The American Military - A Narrative History

by Brad D. Lookingbill

  While the aerial assault continued to blast German lines, the Allied boots on the ground attempted to break out from the beachhead. General J. Lawton Collins handled the drive to Cherbourg, although the Nazis destroyed the port facilities before he arrived. Soldiers maneuvered inland to face a deadly combination of mortars, snipers, and machine guns. More than a month behind schedule, Montgomery's troops eventually took Caen. The Allied advance slowed in the heavy bocage – a landscape of woods, heath, fields, and orchards marked by tall hedgerows and farmhouses.

  Spearheading the American advance through the difficult terrain, tanks such as the M-4 Sherman appeared inferior to the German Panzers. Its “thin skin” of armor caused the vehicle to “brew up” and burn when hit by a shell. Fast but vulnerable, its 75mm gun was outclassed in tank-to-tank duels. American tankers often survived counterattacks by firing on the move – something the Germans never did. According to conventional wisdom, it took five Shermans to knock out one Panzer.

  Eisenhower asked General Omar Bradley to command Operation Cobra, which pushed westward from Saint-Lô in late July. Under Bradley, Patton led the Third Army through Brittany in an “armored parade.” The speed of his columns demonstrated the significance of mobility, which involved a complex balancing of movement with equipment, organization, communications, command, and logistics. They traveled over 50 miles per day. They penetrated Argentan that August, but Bradley stopped Patton from promptly closing the Falaise gap to envelop the Germans. Thousands escaped the Allied pocket and lived to fight another day.

  Meanwhile, the sheer weight of American air power and artillery fire fell upon the escape corridor to the River Seine. As retreating Germans braved a narrowing gauntlet, the roads, highways, and fields became choked with wrecked equipment and charred bodies. It was possible to walk through the “killing grounds” while stepping on nothing but corpses for hundreds of yards.

  Along a broad front, the Allied divisions crossed western Europe to roll back the Third Reich. Operation Anvil was renamed Dragoon, which involved the landing of U.S. and French forces on the southern coast of Nazi-occupied France. Beginning on August 15, they raced up the valley of the Rhone to link up with the other divisions on the move. With supply lines stretched dangerously thin, Allied troops liberated Paris on August 25. The Americans reached the banks of the River Meuse, while the British entered the valley of the Somme. Supported by a transportation convoy system dubbed the “Red Ball Express,” infantry patrols set foot onto German soil. Unfortunately, Montgomery and Patton began to squabble about the next step. Eisenhower insisted that the Allies should advance shoulder by shoulder, so that no nation might claim all the glory for defeating Nazi Germany.

  Eisenhower agreed to Montgomery's plan for Operation Market Garden, which involved the deployment of 35,000 British and American paratroopers near Antwerp. Beginning on September 17, they attempted to seize several bridges for British armor units attempting to dash into the German heartland. The American 101st and the 82nd Airborne Divisions captured most of their targeted bridgeheads. However, the British 1st Airborne Division faced heavy resistance from German SS divisions at Arnhem. Montgomery underestimated the number of Panzers along the River Rhine, where strong resistance and bad weather hindered the foray. For more than a week, soldiers tried but failed to take a “bridge too far.” Because the Allies withdrew after intense fighting, Operation Market Garden represented a costly mistake.

  Near the Siegfried Line, autumn mud and winter cold slowed the Allied momentum. In the Battle of Hürtgen Forest, the Germans inflicted as many as 20,000 casualties on the Americans. The defensive barriers along the western border remained formidable, even after bomber squadrons pounded them for months. Although the “Great Crusade” liberated western Europe, German morale up front showed no signs of cracking.

  The Philippine Sea

  The Japanese strategy to stop an American tsunami in the Pacific theater largely depended upon Germany halting the Allied advance in Europe. Though alarmed by the rapid mobilization of U.S. resources and population, Tokyo expected the Axis Powers to force Washington D.C. to negotiate an eventual settlement. Since the beginning of the war, Japanese leaders discounted the possibility that the American military would achieve the capabilities to conduct major operations in two theaters simultaneously.

  During 1944, the American military quickened the pace of operations with amphibious assaults across the Pacific. Hopping from island to island, General MacArthur targeted key Japanese positions to attack while simply outflanking others. Admiral Nimitz preferred to take almost every island in his path, including ones that some of his counterparts deemed unimportant. Through a process of trial and error, U.S. commanders organized an offensive campaign to drive the Japanese military from the Philippine Sea.

  U.S. forces penetrated the Marianas, where the islands of Saipan, Guam, and Tinian represented potential forward operating bases for submarines and long-range bombers. Nimitz's Fifth Fleet launched Operation Reforger on June 15, 1944, when four Marine regiments hit the beaches at Saipan. In less than an hour, 8,000 Marines went ashore. Soon, the Army's 27th Infantry Division entered the fray and trekked across the rocky and mountainous terrain. At Marpi Point, American troops witnessed thousands of Japanese civilians and soldiers committing suicide rather than surrendering. In three weeks of arduous fighting, the U.S. suffered 14,000 casualties but gained control of the island. News of the loss resulted in Kuniaki Koiso, another general, succeeding Tojo as the Japanese premier.

  As the fight for Saipan raged, U.S. carriers in Task Force 58 intercepted a smaller Japanese naval force approaching the Marianas on June 19. The Battle of the Philippine Sea turned into the “Marianas Turkey Shoot,” because the carrier-based Hellcats ravaged the Japanese Sea Eagles. By the end of the day, American pilots had shot down more than 300 Japanese planes while losing only 20 of their own. Furthermore, U.S submarines sank two Japanese carriers that day. However, the caution of Admiral Spruance permitted the remaining Japanese vessels to escape total disaster. Despite missing an opportunity for a decisive outcome, U.S. forces achieved another important victory at sea.

  After a brief delay, the amphibious assaults on the islands of Guam and Tinian commenced. On July 21, a Marine division and brigade assaulted Guam, 100 miles south of Saipan. Reinforced by the Army's 77th Infantry Division, they took the long but narrow island by August 10 at a cost of almost 2,000 American deaths. Americans absorbed another 328 deaths while taking tiny Tinian by August 1. With the Marianas secured, the Army Air Forces began placing new B-29 Superfortress bombers within striking distance of Japan's home islands.

  Meanwhile, the U.S. submarine force in the Pacific increased its underwater attacks. Japanese merchantmen appeared vulnerable, because they rarely convoyed and failed to develop adequate countermeasures to American harassment. Vice Admiral Charles A. Lockwood, the commander of the submarines in fleet operations, oversaw the introduction of new classes, torpedoes, and tactics to the “silent service.” Modifications to the hulls, engines, deck guns, and radar-sonar systems of submarines gave the crews important technological advantages against their adversaries. By the end of 1944, the Navy counted more than 156 submarines on the prowl. Americans sank 2.3 million tons of Japanese shipping that year, which created severe shortages of raw materials, fuel supplies, and food products on the defensive perimeter.

  Allied forces advanced slowly in Burma and China, where the Southeast Asia Command, or SEAC, struggled to dislodge the Japanese military. General Stilwell led an overland campaign that reached Myitkyina by the summer of 1944. A composite force of Americans and Chinese fought ferociously under the leadership of General Frank Merrill, prompting American war correspondents to dub them “Merrill's Marauders.” Though tensions remained, Chiang Kai-Shek and Mao Zedong attempted to put aside their ideological differences while forming a united front against the Japanese occupation of the mainland. The Allies pushed the Ledo Road eastward with blood, sweat, and tears, but Chinese lea
ders appeared content to leave the job of defeating Japan to U.S. forces in the Pacific theater.

  Naval commanders in the U.S. doubted the strategic value of the Palau Islands that bordered the Philippine Sea, but the amphibious assaults proceeded as scheduled. Beginning on September 15, 1944, the 1st Marine Division stormed Peleliu. After capturing the airfield on the island, they faced an enemy emplaced in caves, pillboxes, and mountains. They endured day after day of horrific brawling, during which 8,769 Americans were killed, wounded, or missing. A smaller Japanese garrison defended nearby Angaur, which the Army's 81st Infantry Division assailed and secured by September 30.

  Beginning on October 5, Admiral Halsey's Task Force 38 hit Japanese positions on the Ryukyu Islands. Rear Admiral Marc Mitscher's 1,100 carrier-borne fighters and fighter-bombers engaged a comparable number of Japanese aircraft. Americans scored a victory by destroying more than 500 planes while losing only 110. They also struck air bases on Japanese-occupied Formosa. Though unable to win in battle, the Japanese military vowed to inflict heavy losses on U.S. forces in the Philippine Sea.

  With the American flanks in the Central Pacific protected, U.S. forces entered the Philippine archipelago. Though no single individual actually led the entire operation, MacArthur exercised unified command over the air, ground, and naval forces conducting the attack. Nimitz directed Halsey, commander of the Third Fleet, to provide cover for the landings on the island of Leyte. “In case of opportunity for destruction of major portion of the enemy fleet offers or can be created,” ordered Nimitz, “such destruction becomes the primary task.” To his subordinates, Halsey put it bluntly: “Kill Japs, kill Japs, kill more Japs!”

  The American offensive at Leyte began on October 20, 1944, as four Army divisions landed abreast on the eastern shore. Vice Admiral Thomas C. Kinkaid, MacArthur's naval subordinate and commander of the Seventh Fleet, directed the naval gunfire support and carrier-based air support for the amphibious assault. Also in support, the land-based aircraft of the Southwest Pacific Area received orders from General George C. Kenney. General Walter Krueger, commander of the Sixth Army, controlled the ground forces on the beaches. In a choreographed moment before cameras, MacArthur waded ashore at Leyte to announce: “I have returned.”

  From October 23 to October 26, the Battle of Leyte Gulf constituted the largest naval battle in history. It actually involved a number of concurrent engagements on the waters as well as in the skies. Inside the San Bernardino Strait, Halsey sent Task Force 38 to attack a dispersed Japanese flotilla. Kincaid's six battleships formed a deadly line across the neck of the Suriago Strait, where the Japanese lost two battleships, three cruisers, and four destroyers. To bait the Americans into a chase, the Japanese carriers remained disengaged to the north. Failing to deploy Task Force 34, the irascible Halsey left the straits undefended and steamed with his entire fleet in pursuit of the prey. At Cape Engaño, his bold action sank all four Japanese carriers and three destroyers. However, Japanese naval forces struck the outgunned vessels of Taffy 3 off the coast of Samar. Exploding bombs threw geysers of spray upward, as anti-aircraft shells dispersed black puffs of smoke overhead. Japanese pilots launched kamikazes, that is, aircraft deliberately and desperately prepared to crash into U.S. warships. Americans lost one carrier and three escorts before the remaining Japanese warships scattered for safety.

  More than 3,500 Americans perished in the Battle of Leyte Gulf, while as many as 10,000 Japanese died. Whereas the former lost only 37,000 tons of naval might, the latter lost an irreplaceable 306,000 tons. The last carrier responsible for the infamous attack on Pearl Harbor sank to the bottom. Consequently, the Japanese fleet no longer posed a direct challenge to U.S. operations in the Philippine Sea.

  Moving inland from the eastern coast of Leyte, American troops proceeded with the offensive as planned. Miserable weather, inhospitable terrain, and enemy aircraft slowed the pace of operations along the Central Mountain range. The Sixth Army doggedly advanced with artillery and armor, eventually turning southward to take Ormoc. In December, Krueger landed the 77th Infantry Division on Leyte's western coast in order to link with the Sixth Army. Together, they began to envelop and to batter the enemy. U.S. forces soon controlled the most important sectors of the island, although sporadic clashes in the mountains continued for months. On Leyte, American fatalities numbered 3,500 compared with close to 60,000 Japanese deaths.

  Though falling behind schedule, MacArthur prepared to assault the main island of Luzon. The first step was the swift capture of an air base on Mindoro, 150 miles south of Manila, in late 1944. On January 9, 1945, four Army divisions landed along the shores of the Lingayen Gulf. With Halsey's Task Force 38 providing support to U.S. landing craft at Luzon, the Japanese launched suicide speedboats against them. Later that month, General Robert Eichelberger landed divisions of the Eighth Army at Bataan and near Manila Bay. Americans took Clark Field for additional aerial operations and freed ill-treated prisoners of war.

  Street fighting occurred during a 10-day contest for Manila, where Americans liberated the capital city through intense urban combat. Japanese animosity produced a rampage of murder, rape, and mutilation. Within the ruins, as many as 100,000 Filipino civilians perished. American deaths in Manila reached 1,000, but around 16,000 Japanese were slain.

  On February 27, 1945, MacArthur arrived in Manila to reestablish the Commonwealth government. U.S. and Filipino forces drove Japanese troops into hideaways and tunnels inside the fortified islands, where most died in an onslaught of demolitions, ordnance, and flamethrowers. Military actions in the countryside continued until summer, but Americans eventually cleared their foes from the Philippines.

  Victory in Europe

  The Allies in Europe pressed for the unconditional surrender of the Axis Powers. As U.S. and British forces hammered the Siegfried Line, the Red Army pushed the German military into a full retreat from the Soviet border. Though outgunned and outnumbered, the Nazis endeavored to stiffen their crumbling lines from the Baltics to the Balkans. With the winter of 1944 approaching, Hitler issued directives to the Third Reich based not upon a coherent strategy but on irrational, erroneous, and bizarre hunches.

  Figure 12.4 The European theater, 1942–1945

  As snow fell on Allied dispositions in the Ardennes Forest, the German high command ordered one last offensive. On December 16, 1944, German infantry and armor counterattacked between Monschau and Echternach. The Führer's gamble caught his opponents off balance, although it lacked the personnel, equipment, fuel, and supplies to reach Antwerp. Despite the shortages, the German thrust created a 50-mile “bulge” westward into Belgium and Luxembourg.

  During the Battle of the Bulge, U.S. forces withstood ferocious assaults for days. Americans gallantly defended the crossroads town of Bastogne, where the 101st Airborne Division and other elements held out. The Panzers bypassed the location but cut them off from reinforcements and provisions. General Anthony C. McAuliffe, the acting division commander, answered one German demand for an American surrender in a word: “Nuts.”

  Even though the Germans briefly breached the line at St. Vith, the dark skies over the Americans cleared. Just before Christmas, C-46s and C-47s conducted airdrops of supplies to the troops in the Ardennes Forest. Allied fighter bombers and howitzers blasted the Nazi spearhead near the Meuse. Recently promoted to General of the Army, Eisenhower directed Patton to dispatch a relief column to Bastogne. With astonishing speed, three divisions from the Third Army wheeled 90 degrees and rolled northward – throttles open and guns firing. Just after Christmas, tank crews of the 4th Armored Division shook hands with the grateful survivors of the 101st Airborne Division.

  On January 7, 1945, the German side of the “bulge” burst. In their single most costly victory of the campaign, American losses in the Battle of the Bulge numbered 19,000 deaths, 15,000 captured, and 47,000 wounded. German casualties exceeded 100,000, but they also bled energy and resources in defeat. Allied assets on the battlefield overwhelmed Hitl
er's waning reserves of men, armor, and aircraft.

  With the Luftwaffe's planes no longer airborne, General Carl Spaatz, commander of the U.S. Strategic Air Forces, intensified the strikes on Germany. He touted “daylight, precision bombing,” even if daylight sacrificed planes and pilots and precision remained unattainable. Nevertheless, the bombing devastated German cities, degraded oil and transportation facilities, and destroyed heavy industries. A deluge of ordnance over Berlin helped to inspire the Nazi fascination with exotic technologies of revenge such as the V-1 cruise and the V-2 ballistic missiles. Likewise, Americans clung to their own fantasy that air power alone would break the enemy. In Operation Thunderclap, a combined American and British aerial campaign was launched expressly to destroy civilian morale in Germany. On February 3, an attack on Berlin killed 25,000 people. Ten days later, an attack on Dresden ignited a firestorm that killed 35,000 people. Accordingly, the American press referred to the strategy as “terror bombing.”

  As air superiority over Germany elevated American confidence, Roosevelt won re-election to a fourth presidential term. Rising from his wheelchair to grip a lectern, he uttered only 573 words in the shortest inaugural address ever delivered. “In the days and in the years that are to come,” he said from the South Portico of the White House, “we shall work for a just and honorable peace, a durable peace, as today we work and fight for total victory in war.”

  Pursuant to their grand strategic vision, Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin met in Yalta to plan for the end of the war. During the first session on February 4, 1945, they discussed voting blocs in the United Nations as well as a “sphere of influence” for the Soviet Union. They issued the Declaration on Liberated Europe, which pledged mutual support for the conduct of elections in countries freed from Nazi tyranny. The Allies remained committed to the unconditional surrender of the Axis Powers and tentatively agreed to divide Germany into zones of occupation. However, Roosevelt's failing health affected American leadership at Yalta. With the Red Army firmly in control of eastern Europe, the commander-in-chief noted that he “did not believe that American troops would stay in Europe for much more than two years.” In return for Stalin's promise to declare war on Japan within three months of Germany's surrender, Roosevelt consented to the Soviet annexation of the Kurile Islands in addition to portions of Sakhalin Island and Outer Mongolia. The Yalta Conference closed on February 11, but critics complained about its “secrets” for years.