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There were two major alliances during World War II: the Axis powers and the Allied powers.

The three principal partners in what was eventually referred to as the Axis alliance were . These countries were led by German dictator Each of Germany's six European Axis allies Germany, Italy, and Japan Adolf Hitler, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, and Japanese Emperor Hirohito. In September 1940, the three countries formalized their alliance through the Tripartite Pact. Five other countries subsequently joined the Tripartite Pact and became Axis powers. They were Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia. participated in the Holocaust by murdering Jews or by transferring them to German custody to be murdered.

The Allied Powers were led by . These countries were led by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, US President Great Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin. They formally allied by signing the Declaration by United Nations on January 1, 1942. Fifteen other independent states also signed the Declaration on that date. In addition, the Declaration was signed by the governments-in-exile of another eight states that were occupied by the Axis powers at the time. Twenty-one other states declared war on Germany and signed the Declaration by March 1945.

Unlike the Allies, the Axis powers never developed institutions to coordinate foreign policy or direct combined military operations. Nevertheless, they pledged mutual military and political support.

Formation of the Axis Alliance

In the late 1930s, each of the three powers that would form the Axis alliance launched campaigns of territorial expansion that alienated most of the world's other major powers.

Italy invaded Ethiopia (then also known as Abyssinia) on October 3, 1935.

Japan had already seized Manchuria (a part of China) on September 18, 1931. Then, on July 7, 1937, Japan invaded the rest of China, initiating the war in the Pacific.

Germany began its prewar expansion in 1938 by annexing Austria and the Sudetenland (a part of Czechoslovakia). In March 1939, the Germans divided the rest of Czechoslovakia between the German-controlled Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia and the newly created satellite state of Slovakia.

Their aggression against other states left Germany, Italy, and Japan with few friends among the world's countries. To end their isolation, the three nations began to draw closer and entered into treaties and pacts.

Rome-Berlin Axis

Italy and Germany began to pursue closer relations in 1936 after the League of Nations imposed sanctions on Italy for invading Abyssinia and after Italy's alliance with Britain and France ended. On October 25, 1936, Germany and Italy entered into a treaty of friendship in which they pledged to pursue a common foreign policy. Based on a speech given by Mussolini a week later, the alliance became known as the Rome-Berlin Axis.

Anti-Comintern Pact

On November 25, 1936, a month after Germany and Italy entered into a treaty of friendship, Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan signed the Anti-Comintern Pact. In this pact, the two countries pledged mutual assistance in combating the threat posed by the Communist International. Although the pact does not mention the Soviet Union, it was directed at that country, which was in hostilities with Japan at the time. Italy joined the Anti-Comintern Pact on November 6, 1937.

Pact of Steel

On May 22, 1939, Germany and Italy expanded their political alliance into a military one by signing the Pact of Friendship and Alliance. Dubbed the Pact of Steel by Mussolini, the agreement provided for military cooperation and mutual defensive support between Germany and Italy.

World War II began on September 1, 1939, when Germany attacked Poland. Two days later, Britain and France declared war on Germany. Despite the Pact of Steel, Italy at first remained neutral. On June 10, 1940, shortly before Germany defeated France, Italy joined the war as Germany's ally. In addition to invading France, Italian forces attacked British interests in North and East Africa.

Tripartite Pact

On September 27, 1940, Germany, Italy, and Japan signed the Tripartite Pact. This pact formalized the alliance between the three countries, which subsequently were referred to as the Axis powers.

In the Pact, Japan recognized "the leadership of Germany and Italy in the establishment of a new order in Europe." In return, Germany and Italy recognized Japan's right to establish a new order "in greater East Asia."

The signatories agreed to come to one another's aid in the event of an attack by a nation with which none of the signatories was then at war. This provision was intended as a warning to the United States to stay out of Germany and Italy's wars in Europe and North Africa. It was also a warning to the United States to refrain from interfering with Japan's conquests in East Asia.

Germany Pressures other European States to Join the Axis Powers

In July 1940, just weeks after the defeat of France, Hitler decided that Nazi Germany would attack the Soviet Union the following spring. To do so, Germany needed to secure raw materials; establish transit rights for German troops; and ensure the cooperation or participation of other European states. Thus, Germany began to cajole and pressure those European states that were sympathetic to the Nazi regime to join the Axis. Nazi Germany offered economic aid to Slovakia. It also offered military protection and Soviet territory to Romania. And it warned Hungary that Germany might retract its recent support for Hungarian annexations of Czechoslovak and Romanian territory.

When Italy failed to conquer Greece in the late autumn and winter of 1940 - 1941, Germany became more concerned about securing its southeastern flank in the Balkans. Greece's success in repulsing Italian forces allowed its ally, Great Britain, to establish a foothold on the European continent. To subdue Greece and move the British off the European mainland, Nazi Germany sought to bring Yugoslavia and Bulgaria into the Axis alliance as well.

Hungary

Hungary was beholden to Germany and Italy for awarding it part of Czechoslovakia in 1938 and approving its annexation of Northern Transylvania from Romania in September 1940. Hungary's leaders were also eager for preferential economic treatment from Nazi Germany. Hungary joined the Axis alliance on November 20, 1940.

Romania

Having requested and received a German military mission in October 1940, Romania joined the Axis on November 23, 1940. The Romanians hoped that loyal support for a German invasion of the Soviet Union and faithful oil deliveries would: 1) destroy the Soviet threat; 2) return to Romania provinces annexed by the Soviet Union in June 1940; and 3) win German support for the return of Northern Transylvania.

Slovakia

Slovakia was both politically and economically dependent on Germany for its existence as a sovereign state. Thus, Slovakia followed suit and joined the Axis alliance on November 24, 1940.

Bulgaria

Initially, Bulgarian leaders stalled and resisted German pressure to join the Axis alliance. They were reluctant to get involved in a war with the Soviet Union. They also did not want to antagonize Yugoslavia, which was nominally an ally of Greece. However, Bulgaria joined the Axis after the Germans offered them Greek territory in Thrace. The Germans also exempted Bulgaria from participation in the invasion of the Soviet Union. Bulgaria joined the Axis on March 1, 1941.

Yugoslavia

Yugoslavia reluctantly joined the Axis on March 25, 1941. It did so because the Germans agreed to respect Yugoslav neutrality in the war against Greece and did not demand transit rights for Axis troops. Two days later, Serbian military officers who objected to the Tripartite Pact overthrew the Yugoslav government that had signed it. This enraged Hitler. Germany attacked Yugoslavia on April 6 and Italy and Hungary soon joined in the invasion. Yugoslavia was defeated, dismembered, and occupied by the Axis powers by mid-April 1941. Consequently, Yugoslavia never actually became one of the Axis powers.

Croatia

As part of the dismemberment of Yugoslavia, the Axis powers created a satellite state called the Independent State of Croatia. It was run by Croats who belonged to the fascist Ustaša movement. The Independent State of Croatia joined the Axis on June 15, 1941.

Finland

On June 26, 1941, four days after the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union, Finland entered the war against the USSR as a "co-belligerent." The Finns sought to regain territory lost during the 1939 - 1940 Winter War with the Soviet Union. Finland never signed the Tripartite Pact or entered into a formal alliance with Nazi Germany. However, it did allow German forces to transit and operate from Finnish territory, and Finnish forces fought alongside the Germans. Since it functioned as an ally of Nazi Germany, Finland is sometimes incorrectly referred to as one of the Axis powers.

Disintegration and Defeat of the Axis

On December 7, 1941, Japan launched a surprise attack on the United States at Pearl Harbor. Within days, Germany and the European Axis powers declared war against the United States. In response, the United States, Great Britain, the Soviet Union, China, and twenty-two other governments formally declared that they would work together to defeat the Axis powers. Twenty-one additional governments joined their alliance before the end of the war.

Consequently, at the start of 1942, Germany and its allies found themselves fighting a world war. By early 1943, accumulating military losses in Europe and Africa began to erode some of the Axis powers' commitments to one another.

Italy

Italy was the first Axis partner to give up.

In late July 1943, leaders of the Italian Fascist Party deposed and arrested Fascist leader and Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. Italy surrendered to the Allies on September 8, 1943.

German forces occupied the northern half of Italy and freed Mussolini from prison. Mussolini then established the Italian Social Republic, which was based in the northern Italian town of Salò and was completely dependent upon Germany.

Romania

On August 23, 1944, following the overthrow of dictator Marshal Ion Antonescu, Romania switched sides. Romanian troops fought alongside Soviet troops for the remainder of the war.

Bulgaria

After the Soviets rejected its offer of an armistice, Bulgaria surrendered on September 8, 1944. The Bulgarian Communist-led Fatherland Front seized power in a coup from the pro-Axis Bulgarian government. It then declared war on Nazi Germany.

Finland

On September 19, 1944, Finland signed an armistice with the Soviet Union.

Hungary

In March 1944, Germany forced Hungary to accept occupation by German forces. The primary reason for Germany's occupation was its legitimate fear that Hungary would desert the Axis, as Italy had done six months earlier. Hungary never surrendered. The war ended for Hungary in early April 1945, when the Soviet Union's Red Army drove the last German and Hungarian forces from Hungarian territory.

Slovakia

A national uprising against the pro-Nazi Slovak government broke out in Slovakia in late August 1944. In response, Germany occupied Slovakia to suppress the revolt. Slovakia remained in the Axis until the Soviets captured the capital, Bratislava, in early April 1945.

Croatia

Fanatical remnants of the Croatian Ustaša remained in Croatia until the end of April 1945, when they were captured or driven across the border into German-occupied Slovenia and Austria by Yugoslav Communist-led partisans.

Germany

Following Hitler's suicide on April 30, 1945, Nazi Germany surrendered unconditionally to the Allies on May 8 - 9.

Japan

After the defeat of all its Axis allies, Japan fought alone during the summer of 1945. It formally surrendered on September 2, 1945.

Last Edited: Apr 22, 2022

Author(s): United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, DC

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The three principal partners in the Axis alliance were Germany, Italy, and Japan. Learn more about the Axis powers in WW2.

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British Prime Minister Winston Churchill once said, "The only thing worse than having allies is not having them." In World War II, the three great Allied powers-Great Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union-formed a Grand Alliance that was the key to victory. But the alliance partners did not share common political aims, and did not always agree on how the war should be fought.

Churchill and US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt had been working together for some time when the United States entered the war in 1941. Roosevelt believed a British victory over the Axis was in America's best interests, while Churchill believed such a victory was not possible without American assistance. In 1940, the two leaders worked to find ways for America to help Britain hold on without violating its neutrality. The following year they met off the coast of Newfoundland to begin planning, in sweeping terms, the postwar world. Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin was a late addition to the Big Three. On New Year's Day 1942, representatives of all three nations signed the United Nations Declaration, pledging to join hands to defeat the Axis powers.

The Big Three faced considerable challenges in coordinating their efforts. Thousands of miles separated their capitals, which meant important decisions often had to be made by telephone or telegraph. Although their representatives met frequently during the war, Roosevelt, Stalin, and Churchill only met twice in person.

Politics and history also made the relationship difficult. Stalin was deeply suspicious, to the point of paranoia, of both Roosevelt and Churchill. He knew his capitalist allies would likely oppose any attempt to expand Soviet influence in eastern Europe when the war ended. Stalin also complained incessantly about the Allied failure to mount a second front in western Europe before June 1944. This front, he said, would reduce pressure on the Soviet Union by forcing Hitler to transfer forces from Russia to meet the Anglo-American invasion.

Planning for the postwar era further strained relations between the Allied leaders. By the time the Big Three gathered for the last time at Yalta in February 1945, the Allies were closing in on Germany from both the east and west. Several major questions had to be settled, chief among them the fate of Poland, which was then occupied by Soviet troops that were advancing on Berlin. Stalin demanded that part of Poland be transferred to the Soviet Union and that a Soviet-friendly communist government in the city of Lublin control the remainder of the country. He also insisted that each of the Soviet Union's satellite republics in eastern Europe receive separate votes in the newly created United Nations, even though these countries were controlled from Moscow. This alarmed Roosevelt and Churchill, but they were powerless to force Stalin to guarantee a democratic and independent Poland. Stalin's armies already occupied most of the region, and the Western allies could not force them out without fighting the Soviet Union. Furthermore, Roosevelt hoped to have Stalin's help in finishing off Japan.

Library of Congress, LC-USZ62-112542

The Yalta Conference ended in a compromise. Roosevelt and Churchill agreed to Stalin's demands regarding Poland and the United Nations. Stalin, in return, agreed to hold elections in Poland so its people could choose their own government. He also agreed to declare war against Japan shortly after the German surrender.

The end of the war marked the end of the Grand Alliance. Roosevelt died in April 1945 and was succeeded by his vice president, Harry S. Truman, a committed anticommunist. Churchill met briefly with Stalin at the Potsdam Conference, but was replaced halfway through it by a newly elected prime minister, Clement Attlee. Ongoing disputes between the Soviets and the democratic allies about how to organize the postwar world eventually killed the alliance. Stalin continued to expand Soviet influence in eastern Europe, while America and Britain were determined to stop him without provoking another war. This tense standoff between the former allies, which became known as the Cold War, would last for decades.

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The Big Three | The National WWII Museum | New Orleans

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In World War II, the three great Allied powers-Great Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union-formed a Grand Alliance that was the key to victory. But the alliance partners did not share common political aims, and did not always agree on how the war should be fought.

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Joshua Rubenstein, author and associate at Harvard's Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian studies, details the relationship between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union in the decade before World War II.

By the summer of 1939, war in Europe seemed inevitable. As people braced themselves, many wondered how the Soviet Union would respond. For years, Hitler had targeted the Soviet Union and the Communist Party as Germany's primary enemy. Joseph Stalin held similar views of Germany and the Nazi Party.

To the surprise of almost everyone, the two dictators announced a nonaggression pact on August 23, 1939. The two men agreed that their countries would not to attack each other, either independently or along with other nations. They also vowed to consult each other in order to provide information or raise questions concerning their common interests and also to resolve any differences through negotiation or arbitration. The pact would be in effect for ten years, with an automatic extension for another five years unless either party gave notice to end it.

The treaty startled people everywhere. Both Stalin and Hitler knew that their internal propaganda machines would have to work hard to change current public opinion within their nations and also to change the negative perceptions that each country had been cultivating about the other. According to historian Roger Moorhouse:

[T]he tone of public and cultural life in the Soviet Union shifted after the signing of the pact. From one day to the next, the newspapers stopped criticizing Nazi Germany and instead began lauding German achievements. As Kravencho (a factory director) noted . . . "The Society for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries instantly discovered the wonders of German Kultur. Visiting Moscow on business, I learned that several exhibits of Nazi art, Nazi economic achievements and Nazi military glory were on view or in the process of organization. In fact, everything Germanic was in vogue."

In Germany, people were equally surprised. As in the Soviet Union, official propaganda reversed itself quickly after its years of attacks on Soviet communism. According to Moorhouse:

Public discourse was uniformly positive about the pact, with German newspapers immediately altering the tone with which they reported Soviet current affairs or Russian culture. Where reporters and editors had once been unable to resist inserting-at the very least-a derogatory adjective or a critical aside, they now reported events with scrupulous evenhandedness. On the morning of the pact's announcement, the newspapers seemed desperate to make the case for the new arrangement. Every title carried almost verbatim reports and commentaries, scripted under Goebbels's supervision, rejoicing at the restoration of the "traditional friendship between the Russian and the German peoples." In the Nazi Party newspaper, the Völkischer Beobachter, [German Foreign Minister] Ribbentrop congratulated himself by lauding his achievement as "one of the most important turning points in the history of our two peoples." Even the in-house newspaper of the SS, Das Schwarze Korps, toed the optimistic line, reminding its readers, in a gallop through Russian and Soviet history, that the empire of the tsars had originally been a Germanic state, that it had twice "saved" Prussia, and that it had "paid dearly" for its enmity with Germany in World War I. Echoing Ribbentrop, the newspaper concluded that the two countries had always flourished when they were friends and so looked forward to a new era of collaboration.

At the time, only a handful of diplomats from both countries knew that the treaty contained a set of secret clauses in which Germany and the Soviet Union divided Poland and other parts of eastern Europe between them. The clauses were not made public until much later.

Connection Questions

1. Why did the Soviet Union and Germany enter into a nonaggression pact? What was in the secret clauses that might have convinced them to sign the pact?

2. What changes in propaganda did German leaders have to make after the signing of the Nazi-Soviet pact? What changes were also necessary in the Soviet Union?

3. Historian Gerhard Weinberg has argued that for Hitler, the primary objective of treaties was "either the immediate gain of space by the partitioning of third countries or the postponement of troubles considered dangerous at the moment until they could be faced with safety. In either case, treaties were temporary instruments to be broken as soon as they were no longer useful." How does this reading support that argument?

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Learn about the non-aggression pact forged by Hitler and Stalin in 1939, the pact's secret clauses, and the role of propaganda.

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Winston Churchill: Hero or villain? - BBC News

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Introduction

In the 1930s, the United States Government enacted a series of laws designed to prevent the United States from being embroiled in a foreign war by clearly stating the terms of U.S. neutrality. Although many Americans had rallied to join President Woodrow Wilson's crusade to make the world "safe for democracy" in 1917, by the 1930s critics argued that U.S. involvement in the First World War had been driven by bankers and munitions traders with business interests in Europe. These findings fueled a growing "isolationist" movement that argued the United States should steer clear of future wars and remain neutral by avoiding financial deals with countries at war.

First Neutrality Act

By the mid-1930s, events in Europe and Asia indicated that a new world war might soon erupt and the U.S. Congress took action to enforce U.S. neutrality. On August 31, 1935, Congress passed the first Neutrality Act prohibiting the export of "arms, ammunition, and implements of war" from the United States to foreign nations at war and requiring arms manufacturers in the United States to apply for an export license. American citizens traveling in war zones were also advised that they did so at their own risk. President Franklin D. Roosevelt originally opposed the legislation, but relented in the face of strong Congressional and public opinion. On February 29, 1936, Congress renewed the Act until May of 1937 and prohibited Americans from extending any loans to belligerent nations.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt

Neutrality Act of 1937

The outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936 and the rising tide of fascism in Europe increased support for extending and expanding the Neutrality Act of 1937. Under this law, U.S.citizens were forbidden from traveling on belligerent ships, and American merchant ships were prevented from transporting arms to belligerents even if those arms were produced outside of the United States. The Act gave the President the authority to bar all belligerent ships from U.S. waters, and to extend the export embargo to any additional "articles or materials." Finally, civil wars would also fall under the terms of the Act.

The Neutrality Act of 1937 did contain one important concession to Roosevelt: belligerent nations were allowed, at the discretion of the President, to acquire any items except arms from the United States, so long as they immediately paid for such items and carried them on non-American ships-the so-called "cash-and-carry" provision. Since vital raw materials such as oil were not considered "implements of war," the "cash-and-carry" clause would be quite valuable to whatever nation could make use of it. Roosevelt had engineered its inclusion as a deliberate way to assist Great Britain and France in any war against the Axis Powers, since he realized that they were the only countries that had both the hard currency and ships to make use of "cash-and-carry." Unlike the rest of the Act, which was permanent, this provision was set to expire after two years.

Neutrality Act of 1939

Following Germany's occupation of Czechoslovakia in March of 1939, Roosevelt suffered a humiliating defeat when Congress rebuffed his attempt to renew "cash-and-carry" and expand it to include arms sales. President Roosevelt persisted and as war spread in Europe, his chances of expanding "cash-and-carry" increased. After a fierce debate in Congress, in November of 1939, a final Neutrality Act passed. This Act lifted the arms embargo and put all trade with belligerent nations under the terms of "cash-and-carry." The ban on loans remained in effect, and American ships were barred from transporting goods to belligerent ports.

In October of 1941, after the United States had committed itself to aiding the Allies through Lend-Lease, Roosevelt gradually sought to repeal certain portions of the Act. On October 17, 1941, the House of Representatives revoked section VI, which forbade the arming of U.S. merchant ships, by a wide margin. Following a series of deadly U-boat attacks against U.S. Navy and merchant ships, the Senate passed another bill in November that also repealed legislation banning American ships from entering belligerent ports or "combat zones."

Overall, the Neutrality Acts represented a compromise whereby the United States Government accommodated the isolationist sentiment of the American public, but still retained some ability to interact with the world. In the end, the terms of the Neutrality Acts became irrelevant once the United States joined the Allies in the fight against Nazi Germany and Japan in December 1941.

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Milestones: 1921-1936 - Office of the Historian

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Daniel Inouye was preparing to go to church when the attack on Pearl Harbor began.

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General Douglas MacArthur (1880-1964)
"You couldn't shrug your shoulders at Douglas MacArthur," observes historian David McCullough. "There was nothing bland about him, nothing passive about him, nothing dull about him. There's no question about his patriotism, there's no question about his courage, and there's no question, it seems to me, about his importance as one of the protagonists of the 20th century."

General Douglas MacArthur, 1905. Library of Congress.

Douglas MacArthur lived his entire life, from cradle to grave, in the United States Army. He spent his early years in remote sections of New Mexico, where his father, Arthur MacArthur Jr., commanded an infantry company charged with protecting settlers and railroad workers from the Indian "menace." As a teenager, Arthur had served with distinction in the Union Army, eventually earning the Congressional Medal of Honor for leading a courageous assault up Missionary Ridge in Tennessee. But he soon discovered that life in the post-Civil War U.S. Army held little of the glamour he knew during the war. These years were even harder for Douglas' mother, Mary Pinkney Hardy MacArthur, whose upbringing as a proper Southern lady had done little to prepare her for raising a family on dusty western outposts. But seen through a boy's eyes, life at a place like Ft. Selden, New Mexico, was heady stuff. "My first memory was the sound of bugles," Douglas MacArthur recalled in his "Reminiscences." "It was here I learned to ride and shoot even before I could read or write -- indeed, almost before I could walk or talk." Even more importantly, by watching his father and listening to his mother, he learned that a MacArthur is always in charge.

When Douglas was six, Captain MacArthur was assigned to Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas, where "Pinky," as his mother was known, could finally introduce him and his older brother Arthur to life back in "civilization." Three years later the family took another step in that direction when they moved to Washington, D.C., where Arthur took a post in the War Department. During these formative years, Douglas was able to spend time with his grandfather, Judge Arthur MacArthur, a man of considerable accomplishment and charm. As his grandfather entertained Washington's elite, Douglas learned another valuable lesson: a MacArthur is a scholar and a gentleman.

Douglas, who had always been an unremarkable student, first started to reveal his own intellectual gifts when his father was posted to San Antonio, Texas, in 1893. There he attended the West Texas Military Academy, thriving in an atmosphere which combined academics, religion, military discipline and Victorian social graces. By virtue of his excellent record there, his family's political connections and top scores on the qualifying exam, Douglas received an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1898. Over the next four years, he would achieve one of the finest records in Academy history. General Arthur MacArthur -- back from the Philippines, where he had helped defeat the Spanish and served as military governor -- looked on proudly as his son graduated first in the class of 1903.

What became a lasting connection with the Philippines began with Douglas' first assignment out of West Point, when the young Lieutenant sailed to the islands to work with a corps of engineers. While on a surveying mission there, he recalled being "waylaid on a narrow jungle trail by two desperados, one on each side." MacArthur responded without hesitation. "Like all frontiersmen, I was expert with a pistol. I dropped them both dead in their tracks, but not before one had blazed at me with an antiquated rifle." Soon after this first brush with physical danger, MacArthur enjoyed excitement of a different kind, when he was assigned to accompany his father on an extended tour through Asia, where the General would review the military forces of eleven countries. The MacArthurs, Pinky included, were treated like royalty, and Douglas came away from the trip firmly convinced that America's future -- and his own -- lay in Asia.

One of Douglas's next assignments included service as an aide in Theodore Roosevelt's White House. But when he found himself in a tedious engineering assignment in Milwaukee in 1907, his performance dropped and he received a poor evaluation. To add to his confusion, he had fallen in love with a New York debutante named Fanniebelle, and his brilliant career prospects seemed to wane. But Douglas made amends in his next assignment, at the staff college at Leavenworth, and when his father died in 1912 he was transferred to the War Department in Washington, so that he could care for his mother. While there he was taken under the wing of Chief of Staff Leonard Wood, a protege of his father, and his career was again firmly on track. In 1915 MacArthur was promoted to major and the following year became the Army's first public relations officer, performing so well that he is largely credited with selling the American people on the Selective Service Act of 1917, as the country moved ever closer to joining the war in Europe.

Even though his record to that point had been excellent, the First World War gave Douglas MacArthur his first real measure of fame. Quickly promoted to brigadier general, he helped lead the Rainbow Division -- which he had helped create out of National Guard units before the war -- through the thick of the fighting in France. With a flamboyant, romantic style matched only by real feats of courage on the battlefield, MacArthur became the most decorated American soldier of the war.

While his peers were demoted to their pre-war ranks, MacArthur kept his through a plum new assignment as Superintendent of West Point. Although he antagonized many of the old guard, MacArthur made good on his mandate to drag the moribund Academy into the 20th century, enabling it to produce officers fit to lead the country in the type of modern war he had just experienced first hand. He also managed to get married -- to Louise Cromwell Brooks, a vivacious flapper and heiress very different from her spit-and-polish second husband. A minor scandal erupted when Chief of Staff John J. Pershing -- with whom Louise had had an affair during the war -- shipped MacArthur from West Point to a makeshift assignment in the Philippines. Although disappointed, MacArthur was glad to be back in his beloved islands; Louise, used to the glamorous society of cities like New York and Paris, was not pleased. Even after their return to the States in 1925, the marriage continued to deteriorate. Louise filed for divorce in 1928. Once again, MacArthur found solace in the Philippines, where he took command of the Army's Philippine Department and renewed a friendship with the island's leading politician, Manuel Quezon, whom he had known since 1903.

Although he and Quezon failed in their bid to have MacArthur named governor of the Philippines, President Hoover helped take the sting out of it by naming MacArthur to the Army's top job, Chief of Staff, in 1930. But the early '30s were a trying time to be Chief, when the Great Depression made Americans deaf to MacArthur's warnings about the rising tide of world fascism. Despite his able leadership, the Army fell to all-time lows in strength under his watch. This, along with the damage to his reputation from the Bonus March of 1932, when he very visibly led army troops in routing impoverished World War I vets from the capital, made MacArthur receptive to other opportunities. Once again, he was drawn to the Philippines. In 1935, his old friend Quezon, President of the newly created Philippine Commonwealth, invited him to return to Manila as head of a U.S. military mission charged with preparing the islands for full independence in 1946.

The next few years were among the happiest in MacArthur's life. On his way to Manila, he met and fell in love with 37-year-old Jean Marie Faircloth from Murfreesboro, Tennessee. When Pinky died shortly after their arrival in Manila, Jean helped fill the void, and her devotion would remain a source of strength for the rest of his life. After the birth of their son, Arthur MacArthur IV, the 58-year-old general proved a doting father. But their blissful life in Manila was slowly overshadowed by the growing threat posed by an expansionist Japan. MacArthur, despite the able assistance of top aide Dwight Eisenhower, would not have enough time or money to build a force capable of resisting the Japanese. When war finally came with the blow at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the Philippines was doomed: MacArthur's air force was quickly destroyed, his army shredded, and by January his forces had retreated to the Bataan peninsula, where they struggled to survive. From his command post on the island of Corregidor at the mouth of Manila Bay, MacArthur watched his world fall apart.

But despite MacArthur's poor showing in the Philippines, President Roosevelt knew he couldn't let America's most famous general fall to the enemy, and ordered him to withdraw to Australia. Although it ran counter to his notion of a soldier's duty, MacArthur left his men facing sure destruction, comforted only by the belief that he might lead an army back to rescue them. For the next three years, the world watched as his personal quest -- "I shall return" -- became almost synonymous with the war in the Pacific. Although MacArthur's path through the dense jungles of New Guinea was hardly imagined in the initial war plans, his singleminded drive and resourcefulness made it one of the two prongs in the Allied drive to roll back the Japanese. Simultaneously fighting a two front war -- one with the Japanese, the other with the U.S. Navy, who understandably saw the Pacific as theirs -- MacArthur slowly gained momentum. In October of 1944 the world watched as he dramatically waded ashore at Leyte, and in the following months liberated the rest of the Philippines. On September 2, 1945, he presided over the Japanese surrender on board the "U.S.S. Missouri," bringing an end to World War II.

His place as a leading figure of the 20th century already secure, MacArthur may have made his greatest contribution to history in the next five and a half years, as Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers in Japan. While initiating some policies and merely implementing others, by force of personality MacArthur became synonymous with the highly successful occupation. His GHQ staff helped a devastated Japan rebuild itself, institute a democratic government, and chart a course that has made it one of the world's leading industrial powers. Yet by the late 1940s, MacArthur was increasingly bypassed by Washington, and it seemed his remarkable career might be over.

But in June of 1950, the sudden outbreak of the Korean War -- "Mars' last gift to an old warrior" -- thrust MacArthur back into the limelight. Placed in command of an American-led coalition of United Nations forces, MacArthur reversed the dire military situation in the early months of the war with a brilliant amphibious assault behind North Korean lines at the Port of Inchon. But within weeks of this great triumph he and Washington miscalculated badly. MacArthur's approach to the Chinese border triggered the entry of Mao's Communist Chinese, and as 1951 dawned, they faced what he called "an entirely new war." Although the able leadership of General Matthew B. Ridgway stabilized the military situation near the prewar boundary at the 38th parallel, MacArthur's months of public and private bickering with the Truman administration soon came to a head. On April 11, 1951, the President relieved General MacArthur, triggering a firestorm of protest over our strategy not only in Korea, but in the Cold War as a whole. As the last great general of World War II to come home, MacArthur received a hero's welcome. Despite his dramatic televised address to a joint session of Congress, however, the issue died quickly, and with it any hopes MacArthur had of reaching the White House in 1952.

True to his word, the old soldier "faded away" from the public eye, living quietly in New York until his death in 1964. While it's questionable whether his storied life ever brought him complete satisfaction, one thing is clear: Douglas MacArthur had more than fulfilled his self-imposed destiny of becoming one of history's great men.

Lt. Gen. Arthur MacArthur, Jr. (1845 - 1912)
Not long before his own death, Douglas MacArthur summed up his feelings about the passing of his father this way: "My whole world changed that night. Never have I been able to heal the wound in my heart."

In a fundamental way, Douglas MacArthur's remarkable career was fueled by his desire to live up to the shining example of his father. From his exploits as a teenaged hero in the Union Army until his death at a reunion of his Wisconsin regiment, Arthur MacArthur, Jr. was a dedicated soldier who was in many ways the archetype of the 19th century U.S. Army officer.

Arthur was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, but at the age of four moved to Milwaukee, where his father established a law practice and soon became a star in local politics. Although just sixteen when the Civil War erupted, Arthur was determined to enlist, ignoring his father's wishes that he train for a career in the law, or at least attend West Point if he insisted on becoming a soldier. But no sooner had Judge MacArthur arranged an appointment to West Point, than his headstrong son forced him into arranging a commission as first lieutenant in the 24th Wisconsin Volunteers.

At first soldiers laughed at the "baby adjutant," but not for long. Quickly impressing others with his coolness and dedication to duty, Arthur first became a highly valued member of the unit, then a genuine hero. In an action which eventually earned him the Congressional Medal of Honor, MacArthur seized the regimental flag from the fallen color bearer and led his men up Missionary Ridge near Chattanooga, Tennessee. The commander who recommended him for the award commented that "he was most distinguished in action on a field where many in the regiment displayed conspicuous gallantry, worthy of the highest praise."

But for career officers like Arthur MacArthur, life in the post-Civil War U.S. Army would hold little glory. Without foreign wars, promotions were few and far between; instead, the Army was asked to make settlement of the West safe from the Indian "menace." For Arthur and his wife Pinky, whom he had married in 1875, this meant raising their young family on a series of dusty Army posts like the one at Ft. Selden, New Mexico. A voracious reader, MacArthur did his best to challenge himself intellectually, and his efficiency reports were always excellent. Nevertheless, these were difficult and frustrating years for the MacArthurs.

That began to change in 1886, when MacArthur's Company K was transferred to the large Army base at Leavenworth, Kansas. Just three years later, his excellent work as an instructor -- and the ceaseless lobbying by him and his well-placed father -- finally paid off, and MacArthur was promoted to major and assigned to the Adjutant General's office in Washington. There, while his family enjoyed the high society that gathered around his father's table, Arthur flourished at the War Department. By the time the Spanish-American War broke out in 1898, he was ready for a sizeable command.

Newly-minted Brigadier General Arthur MacArthur, commanding a 4800-man brigade of volunteers, arrived in Manila on August 1, three months after Admiral Dewey's navy had defeated the Spanish navy. When the American army arrived, the Spanish commander in Manila, hopelessly outnumbered by the Americans and Emilio Aguinaldo's Filipino insurgents, negotiated the surrender of his forces after a staged battle. All went smoothly at first, until suddenly MacArthur's brigade ran into heavy fire from a Spanish unit which had not received word of the understanding. Displaying "much gallantry and excellent judgment" during the skirmish, MacArthur defeated the renegade Spaniards. Unfortunately for MacArthur, subduing the Filipinos, eager for true independence after generations of colonial domination, would prove far more difficult.

In April of 1900, in recognition for his work in managing the guerrilla war, MacArthur was appointed military governor of the Philippines, replacing General Otis. As if fighting the Filipinos wasn't hard enough, MacArthur soon faced another challenge: the arrival of a civilian commission from Washington, headed by rising Ohio Republican William Howard Taft. Resentful of what he saw as political interference in an essentially military situation, MacArthur treated Taft coolly at best. Taft, knowing that Washington wanted only good news and the quick establishment of a civilian government, saw MacArthur as an inconvenience and successfully lobbied for his removal.

Upon his return to the States in 1901, MacArthur was first disappointed by the lack of fanfare he received, then by his assignments, which did not conform to his rigid sense of honor. The final straw came in 1909, when he retired after being passed over for the Army's top job, Chief of Staff, despite being the highest ranking officer. For the rest of his life he would harbor bitter resentment against what his biographer called "civilian politicians and deskbound warriors of the general staff." It was a lesson his son Douglas would not soon forget.

Judge Arthur MacArthur (1817-1896)
As great as his accomplishments were, Douglas MacArthur would have been quick to state that he represented merely the third generation of highly successful MacArthurs in America. Always proud of his Scottish heritage, MacArthur cherished the man who established the venerable clan here, his grandfather, Judge Arthur MacArthur.

The Judge called himself a "double-distilled" MacArthur: the maiden name of his mother, Sarah, had also been MacArthur. But tragically his father, who came from a family of Highlanders, died just days before his birth in 1817. When Arthur was seven, his mother remarried, and in 1828 the family joined one of her sisters in the Massachusetts mill town of Uxbridge. It did not take long for the first-generation immigrant to succeed. After briefly attending Wesleyan University in Connecticut, Arthur dropped out to help the family through a severe depression in 1837, working as a law clerk first in Boston, then in New York. By 1841, he had been admitted to the New York bar. The year before, he had married Aurelia Belcher, the daughter of a wealthy industrialist from Chicopee, Massachusetts. Accepting an offer of help from his powerful father-in-law, Arthur and his young bride moved to Springfield in 1842, where he established a practice that soon thrived.

Although he benefited from his wife's influential Yankee family, Arthur soon chafed at their Whiggish conservatism. A staunch Democrat, his own immigrant background made him suspicious of "the aristocracy of birth," and it wasn't long before he struck out on his own. After setting up a law office in New York, in 1849 he moved his family, which now included young Arthur Jr., to the rapidly growing city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where the family flourished. Arthur established a successful practice and purchased a home in an exclusive section of town, and the MacArthurs were soon enjoying membership in the city's social elite.

According to historian Kenneth Ray Young, MacArthur "became a rising star in Milwaukee politics." Elected city attorney just two years after his arrival, he made friends with the most powerful men in the state. In 1855 MacArthur agreed to run as the Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor on a slate with incumbent Governor William A. Barstow. They won election, but on January 7, 1856 -- the very day they were inaugurated -- outraged Republicans launched an investigation into alleged voting irregularities. In March, the charges were substantiated, Barstow resigned and MacArthur served as governor for five days until the state court gave the election to their Republican opponent. Incredibly, though, the association did not hinder MacArthur's career, and in 1857 he was elected to the first of two six-year terms as a judge on the state's second judicial circuit. In 1870 he achieved his greatest success, when President Grant appointed him associate justice of the supreme court of the District of Columbia, a position he held until his retirement in 1887. He spent the remainder of his years writing several books, fielding numerous offers for speaking engagements, and entertaining Washington's elite.

It was during these lofty years in Washington, just when he was entering adolescence, that an impressionable Douglas MacArthur got to know his grandfather best. If in Douglas' mind his father represented the ideal soldier, his grandfather was the model for the gentleman-scholar. As D. Clayton James has written of the Judge, "The family heritage which he largely created and passed on by example to Douglas was one of nobility: A MacArthur is a man of superior mind and talents, a potential master of sundry fields; a MacArthur commands the respect of important personages at the highest levels of government and society; a MacArthur, by virtue of his family's high rank in the Scottish aristocracy of blood and the American aristocracy of success and wealth, is obligated to conduct himself with honor, gallantry, and magnanimity." These were clearly the signposts by which Douglas MacArthur would navigate his way into the history books.

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MacArthur: Three generations | American Experience | PBS

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General Douglas MacArthur (1880-1964) "You couldn't shrug your shoulders at Douglas MacArthur," observes historian David McCullough. "There was nothing bland about him, nothing passive about him, nothing dull about him. There's no question about his patriotism, there's no question about his courage, and there's no question, it seems to me, about his importance as one of the protagonists of the 20th century."

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The Battle of the Coral Sea was the first time since the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor that the enemy's seemingly relentless advance into the Pacific was checked. It was also the first major U.S. Navy fleet action against Japan and the first naval engagement in history in which the participating ships never sighted or fired directly at each other.

The battle's strategic background was set by the Japanese plan formulated in early 1942 that saw the country's forces advance south and southeastward from the Bismarcks and Solomons, with the capture of Tulagi in the Solomons and Port Moresby, New Guinea, as immediate objectives. Secondary objectives were the central Pacific island of Nauru and Ocean (Banaba), in the Gilberts chain northeast of the Solomons, for their phosphate resources, essential for Japanese agriculture.

Over 29 April-4 May, Japanese forces successfully attacked, invaded, and occupied Tulagi, although several of their warships were surprised and sunk or damaged by aircraft from USS Yorktown (CV-5). Alerted to the presence of U.S. carriers, the Japanese Carrier Strike Force advanced toward the Coral Sea with the intention of finding and destroying the Allied naval forces. Beginning on 7 May, the two sides exchanged air strikes over two consecutive days.

The resulting maneuvers and clashes between two U.S. Navy task forces and a combined U.S.Australian cruiser force with the Japanese Carrier Strike Force and supporting units resulted in a Japanese tactical victory. The Japanese Imperial Navy sank USS Lexington (CV-2), USS Sims (DD-409), and USS Neosho (AO-23), and damaged Yorktown. The Japanese only lost one small carrier ( Shoho) and suffered damage to a fleet carrier ( Shokaku). Allied forces were forced to withdraw from the operational area. However, with their air groups too battered to support a further advance, the Japanese were brought to a standstill. Although the Japanese had managed to capture Tulagi, Port Moresby remained in Allied control. Shokaku had been hit so severely that she could not join the Midway force. Due to losses of pilots and planes, another carrier ( Zuikaku) also did not take part in that operation. Thus, Coral Sea reduced Japanese carriers available for Midway by a third. Eminent U.S. Navy historian Samuel Eliot Morison notes that "so many mistakes were made by both sides in this new mode of fighting that it might be called the Battle of Errors; but more were made by the enemy, and he failed to profit by them."

Four Medals of Honor were awarded at Coral Sea:

Lieutenant John J. Powers (Yorktown, VB-5) for actions while attacking Shoho on 7 May at Tulagi, and on 8 May in while attacking Shokaku (killed in action)

Lieutenant Milton E. Ricketts (Yorktown), engineering repair party, on 8 May (killed in action)

Lieutenant William E. Hall (Lexington, VS-2) for his attack on Shoho on 7 May and interception of Japanese torpedo planes (too few available fighter aircraft forced the use of dive/scout bombers as low-level interceptors) on 8 May (survived)

Chief Water Tender Oscar V. Peterson (Neosho) for his heroism in the ship's engineering spaces on 7 May (died of wounds)

Additional links of interest:

Significant commanders:

Two noteworthy entries in The Sextant, the NHHC blog:

Sources:

Robert J. Cressman, The Official Chronology of the U.S. Navy in World War II. Annapolis, MD/Washington, DC: Naval Institute Press/Naval Historical Center, 1999.

Samuel Eliot Morison, History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, Vol. IV-Coral Sea, Midway and Submarine Actions, May 1942-August 1942. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1950.

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The Battle of the Coral Sea was the first time since the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor that the enemy's seemingly relentless advance into the Pacific was checked. It was also the first major U.S. Navy fleet action against Japan and the first naval engagement in history in which the participating ships never sighted or fired directly at each other.

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The Navy will commemorate the Battle of Midway this year from 3 JUNE to 7 JUNE. Please use our Commemoration Toolkit for messaging, graphics and additional resources.

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Overview
Strategic Background and the Role of Communications Intelligence
Following the outbreak of the Pacific War in December 1941, the Japanese armed forces conducted military operations against U.S., British Commonwealth, and Dutch possessions in the Pacific and Southeast Asia. The first phase of these operations, which was the seizure of Malaysia, Singapore, the Dutch East Indies, the Philippines, and various island groups in the central and western Pacific, was virtually complete by March 1942. The second phase, initiated by Japanese Imperial Headquarters on 23 January, was designed to isolate and neutralize Australia and India. In the Pacific, this plan envisioned the seizure of bases in Papua/New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, which would then be used to support future operations against New Caledonia, Fiji, and Samoa. By early March, with the seizure of Lae and Salamaua, the entire north coast of Papua/New Guinea had fallen to Japanese forces, who were planning for an amphibious invasion of Port Moresby.

At this time, two U.S. fleet radio-intercept units were in operation in the Pacific: one in Melbourne, Australia (FRUMEL-Fleet Radio Unit Melbourne), and another at Pearl Harbor ("Hypo" or FRUPAC-Fleet Radio Unit Pacific). A third ("Cast"), at Cavite and then Corregidor in the Philippines, was lost when U.S. forces there surrendered to the Japanese in 6 May. Fortunately, the station's equipment could be destroyed and its cryptanalysts evacuated to Melbourne. These facilities intercepted Japanese radio communications and, through traffic analysis and codebreaking, uncovered the location of major fleet units and shore-based air forces. More important, by translating messages and studying operational patterns, Melbourne and Hypo were able to predict future Japanese operations with some degree of certainty. The intelligence centers provided their analysis, through daily COMINT briefings and warning reports, to senior American commanders, including Admiral Ernest J. King, commander in chief, U.S. Fleet, and Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, commander in chief, Pacific Fleet.

Following an American carrier raid on Japanese shipping at Lae and Salamaua on 10 March, which demonstrated to Admiral Shigeyoshi Inouye, commander in chief, Fourth Fleet, that Japanese were not assured of air superiority in the region, the Japanese decided to postpone their planned seizure of Port Moresby. It was not until early May, when Admiral Inouye had three carriers available, that the operation was initiated. On 7-8 May, the first carrier battle of the war took place in the Coral Sea. Each side suffered damage to a carrier, while the American lost the carrier USS Lexington (CV-3) and the Japanese lost the light carrier Shoho. More important, the Japanese broke off their invasion attempt. The Battle of the Coral Sea spelled the first setback for the Japanese since the beginning of the Pacific War. Significantly, American cryptanalysts had provided crucial Japanese order of battle and operational communications intelligence to the Allied commanders.

In addition to this advance toward Port Moresby, evidence that Japan was intent on expanding east of the Marshall Islands appeared in COMINT in early 1942. Indications of land-based air units and equipment began appearing in message traffic to and from the Marshall Islands and other Japanese-occupied Pacific territories. In March, the designator "AF" began appearing in partially decoded messages. Then, on 5 March, Japanese seaplanes, refueled from a submarine at French Frigate Shoals, Territory of Hawaii, conducted an armed reconnaissance mission over Oahu. Finally, on 13 March, American cryptanalysts both broke the Japanese navy's general-purpose code and tentatively identified "AF" as Midway.

On 16 April, after several months of discussion, Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto, commander in chief of the Combined Fleet, convinced the Imperial General Staff to agree to his risky Midway and Aleutians strategy. In Yamamoto's view, the capture of Midway would allow Japan to pursue its Asian policies behind an impregnable eastern shield of defenses in the Central Pacific. The centerpiece of this plan was a feint toward Alaska followed by the invasion of Midway. The U.S. Pacific Fleet was expected to respond to the landings on Midway. Japanese carrier and battleship task forces, waiting unseen to the west of the island, would fall upon and destroy the unsuspecting Americans. If successful, the plan would effectively eliminate the Pacific Fleet for at least a year and provide a forward outpost from which ample warning of any future threat by the United States would come. The U.S. Doolittle Raid, carried out on 18 April, served to reinforce Japan's perceived need for an extended first line of defense and also to advance the date of the Midway operation. On 5 May, Imperial General Headquarters issued "Navy Order No. 18," which directed Yamamoto to carry out the occupation of Midway and key points in the western Aleutians in cooperation with the Imperial Japanese Army.

At the same time, Japanese Navy communication activity in the vicinity of Japan's Home Islands dramatically increased, reflecting naval exercises conducted in preparation for both the Midway and Aleutian operations. On 7 May, Hypo provided a translation of the agenda for a Japanese aviation conference, which concerned tactics to be employed in obtaining air superiority over a target, assisting in amphibious landings, and bombing and strafing attacks to wipe out local resistance. On 9 May, Melbourne intercepted and translated "1st Air Fleet Striking Force Order No. 6," which confirmed the creation of a new carrier strike force and that a major fleet movement would begin on 21 May. In response to this COMINT, American cryptanalysts supplied warning notices of Japanese offensives scheduled for late May.

On 19 May, Commander Joseph J. Rochefort, officer in charge of COMINT processing at Hypo and Lieutenant Commander Edwin T. Layton, the Pacific Fleet staff intelligence officer, identified Midway and Dutch Harbor in the Aleutians as specific Japanese objectives. On 22 May, following a radio deception operation, Melbourne completely confirmed that "AF" indicated Midway. Hypo then discovered the date cipher used in Japanese message traffic. This meant analysts could determine exactly when the attack would take place. After examining previously intercepted messages, Hypo predicted an attack on Midway on 4 June. Admiral Nimitz used this estimate to plan American countermeasures that included reinforcement of the forces already on Midway.

On 26 May, the Japanese Northern Force, which included two light carriers, sailed from Japan toward the Aleutians. The next day, Japanese forces began getting underway for Midway. Chief among them was First Mobile Force/Carrier Strike Force, which comprised the four large carriers Akagi, Kaga, Soryu, and Hiryu with a total of 229 embarked aircraft. Two days later, the Japanese First Fleet/Main Body (Admiral Yamamoto in battleship Yamato) sortied from home waters. The Second Fleet/Escort Force, including 15 transports, sailed from Saipan; Second Fleet/Occupation Support Force sortied from Guam. These forces were supported by 17 patrol seaplanes.

Rear Admiral Raymond A. Spruance's Task Force SIXTEEN (TF 16), formed around USS Enterprise (CV-6) and USS Hornet (CV-8), departed Pearl Harbor on 28 May to take up a position northeast of Midway. Two days later, Task Force SEVENTEEN (TF 17) under the command of Rear Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher, formed around USS Yorktown (CV-5), sailed from Pearl to join TF 16 northeast of Midway. When TF 17 and TF 16 joined about 350 miles northeast of Midway on 2 June, Fletcher became officer in tactical command. The three U.S. carriers, augmented by cruiser-launched floatplanes, provided 234 aircraft afloat. These were supported by 110 fighters, bombers, and patrol planes at Midway. As part of the pre-battle disposition, 25 U.S. fleet submarines were deployed around Midway.

Meanwhile, on 29 May, seaplane tender USS Thornton (AVD-11) arrived at French Frigate Shoals to relieve light minelayer USS Preble (DM-20) on patrol station there. The presence of U.S. ships prevented the Japanese from refueling flying boats to reconnoiter Pearl Harbor. Although the Japanese could not visually confirm the departure of Task Forces 16 and 17 from Pearl Harbor; American preparations to defend Midway were more apparent to the enemy. Japanese COMINT stations not only learned of carrier movements in and out of Pearl Harbor, simply by listening to increased air-ground radio chatter, but traffic analysis of "Urgent" radio messages coming out of Pearl Harbor suggested at least one U.S. Navy task force was at sea. Incredibly, this information was withheld from the Midway strike force because of Yamamoto's strict radio silence restrictions.
The Battle
On 3 June, in the preliminary moves of the Battle of Midway, American land-based aircraft from Midway located and attacked Japanese transports about 600 miles west of Midway Island. U.S. Army Air Forces Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses inflicted no damage, however, and four Consolidated PBY Catalina patrol bombers were sent out from Midway for a night attack on the approaching landing forces. As part of the overall Japanese plan, planes from light carriers Ryujo and Junyo bombed Dutch Harbor.

Just after midnight on 4 June, Admiral Nimitz, based on patrol plane reports, advised Task Forces 16 and 17 of the course and speed of the Japanese "main body," also noting their distance of 574 miles from Midway. Shortly after dawn, a patrol plane spotted two Japanese carriers and their escorts, reporting "Many planes heading Midway from 320 degrees distant 150 miles!"

The first engagement on 4 June, however, took place when the four night-flying PBYs attacked the Japanese transports northwest of Midway, with one PBY torpedoing a fleet tanker. Later that morning, at roughly 0630, Japanese carrier aircraft bombed Midway installations. Although defending U.S. Marine Corps fighters suffered disastrous losses, the Japanese only inflicted slight damage to the island's facilities on Midway.

Over the next two hours, Japanese fighter aircraft on combat air patrol (CAP) and antiaircraft fire from the Japanese fleet annihilated the repeated attacks by Midway-based Marine Corps scout bombers and Navy torpedo bombers. Army Air Forces heavy bombers and torpedo-carrying medium bombers likewise bombed the Japanese carrier force without success, although without losses to themselves.

Between 0930 and 1030, Douglas TBD Devastator torpedo bombers from the three American carriers attacked the Japanese carriers. Although nearly wiped out by the defending Japanese fighters and antiaircraft fire, they drew off enemy aircraft, leaving the skies open for dive bombers from Enterprise and Yorktown. Douglas SBD Dauntlesses from Enterprise bombed and fatally damaged carriers Kaga and Akagi, while SBDs from Yorktown bombed and wrecked carrier Soryu.

At 1100, Hiryu, the one Japanese carrier that escaped destruction that morning, launched dive bombers that temporarily disabled Yorktown around noon. Three and a half hours later, Hiryu's torpedo planes struck a second blow, forcing Yorktown's abandonment. In return, Dauntlesses from Enterprise mortally damaged Hiryu in a strike around 1700 that afternoon. The destruction of the Carrier Strike Force compelled Admiral Yamamoto to abandon his Midway invasion plans, and the Japanese fleet began to retire westward.

On 5 June, TF 16 under command of Rear Admiral Spruance pursued the Japanese fleet westward, while work continued to salvage the damaged Yorktown. Both Akagi and Hiryu, damaged the previous day, were scuttled by Japanese destroyers early that day.

The last air attacks of the battle took place on 6 June, when dive bombers from Enterprise and Hornet bombed and sank heavy cruiser Mikuma, and damaged destroyers Asashio and Arashio,,as well as the cruiser Mogami. At Spruance's express orders, issued because of the destruction of the three torpedo squadrons on 4 June, Enterprise Devastators that accompanied the strike did not attack because of the threat to them from surface antiaircraft fire. After recovering its aircraft, TF 16 turned eastward and broke off contact with the enemy. COMINT intercepts over the following two days documented the withdrawal of Japanese forces toward Saipan and the Home Islands.

Also on 6 June, Japanese submarine I-168 interrupted the U.S. salvage operations on Yorktown, torpedoing the carrier and torpedoing and sinking destroyer USS Hammann (DD-412). Screening destroyers depth-charged I-168, but the Japanese submarine escaped destruction. Yorktown finally rolled over and sank at dawn on 7 June.
Aftermath and Significance
Due to American COMINT capabilities, astute intelligence analysis, judicious aircraft carrier tactics, and more than a little luck, the U.S. Navy had inflicted a smashing defeat on the Imperial Japanese Navy. Although the performance of the three American carrier air groups would later be considered uneven, their pilots and crews had won the day through courage, determination, and heroic sacrifice. Against the loss of one U.S. carrier, the Japanese lost four-all of which had participated in the Pearl Harbor attack. More importantly, the Japanese lost over 100 trained pilots, who could not be replaced. In a larger strategic sense, the Japanese offensive in the Pacific was derailed and their plans to advance on New Caledonia, Fiji, and Samoa postponed. The balance of sea power in the Pacific had begun to shift.
Further Reading
Hone, Thomas C. The Battle of Midway: The Naval Institute Guide to the U.S. Navy's Greatest Victory. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2013.

Lundstrom, John B. The First Team: Pacific Naval Air Combat from Pearl Harbor to Midway. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2005.

Morison, Samuel Eliot. History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, Vol. IV: Coral Sea, Midway and Submarine Actions, May 1942-August 1942. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1950.

U.S. and Japanese Forces at Midway
"Battle of Midway, 3-6 June 1942: Composition of U. S. Forces, United States Pacific Fleet and Pacific Ocean Areas" "Battle of Midway, 3-6 June 1942: Composition of Japanese Naval Forces"
The Japanese Story of the Battle of Midway, translation of captured Japanese documents by OPNAV P32-1002, Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI), June 1947

The Battle of Midway, formerly classified ONI combat narrative from March 1943. Republished in 2017 by NHHC with a new introduction. Available as PDF (5.6 MB). Original text available as HTML in the NHHC Online Reading Room.

"Midway: Sheer Luck or Better Doctrine," by Thomas Wildenburg, Naval War College Review, Vol. 58 (2005), No. 1

The Battle of Midway Including the Aleutian Phase, June 3 to June 14, 1942-Strategical and Tactical Analysis, by the U.S. Naval War College, 1948 (PDF, 18.2 MB)

Battle of Midway: Interrogation of Japanese Officials (Vol. 1), by the U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey (Pacific), October 1945. Includes senior Japanese naval officers assigned to carriers Hiryu, Akagi, and Soryu at Midway.

Campaigns of the Pacific: The Battle of Midway-Japanese Plans, translation of captured Japanese documents by the U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey (Pacific), circa 1945

"Battle of Midway: Lessons Learned," by NHHC historian Robert J. Cressman, from The Sextant, the NHHC blog

H-Gram 006: "75th Anniversary of the Battle of Midway," by NHHC Director Sam Cox (May 2017-updated and revised October 2019)

"Battle of Midway, 4-7 June 1942: A Select Bibliography," by the U.S. Navy Library

NHHC publication: Winning a Future War-War Gaming and Victory in the Pacific War, by Norman Friedman. This acclaimed book shows how U.S. naval commanders successfully applied lessons learned from interwar war gaming to victorious carrier operations in World War II.

The Role of Intelligence

"The Role of COMINT in the Battle of Midway," by Henry F. Schorreck, former National Security Agency (NSA) historian

"The Battle of Midway Still Teaches the Value of Intelligence, Decisive Action," by Rear Admiral Paul Becker, USN (ret.), from The Sextant

"Navy Cryptology and the Battle of Midway: Our Finest Hour," by Lieutenant Commander Philip H. Jacobsen, USN (ret.), from The Sextant

"Reflections on the Battle of Midway from the PACFLT Basement," by Captain Dale Rielage, USN, from The Sextant

People
(Ranks and units/commands at the time of the Battle of Midway)
Battle of Midway Casualty List (508-compliant PDF, 120 KB), listing of U.S. personnel killed in action during the battle

Lieutenant Richard H. Best, squadron commander, Bombing Squadron SIX (VB-6), USS Enterprise (CV-6)

Rear Admiral Frank Jack Fletcher, commander, Task Force SEVENTEEN (TF 17)

Aviation Machinist's Mate 1st Class Bruno Gaido, SBD Dauntless gunner, Scouting Squadron SIX (VS-6), USS Enterprise (CV-6)

Ensign George Henry Gay, TBD Devastator pilot, Torpedo Squadron EIGHT (VT-8), USS Hornet (CV-8)

Vice Admiral William F. Halsey, commander, Task Force SIXTEEN (TF 16) during the Doolittle Raid, and commander, Carriers, Pacific Fleet

Commander Dixie Kiefer, executive officer, USS Yorktown (CV-5)

Chief Water Tender Charles Kleinsmith, engineering department, USS Yorktown (CV-5)

Lieutenant Commander Edwin T. Layton, U.S. Pacific Fleet N2, Pearl Harbor

Lieutenant Commander Maxwell F. Leslie, executive officer, Bombing Squadron THREE (VB-3), USS Yorktown (CV-5)

Lieutenant Commander Eugene E. Lindsey, commanding officer, Torpedo Squadron SIX (VT-6), USS Enterprise (CV-6)

Lieutenant Commander Lance E. Massey, commanding officer, Torpedo Squadron THREE (VT-3), USS Yorktown (CV-5)

Lieutenant Commander Clarence Wade McClusky, Jr., commander, Air Group SIX (CAG 6), USS Enterprise (CV-6)

Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, commander in chief, U.S. Pacific Fleet, and commander in chief, Pacific Ocean Area

Commander Joseph J. Rochefort, officer-in-charge, "Station Hypo," Pearl Harbor

Rear Admiral Raymond Ames Spruance, commander, Task Force SIXTEEN (TF 16)

Lieutenant Commander John S. Thach, commanding officer, Fighting Squadron THREE (VF-3), USS Yorktown (CV-5)

Lieutenant Commander John C. Waldron, commanding officer, Torpedo Squadron EIGHT (VT-8), USS Hornet (CV-8)

Digital Collections
Battle of Midway Imagery Battle of Midway Combat Art Battle of Midway Artifacts
Commemoration Resources
Midway Historical Overview Video Battle of Midway Infographics

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The Navy will commemorate the Battle of Midway this year from 3 JUNE to 7 JUNE. Please use our Commemoration Toolkit for messaging, graphics and additional resources.

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HISTORY CRUNCH - History Articles, Biographies, Infographics, Resources and More

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Once the United States undertook its attack against the Japanese Empire a series of key battles took place throughout the Pacific region. The United States first met Japanese forces at the Battle of Midway, before American troops swept south and ​helped prevent Australia from falling to approaching Japanese forces. At this point the United States faced off against Japan at the Battle of Guadalcanal and began its strategy of island-hopping. In all, the vast empire of Japan included thousands of islands throughout the Pacific Ocean and in the prospect of capturing each and every island would have overwhelmed and slowed the American advance as they pushed forward towards conquering Japan. Therefore, American military strategists proposed a plan of island-hopping throughout the Pacific on their way to the Japanese main islands. This called for the American advance to only focus on strategically important islands, such as islands with landing strips and islands that were not heavily defended by Japanese forces. The purpose was to focus on Japanese held islands that would help the United States to advance as quickly as possible. Therefore, landing strips would allow American planes to advance quickly and to resupply troops on the group. As well, avoiding heavily defended islands, if possible, allowed to United States to avoid being bogged down in long battles.

In the end, the strategy proved effective, as American forces were able to advance to just south of the Japanese main islands in just a couple years. This allowed thee United States to get its aircraft carriers and ultimately its long range bombers close enough to the Japanese main islands in order to carry out the atomic bombing of Japan in order to end World War II.

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Island-hopping was a war strategy of the United States during World War II in its P acific Campaign against the Japanese Empire. The United States entered the fighting of World War II after the...

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Bringing to the Presidency his prestige as commanding general of the victorious forces in Europe during World War II, Dwight D. Eisenhower obtained a truce in Korea and worked incessantly during his two terms (1953-1961) to ease the tensions of the Cold War.

Bringing to the Presidency his prestige as commanding general of the victorious forces in Europe during World War II, Dwight D. Eisenhower obtained a truce in Korea and worked incessantly during his two terms to ease the tensions of the Cold War. He pursued the moderate policies of "Modern Republicanism," pointing out as he left office, "America is today the strongest, most influential, and most productive nation in the world."

Born in Texas in 1890, brought up in Abilene, Kansas, Eisenhower was the third of seven sons. He excelled in sports in high school, and received an appointment to West Point. Stationed in Texas as a second lieutenant, he met Mamie Geneva Doud, whom he married in 1916.

In his early Army career, he excelled in staff assignments, serving under Generals John J. Pershing, Douglas MacArthur, and Walter Krueger. After Pearl Harbor, General George C. Marshall called him to Washington for a war plans assignment. He commanded the Allied Forces landing in North Africa in November 1942; on D-Day, 1944, he was Supreme Commander of the troops invading France.

After the war, he became President of Columbia University, then took leave to assume supreme command over the new NATO forces being assembled in 1951. Republican emissaries to his headquarters near Paris persuaded him to run for President in 1952.

"I like Ike" was an irresistible slogan; Eisenhower won a sweeping victory.

Negotiating from military strength, he tried to reduce the strains of the Cold War. In 1953, the signing of a truce brought an armed peace along the border of South Korea. The death of Stalin the same year caused shifts in relations with Russia.

New Russian leaders consented to a peace treaty neutralizing Austria. Meanwhile, both Russia and the United States had developed hydrogen bombs. With the threat of such destructive force hanging over the world, Eisenhower, with the leaders of the British, French, and Russian governments, met at Geneva in July 1955.

The President proposed that the United States and Russia exchange blueprints of each other's military establishments and "provide within our countries facilities for aerial photography to the other country." The Russians greeted the proposal with silence, but were so cordial throughout the meetings that tensions relaxed.

Suddenly, in September 1955, Eisenhower suffered a heart attack in Denver, Colorado. After seven weeks he left the hospital, and in February 1956 doctors reported his recovery. In November he was elected for his second term.

In domestic policy the President pursued a middle course, continuing most of the New Deal and Fair Deal programs, emphasizing a balanced budget. As desegregation of schools began, he sent troops into Little Rock, Arkansas, to assure compliance with the orders of a Federal court; he also ordered the complete desegregation of the Armed Forces. "There must be no second class citizens in this country," he wrote.

Eisenhower concentrated on maintaining world peace. He watched with pleasure the development of his "atoms for peace" program-the loan of American uranium to "have not" nations for peaceful purposes.

Before he left office in January 1961, for his farm in Gettysburg, he urged the necessity of maintaining an adequate military strength, but cautioned that vast, long-continued military expenditures could breed potential dangers to our way of life. He concluded with a prayer for peace "in the goodness of time." Both themes remained timely and urgent when he died, after a long illness, on March 28, 1969.

For more information about President Eisenhower, please visit Dwight D. Eisenhower Library and Museum

Learn more about Dwight D. Eisenhower's spouse, Mamie Geneva Doud Eisenhower.

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Bringing to the Presidency his prestige as commanding general of the victorious forces in Europe during World War II, Dwight D. Eisenhower obtained a truce in Korea and worked incessantly during his two terms (1953-1961) to ease the tensions of the Cold War.

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NARRATOR: Summer 1942 - just one year after the invasion of the Soviet Union, Hitler orders an offensive against the large city on the Volga that bears Stalin's name. In early August, Wehrmacht troops advance to the city limits of Stalingrad.

GERHARD DENGLER: "We thought that if we could cut off Stalingrad and with that the Volga, the war would be as good as over."

NARRATOR: Day after day, the German bombers attack. The city looks increasingly like a wasteland. In mid-September 1942, German soldiers enter Stalingrad. Many believe the enemy is almost defeated, that it's only a matter of crushing the last pockets of resistance. But the Soviet dictator is determined. The city will not be taken. Stalingrad is turned into a fortress. Even civilians pitch in.

RAISSA GALTSCHENKO: "There was an appeal to the soldiers: There is no more land for us beyond the Volga. We knew what we were defending, our homeland and, most of all, our city."

NARRATOR: There is bitter fighting among the ruins, street by street, house by house. Sometimes only floors separate the enemies. The hand-to-hand combat is savage. It lasts for weeks.

GÜNTER SCHRÖDER: "When the Russians suddenly charged in, we could do only one thing: pull out our spades and strike at them from below and hit the main artery below the head."

NARRATOR: The brutal battle now takes a daily toll of thousands of German and Soviet soldiers. By early November, the temperatures in Stalingrad drop to -18 degrees. The Volga freezes over. In the snowy steppes not far from the city, Red Army troops are gathering. Over a million soldiers stand at the ready, with orders to besiege the enemy. On November 19, 1942, they attack. The Germans have little to oppose such an overwhelming force. Within three days, the troops of the 6th Army are surrounded. Close to 300,000 German and allied soldiers are now under siege in Stalingrad.

HANS-ERDMANN SCHÖNBECK: "We feared that they would do to us what we had already done to hundreds of thousands of Russians. By then, there was no hope of mercy on either side. We knew what would happen to us."

NARRATOR: For Hitler, the Battle for Stalingrad is also a matter of pride. The 6th Army wants to capitulate. But he refuses. Leaving his soldiers to their fate. Thousands of lives are lost not only in combat, but also to hunger and cold.

GERHARD MÜNCH: "Thousands of soldiers lay unburied in the snow, thousands upon thousands. The road led through them, the wind swept over them. It breaks something inside you, that can never be healed."

NARRATOR: On February 2, 1943, the 6th Army surrenders against Hitler's will. For the Soviet Army, the first great triumph at a huge cost. Half a million Soviet soldiers die. Of the 300,000 German soldiers under siege, only one in three survives to face years of imprisonment. Only 6,000 German soldiers who fight in Stalingrad to the bitter end ever return home.

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The Defeat of Germany at the Battle of Stalingrad, 1943

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Overview of the Battle of Stalingrad (1942-43).

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The Normandy beaches were chosen by planners because they lay within range of air cover, and were less heavily defended than the obvious objective of the Pas de Calais, the shortest distance between Great Britain and the Continent. Airborne drops at both ends of the beachheads were to protect the flanks, as well as open up roadways to the interior. Six divisions were to land on the first day; three U.S., two British and one Canadian. Two more British and one U.S. division were to follow up after the assault division had cleared the way through the beach defenses.

Disorganization, confusion, incomplete or faulty implementation of plans characterized the initial phases of the landings. This was especially true of the airborne landings which were badly scattered, as well as the first wave units landing on the assault beaches. To their great credit, most of the troops were able to adapt to the disorganization. In the end, the Allies achieved their objective.

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Home | D-Day | June 6, 1944 | The United States Army

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The U.S. Army remembers June 6, 1944: The World War II D-Day invasion of Normandy, France.

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The Battle of the Bulge

In late 1944, during the wake of the Allied forces' successful D-Day invasion of Normandy, France, it seemed as if the Second World War was all but over. On Dec. 16, with the onset of winter, the German army launched a counteroffensive that was intended to cut through the Allied forces in a manner that would turn the tide of the war in Hitler's favor. The battle that ensued is known historically as the Battle of the Bulge. The courage and fortitude of the American Soldier was tested against great adversity. Nevertheless, the quality of his response ultimately meant the victory of freedom over tyranny.

Overview

Early on the misty winter morning of Dec. 16, 1944, more than 200,000 German troops and nearly 1,000 tanks launched Adolf Hitler's last bid to reverse the ebb in his fortunes that had begun when Allied troops landed in France on D-Day. Seeking to drive to the coast of the English Channel and split the Allied armies as they had done in May 1940, the Germans struck in the Ardennes Forest, a 75-mile stretch of the front characterized by dense woods and few roads, held by four inexperienced and battle-worn American divisions stationed there for rest and seasoning.

After a day of hard fighting, the Germans broke through the American front, surrounding most of an infantry division, seizing key crossroads, and advancing their spearheads toward the Meuse River, creating the projection that gave the battle its name.

Stories spread of the massacre of Soldiers and civilians at Malmedy and Stavelot, of paratroopers dropping behind the lines, and of English-speaking German soldiers, disguised as Americans, capturing critical bridges, cutting communications lines, and spreading rumors. For those who had lived through 1940, the picture was all too familiar. Belgian townspeople put away their Allied flags and brought out their swastikas. Police in Paris enforced an all-night curfew. British veterans waited nervously to see how the Americans would react to a full-scale German offensive, and British generals quietly acted to safeguard the Meuse River's crossings. Even American civilians, who had thought final victory was near were sobered by the Nazi onslaught.

But this was not 1940. The supreme Allied commander, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower rushed reinforcements to hold the shoulders of the German penetration. Within days, Lt. Gen. George S. Patton Jr. had turned his Third U.S. Army to the north and was counterattacking against the German flank. But the story of the Battle of the Bulge is above all the story of American Soldiers. Often isolated and unaware of the overall picture, they did their part to slow the Nazi advance, whether by delaying armored spearheads with obstinate defenses of vital crossroads, moving or burning critical gasoline stocks to keep them from the fuel-hungry German tanks, or coming up with questions on arcane Americana to stump possible Nazi infiltrators.

At the critical road junctions of St. Vith and Bastogne, American tankers and paratroopers fought off repeated attacks, and when the acting commander of the 101st Airborne Division in Bastogne was summoned by his German adversary to surrender, he simply responded, "Nuts!"

Within days, Patton's Third Army had relieved Bastogne, and to the north, the 2nd U.S. Armored Division stopped enemy tanks short of the Meuse River on Christmas. Through January, American troops, often wading through deep snow drifts, attacked the sides of the shrinking bulge until they had restored the front and set the stage for the final drive to victory.

Never again would Hitler be able to launch an offensive in the west on such a scale. An admiring British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill stated, "This is undoubtedly the greatest American battle of the war and will, I believe, be regarded as an ever-famous American victory." Indeed, in terms of participation and losses, the Battle of the Bulge is arguably the greatest battle in American military history.

Courtesy of the U.S. Army Center of Military History

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In late 1944, during the wake of the Allied forces' successful D-Day invasion of Normandy, France, it seemed as if the Second World War was all but over. On Dec. 16, with the onset of winter, the German army launched a counteroffensive that was intended to cut through the Allied forces in a manner that would turn the tide of the war in Hitler's favor.

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The Battle of Okinawa, which began 75 years ago, was the last major battle of World War II - and the bloodiest of the Pacific campaign.

At dawn on Easter, April 1, 1945, a fleet of 1,300 U.S. ships and 50 British ships closed in for the invasion of the island, which is part of Japan's southernmost prefecture.

The battle lasted three months and involved four U.S. Army and two Marine Corps divisions.

The landings were relatively unopposed because the Japanese refused to fight on the beaches. Instead, they withdrew into caves in the rocky hills to force a battle of attrition, according to John Ray Skates, a historian with the Center of Military History.

The Japanese strategy worked, he said. "U.S. casualties were staggering, the largest of the Pacific war."

More than 12,000 U.S. soldiers, sailors and Marines died during the fighting.

In the waters around Okinawa, the Japanese launched the largest kamikaze, or suicide, attack of the war. Japanese planes rammed into allied ships, sinking 26 and severely damaging 168. Almost 40% of the U.S. dead were sailors lost to these attacks, Skates said.

The Japanese military suffered even more, with around 100,000 killed, including many who committed suicide. Around the same number of Okinawan civilians were killed or committed suicide.

Among the Americans killed was Army Lt. Gen. Simon Bolivar Buckner Jr., who was killed by Japanese artillery fire. He was the highest ranking military officer killed during the entire war.

The Battle of Okinawa was a series of battles, including the battle for Hacksaw Ridge. An Army medic during that battle rescued 75 of his wounded comrades. For his valor, Cpl. Desmond T. Doss was awarded the Medal of Honor. What makes his service so unique is that he was a conscientious objector who refused to carry a weapon or kill the enemy. A 2016 movie, "Hacksaw Ridge," chronicles his story.

The Allies planned to use Okinawa as a base to attack mainland Japan, dubbed Operation Downfall. However, on Aug. 15, 1945, Japan announced its unconditional surrender, thereby avoiding further bloodshed.

In 1972, the U.S. returned Okinawa to Japanese control. Today, Japan is a valued ally of the United States.

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The Battle of Okinawa, which began 75 years ago, was the last major battle of World War II - and the bloodiest of the Pacific campaign. At dawn on Easter, April 1, 1945, a fleet of 1,300 U.S. ships and 50 British ships closed in for the invasion of the island, which is part of Japan's southernmost prefecture.

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American Presidents: Life Portraits - Harry S. Truman

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Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki - Causes, Impact & Lives Lost

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On August 6, 1945, during World War II (1939-45), an American B-29 bomber dropped the world’s first deployed atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima, immediately killing 80,000 people. Three days later, a second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, killing an estimated 40,000 people.

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THE ATOMIC BOMBING OF NAGASAKI(Nagasaki, Japan, August 9, 1945)
Events >Dawn of the Atomic Era, 1945

The War Enters Its Final Phase, 1945

Debate Over How to Use the Bomb, Late Spring 1945

The Trinity Test, July 16, 1945

Safety and the Trinity Test, July 1945

Evaluations of Trinity, July 1945

Potsdam and the Final Decision to Bomb, July 1945

The Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima, August 6, 1945

The Atomic Bombing of Nagasaki, August 9, 1945

Japan Surrenders, August 10-15, 1945

The Manhattan Project and the Second World War, 1939-1945

The next break in the weather over Japan was due to appear just three days after the attack on Hiroshima, to be followed by at least five more days of prohibitive weather. The plutonium implosion bomb, nicknamed "Fat Man," was rushed into readiness to take advantage of this window. No further orders were required for the attack. Truman's order of July 25th had authorized the dropping of additional bombs as soon as they were ready. At 3:47 a.m. on August 9, 1945, a B-29 named Bock's Car lifted off from Tinian and headed toward the primary target: Kokura Arsenal, a massive collection of war industries adjacent to the city of Kokura.

From this point on, few things went according to plan. The aircraft commander, Major Charles W. Sweeney, ordered the arming of the bomb only ten minutes after take-off so that the aircraft could be pressurized and climb above the lightning and squalls that menaced the flight all the way to Japan. (A journalist, William L. Laurence of the New York Times, on an escorting aircraft saw some "St. Elmo's fire" glowing on the edges of the aircraft and worried that the static electricity might detonate the bomb.) Sweeney then discovered that due to a minor malfunction he would not be able to access his reserve fuel. The aircraft next had to orbit over Yaku-shima off the south coast of Japan for almost an hour in order to rendezvous with its two escort B-29s, one of which never did arrive. The weather had been reported satisfactory earlier in the day over Kokura Arsenal, but by the time the B-29 finally arrived there, the target was obscured by smoke and haze. Two more passes over the target still produced no sightings of the aiming point. As an aircraft crewman, Jacob Beser, later recalled, Japanese fighters and bursts of antiaircraft fire were by this time starting to make things "a little hairy." Kokura no longer appeared to be an option, and there was only enough fuel on board to return to the secondary airfield on Okinawa, making one hurried pass as they went over their secondary target, the city of Nagasaki. As Beser later put it, "there was no sense dragging the bomb home or dropping it in the ocean."

As it turned out, cloud cover obscured Nagasaki as well. Sweeney reluctantly approved a much less accurate radar approach on the target. At the last moment the bombardier, Captain Kermit K. Beahan, caught a brief glimpse of the city's stadium through the clouds and dropped the bomb. At 11:02 a.m., at an altitude of 1,650 feet, Fat Man (right) exploded over Nagasaki. The yield of the explosion was later estimated at 21 kilotons, 40 percent greater than that of the Hiroshima bomb.

Nagasaki was an industrial center and major port on the western coast of Kyushu. As had happened at Hiroshima, the "all-clear" from an early morning air raid alert had long been given by the time the B-29 had begun its bombing run. A small conventional raid on Nagasaki on August 1st had resulted in a partial evacuation of the city, especially of school children. There were still almost 200,000 people in the city below the bomb when it exploded. The hurriedly-targeted weapon ended up detonating almost exactly between two of the principal targets in the city, the Mitsubishi Steel and Arms Works to the south, and the Mitsubishi-Urakami Torpedo Works (left) to the north. Had the bomb exploded farther south the residential and commercial heart of the city would have suffered much greater damage.

In general, though Fat Man exploded with greater force than Little Boy, the damage at Nagasaki was not as great as it had been at Hiroshima. The hills of Nagasaki, its geographic layout, and the bomb's detonation over an industrial area all helped shield portions of the city from the weapon's blast, heat, and radiation effects. The explosion affected a total area of approximately 43 square miles. About 8.5 of those square miles were water, and 33 more square miles were only partially settled. Many roads and rail lines escaped major damage. In some areas electricity was not knocked out, and fire breaks created over the last several months helped to prevent the spread of fires to the south.

Although the destruction at Nagasaki has generally received less worldwide attention than that at Hiroshima, it was extensive nonetheless. Almost everything up to half a mile from ground zero was completely destroyed, including even the earthquake-hardened concrete structures that had sometimes survived at comparable distances at Hiroshima. According to a Nagasaki Prefectural report "men and animals died almost instantly" within 1 kilometer (0.62 miles) of the point of detonation. Almost all homes within a mile and a half were destroyed, and dry, combustible materials such as paper instantly burst into flames as far away as 10,000 feet from ground zero. Of the 52,000 homes in Nagasaki, 14,000 were destroyed and 5,400 more seriously damaged. Only 12 percent of the homes escaped unscathed. The official Manhattan Engineer District report on the attack termed the damage to the two Mitsubishi plants "spectacular." Despite the absence of a firestorm, numerous secondary fires erupted throughout the city. Fire-fighting efforts were hampered by water line breaks, and six weeks later the city was still suffering from a shortage of water. A U.S. Navy officer who visited the city in mid-September reported that, even over a month after the attack, "a smell of death and corruption pervades the place." As at Hiroshima, the psychological effects of the attack were undoubtedly considerable.

As with the estimates of deaths at Hiroshima, it will never be known for certain how many people died as a result of the atomic attack on Nagasaki. The best estimate is 40,000 people died initially, with 60,000 more injured. By January 1946, the number of deaths probably approached 70,000, with perhaps ultimately twice that number dead total within five years. For those areas of Nagasaki affected by the explosion, the death rate was comparable to that at Hiroshima.

The day after the attack on Nagasaki, the emperor of Japan overruled the military leaders of Japan and forced them to offer to surrender (almost) unconditionally.

The War Enters Its Final Phase, 1945

Debate Over How to Use the Bomb, Late Spring 1945

The Trinity Test, July 16, 1945

Safety and the Trinity Test, July 1945

Evaluations of Trinity, July 1945

Potsdam and the Final Decision to Bomb, July 1945

The Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima, August 6, 1945

The Atomic Bombing of Nagasaki, August 9, 1945

Japan Surrenders, August 10-15, 1945

The Manhattan Project and the Second World War, 1939-1945

Next
Sources and notes for this page.

Portions of the text for this page were adapted from, and portions were taken directly from the Office of History and Heritage Resources publication: F. G. Gosling, The Manhattan Project: Making the Atomic Bomb (DOE/MA-0001; Washington: History Division, Department of Energy, January 1999), 53-54. Also used was the report on "The Atomic Bombings ofHiroshima and Nagasaki" in the official Manhattan District History, produced by the War Department in 1947 at the direction of Leslie Groves, especially pages 1-19; the "Atomic Bombings" document is available in the University Publications of America (UPA) microfilm collection, Manhattan Project: Official History and Documents (Washington: 1977), reel #1/12; the report itself is a government document. For an account of the mission, see the "Eye Witness Account: Atomic Bomb Mission Over Nagasaki" press release, written by William L. Laurence of the New York Times and released on September 9, 1945; this is also available on reel #1/12 of the UPA Manhattan Project microfilm collection. Summaries of Hiroshima and Nagasaki casualty rates and damage estimates appear in Leslie R. Groves, Now It Can Be Told (New York: Harper & Row, 1962), 319, 329-330, 346, and Vincent C. Jones, Manhattan: The Army and the Atomic Bomb, United States Army in World War II (Washington: Center of Military History, United States Army, 1988), 545-548. For a description of Kokura Arsenal and interesting reflections on its postwar fate, see "Chapter 4: Kokura" of Paul Saffo's essay "The Road from Trinity: Reflections on the Atom Bomb"; this is available on Paul Saffo's web site at http://www.saffo.com/essays/the-road-from-trinity-reflections-on-the-atom-bomb/. The map showing the flight paths for the Hiroshima and Nagasaki missions is reproduced from Gosling, Making the Atomic Bomb, 52. The photographs of Fat Man and of the general devastation at Nagasaki are courtesy the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (via the National Archives (NARA)). The photograph of the destruction at the Mitsubishi facility north of ground zero is courtesy the Los Alamos National Laboratory; the photograph was taken by Robert Serber and is reprinted in Rachel Fermi and Esther Samra, Picturing the Bomb: Photographs from the Secret World of the Manhattan Project (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers, 1995), 190. The photograph of the mother and child is courtesy the Department of Energy (via NARA). The photograph of the bodies in the trench is reprinted from Vincent C. Jones, Manhattan: The Army and the Atomic Bomb, United States Army in World War II (Washington: Center of Military History, United States Army, 1988), 548.

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Manhattan Project: The Atomic Bombing of Nagasaki, August 9, 1945

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THE ATOMIC BOMBING OF NAGASAKI (Nagasaki, Japan, August 9, 1945) Events >Dawn of the Atomic Era, 1945 The War Enters Its Final Phase, 1945 Debate Over How to Use the Bomb, Late Spring 1945 The Trinity Test, July 16, 1945 Safety and the Trinity Test, July 1945 Evaluations of Trinity,