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Axis Powers: Germany, Italy, Japan
Allied Powers: USA, Russia, UK, Canada

War fought on 2 fronts: Western Front, Pacific Theater

Pre-War & Appeasement (1935-39)

Appeasement = foreign policy adopted by the UK and France to appease Hitler and Mussolini in order to keep the peace.

1938 - Neville Chamberlain meets with Hitler, declares he has "secured peace for our time."

Sept 1, 1939 - Hitler invades Poland, proving Chamberlain very wrong. Appeasement has failed. Britain (along with 60 other countries) declares war on Germany. World war breaks out.

The US does not. Before Pearl Harbor, isolationism was popular in the US. Isolationism has a long history - George Washington discussed staying out of European affairs in his farewell address. After WWI, isolationism rises as the League of Nations fails and Americans grow weary of suffering casualties for the purpose of solving other countries' problems. FDR refrains from joining the war, even while gesturing towards his interventionist sentiments in speeches.

Pearl Harbor and US involvement (1941)

Dec 7, 1941 - Japan invades the US at Pearl Harbor in a complete surprise attack. 2,000+ U.S. casualties, 1000 injured, 20 naval vessels destroyed, including 8 battleships.

Dec 8, 1941 - US declares war on Japan with one dissenting vote - Jeanette Rankin, the first woman in Congress and a lifelong pacifist

Dec 11, 1941 - US declares war on Germany with 2 unanimous houses of Congress.

D-Day and V-E Day

Jun 6, 1944 - Allied armies, led by general Dwight D. Eisenhower, attack Nazi forces on the shores of Normandy, France. This marks the beginning of the end of the war.

Apr 25 1945 - Mussolini is captured by Italian partisans and executed

Apr 30 1945 - Hitler commits suicide in his bunker

May 7 - German army surrenders unconditionally

May 8 1945 - Churchill declares the war officially over. US declares May 8 as V-E day. Many Eastern European countries didn't receive the news till May 9, so they celebrate then.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki and end of the war

Potsdam conference - USSR, US, UK meet (Stalin, Truman, Churchill/Atlee) "The Big 3" - and demand Japan's surrender

Aug 6 1945 - Hiroshima bomb dropped

Aug 9 1945 - Nagasaki bomb

Aug 14-15 - Japanese forces surrender to the Allies

Post war economic impact

Prosperity in the US - rise of consumerism, Baby Boom

John Maynard Keynes - "Keynsian economics" - when national economies suffer, federal government should borrow and spend money to boost economic activity. Part of the proceeds of the resulting economic growth should then be used to repay the debt.

Marshall Plan - US gives Europe $12b to rebuild, relaxes trade sanctions to encourage trade. Was an effort to dampen the rise of Soviet communism and promote capitalism. 1948-1951 saw the fastest economic growth in European history.

Cold War - economic tensions added to the souring relationship between US and USSR

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Born on October 14, 1890, in a house by the railroad tracks in Denison, Texas, Dwight David Eisenhower spent his youth in the small farm town of Abilene, Kansas. His father, David, worked as a mechanic in a local creamery. His mother, Ida, a Mennonite, was a religious pacifist who opposed war. Eisenhower did family chores, delighted in hunting and fishing and football, and eagerly read military history. In 1911, he won an appointment to West Point, where he played football until he suffered a serious knee injury. His pranks, fondness for cards and smoking, and average grades earned him little respect from his teachers. They thought that he would be a good officer, but not a great one.
Rising in the Ranks
After graduating in the middle of his class-61st out of 164-Eisenhower spent the next few years at one disappointing station after another, beginning with a stint as a second lieutenant at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas. It was there that he met and married Mamie Doud. At Camp Meade, Maryland, Eisenhower became friends with George S. Patton, Jr. Both Eisenhower and Patton published articles in 1920 advocating that the Army make better use of tanks to prevent a repetition of the static and destructive trench warfare of World War I. But Army authorities considered Eisenhower insubordinate rather than visionary and threatened him with a court-martial if he again challenged official views on infantry warfare.

Eisenhower was doubly fortunate when he was transferred to a new assignment in the Panama Canal Zone and got to work as executive officer for General Fox Conner, who appreciated Eisenhower's critical thinking about infantry warfare. Conner became Eisenhower's patron and arranged for a prized appointment that helped propel Eisenhower's career, as a student at the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Eisenhower graduated first in his class of 245 officers, and he was quickly given important assignments. He served as an aide first to General John J. Pershing, commander of U.S. forces in World War I, and then to General Douglas MacArthur, the Army's chief of staff.

Eisenhower remained with MacArthur for seven stormy years. The two men were extremely different. They often disagreed, although Eisenhower, as the junior officer, still had to carry out the general's orders. Eisenhower loyally served MacArthur even when it meant dispersing the "Bonus Marchers," a group of unemployed veterans of World War I who protested in Washington, D.C., during the Great Depression. Despite their different styles, Eisenhower stayed with MacArthur when he moved to the Philippines in 1935 to organize and train the army of the Philippine Commonwealth.

From left to right, Captain T.J. Davis, General Douglas MacArthur, and Major Dwight D. Eisenhower are shown in formal dress at Malacanang Palace in Manila, the Philippines, 1935. Photo from the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library.

World War II Hero
After World War II broke out in Europe in 1939, Eisenhower returned to the United States and eventually played an important role in the Third Army's field maneuvers in Louisiana. These training exercises, in which more than 400,000 troops participated, revealed Eisenhower's talent for strategic planning and earned him a promotion to brigadier general. Only days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Eisenhower went to Washington, D.C., to work on U.S. war plans. Eisenhower impressed Army Chief of Staff George C. Marshall, a keen but stern judge of military ability who rarely spoke words of praise. Promotions and critical assignments followed quickly. In November 1942, Eisenhower commanded Allied troops that invaded North Africa in Operation Torch. The next year, he directed the invasions of Sicily and Italy. In 1944, he was the Supreme Commander in Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied western Europe. In only a few years, Eisenhower had risen from an obscure lieutenant colonel to a four-star general in charge of one of the greatest military forces in history.

By dealing sympathetically with Allied leaders, Eisenhower achieved the cooperative effort that enabled him to launch the D-Day invasion of Normandy, June 6, 1944. His terse decision, "Okay, let's go," despite the chance of poor weather won admiration from the Allied leaders and the troops that risked-and gave-their lives on the beaches of Normandy.
Postwar Achievements
After Germany's surrender in May 1945, Eisenhower received a hero's welcome at victory ceremonies in several Allied capitals, including Washington, D.C., London, Moscow, and Paris. Yet peace also brought controversy for Eisenhower in his role as the commander of U.S. occupation forces in Germany. He endured criticism for allowing the Red Army to liberate Berlin in the final days of fighting. Eisenhower, however, thought he made the right decision, as he adhered to previous agreements about how far troops should advance and avoided unnecessary casualties to the forces he commanded. Eisenhower had to take an unpopular step when he relieved his old friend George Patton as military governor of Bavaria because of the general's violation of orders against using former Nazis in government positions. Eisenhower also adhered strictly to a provision of the Yalta agreements that he return all Soviet citizens in the U.S. occupation zone-even political dissidents who had no desire to go back.

Eisenhower had clear views on what became one of the most controversial decisions that a President has ever made, when President Harry S. Truman authorized the use of the atomic bomb against the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Eisenhower expressed his ideas in July 1945 at the Potsdam Conference, a meeting between President Truman, Soviet Premier Josef Stalin, and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who was replaced by Prime Minister Clement Atlee because of the results of the British elections. After news of the test in the New Mexico desert of the first atomic bomb reached U.S. officials at the beginning of the conference, Eisenhower told Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson that the bomb was unnecessary, as Japan was on the verge of surrender. Eisenhower also feared that the first use of atomic weapons in combat would tarnish the image of the United States at the very moment when its prestige was at an all-time high. But Truman accepted the counsel of other advisers, who, unlike Eisenhower, had been at the center of discussion about the war in the Pacific, and authorized the Army Air Forces to drop whatever bombs were available-then two-as soon as possible.

At the end of 1945, Eisenhower returned to Washington, D.C., to become the chief of staff of the Army. He served in that capacity for two years and made important decisions to transform the wartime Army into a force prepared for the Cold War. After retiring from the position of chief of staff, he wrote a popular memoir of his wartime experiences, Crusade in Europe. He served as the president of Columbia University, beginning in 1948, although he returned occasionally to Washington to serve as informal chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff as they discussed how to apportion service roles and missions in the nuclear age and how to allocate defense funds that fell short of their requirements. Soon after war broke out in Korea, Eisenhower returned to uniform as the first Supreme Commander of NATO forces in Europe, the "most important military job in the world today."

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Dwight D. Eisenhower: Life Before the Presidency | Miller Center

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Born on October 14, 1890, in a house by the railroad tracks in Denison, Texas, Dwight David Eisenhower spent his youth in the small farm town of Abilene, Kansas. His father, David, worked as a mechanic in a local creamery. His mother, Ida, a Mennonite, was a religious pacifist who opposed war.

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Chemical warfare at a large scale was introduced during WWI.
Apr 22 1915 - Germans unleash chlorine gas on Allied troops in Ypres, Belgium (Second Battle of Ypres)

In WWI, approx 1.3 million deaths due to chemical agents including mustard gas, chlorine gas, phosgene gas.

Chemical warfare was initially used more as a intimidation factor than a deadly threat.

Was also the introduction of super creepy, but effective, gas masks.

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Important quotes:
"The art of war then, is governed by five constant factors...These are 1) The Moral Law; 2) Heaven; 3) Earth; 4) The Commander; 5) Method and discipline."

"All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when able to attach, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must seem inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near."

"There is no instance of a country having benefited from prolonged warfare."

"It is only one who is thoroughly acquainted with the evils of war that can thoroughly understand the profitable way of carrying it on."

"Therefore the skillful leader subdues the enemy's troops without any fighting; he captures their cities without laying siege to them; he overthrows their kingdom without lengthy operations in the field. "

"In battle, there are not more than two methods of attack--the direct and the indirect; yet these two in combination give rise to an endless series of maneuvers."

"With regard to precipitous heights, if you are beforehand with your adversary, you should occupy the raised and sunny spots, and there wait for him to come up. "

"Be subtle! be subtle! and use your spies for every kind of business."

Takeaways:

Sun Tzu provides both practical and philosophical advice about how to approach warfare; mindset is just as important as actual actions in the field

Argues for a kind of ruthlessness echoed by Machiavelli - find your opponent's weak spots and capitalize on them

His suggestions about ground hold true through WWII - high ground is always advantageous in typical combat.

Sun Tzu's writing is deeply rooted in Taoist philosophy and idealizes a leader in spirit as well as action.

The Art of War is a popular favorite on many CEOs' bookshelves. They use it as a template for business strategy, competition, and negotiations.

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Sun Tzu's Art of War: How Ancient Strategy Can Lead to Modern Success

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Everyone reveres The Art of War. 1500 years old, this ancient Chinese text is still utilized by both militaries and business schools around the world....

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Civil War - Gatling gun. Hand cranked weapon that fired multiple rounds at once.
1884 - Maxim gun introduced. First truly automatic weapon - employs smokeless powder, only needs to be reloaded. It was a natural advancement made during Industrial revolution - Industrialized warfare.
Maxim gun remains relatively unchanged throughout WWI and WWII.

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machine gun, automatic weapon of small calibre that is capable of sustained rapid fire. Most machine guns are belt-fed weapons that fire from 500 to 1,000 rounds per minute and will continue to fire as long as the trigger is held back or until the supply of ammunition is exhausted. The machine gun was developed in the late 19th century and has profoundly altered the character of modern warfare.

Modern machine guns are classified into three groups. The light machine gun, also called the squad automatic weapon, is equipped with a bipod and is operated by one soldier; it usually has a box-type magazine and is chambered for the small-calibre, intermediate-power ammunition fired by the assault rifles of its military unit. The medium machine gun, or general-purpose machine gun, is belt-fed, mounted on a bipod or tripod, and fires full-power rifle ammunition. Through World War II the term " heavy machine gun" designated a water-cooled machine gun that was belt-fed, handled by a special squad of several soldiers, and mounted on a tripod. Since 1945 the term has designated an automatic weapon firing ammunition larger than that used in ordinary combat rifles; the most widely used calibre is .50 inch or 12.7 mm, although a Soviet heavy machine gun fired a 14.5-millimetre round.

From the introduction of firearms in the late Middle Ages, attempts were made to design a weapon that would fire more than one shot without reloading, typically by a cluster or row of barrels fired in sequence. In 1718 James Puckle in London patented a machine gun that was actually produced; a model of it is in the Tower of London. Its chief feature, a revolving cylinder that fed rounds into the gun's chamber, was a basic step toward the automatic weapon; what prevented its success was the clumsy and undependable flintlock ignition. The introduction of the percussion cap in the 19th century led to the invention of numerous machine guns in the United States, several of which were employed in the American Civil War. In all of these either the cylinder or a cluster of barrels was hand-cranked. The most successful was the Gatling gun, which in its later version incorporated the modern cartridge, containing bullet, propellant, and means of ignition.

The introduction of smokeless powder in the 1880s made it possible to convert the hand-cranked machine gun into a truly automatic weapon, primarily because smokeless powder's even combustion made it possible to harness the recoil so as to work the bolt, expel the spent cartridge, and reload. Hiram Stevens Maxim of the United States was the first inventor to incorporate this effect in a weapon design. The Maxim machine gun (c. 1884) was quickly followed by others-the Hotchkiss, Lewis, Browning, Madsen, Mauser, and other guns. Some of these utilized another property of the even burning of smokeless powder: small amounts of the combustion gas were diverted through a port to drive a piston or lever to open the breech as each round was fired, admitting the next round. As a result, during World War I the battlefield was from the outset dominated by the machine gun, generally belt-fed, water-cooled, and of a calibre matching that of the rifle. Except for synchronizing with aircraft propellers, the machine gun remained little changed throughout World War I and into World War II. Since then, innovations such as sheet-metal bodies and air-cooled, quick-changing barrels have made machine guns lighter and more reliable and quick-firing, but they still operate under the same principles as in the days of Hiram Maxim.

Most machine guns employ the gas generated by the explosion of the cartridge to drive the mechanism that introduces the new round in the chamber. The machine gun thus requires no outside source of power, instead using the energy released by the burning propellant in a cartridge to feed, load, lock, and fire each round and to extract and eject the empty cartridge case. This automatic operation may be accomplished by any of three ways: blowback, recoil, and gas operation.

In simple blowback operation, the empty cartridge case is hurled backward by the explosion of the cartridge and thereby pushes back the bolt, or breechblock, which in turn compresses a spring and is returned to the firing position upon that spring's recoil. The basic problem involved in blowback is to control the rearward motion of the bolt so that the gun's cycle of operation (i.e., loading, firing, and ejection) takes place correctly. In recoil operation, the bolt is locked to the barrel immediately after a round is fired; both the bolt and barrel recoil, but the barrel is then returned forward by its own spring while the bolt is held to the rear by the locking mechanism until a fresh round has fallen into place in the opened breech.

More common than either of these two methods is gas operation. In this method, the energy required to operate the gun is obtained from the pressure of gas tapped off from the barrel after each cartridge explodes. In a typical gas-operated machine gun, an opening or port is provided in the side of the barrel at a point somewhere between the breech and the muzzle. When the bullet has passed this opening, some of the high-pressure gases behind it are tapped off through the hole and operate a piston or some similar device for converting the pressure of the powder gases to a thrust. This thrust is then used through a suitable mechanism to provide the energy necessary for performing the automatic functions required for sustained fire: loading, firing, and ejection.

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Machine gun | History, Description, & Facts

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Machine gun, automatic weapon of small caliber that is capable of sustained rapid fire. Machine guns can continue to fire as long as the trigger is held back or until the supply of ammunition is exhausted. The machine gun was developed in the late 19th century and has profoundly altered the character of modern warfare.

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In this book Ehrenreich argues that the reason we go to war is to recreate man's transformation from hunted to hunter. This is the "central trauma" that we ritually reproduce. She makes her case with evidence from the Aztecs through the second world war.

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Vietnam was the first time PTSD was recognized and diagnosed in soldiers returning from war. What was called "shellshock" in WWI, was now a certifiable psychological condition. Dr. Shay examines the experience of Vietnam vets through the lens of emotionally crippled Greek hero Achilles.

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The Killer Angels - fictionalized version of the Battle of Gettysburg.
Main characters:
Robert E. Lee - Confederate general
Pete Longstreet - Confederate general. Lee calls him "my old war horse"
John Buford - Union general. Holds off Confederate army so that Union troops can reach the high ground at Cemetary Hill.
See many of Sun Tzu's tactics deployed here. Blurred lines of heroism between Southern and Northern characters; Shaara builds sympathy and admiration for both.

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The year 1066 is significant in the history of war because:

It was the year William the Conquerer of Normandy defeated Harold Godwinson in the Battle of Hastings, claiming the throne of England.

It marked a shift from territorial self-rule by Saxon tribes to total monarchic rule

It set up a feudal system of landowning in England, recorded in the Domesday book - the first census

The Bayeux tapestry depicts the events of 1066.