Year 1942 and Why it's Important

Wednesday, April 17, 2013 10:57 AM

Midway 6/1942 Yamamoto Nimitz El Alamein 10/1942 Rommel Montgomery Patlon Stalingrad 12/1942 The year 1942 and why it's important: In 1942 3 major battles were fought o Midway o El Alamein o Stalingrad Midway- island; midway between America and Asia o United States fought Japanese El Alamein o In Egypt o Fought by Germans against British Stalingrad o In soviet union o Fought in December of 1942 o Germans fought Soviets 1941&1942 o Japanese were doing well and at Pearl Harbor o Americans were so mad that they wanted revenge on Japanese o Architect of Japanese wars was Yamamoto Believed in a long war, the Americans would eventually become victorious Because the USA was too powerful both economically and militarily o 1942 Yamamoto comes up with new plan: Hopes that it will create such a devastating blow that the USA would soothe for peace He doesn't want to conquer but hope that the USA would allow them to control Asia Yamamoto decides that Japanese will attack at Midway For two reasons Conquer island itself Forcing Americans to retreat to Hawaii Hopes that attack on Midway will lure three American aircraft carriers into battle Japanese had 8 aircraft carriers Americans have broken Japanese military code Could not read everything but could understand some of what the Japanese were sending back and forth Became clear that Japanese were planning major attack Americans could not figure out where they were going to attack

An American code breaker-- realized that the Japanese code name- AF was where they were going to fight at He guessed that they meant midway Reason why is because months before, Japanese plane was lost, and radioed back home and told them that he was probably near AF. Therefore the code breaker was able to They knew midway was running out of fresh water And then a Japanese sent message stated that they were running out of fresh water Chester Nimitz (General) took a guess and went to Midway 4 Japanese aircrafts went to midway Went into radio silence so they knew that the Japanese were close Americans went to North and East of Midway to surprise the Japanese Both sides sent out scout planes to see if they could find enemy fleets Americans already knew they were on their way, and the Japanese did this to be cautious American scout planes find Japanese aircrafts first American carriers then launched 4 ways of bombers to attack the Japanese Fighter umbrellas--flying over carrier heads (Japanese only) If anyone who tried to attack fleets, then they could hopefully attack and take them down before they reach the carrier American planes dive to carriers but were knocked out by Japanese umbrellas Three waves, and none were able to reach carrier Buuuuuut they took out ALL of the fighter umbrellas Thenn 4th wave of American planes appear Attack Japanese ships without being attacked themselves In 6 minutes, 4th wave of American planes sink 3 Japanese aircraft carriers Eventually the Japanese will find American carriers and sink one, but by that time the Americans already sunk last Japanese carrier Up until this point the Japanese have never lost a naval battle They will never win another Japanese built 3 new aircraft carriers, by the end Americans built 300? New aircraft carriers El Alamein Germans were trying to take British out of Egypt So British were cut out of empire Just past Egypt-- middle east; oil Germans were desperately out of oil Germans were doing well under Irwin Monroe [the desert fox] By oct 1942 Germans were being spread too thin Ran out of people, tanks, and planes British have two-to-one advantage in men, tanks, and planes British win war and begin to push Germans to back to North Africa Americans driving from West, British from East, and together pushed Germans out of North Africa Stalingrad Wanted to attack b/c City produced most of SU's tanks

Area around land produced amount of food Area to south was rich in oil Attack was well until they reach into the city of Stalingrad (December) Things go wrong for Germans Going into city was mistake because of their fighting styles so they could not fight the way they were used to; not used for cities but in open lands Winter comes Germans were spread too thin Not enough men, equipment, etc SU had huge advantages in equipment--men, planes, tanks SU had so many men they formed an army of 1million men Divided army in half, one north and the other south Went around Stalingrad and meet in the middle to trap Germans By this time Hitler thought he was invincible so he didn't allow them to retreat After this, Germans would never win another war again