Sea Power and Maritime Affairs

1
Sea Power and Maritime Affairs

• Lesson 12 Naval Strategy and National Policy,
• 1919-1941

2
German High Seas Fleet

• Armistice of 11 November 1918
• High Seas Fleet undefeated in battle
• Germany must surrender most of its ships to
  Allies
• High Seas Fleet interned at Scapa Flow
• Fleet scuttled by German naval officers on 21
  June 1919 due to fear of resumption of war
• During negotiations of Treaty of Versailles
• Great Britain and France require Germany to
  relinquish control of the rest of its Navy

3
German Battleship Bayern Scuttled at Scapa
Flow - 21 June 1919
4
Treaty of Versailles -- 1919

• U.S. President Woodrow Wilson
• Attempts to use U.S. power to ensure peace in
  Europe
• Germany
• Forced to follow military limitations and pay
  reparations
• Wilson's Fourteen Points
• Second Point
• Freedom of the seas and illegality of blockades
• British opposition
• Self-Determination for European peoples
• League of Nations Republican U.S. Senate
  rejects due to isolationist sentiments

5
The British Royal Navy

• Several desires for the Royal Navy
• Maintain naval predominance in the face of the
  challenge from the U.S. Navy
• Avoid a naval construction race with the U.S.
  Navy
• Destruction of the German High Seas Fleet
• Opposed Wilson's principle of freedom of the seas
• Advantage of dominant fleet would be relinquished
• Attempted to deter the U.S. from adopting a large
  building program

6
The Japanese Imperial Navy

• Seized German Pacific possessions early in WW I
• Island groups in central Pacific
• Chinese port facilities
• Engaged in a major naval building program
• Designed to give Japan naval dominance in the
  western Pacific to protect expansion
• Cannot afford an arms race with U.S.
• Insufficient resources and capabilities

7
The U.S. Navy

• Woodrow Wilson
• Opposes British rejection of Second of the
  Fourteen Points
• Major naval building program begins - 1919
• Naval Act of 1916 continued and expanded
• Emphasis back on capital ships
• Need for a large fleet to protect both coasts
• Construction planned to rival and eclipse the
  Royal Navy
• American people seek a Return to Normalcy
• Do not support a Navy second to none
• Republican Congress supports disarmament
• Republican President Warren G. Harding elected in
  1920
• Wilsons building program disapproved

8
Washington Naval Conference -- 1921-22

• Issues for U.S.
• Security of possessions in the Pacific
• Dislike of Anglo-Japanese Alliance of
  1902 (Potential threat to U.S. interests in the
  Far East)
• End to the naval arms race
• Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes
• Dramatic proposal for disarmament
• Immediate 10-year Holiday on construction of
  new capital ships
• Scrapping of ships already commissioned
• Designed for appeasement of Congress (Determined
  to cut military spending after WW I)

9
Washington Naval Conference
10
Five Power Naval Limitation Treaty

• U.S., Britain, Japan, France, Italy
• Capital ship tonnage ratio of 5-5-3-1.7-1.7
• Limits on displacement and caliber of guns on
  capital ships
• No limit to cruisers, destroyers, submarines
• Non-fortification of Pacific possessions

11
Effects of the Five Power Treaty
12
Other Treaties

• Four-Power Pact
• U.S., Great Britain, Japan, and France
• Terminates the Anglo-Japanese Alliance of 1902
• Respect Far Eastern possessions of other
  countries
• Mutual consultation in crisis
• Nine-Power Treaty
• U.S., Great Britain, Japan, France, Italy, China,
  Belgium, the Netherlands, and Portugal
• Guarantees Open Door in China
• Freedom of trade for all countries

13
Treaty Implications to U.S.

• Negative
• Japanese angered by limits on their expansion
• Smaller classes of ships not included
• Did not recognize that U.S. and Great Britain
  were no longer rivals
• Positive
• Ensure Open Door in China
• Naval limitations realistically accepted
  congressional budget limitations
• U.S. Navy able to develop new technology

14
Technological Improvements

• Battleship Backbone of the Fleet- very Mahanian!
• Conversion from coal to oil fuel source for
  engines
• Underway replenishment much easier to accomplish
• Aircraft carriers Attack and fighter aircraft
  developed
• Slow integration into the fleet
• Army General Billy Mitchell Navies are obsolete
• Carriers still seen as support for battleships
• Lexington and Saratoga - Converted battle
  cruisers
• Ranger - 1934 - First carrier built from the keel
  up

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• Modern radio communications
• Submarines - Ability to fire torpedoes submerged
• Made scout for fleet ban unrestricted submarine
  warfare
• Aluminum and plastic reduce weight and increase
  speed

16
USS Langley (CV 1)

• - First U.S. Navy aircraft carrier.

17
U.S. Amphibious Doctrine

• Focus on Japanese-controlled island groups in the
  Pacific.
• Major Earl H. Pete Ellis, USMC
• Assigned by General Lejeune to develop plans for
  Marine operations in support of War Plan Orange
• Advanced Base Operations in Micronesia approved
  1921
• Necessary to seize and defend advanced naval
  bases
• Need the ability to perform opposed amphibious
  assaults
• Special landing craft and heavy weapons needed
• Incorporated lessons from Gallipoli on proper
  planning
• Ellis is killed on Palau in 1923 while studying
  islands
• General Lejeune
• Marine Corps exists to perform missions with the
  fleet

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Amphibious Doctrine

• Necessity of detailed and exact planning of all
  aspects of the operation
• Need for careful briefing of all participants
• The value of surprise
• Desirability of speed in exploiting any advantage
  won
• Ship bombardment must be supplemented by close
  support of ground units by aircraft used as
  flying artillery
• Supply vessels must be combat-loaded and vital
  stores must be distributed among supply ships to
  avoid bottleneck with loss of one ship

19
Geneva Conference of 1927

• U.S. hopes to extend 5-5-3 ratio to cruisers
• Different types of ships
• U.S. -- fewer, bigger cruisers
• Britain -- more, smaller cruisers
• Britain, France and Japan oppose limits
• No agreement is reached

20
London Conference of 1930

• Cruisers reclassified
• Heavy 6.1 guns
• Light
• U.S., Britain, Japan, France, and Italy
• Results
• U.S.-British parity in all types of vessels
• Increased Japanese ratio in cruisers and
  destroyers to 10107
• Japanese parity in submarines
• France and Italy do not participate
• Ban on new capital ships extended until 1936

21
Fascismin Europe

• Mussolini - Il Duce 1922
• Invasion of Ethiopia - 1935
• Hitler - Fuhrer Chancellor of Germany - 1933
• Nazi Third Reich replaces Weimar Republic
• Promise of German economic recovery
• Beginnings of the Holocaust
• German rearmament begins
• Spanish Civil War - 1930s
• Generalissimo Francisco Franco supported by
  fascists
• Agreement permits Germany to rebuild Navy - 1935
• Remilitarization of the Rhineland - 1936
• German rejection of the Treaty of Versailles

22
Fascism

• General traits
• Rejection of individualism
• Rejection of representative government
• Idealization of war
• Disallowance of the class struggle
  (anti-communist)
• Unity and indivisibility of the nation
• Military build-up
• Territorial expansion
• Rome-Berlin Axis - 1936
• Tripartite Pact Germany, Italy, Japan - 1940
• Mutual support if one party is attacked by a
  power not already involved -- Soviet Union

23
Il Duce

• Benito
• Mussolini

24
Adolf Hitler

• Fuhrer

25
Japanese Imperialism

• Expansion - Natural Resources
• Formosa (Taiwan) - Annexed 1895
• Korea- Protectorate 1905, Annexed 1910
• Invasion of Manchuria 1931
• Non-recognition doctrine-President Hoover
• Beginning of Japanese expansion into China,
  leading to WWII

26
Hirohito

• Emperor of Japan
• World War II

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Other Conferences

• Geneva Conference of 1932
• Complete failure
• Japan resists
• Invasion of Manchuria
• France resists
• Hitler and Nazi party emerging in Germany
• Second London Naval Conference of 1936
• Britain already allows Germany 35 of tonnage and
  parity in submarines - 1935 agreement
• Mild limitations on size of naval craft proposed
• Italy and Japan do not sign
• Effective end of naval limitations

29
Depression and the U.S. Navy

• British attempt appeasement, including pact
  permitting Germany to rebuild Navy
• Strong support of isolationism in U.S. public and
  Congress.
• Neutrality Acts 1935-37
• Renounce U.S. neutral rights (1812, 1917)
• 1935 Sale or transport of munitions prohibited
• 1936 Loans prohibited
• 1937 Cash and carrypolicy enforce
• 1939 Embargo lifted, but President can prohibit
  American ships from entering danger zones
• 1936 U.S. budget cuts - Reductions in naval
  spending
• Japanese Imperial Navy -- Large build-up begins
  in 1936
• Stress on importance of aircraft carriers to the
  fleet

30
War Plan Orange Rainbow Plans

• Scenario U.S. and Japan at war in the Pacific
• Attempt to hold Philippines
• Build up naval forces in Hawaii
• Offensive across the Pacific
• Amphibious operations to seize advanced naval
  bases
• Defeat Japanese Navy in a fleet engagement
• Recapture Philippines
• Threaten Japanese Home Islands with naval
  forces
• Open Door -- Maintain territorial integrity of
  China
• Guam and Philippines -- remain relatively
  unfortified
• 1922 Five Power Naval Limitation Treaty
• Japanese Islands Marshalls, Marianas, and
  Carolines

31
U.S. Fleet

• Majority of U.S. Fleet based in the Pacific
• Pacific Fleet moves to Pearl Harbor - 1940
• Battleships - Capital ships of the fleet
• Aircraft Carriers - Fleet Exercises demonstrate
  potential
• USS Lexington (CV 2)
• USS Saratoga (CV 3)
• USS Ranger (CV 4)
• USS Yorktown (CV 5)
• USS Enterprise (CV 6)
• USS Wasp (CV 7)
• USS Hornet (CV 8)
• Submarines

32
Japanese Imperialism in Asia

• Undeclared War with China - 1937
• Shanghai Incident
• USS Panay sunk on Yangtze River
• Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Tse-tung
• Occupation of French Indochina - 1940
• Embargo of oil and other natural resources - July
  1941
• U.S., Great Britain, and the Netherlands
• General Tojo Military government installed -
  October 1941

33
USS Panay Incident

• Yangtze River Patrol, China
• Sunk by Japanese naval aircraft on 12 December
  1937

34
U.S. Options

• Military intervention
• Economic sanctions
• Joint military and economic moves with Britain
• Indirect response

35
U.S. Response

• FDRs quarantine speech called for positive
  endeavors to preserve peace.
• Not effectivelack of popular support
• Did not impose Neutrality Act
• Hurt China more than Japan
• No joint action with Britain disagreements
• Indirect response
• 1938 Naval Expansion Act-ships not avail until
  40-41
• Lesson A COUNTRY CANNOT EXERT FORCE WITHOUT THE
  MILITARY FORCE TO BACK IT UP!

36
Force Level of U.S. Fleet 1937

• Manning
• Navy officers and enlisted 113,617
• Marine officers and enlisted 18, 223
• Fleet
• Battleships 15
• Aircraft Carriers 3
• Heavy cruisers 17
• Light cruisers 10
• Destroyers 196 (162 overage)
• Subs 81 (50 overage)

37
Force Level of U.S. Fleet 1937

• Strategic disposition
• Pacific Coast Main U.S. battle fleet at Pearl
• Atlantic Training squadron
• Asia Asiatic fleet 2-CAs, 13-DDs, 6-SS, 10
  gunboats
• Panama Service squadron 1-DD, 2 gunboats, 6-SS
• Europe 1-CA, 2-DD
• Most probable enemy Japan
• strategy, War Plan Orange

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Retreat Toward Hemispheric Defense

• Impracticality of War Plan Orange
• Did not have strength to hold Philippines while
  the Navy fought its way across the Pacific
• Lack of forward bases
• Guam, Wake, Midway, Samoa, and Philippines not
  fortified for fear of provoking Japan
• Crisis in Far East overshadowed by events in
  Europe
• Threat from both directions put U.S. in a
  defensive frame of mind
• American people were reluctant to become
  entangled in the deteriorating condition of Europe

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• Army-Navy conflicts concerning defensive roles
  and competition for defense money
• Leads to increased role of air power to protect
  approaches to the Americas
• European Commitments
• Restrict British cooperation for aggressive
  Pacific defenses
• U.S. fleet divided between Atlantic and Pacific

40

• Revisions to strategic planning
• Emphasis shifted from Pacific to Atlantic
• Security of Caribbean and Panama have top
  priority (sacrificing Philippines and Guam)
• Defensive strategy in Pacific in short run as
  opposed to War Plan Orange, which envisioned
  early offensive
• War Plan Orange went through many mutations
• Eventually evolved into Rainbow plans

41

• Ultimately envisioned a war between the U.S. and
  Japan
• U.S. would lose the Philippines at an early stage
• Fall back to the Hawaiian Islands
• Reinforce the battle fleet in Hawaii
• Move West to recapture Philippines
• Eventually threaten the Japanese home islands
  after defeating Japanese fleet in detail
• The Rainbow War Plans

42
Navys Ability to Carry out Plans

• Enough capital ships offensive in Atlantic and
  defensive in Pacific
• Insufficient aircraft carriers
• Barely sufficient cruisers
• Submarines 40 below war strength
• Aircraft
• Shortage of long-range patrol bombers
• Lack of modern carrier aircraft
• Landing Craft
• Woefully inadequate in numbers

43

• Manpower
• Enlisted personnel afloat at 78 of prescribed
  manning
• Bases critical deficiencies
• Patrol plane bases needed at Oahu, Midway,
  Johnston, Palmyra, Wake, and Puerto Rico
• Advance fleet bases required in Trinidad, Brazil,
  West Africa, Guam, Wake, and East Indies
• Marine Corps
• 1/3 of desired strength
• Conclusion Not fully prepared!!!
• Result Navy Expansion Act (May 1938)

44
Europes Events

• German annexation of Austria (Anschluss) - March
  1938
• Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact - August 1939
• Non-aggression treaty between Soviet Union and
  Germany
• Munich Crisis - September 1938
• Czechoslovakias German-speaking Sudetenland
• Appeasement of Hitler by Western leaders.
• British Prime Minister Chamberlain Peace in
  our time.
• German occupation of Czechoslovakia - March 1939
• Italian occupation of Albania - April 1939
• Guarantee of protection of Poland Britain and
  France
• March 1939 (Also Holland and Belgium.)

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Developments

• Amphibious doctrine (see earlier slide)
• Specially designed landing craft necessary
• Logistics doctrine
• Need for advanced bases
• ?Seabees
• Resupply
• Need extensive support by seaborne supply
  oilers, tenders, repair ships, floating drydocks,
  ammunition carriers, etc
• Service Force gave fleet the necessary 6,000 mile
  operating range required for a campaign in the
  Pacific

46
JosefStalin

• Secretary General
• of the
• Communist Party
• Union of Soviet
• Socialist Republics
• World War II

47
War in Europe

• Invasion of Poland Blitzkrieg - September 1939
• Tanks and Stuka dive bombers
• Soviet occupation of eastern Poland
• Denmark and Norway - April 1940
• May 1940 - Invasion of Netherlands, Belgium, and
  France
• Maginot Line proves ineffective to maneuver
  warfare
• Battle of Britain - Summer 1940
• Operation Sea Lion - planned German invasion of
  England
• Soviet annexation of Baltic States June 1940
• Soviet invasion of Finland - November 1940
• German invasion of Soviet Union - June 1941
• Operation Barbarossa

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WinstonChurchill

• Prime Minister
• of
• Great Britain
• World War II

49

• we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on
  the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields
  and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills
  we shall never surrender
• Winston Churchill
• - June 4, 1940

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Unterseeboote -- U-boat
51
German Commerce Raiding

• Ineffective until German invasions of Norway,
  Denmark, and France
• Allows German access to Atlantic ports
• German surface raiders target Allied shipping
• Battle of the River Plate - December 1939
• Admiral Graf Spee scuttled
• Bismarck sunk - May 1941
• U-boats
• Commanded by Admiral Karl Donitz
• HF Radio used to organize Wolfpacks - groups
  of U-boats that attack Allied convoys

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Naval Action 1939-1941

• Royal Navy blockades Germany
• German invasion of Norway - April 1940
• Avoid Royal Navy mining of lines of communication
• Dunkirk (Dunkerque) - May, June 1940
• Royal Navy evacuates 337,000 Allied soldiers from
  France
• British destroy Vichy French fleet at Oran- July
  1940
• U.S. Navy Neutrality Patrols become the Atlantic
  Fleet
• Admiral Ernest J. King in command
• Undeclared naval war in the Atlantic against
  U-boats
• Destroyers escort convoys
• Anti-submarine patrol aircraft used to locate
  U-boats

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Battle of the Atlantic - 1941

• Britain dependent on merchant shipping for food
  supply
• Importance of maintaining lines of communication
  between Great Britain and the U.S
• Increased number of U-boats and ease of transit
  to Atlantic
• Wolfpacks used to attack Allied convoys
• Gap in anti-submarine aircraft coverage south of
  Greenland
• Happy Time for German U-boats
• Heavy losses of Allied merchant ships 1940 - 1941
• Britain acquires more escorts and better ability
  to break the secret Ultra code used by the
  German armed forces
• U.S. participates in convoy escort
• Allied losses begin to decrease in late 1941

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War in Europe, Sept 1939Effects on U.S.

• Neutrality Patrols
• Report and track belligerent forces approaching
  the U.S.
• Britain made facilities available Bermuda, St.
  Lucia, Trinidad
• Fourth Neutrality Act (1939)- Shift from
  isolationism
• Arms embargo lifted
• U.S. ships forbidden to enter danger zones
• Belligerents had to pay cash for munitions and
  pick them up with their ships (Cash and Carry)

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• The Declaration of Panama
• 300 mile neutrality zone around Americas
• Compromised by Britains long-range blockade of
  Germany and Germanys counter blockade of Allied
  coast
• Violated by Battle of River Plate
• New opportunities for Japan
• Reduced British participation in Far Eastern
  affairs
• Reduced threat of Russian intervention
• Increased vulnerability of French and Dutch
  possessions
• Distraction of U.S. interest and forces from the
  area

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• The Fall of France and isolation of Britain
• Shocked American isolationists into realizing
  vulnerability of U.S.
• Rearmament Authorize two-ocean Navy
• Not to be completed until 1946

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War in Europe, Sept 1939Effects on U.S.

• All aid to Britain short of War
• Destroyers for bases deal
• 50 overage destroyers for 99-year leases on bases
  in Bahamas, Jamaica and Newfoundland
• Lend-Lease to Britain and Russia
• American Occupation of Greenland/Iceland
• American escort of convoy and eventual co-op in
  hunting down U-boats
• Torpedoing of the Greer, Kearney and Reuben James

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FranklinDelanoRoosevelt

• President
• of the
• United States
• World War II

59
Preparations for war in the Pacific

• Rainbow II
• U.S. fleet kept in Pearl Harbor as deterrent to
  Japan
• U.S. refused to send forces to Singapore
• Shift in Strategy from Rainbow II to Atlantic
  First
• Strong offensive in Atlantic, Defensive in
  Pacific
• Defeat Germany and Italy first, then Japan
• Support Brit forces in East Indies, and defend
  Midway, Johnson, Palmyra, Samoa, and Guam
• Defend Philippines as long as possible then
  withdraw to Malay barrier

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Political Developments

• Leading to the War in the Pacific
• 26 Jul 1940 Embargo on aviation fuel and high
  grade scrap
• Sept 1940 Japan joins Axis
• 13 Apr 1941 Japan signs 5 year neutrality treaty
  with Russia
• Jun 1941 Japan forces French to turn over bases
  in S. Indochina
• 26 Jul 1941 U.S. freezes all Jap assets and cuts
  of oil
• Decision to fortify and defend the Philippines
  (top priority)
• Oct 1941 Tojo/War party takes political control
  of govt
• Japan sends last proposals
• 26 Nov 1941 U.S. responds with demand for Jap
  withdrawal from China and Indochina
• 6 Dec 1941 Roosevelt personally appeals to Emp
  Hirohito for withdrawal. Answered 0755 next
  morning Pearl Harbor

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Discussion
Next time War in the Atlantic, North Africa, and
the Mediterranean, 1935-1945