Sea Power and Maritime Affairs Lesson 13: War in the Atlantic, North Africa, and the Mediterranean 1935-1945

Sea Power and Maritime Affairs

• Lesson 13: War in the Atlantic, North Africa, and the Mediterranean 1935-1945

Lesson Objectives

• Comprehend the internal political situation in the U.S. during the period prior to December 7, 1941 relative to the U.S. involvement overseas.

• Know that Germany was the greatest threat to European and North American security.

• Know the U.S. attempts to remain neutral prior to 1941.

• Comprehend the absolute priority given to keeping the sea lanes to British open.

• Know the relationship between Roosevelt and Churchill in the establishment of the United Nations and the broad concept of Allied strategy.

Lesson Objectives (cont)

• Comprehend the confrontation between German U-boats and Allied anti-submarine convoys in the Battle of the Atlantic.

• Know the German surface raider effectiveness

• Comprehend the differences between British “War of Attrition” versus American plans for a direct confrontation with Germany.

• Comprehend how Allied amphibious landings assisted in ending the war in Europe.

Germany’s Invasion of Europe

Germany’s Invasion of Europe

• Sept 1939, Germany invades Poland. England and France declare war on Germany

• 1939-1940 brings inconclusive results on the western front

• Britain moves to blockade Germany

• Germany begins commerce raiding with U-boats and surface raiders

1 Sep 1939: Germany Invades Poland

Germany’s Invasion of Europe:

• Germany invades Norway, April 1940

• - Action designed to keep Britain from tightening blockade by mining northern approaches

• May 1940 Germans launch attack on “low countries” and France

• Outflank the Maginot line
• France falls June 1940

• Britain withdraws troops from Europe

Strategy adopted from the outset

• Strategy adopted from the outset

• Recognizes the importance of keeping the lines of communications open with the U.S.

• Dönitz organizes U-boats to hunt in “Wolfpacks” to prey on convoys. Was very effective when based out of France and Normandy.

• U-Boat sinkings climax in fall of 1940.

17 Sep 1939: U-29 sinks carrier HMS Courageous; U-47 sinks Royal Oak.

Enlisting American Help:

• British acquire more escorts and the ability to break the German Ultra Code

• The U.S. drifts into undeclared war with Germany; attempts to maintain neutrality, 1939-1941

• FDR an internationalist/ interventionist
• Congress influenced by isolationist and “America First” propaganda.
• FDR runs for third term under isolationist platform. Later passes the first peacetime draft.
• FDR knows a German victory would threaten US security because it would destroy British sea power which was thought to be the “Shield of the Republic.”

Enlisting American Help

• US sends “Neutrality Patrols” to help British ASW.

• “All aid to Britain short of war” includes “destroyer-bases deal” and “Lend-Lease” program.

• FDR concedes this is not Wilson’s neutrality in thought and deed.

U.S. Enters War:

• U.S. officially enters war after attack on Pearl Harbor

• Germany U-boat offensive moves to the U.S. East Coast

• As the Convoy Strategy becomes more effective, Doenitz moved his U-boats south (“tonnage strategy”)

• Doenitz shifts U-boats back to North Atlantic in 1942. U.S. counteracts with escort carriers and HF/DF locations of Wolfpack

• Doenitz forced into Central Atlantic as allies strengthened convoys and developed ASW tactics. Hunter-Killer groups run out of U-boats to sink

Germany’s Surface Fleet

• Germany used surface raiders with moderate success. No large surface battles in Atlantic, as German surface fleets had a hard time breaking out into the Atlantic.

German Battleship Bismarck

Competing Allied Strategies.

• British preferred a peripheral strategy

• War of Attrition
• North Africa
• Egypt
• Sicily

• U.S. preferred direct attack on Germany through western France

• Operation Roundup

US went with Brits

• Allowed U.S. to pursue Pacific War

• Drew German resources off the Western Front, weakening them for an eventual cross channel invasion

• Allies checked German advances in Egypt; stalemated on Russian front; attacked Italy beginning in July 1943

Competing Allied Strategies”

• Sequence for pursuing peripheral strategy in the Mediterranean

• Operation Torch
• Operation Husky

Operation Torch:

• General Dwight D. Eisenhower

• Western Naval Task Force

• Rear Admiral H. Kent Hewitt
• Major General George S. Patton

• D-Day 8 November 1942

• Target is Casablanca

Operation Husky

• Invasion of Sicily

• Same General Officers as “Torch”

• More sophisticated amphibious landing

• LSTs, LCTs, LCIs

• Night landing

• Mussolini falls from power

Competing Allied Strategies:

• Allies spend next year building up in England for cross channel invasion

• Normandy Overlord

• invasion (June 1944)

• Southern France Dragoon

• (August 1944)

• succeed in pushing Germans back into its borders.

• Spring 1945: War ends in Europe.

Lesson Objectives:

• Comprehend the internal political situation in the U.S. during the period prior to December 7, 1941 relative to the U.S. involvement overseas.

• Know that Germany was the greatest threat to European and North American security.

• Know the U.S. attempts to remain neutral prior to 1941.

• Comprehend the absolute priority given to keeping the sea lanes to British open.

• Know the relationship between Roosevelt and Churchill in the establishment of the United Nations and the broad concept of Allied strategy.

Lesson Objectives (cont):

• Comprehend the confrontation between German U-boats and Allied anti-submarine convoys in the Battle of the Atlantic.

• Know the German surface raider effectiveness

• Comprehend the differences between British “War of Attrition” versus American plans for a direct confrontation with Germany.

• Comprehend how Allied amphibious landings assisted in ending the war in Europe.