? =
 * Germany and USSR signed a pact in 1939, Stalin did not try to stop HItler from invading POland.
 * Helped occupy eastern side of Poland while Germans took west.
 * Went on to take more land through this.
 * Hitler hated communism, pact was not friendship and he only signed it to keep the Soviet Union neutral.
 * By 1941, decided to prepare invasion on the USSR.

= Operation Barbarossa =
 * Started on 22 June 1941.
 * Used blitzkrieg tactics where three German armies of 3.2 million soldiers attacked SSoviet frontier.
 * Destroyed much of the air-force on the ground and took prisoners and supplies.
 * About to loose, Stalin decided to us "Scorched Earth" methods to stop the enemy by destroying what could be used by them.
 * Used the method but could not beat the Germans, their advance to Moscow frightened people and USSR was on the verge of loosing.

= How the USSR was saved =
 * Soviet authorities moved weapon factories to the east where Germans could not reach them.
 * Between July and November 1941, 1523 factories were dismantled and 1.5 million truck-loads were taken along with 10 million workers.
 * German suffered under bad weather in final attack and were slowed down.
 * USA and Britain came to help them, American ships took more than billion dollars worth of wood, weapons, medical supplies, tanks and aircraft.
 * British shipped more than 500 fighter aircrafts to protect the convoys and both countries signed treaties with the USSR to collaborate.
 * The cruelty of the Germans strengthened the will of the Soviets to fight when they rounded up millions of people to slave labor.
 * Partisans were resistance fighters that joined to fight the Germans, when Nazi Special Action Groups massacred their people.

= War Spreads to The Far East =

= The United States and Japan =
 * United States wanted to keep out of the war and passed a series of Neutrality Laws in 1930s to isolate the country from other disputes.
 * Spent little money on armed forces, by 1939, the only ranked 39th in the world.
 * Had two naval bases smaller than their rival the Japanese.
 * Japanese did the opposite of Americans and built on military and involved itself in conflicts to gain extra land and resources.
 * Attacked China and French Indo-China around 1931-1941.
 * Became third largest army in the world.

= The End of US isolation =
 * United States policy changed after 1939
 * Neutrality Laws allowed British to buy war supplies on "Cash and Carry" basis
 * British had to pay in dollars or gold and collect goods in their own ships.
 * 1940, US Navy gave Britain 50 destroyers and helped to protect British ships against the Germans.
 * 1941 US passed the Lend-Lease acts which would provide British with War supplies, this was later also done for Soviets.
 * Aided China by canceling trade with Japan and stopped sale of oil to them when they invaded Indo-China.
 * Japanese were unhappy because economy would collapse.
 * Americans would lift ban if they had peace talks with China, both countries began to talk of war as the only solution.

= Japan Attacks Pearl Harbor =
 * Needed oil desperately and could not attack the oil-rich British and Dutch colonies in South East Asia because of the American naval base there.
 * Planned for surprise attack on its base at Pearl Harbor
 * Took place on 7 December 1941 where 360 torpedo planes and bombers surprised the Americans.
 * Sank and damaged 8 battleships, severely damaged 10 warships, destroyed 340 aircraft and killed 3581 soldiers in 2 hours.
 * Was not as damaging as it could have been because the four carriers they had were not in the port that day.
 * Carriers proved more deadly than battleships later in war which greatly helped Americans.
 * The Japanese also did not attempt to destroy the oil storage tanks.

= Declarations of War =
 * Immediately declared war on Japan on December 8 along with Britain.
 * In the next 24 hours 8 New Zealand, Canada, South Africa, Australia and 8 more countries followed to declare war.
 * Since Japan was part of the Tripartite Axis Pact with Germany and Italy stating they had to help each other out, the two countries declared war on the US
 * US followed by declaring war on both of them.
 * In 3 weeks, 26 countries on all 5 continents declared war on the three countries.
 * On January 1 1942 they signed the United Nations Declaration which put all their resources together to fight the Axis bringing together a Global War.

= Japan Conquers Asia =
 * Declaration of war did not stop Japanese plans to conquer Asia.
 * On December 8, they destroyed US aircraft in the Philippines and attacked Guam, Midway and Wake Islands.
 * On December 10 they torpedoed the British warships Prince of Wale and Repulse which defended Singapore, Britain's largest naval base in the Far East.
 * The Americans and British suffered disasters continuously
 * Hong Kong surrendered on December 24
 * On Feburary 15 1941, Japan captured Singapore.
 * Took 140,000 British and Empire troops
 * The Dutch East Indies were captured on 9 March
 * On April American troops in the Philippines surrendered after a Japanese siege.
 * Burma well at the end of May
 * In 6 months, the Japanese had all of South East Asia and western Pacific
 * The British and American army were also badly damaged in that area.
 * Japan had all the raw materials they needed and seemed unstoppable.

= War At Sea =
 * As the war became global, a lot of fights were at sea, especially the Atlantic between the British and Germans.
 * The Germans aimed to sink the British ships to take food and raw materials and starve the British to surrender while Britain aimed to keep their shipping routes.

= Sea Battles =
 * No great sea battles until 1941.
 * German warships focused on British merchant ships and not the Navy.
 * The only major battle was on December 1939 where three British warships trapped German pocket battleship "Graf Spee" in the River Plate in South America
 * The ships captain had to scuttle her in the end.
 * On May 1941, the Germans created powerful warships in occupied French port of Brest, aimed to attack British convoys in the Atlantic.
 * Had to bring their only battleship the "Bismarck" and battlecruiser "Prinz Eugen" to the Atlantic and join cruisers "Gneisenau" and "Scharnhorst".
 * However, while sailing towadrs the Atlantic, they were spotted in a fjord in Norway, the ships were chased by 17 ships from the Royal Navy.
 * Engaged in battle on 24 May and a single shot the "Bismarck" blew up HMS "Hood" and killed all but 3 of its crew.
 * British continued by sending all available ships to attack the "Bismarck"
 * On May 26, a torpedo from carrier "Ark Royal's"aircraft damaged the "Bismarck" stearing gear and it slowed down.
 * On 27 May, the British ships caught up and destroyed the "Bismarck"
 * "Prinz Eugen" had escaped and were able to join the other cruisers in Brest and attacked many British ship before returning on March 1942.

= The Menace of U-Boats =
 * German submarines were the U-Boats (Unterseeboten) which were very dangerous to the British as they could hunt ships without being seen, destroying them with torpedoes.
 * Single U-Boat penetrated Royal Navy's Harbor at Scapa Flow and sank battleship "Royal Oak"
 * Increased in danger after France was defeated in 1940 as they had access to French ports.
 * To avoid the U-Boats, ships travelled in convoys guarded by the Royal Navy.
 * The Germans countered this by hunting in packs of 15-20 U-Boats which waited for the convoys and attacked.
 * In 1941, so many British ships were sunk that Winston Churchill stated that a "Battle of Atlantic" was coming.

= The Battle of the Atlantic = = =
 * Expanded after US joined the war
 * U-Boats attacked both British and American ships.
 * US started their own convoys after over 200 ships were sunk.
 * As battle continued, the Allies benefited from new technology such as High Frequency Direction Finding (Huff Duff)
 * Detected radio signals from surfaced U-Boats and directed convoys away from the area.
 * They also discovered an "Enigma" coding machined on a captured U-Boat and Allies could decipher the "Ultra codes" used b Germans to direct the U-Boats
 * British and AMericans were still loosing the battle and worst defeat came in March 1943.
 * 40 U-Boats attacked two allied convoys in "Black Gap" area around the central Atlantic where aircraft could not reach.
 * Out of 92 ships, 21 were sunk while Germans only lost one U-Boat.
 * Encouraged by success, Germans launched a larger attack with 60 U-Boats in May 1943.
 * However, the Allies were more prepared and used a combination of new, fast,escort boats, radar, Huff Duff and long-range aircraft.
 * Sank 7 U-Boats and lost 12 ships.
 * Altogether, 41 U-Boats were destroyed that month.
 * Although U-Boats continued to attack, the May 1943 attack was a significant incident as they failed to cut off British supplies and with American aid, they could continue fighting for as long as they wanted.

= Summary = Germany goes back on their pact and attack USSR which barely survives. Japan bombs Pearl Harbor leading to America and other countries declaring war on the Axis. Before that, the United States was always neutral, except for sale of weaponry to Britain. Many battles took place at sea, especially in the Atlantic between Germany and Britain. U- Boats constantly sank their convoys until they had the Huff Duff to reduce the damage done by the Germans. On May 1943, the Germans failed to cut off British supplies and was a significant failure by the Germans.

= Questions: = Why didn't the U.S. develop more boats similar to U-Boats to counter their constant attacks? Was the Peal Harbor attack well though out? If so, why didn't they bomb the oil reserves of America? What would have happened in World War II if the Ultra Code was never discovered? Would things have been different if America never declared war on Japan? How much improvement did the war have on technology?