Verified Document

World War II Japan's Wars Of Aggression Essay

World War II Japan's wars of aggression and conquest began long before the fascist takeover of the 1930s and the alliance with Nazi Germany in 1940, and the idea that the Japanese were a superior race also had a long pedigree -- as indeed did the Nordic-Aryan racism of the Nazis. Both used the tactics of blitzkrieg and surprise to end up in control of most of Europe and Asia by 1942, before the tide began to turn against them at the battles of Midway and Stalingrad. In 1940 the U.S. armed forces were smaller than those of Belgium and Romania, grew to eleven million by 1944, and became a far more formidable force than the Germans, Japanese, British or Russians would have imagined at the outset. The U.S. military very quickly overcame the deficiencies in training, command and effectiveness it had shown in the early battles like Kasserine Pass and were well-prepared to defeat the Wehrmacht by the time of the Normandy invasion. German combat effectiveness declined rapidly in 1944-45 due to losses in personnel and equipment, while the performance of the American infantry divisions continually improved. In World War II, the American people and their political leaders "demanded quick, decisive action to bring the war to a rapid conclusion," and after some initial errors the American infantry divisions were a vital component of this decisive victory over Germany (Mansoor 1999).

German officers writing after the war blamed the Allied superiority in numbers and equipment for their defeat, although American commanders knew that on the Western front at least, the opposing armies were nearly evenly matched in size in 1944-45. In fact, they were always struggling to find enough replacements to maintain the fighting capacity of their infantry divisions, which were almost always understrength....

Although about 85% of German casualties during the war occurred on the Eastern Front, the U.S. was also fighting a two-front war and used about 40% of its troops and resources to the campaigns in the Pacific. Although the German Wehrmacht was well led well trained, and highly organized and disciplined, it was also deficient in use of tactical air power, cooperation with allies and other services, supplies, logistics and intelligence. Certainly its lack of air cover by 1944 was a major factor in its defeat, while American commanders excelled in the use of tactical air power and artillery support. Overall, human, organizational and technical factors improved on the U.S. side, and the American infantry divisions also had high endurance and ability to recover from losses and temporary reversals.
In combat, American infantry troops were flexible, adaptable and resourceful in a wide variety of situations, and superior to the Germany Army in fire support and joint operations. Although the armored units traditionally get most of the credit for the breakout from Normandy in 1944 and the drive across France, in the European Theater of Operations (ETO), the U.S. Army had two infantry divisions for each armored division, and even with the latter tank and infantry battalions were evenly matched. None of the rapid armor movements in France would have been possible without these lesser-known infantry divisions, and in the end "only one division out of eighty-nine completely failed the test of combat when the time came to prove their worth on the battlefield" (Mansoor 1999).

During the Second World War, as the naval campaign drove from the Central and South Pacific toward the Philippines in 1944, American political and military leaders were gravely concerned about the…

Sources used in this document:
WORKS CITED

Dower, John W. War without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific War. Pantheon, 1987.

Mansoor, Peter R. The GI Offensive in Europe: The Triumph of American Infantry Divisions, 1941-45 (University Press of Kansas, 1999).
Cite this Document:
Copy Bibliography Citation

Related Documents

World War I Was Believed to Be
Words: 1167 Length: 3 Document Type: Term Paper

World War I was believed to be the last general war that this world had to go through. Due to massive losses during the first major conflict, people believed that no country will ever want such an event to happen. However, twenty years after the Treaty of Versailles, Britain and France declared war on Germany. The Second World War caused the death of many more people than the first. Unlike

World War II Ww II Manhattan Project:
Words: 2243 Length: 7 Document Type: Essay

World War II WW II Manhattan Project: Begun in 1939, this project was the codename for the United States' secret Atomic Bomb project. With America's entry into the war, the project grew substantially and ultimately involved more than 125,000 people, 37 separate installations, 13 university laboratories and a number of the nation's top scientists. (History.com: "World War 2: Atomic Bomb") In 1942 the project was put under the control of the U.S.

World War I, or the
Words: 1881 Length: 6 Document Type: Term Paper

In addition, in Congress few voices spoke out against the war, since they wanted to use the war to end the IWW and socialism. Johnson and Tindall/Shi's books were sometimes difficult to get through, because of all the names and facts. I found myself reading and rereading parts of Johnson's book to get the gist of what he was saying. Despite the fact that Tindall's was to be a narrative,

World War II Economical and Military Abilities
Words: 6582 Length: 20 Document Type: Term Paper

World War II Economical and military abilities of major participants of the war - Germany Soviet Union France Great Britain Important military campaigns France (including Belgium and Holland) Balkan campaign (Greece and Yugoslavia) Russian campaign Industrial production in 1943 World War II is the most tragic but extremely interesting period of human history of al centuries. It was a regular continuation of previous absurd bloody conflict - World War I. New war began after Germany was defeated in WWI and after

World War I And World
Words: 1169 Length: 4 Document Type: Term Paper

World War II or the Second World War occurred between 1939 and 1945 between the Allied Powers and the Axis Powers (Wikipedia 2006). The Allied Powers were led by the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the U.S. The Axis Powers were led by Germany, Italy and Japan. World War II claimed 12 million lives and began in response to the military aggression of Nazi Germany under Adolph Hitler and

World War II Can Be Regarded As
Words: 588 Length: 2 Document Type: Term Paper

World War II can be regarded as the greatest war in human history by virtue of the massive death toll it incurred, the monumental ramifications of its aftermath and the implications of its moral impropriety on all sides of the battlefield. However, its magnitude may be best measured in its geopolitical scope, which was so widespread as to incite theatres of operations almost pervasively throughout the globe. One of the

Sign Up for Unlimited Study Help

Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.

Get Started Now