chapter 6

USA

1. lend-lease act (1941) - usa was no longer neutral

context - britain was struggling to fight against germany and their resources were drained by 1940. In 1940, france fell to the hands of germany. ussr was invaded by germany in 1941.

• lend-lease act aims to supply the allies with vast amount of resources such as food, fuel and equipment to help fight against hitler

• payment for purchase can be deferred and may not be in cash 

• US $50 billion was provided to the Allies including ussr

• provided manpower fight against germany, large number of military personnel -> 11 million american soldier fight alongside with br and fr 

outcome - strengthened the allied resistance against germany greatly as lend lease act provided them with resources and manpower that britain and ussr desperately need. thus , enabling them to sustain their war efforts and eventually defeat germany which ran out of resources and manpower. 

2. island hopping 

context - involves use of air attacks and submarines to isolate japanese-held areas, cutting off some areas of their supplies of food, ammunition and essentials and this strategy also incurs less casualties and it is faster

• battle of iwo jima and okinawa in 1945

• good tactic to strengthened usa -> weakened japanese military -> easier to launch air attacks on Japan 

outcome - despite japanese persistence to defend these islands, even after resorting to the use of kamikaze attacks as last resort, americans still successfully captured these islands and further inflicted heavy damages on the japanese military

3. atomic bombs

context - made by allied scientists with the aim to use them to end the war with japan quickly since they were unwilling to surrender unconditionally 

• two atomic bombs : little boy - dropped on hiroshima , fat man - dropped on nagasaki 

• august 1945, dropped both bombs on japan 

• resulted in huge death toll, thousand of japanese injured + nuclear radiation from the bombs caused disastrous effects on survivors 

 outcome - dropping of atomic bombs caused a catastrophic impact on Japan and was unable to continue fighting due to low manpower and resources -> forced emperor hirohito to surrender -> led to defeat of japan in ww2 

BRITAIN

1. royal air force with its excellent fighter aircraft 

context - winston churchill -> provided strong leadership in ww2, led the british resistance and was determined to fight against germany by working closely with roosevelt (us) and stalin (ussr)

• battle of britain (1940)

• only allied country after the fall of france to germany in 1940 and britain resources were depleting 

• initially, the luftwaffe weakened the british raf by carrying out a series of successful air attack -> britain was vulnerable to the attacks of the luftwaffe

• hitler changes his mind to bomb british cities 

outcome - due to hitler change of mind, it gave raf time to recover and retaliate, preventing germans from taking over britain and shift his focus to soviet union instead. this strengthened morale of the british raf as they were motivated to fight against the germans with the american airforce till the very end

USSR - SOVIET UNION 

1. reorganisation and resistance 

context - german advance was halted by the russian winter in late 1941

• stalin and his military leaders took this opportunity to reform red army completely

• copied many tactics and ideas used by the germans + added some of their own 

• effective new weapons were developed (t-34 tank) which could be produced in huge numbers

example - battle of moscow and battle of stalingrad (1941-1943) , red army fought well and reorganised their troops in the harsh winters as compared to the germans army who struggled and were not well-equipped -> stalin trusted his competent generals and delegated control over the red army to them 

outcome - victory -> significant setbacks to german forces and forced them to redraw from the eastern front in 1943 -> greatly weakened the german army -> led to defeat of germany 

• harsh discipline were used 

•  stalin issued order 227 in july 1942 known as ‘not a step back’

• soviet army was commanded to fight and die for every bit of russian soil

2. resources and production : the soviet war economy 

context - ussr was initially unprepared and surprised by the german invasions

• all resources were devoted to military production 

• harsh measures were used -> adults in ussr (both men and women) received no food unless they worked in some way for the war effort + forced labour was used and secret police kept close control of the population 

outcome - led to production of effective weapons in large quantities surpassing the german war production in 1942, by placing heavy emphasis on reorganisation of war materials and army, it increased ussr’s military capability to rebuild its military rapidly against the german forces, allowing them to fight effectively.