As you can understand from the name itself here we are going to talk about the part played by United States in World War second, how it became part of it, how it demolished Japan, helped Britain and Russia to fight Germany and Italy and became the super power as it is today.
The Entry of United States in World War
United States was neutral in World war until Japan attacked its Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. It was the morning, when around 400 planes of Japan started bombing the Pearl Harbor. The Japanese Pilots were elite as they were in continuous war for around 4 years. All the ships and aircraft career present at that time were destroyed. This was a big blow for United States and the whole population erupted for the declaration of War. The President declared war against Japan and the united states entered the War.
What Japan missed at Pearl Harbor.
When Japan attacked their pilots missed one of the main targets their Oil fields. If Japan Has destroyed the oil fields, United states had been pushed back two year in time and then fighting back against Japan at that time would be impossible. Also Japanese only destroyed one aircraft carrier and missed others because by chance the carriers where not present in Pearl Harbor at that time. You can say this two mistakes cost the Japan the war.
United States help to Britain before Pearl Harbor.
United States being neutral gave 50 destroyers to Britain on the deal at a price of 8 overseas bases to America and dismantles the training system in colonies. It was one of the most painful deals for United kingdom.
United Kingdom on verge of collapse.
United Kingdom was in very bad condition and was relying only on the imports of resources on which it was running. The Nazi Germany has U-boats which are proving lethal for the import ships. These were small and able to attack and move fast.
Britain introduced Naval Convoy for the merchant ships to protect them but U-boats are something getting up their nerves. In twelve months 900 ships were sunk by Germans and only 29 U-boats were destroyed. It was something that was destroying the lifeline of United Kingdom.
Which Enemy to Engage first?
At that time United kingdom was on the verge of collapse with the hands of Nazi Germany. United states need the help of United Kingdom to fight the war. So it was a great decision to make, which enemy to engage first? For United States future of Britain was the future of war. Existence of Britain was on knife edge as after fighting war for 3 years. Britain depended on the import of 5 million tons of resources every month. This was the lifeline for Britain.
United States joined Britain and engaged Germany.
- Britain was joined by the United States and entered the war by engaging the Germany First. Britain gift America the every advancement study and blueprints they have to gain the access of Americas production fields. The documents reached Washington in September 1940 and is considered as the most valuable and important cargos that ever reached the shores of United States.
It contains theory of atomic bombs, jet engines, Rockets, superchargers, gyroscopic guns, submarine detection devices, self sealing tanks, plastic explosives and the most important Invention of World war 2 , the Magnetron No 12. It was an advancement in Radar technologies that was 1000 times better than anything present with United States.
Mass production Started in United States.
United States Started the mass production of the devices on the largest scale ever possible. the whole of the population seems to shift towards California, Oregon and Washington. The population of these states increased by around 40- 50 % and the biggest mass production revolution began. Around 20 million women became the core of the American Labour force. All the manufacturing factories were turned into factories producing machine and ammunitions.
You can guess the production scale by the stats:
- 87000 Ships and landing crafts
- 100000 tanks and armored vehicles.
- 300000 Aircrafts.
- 2,000,000 trucks.
- 20, 000, 000 rifle and arms.
- 41 billion rounds of ammunition enough to kill the population of world 15 times.
You can see what was the scale of production.
America decision of engaging Germany first came at a cost.
Yes while Japan was left unchecked they conquered they conquered many islands in Pacific to cover the distance between the United states and their military base. Now that the Japanese are approaching fast. America took decision to strike back Japan.
Thats it for this article in next article we will talk about the Americas Strike on Japan, Intelligence war and Codebreakers.
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If you missed the first part read it here
https://www.learnsteps.com/world-war-2-what-why-effects-and-consequences/
