good morning jack

  

FDR

"What is clearer than that the framers meant the President

to be the chief executive in peace and in war the 

commander in chief?"

Franklin Roosevelt     (3 - p. ix)

Lend-Lease Bill Extends Wide

Powers of President

16 February, 1941  

NY TIMES

The difficult passage of Roosevelt's Lend-Lease Bill through Congress 

prevents him from meeting with Prime Minister Churchill before the 

summer of 1941.

Lend-Lease:

* provides munitions, aircraft and weapons to Britain on credit 

* General Arnold, U.S. Army Air Corps commander protested sale of planes

* Arnold argued the planes are needed for America's own security

* Roosevelt would have none of it.  Looking at Arnold he said:

  " There are places to which officers who do not 'play ball' might

     be sent - such as Guam."      (3 - p. 14)

Threat:

Tripartite Pact - coalition of three military empires:

Hitler - Third Reich / Blitzkrieg 

Mussolini - Italian Empire / inept leadership 

Tojo - Empire of Japan / amphibious invasions 

Roosevelt believes:

* war inevitable and pushes Congress to expand Armed Forces

* Churchill is the political leader of a fading colonial power

* Roosevelt feels it imperative to protect Britain but 

  not Britain's Empire 

Roosevelt assessment of his military chiefs of staff:

* little to no faith in their military or political judgment 

* Respect them as service chiefs but subordinate to his judgment 

* Generals and Admirals may lack necessary initiative and drive

* Roosevelt willing to set aggressive goals - take risks

* Roosevelt's national strategy reflected political realities 

  (1 - p. 2) 

* War Department assessments counter to Roosevelt opinion:

* Germany would conquer Russia in a few weeks

* Roosevelt:  Russia shows stiff resistance - added to

                      Lend-Lease

* Britain should abandon their position in North Africa

* Roosevelt:  Mediterranean good starting point for

     confronting Nazis / Suez and oil worth

     protecting 

* U.S. Atlantic Fleet should have precedence over Pacific concerns

* Roosevelt:  Pacific Fleet must provide counter to Japan 

* U.S. forces should assault Nazi-held Europe in 1942 

* Roosevelt:  Suicide - North Africa is more appropriate

   objective for green American troops facing the

    Wehrmacht for first time     (3 - p. 8)

Wehrmacht - German armed forces

U-Boats Roam Sea 

with a New Fury

7 October 1941

NY TIMES

Battle of Britain

* Hitler convinced England too strong to invade

* Britain's Royal Navy would prevent amphibious Channel assault

* Royal Air Force maintains tenuous control of the air

* Britain has world's most powerful navy to protect its sea lanes

* Island nation almost entirely dependent on seaborne commerce 

* British vulnerable to sea blockade 

* Germany turns to submarines, its U-boats

* submarines sink enough commerce and Britain loses the war 

* Britain's survival key to Germany's defeat     (5 - p. 205)

 

Battle of the Atlantic

 * Allies' first priority was victory in the Battle of the Atlantic

* U-boat:  unterseeboot - under-sea-boat

* able to approach surface target undetected 

* high-explosive torpedo blows open ship's side 

* slow, limited underwater endurance 

* limited battery endurance submarine's biggest weakness

* run diesel engines on surface to recharge batteries

  after only several hours underwater 

* speed underwater 7 knots versus 17 knots on surface 

* cramped, uncomfortable  

* crew of 50 

 

ASW - Anti-submarine Warfare 

* Convoy merchant ships - grouping ships for mutual protection 

* defended by escorting destroyers armed with depth charges

* convoy system improves chance of survival 

* Conforming to group movement wastes time, increases effort 

* ships sit in harbor waiting for convoy to assemble

* arriving all together creates congestion at destination port

* vigilance required to prevent merchant ships from colliding   

* Submarines vulnerable to aircraft

* speed and range of aircraft cover larger areas of patrol

  than ships 

* most of Atlantic out of range of land-based aircraft 

Roosevelt's Undeclared War

 * Roosevelt provides U.S. Navy escorts to protect British convoys

* U.S. policy violates international rules on neutrality

* Roosevelt takes advantage of Hitler's fear of war with the U.S.

* By September 1941 U.S. destroyers and German submarines 

   are in open conflict

* U.S.S. Reuben James sunk by German torpedo     (5 - p. 214)

Kiev Mopped Up

Nazis Announce 

21 September 1941

NY TIMES

Barbarossa - invasion of Russia:  22 June 1940

* Shifting objectives due to dispute between Hitler and his generals

* Everyone believed the Soviet Army would quickly collapse

* making strategic goals unnecessary 

* Wehrmacht Generals wanted an armored drive to Moscow 

* Germany must have the war won by winter

* Germany wins using its advantages of armor:

* mobility

* tactics

* Germany loses when drawn into war of attrition 

* Third Reich loses in a war of resources with Russia 

* Hitler identified three strategic objectives to achieve before winter:

* Leningrad - uncertain as to reason

* Moscow - the heart of Soviet Union

* Kiev - Ukraine:  vast natural resources including access to oil

* 60% of Russia's coal

* 30% of Russia's iron

* 70% of Russia's oil - Caspian Sea

 * concentration of nation's industry - Donets River

* comparable to Ruhr industrial area of Germany 

* Hitler's goals resulted in an unwinnable dispersion of forces

* Only Hitler's army headed toward Moscow had the armor

   needed to achieve its goals

* Hitler diverted even this armor to aid his forces

  in battles around Kiev and Leningrad

* Moscow and Leningrad would never be taken

* Hitler never took control of Ukrainian resources 

(5 - p. 116) 

 

 Roosevelt thought Hitler's preoccupation with Russia provided

the Allies with opportunities to win contests against Nazi forces

in both the Atlantic and the Mediterranean Sea / North Africa.

 

MacArthur Made Chief in Far East

27 July 1941

NY TIMES

American interests in Asia were based upon trade and its protection.

United States obtains Navy bases throughout the Pacific to defend sea lanes

* used as coaling stations and anchorages  

* Midway, Alaska       - 1867

* Hawaii, Philippines - 1898 

* Samoa                    - 1900 

With the outbreak of war in 1914 Japan captures German islands in Pacific:

* Marianas

* Saipan 

* Carolines

* Truk 

* Marshals 

* Tarawa 

* Japan fortified these islands as relations with the U.S. deteriorated

* this chain of militarized islands crossing all sea lanes to the 

   Far East made U.S. defense of its Philippines possession

   extremely difficult if not impossible

* better having the American fleet sunk at Pearl Harbor

   where ships were salvageable as opposed to being lost

   to the depths of the Pacific thousands of miles away

 

24 July 1941 Japan militarily occupies French Indochina

* Germany's defeat of France makes the region a colonial orphan

* Japan's control of Hanoi cuts major supply line to hostile

   China

* Roosevelt responds with an executive order:

* freezing Japanese assets in the United States

* restricting oil exports to Japan

* Japan has 18 months of oil reserve 

* placing an economic blockade on Japan

* Japan faces financial paralysis  

* U.S. insists Japan's aggression in China must end 

* No Japanese government would survive accepting

   these U.S. demands 

 

October 1941 General Hideki Tojo takes command of Tokyo government 

* Japan plans for:

* destruction of American fleet at Pearl Harbor

* expelling all white colonialist from the Far East     (4 - p. 7)

Republicans Nominate Wendell Willkie

for the Presidency

28 June 1940

NY TIMES

Wendell Willkie, 48 years / Republican / winning personality / former Democrat

* Never held elective office

* supports Roosevelt's aid to Britain 

* Willkie's general domestic and foreign policies remain unclear  

Franklin Roosevelt, 58 years / Democrat / running for unprecedented 3rd term

 * health issues / high blood pressure / heavy smoker

* dumps his conservative vice president, John Garner, for

    Henry Wallace

* Roosevelt focus during campaign was on passing 2 defense measures: 

* providing Britain with World War I destroyers

* passing a draft law to expand the U.S. Army

 * bill limited service to 1 year

* draftees could not leave Western Hemisphere 

* Willkie endorsed bill as important for national security 

August 1940 - Gallup Poll:  66% Americans favor drafting men 20 to 31 years.

September 1940 - Gallup Poll:  52% Americans believe helping Britain win war

                                                   more important that staying out of the fighting

October 1940 - Gallup Poll:  Roosevelt leads Willkie 56% to 44%

When asked their preference were there no war in Europe 

 then voters preferred Willkie over Roosevelt 53% to 47%

The issues of war and peace were a clear advantage for Roosevelt as voters

wanted a president experienced in handling foreign affairs.     (2 - p. 396) 

 

Roosevelt Elected President

6 November 1940

NY TIMES

Election night gave Roosevelt his win but he remained

wary of the nation's isolationist sentiments that persisted

as a potent political force until the morning of 7 December

1941.  Suddenly one Sunday, Americans find they've been

soundly beaten in the Pacific by a force that appeared

from nowhere.  Japanese forces seemed to be attacking

everywhere simultaneously, and winning - Malaysia,

Hong Kong, Java, the Philippines, New Guinea.

In short order, Hitler declares war on the U.S.

Roosevelt wanted this job, commander-in-chief,

despite his fears of what lie ahead. Now

it was left to him to bring together a war-winning

grand alliance of a Bolshevik, an Imperialist and

an elitist who saw himself born to be president.

Wide Acclaim Here

for 'Eight Points'

15 August 1941

NY TIMES

9 August 1941 / Placentia Bay:  historic meeting - Roosevelt and Churchill

* Atlantic Charter

* January 1941 - Harry Hopkins proposes to Churchill a meeting 

with Roosevelt "to talk over the problem of the defeat of 

Germany" - Roosevelt's words.      (3 - p. 3)

* Roosevelt uses opportunity to declare his postwar global vision

 * based on his Four Freedoms:

Freedom of Speech

Freedom of Worship

Freedom from Want

Freedom from Fear     (3 - p. 16) 

 * Roosevelt hopes a peace communique will quiet isolationists'

    fears / dealing with domestic political realities

* Roosevelt wanted to project strength to Germany and Japan

   attempting to mask his country's unpreparedness for war

* He needed to buy time to deal with Hitler, Tojo and

   Churchill - all while placating Congress and the public

 * Placentia Bay - protected gulf off Newfoundland coast, Canada

* Naval station at Argentia ceded to United States by British

in a quid pro quo deal of U.S. destroyers in exchange

for British bases.

* one of 8 bases acquired for 50 destroyers (WWI vintage) 

* Majority of American voters oppose being drawn into European war

* Public and Congress suspicious of Roosevelt-Churchill meeting

* In 1940 Presidential campaign Roosevelt assures voters:

   there is no secret agenda "to involve this nation in any war"     

    (3 - p. 5)

* Roosevelt has secretly corresponded with Churchill since Poland

was invaded in 1939

* U.S. Ambassador to London Joseph P. Kennedy left in the dark

* Kennedy was an isolationist and an appeaser / not trusted

 

U.S. military chiefs brought to Placentia Bay:

Marshall, George C. - General, Army Chief of Staff

* stern

complaint:   * Roosevelt makes all major military decisions

                                * Roosevelt does not allow Marshall to contest his decisions  

Roosevelt:   * Political leaders deferring to the military permitted

                        senseless battles of attrition in World War I

  * will not delegate world war to the "professionals"     

     (3 - p. x)

  * asserts his Constitutional authority as commander

     -in-chief 

Arnold, Henry "Hap" - General, Army Air Corps Chief 

Stark, Harold R. "Betty" - Admiral, Chief of Naval Operations

King, Ernest "Ernie" - Admiral, Atlantic Fleet Commander     (3 - p. 6)

Hopkins, Harry - Roosevelt's trusted personal emissary to:

* Churchill in London

* Stalin in Moscow 

 

Churchill, Winston - Prime Minister, Britain

* resolute resister of Nazi tyranny

* 19th Century Imperialist - defender of British Empire

* Roosevelt promotes post-imperial view of global relations

* US supplants United Kingdom as guardian of world's democracies     (3 - xii)

* Churchill wants an alliance with the U.S. because that is how the war is won

* Any foreign entanglement leading to war is politically toxic for Roosevelt 

__________________

love

   dad

©  Tom Taylor

Resources:

1.  Commander in Chief 

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, His Lieutenants, and their War

Larrabee, Eric

1987

2.  Franklin D. Roosevelt / A Political Life

Dallek, Robert 

2017

3.  The Mantle of Command / FDR at War 1941 - 1942

Hamilton, Nigel

2014

4.  The Second World War / Asia and the Pacific

Dept. of History, West Point

2002

5.  The Second World War / Europe and the Mediterranean

Dept. of History, West Point

2002

*  *  *  *  *

coldValentine

good morning jessicca

 

 

love

   dad

©  Tom Taylor

coldValentine

 

good morning jeremy

  

Thanksgiving family reunion.

Kannapolis Council members Doug Wilson and Jeanne Dixon.

love

   dad

©  Tom Taylor

coldValentine

good morning justin

 

 

6 July

How the map looks to General Heinz Guderian

2nd Armored Group, Commander

17th Panzer Division was stopped near Senno:  unusually large

number of tanks in a Red Army frontal attack.

2nd Panzer Group objectives remain:

1.  capture Smolensk:  trap large number of Red Army troops in noose

2.  take Elnya:  important jumping off point for assault on Moscow

3.  take Roslavl:  control of area required to protect armor's right flank

Reaching these objectives means crossing the Dnieper River at

Orsha, Mogilev, Rogachev.  Time is the critical factor.  Russian

troops are beginning to collect at these points.  They are weak now.

Time enables them to mass their forces and prepare their defense.

Strike with what we have now and save us from the casualties

incurred later when an assault will be made against a fortified

defense with withering firepower.

9 July

Field-Marshal von Kluge arrives at 2nd Panzer HQ and forbids 

any order for crossing the Dnieper before allowing the infantry

to catch up.  Like hell.  Preparations are done.  We've gone

too far to cancel now.  A fiery exchange erupts between the

tank commander and his immediate superior.  Finally

Kluge assents to Guderian's plan, saying "Your operations

always hang by a thread."

11 July

Dnieper River crossed as planned.  Casualties light.

Dust everywhere.  Hard on men, weapons and engines.  

Tank cylinders clog.  Hitler promises 300 new engines but 

no new tanks.  Those go to divisions for the future.

17th Panzer Division hit by strong enemy force south of Orsha.  

They evacuate their bridgehead on the river's east side.

Guderian asks Kluge to hurry his infantry up.  Kluge emphasizes

security, Guderian is about speed.  One cannot tolerate the other.

10th Panzer Division took heavy artillery fire and low flying

bombing of their crossing.  Once they've secured the beachhead  

Guderian orders his corps to press on through the night.

Times a wasting.  At morning they will surprise the Russians

defending Gorki.

16 July

Planners of Barbarossa had no idea they would run into a

second wave of Red Army troops.  For three days in a row

now the German forces across the Dnieper have been under

almost continuous counterattack.

Guderian continues 2nd Panzer's advance towards its objectives.

 

20 July

The Panzer Army has punched through Russian defenses. 

A lagging foot infantry creates opportunity for Red Army troops

to slip the noose.  Both tank commanders, Guderian and Hoth

favor keeping their armor moving aggressively forward.  They

buck the call for guard duty - keeping encircled Russian troops 

captive.  So Russians get away.  Hitler knows this.  So does

Kluge.  They want to put a stop to it.

Guderian detects Timoshenko's hand behind Soviet troop 

arrivals near Roslavl.  It can only mean he can expect a 

thrust into his right flank sometime soon south of Smolensk.

23 July

Problems with Guderian's outpost at Elnya.  Heavy artillery 

fire is being directed onto 10th Panzer Division's position from

three separate directions.  They are running low on ammo and

their nearest supply is 275 miles away over uncertain roads.

Meanwhile the Soviets have knocked out 2nd Panzer's railway

supply line to Bobruisk.   

 

Russian attacks continue unabated.  Intelligence reports four 

new Russian Armies are moving into the area.

26 July

The Russian forces trapped at Mogilev have finally been destroyed.

General Hoth's 3rd Panzer Group has met up with Guderian's

troops east of Smolensk to close the encirclement.

The on-going dispute over campaign objectives forces a meeting

the next day between the leading generals of 4th Army - Guderian, 

Hoth and Kluge, its commanding general.  The trouble really lies  

with Guderian's inability to work with Kluge.  There will be no 

compromise with his commanding officer's dull witted notions

about the capabilities of fast-moving armored firepower.  

Guderian's contempt could not be disguised.

27 July

The meeting in Orsha goes not as expected.  Guderian learns Hitler

is directing his 2nd Panzer Army south to mop up some scattered

Russian infantry divisions.  This objective is nothing more than pocket

change - a truly unworthy assignment at a critical hour.  God help us.

The Fuhrer's dithering's must mean he's lost his nerve.

 

Could it be Hitler is coming to the realization his attack on Russia

is based on false assumptions?

31 July

The Fuhrer takes direct command of the Army.  Hitler oversees

all operational matters.  What it does is take the initiative from

the commander on the scene and introduces both delay and 

uncertainty as Hitler mulls his options.

A strategy shake-up comes with the Fuhrer's new powers.

Conditions have changed.  The Red Army is too big to destroy.

An early end to the war is unrealistic.  Economics becomes the

new focus because it is the only way we can win the long haul.

That is not what Hitler's message says but it is what it means.

Forget Moscow.  The focus should be on the resource rich Ukraine

and the fabulous Leningrad harbor.  Hitler knows economics better

than his generals.  He knows his country's true financial state of 

affairs.  It's all labor at the point of a gun once your checks bounce.

Big wars are expensive.

1 August

Roslavl captured.  Timoshenko thwarted.

A favored tactic of German commanders along the eastern front

at this time was to accept the casualties necessary to take a 

valued piece of real estate because they knew their investment

would be returned a number of times over because Russian

leaders would make repeated futile assaults to regain the 

territory to prove their loyalty and resolve.

Germany's own planes bomb Guderian's 23rd Infantry Division 

on their way to the front.  Insufficient training and lack of combat

experience are blamed for the incident that caused heavy 

casualties.  Let it all sink in.  For a moment.  Now shake it off

and move it out.

Once again Guderian pushes his troops forward through the night 

"so as to reach the high road to Moscow as soon as possible."

___________________

love

   dad 

©  Tom Taylor

coldValentine

good morning jacob

 

 

Two fast moving armored probes

aim to take Moscow.

Steamrolled by Nazis

Entire armies, hundreds of thousand of soldiers,

lost to you in the space of days.  You've lost all

communications with your front.  The forces

left to your command swing wildly as would 

a headless beast.

Soviet High Command - Stavka

Stalin and his circle of hand-picked men

whose orders were to be rigorously obeyed

even if they made no sense to you.

Stalin's man to the West

to:  Marshal Timoshenko

Demonstrating only the greatest resolve you are to attack

our enemy in the area of river gate, between the Dvina and

Dnepr Rivers.  Vitebsk and Smolensk must not fall.

T-34 

It was the best tank made in 1941.

There were problems.  No one bothered to provide radios

so how do you operate as a unit under a central command?

Commanders don't know how to use tanks effectively, anyway.

For many in senior command it is on the job training.  Incompetence.

Stalin's purge of Red Army officers left inexperience in command.

Two Corps of Red Army armor

about 1,500 tanks, charge headlong into

 General Hoth's 3rd Panzer Group point.

Although the lead 7th Panzer Division was forced

into retreat near a town named Senno, Russian

armor was soon halted in its tracks when confronted

with overwhelming firepower in prepared defense.

Russian tanks attacked without air cover or antitank guns.

There was no coordination with infantry for their protection. 

Stuka dive bombers methodically picked off Red Army tanks

from overhead.  After four days fighting the two Russian 

armored corps were decimated.  Only poorly equipped and 

ill-trained infantry units are left to protect the key river towns

of Vitebsk along the Dvina and Orsha along the Dnepr River.

Field Marshal Bock and General Hoth plot their moves.

The objective to shatter the bulk of the Russian Army this side

of the Dvina and Dnepr Rivers has been accomplished.  East

of these rivers we would encounter nothing more than partial 

forces.  It is probably no overstatement to say that the 

Russian campaign has been won in the space of two weeks.

General Franz Halder

Chief, Army High Command

3 July 1941

Hoth's 3rd Panzer Group

was the northern-most of the two armored pincers

used to envelope all the armies and territories

that lay between Minsk and Smolensk - 

the next objective on the highway to Moscow.

Whereas Guderian's southern route was

grasslands, Hoth's battlefields were forest.

Along the Dnepr south of Smolensk

were the remnants of Stalin's old line of defense,

dilapidated fortifications along the river's east bank.

Hollowed out and antiquated they proved to be

easily punctured by modern armor.

Russian resistance has become haphazard.

But unexpected.  German generals

assumed this campaign would be

another France - 

pierce the outer shell and feast

on the goodies inside.

It should be getting pleasant about now.

General Heinz Guderian

3rd Panzer Group Commander

brilliant

prima donna 

not a team player

How wonderous it all is.

The general's imaginings come to life.

Guderian can't wait to get to Moscow.

As a matter of fact, the general has

already gotten a bit ahead of things.

                                               

love

   dad 

©  Tom Taylor

coldValentine