Daniel Orr's Blog, page 80

November 10, 1945 – British forces and Indonesian nationalist militias clash in the Battle of Surabaya

On November 10, 1945, British forces and Indonesian nationalist fighters fought the Battle of Surabaya during the Indonesian War of Independence. After World War II ended, the first Allied forces arrived in the Dutch East Indies (modern-day Indonesia) in mid-September 1945. When British forces arrived in Surabaya in East Java in late October, they found that the city was fortified by Indonesian nationalist fighters – in all, some 20,000 Indonesian revolutionary troops and 100,000 militia fighters had taken defensive positions. In a skirmish on October 30, 1945, British Brigadier A.W.S. Mallaby was killed, which served as a trigger for the British to initiate full-scale fighting on November 10. Within three days, British forces had largely taken the city, but fierce house-to-house fighting continued for three weeks, with some 30,000 British troops supported with tanks, aircraft, and artillery bombardment from warships finally forcing out the last guerrilla resistance.

The Southeast Asian country of Indonesia was known as the Dutch East Indies during the colonial period.

(Taken from Indonesian War of Independence – Wars of the 20th Century – Twenty Wars in Asia)

BackgroundSukarno’s proclamation of Indonesia’s independence de facto produced a state of war with the Allied powers, which were determined to gain control of the territory and reinstate the pre-war Dutch government.  However, one month would pass before the Allied forces would arrive.  Meanwhile, the Japanese East Indies command, awaiting the arrival of the Allies to repatriate Japanese forces back to Japan, was ordered by the Allied high command to stand down and carry out policing duties to maintain law and order in the islands.  The Japanese stance toward the Indonesian Republic varied: disinterested Japanese commanders withdrew their units to avoid confrontation with Indonesian forces, while those sympathetic to or supportive of the revolution provided weapons to Indonesians, or allowed areas to be occupied by Indonesians.  However, other Japanese commanders complied with the Allied orders and fought the Indonesian revolutionaries, thus becoming involved in the independence war.

In the chaotic period immediately after Indonesia’s
independence and continuing for several months, widespread violence and anarchy
prevailed (this period is known as “Bersiap”, an Indonesian word meaning “be
prepared”), with armed bands called “Pemuda” (Indonesian meaning “youth”)
carrying out murders, robberies, abductions, and other criminal acts against
groups associated with the Dutch regime, i.e. local nobilities, civilian
leaders, Christians such as Menadonese and Ambones, ethnic Chinese, Europeans,
and Indo-Europeans.  Other armed bands
were composed of local communists or Islamists, who carried out attacks for the
same reasons.  Christian and
nobility-aligned militias also were organized, which led to clashes between
pro-Dutch and pro-Indonesian armed groups. 
These so-called “social revolutions” by anti-Dutch militias, which
occurred mainly in Java and Sumatra, were
motivated by various reasons, including political, economic, religious, social,
and ethnic causes.  Subsequently when the
Indonesian government began to exert greater control, the number of violent
incidents fell, and Bersiap soon came to an end.  The number of fatalities during the Bersiap
period runs into the tens of thousands, including some 3,600 identified and
20,000 missing Indo-Europeans.

The first major clashes of the war occurred in late August
1945, when Indonesian revolutionary forces clashed with Japanese Army units,
when the latter tried to regain previously vacated areas.  The Japanese would be involved in the early
stages of Indonesia’s
independence war, but were repatriated to Japan by the end of 1946.

In mid-September 1945, the first Allied forces consisting of
Australian units arrived in the eastern regions of Indonesia (where revolutionary
activity was minimal), peacefully taking over authority from the commander of
the Japanese naval forces there.  Allied
control also was established in Sulawesi, with
the provincial revolutionary government offering no resistance.  These areas were then returned to Dutch
colonial control.

In late September 1945, British forces also arrived in the
islands, the following month taking control of key areas in Sumatra, including Medan, Padang, and Palembang, and in
Java.  The British also occupied Jakarta (then still known, until 1949, as Batavia),
with Sukarno and his government moving the Republic’s capital to Yogyakarta in Central Java.  In
October 1945, Japanese forces also regained control of Bandung
and Semarang
for the Allies, which they turned over to the British. In Semarang, the intense fighting claimed the
lives of some 500 Japanese and 2,000 Indonesian soldiers.

In late October 1945, the shooting death of British General
Aubertin Mallaby in Surabaya
prompted the British command to launch a land, air, and sea attack on the
city.  In this encounter, known as the
Battle of Surabaya, the British met fierce resistance from Pemuda militias but
gained control of the city after three days of fighting.  Casualties on both sides were high,
fatalities numbering 6,000-16,000 revolutionaries and 500-2,000 mostly British
Indian soldiers.

In late 1945, the revolutionaries intensified their attacks
in Bandung.  Then in March 1946, forced by the British to
withdraw from Bandung,
the revolutionaries set fire to a large section of the city in what is known as
the “Bandung Sea of Fire”.  Also that
month, communal violence broke out in East Sumatra,
where elements supporting the revolutionaries attacked groups aligned with the
old colonial order.

The Netherlands
itself was greatly weakened by World War II, and was unable to quickly
reestablish its presence in the Dutch East Indies.  However, by April 1946, Dutch troops had
begun to arrive in large numbers, ultimately peaking at 180,000 during the war
(aside from another 60,000 predominantly native colonial troops of the Royal
Dutch East Indies Army).  The restored
colonial government, called the Netherlands Indies Civil Administration,
reclaimed Jakarta as its capital, while Dutch
authority also was established in the other major cities in Java and Sumatra,
and in the rest of the original Dutch East Indies.

By late 1946, the British military had completed its mission
in the archipelago, that of repatriating Japanese forces to Japan and freeing the Allied
prisoners of war.  By December 1946,
British forces had departed from the islands, but not before setting up
mediation talks between the Dutch government and Indonesian revolutionaries, an
initiative that led the two sides to agree to a ceasefire in October 1946.  Earlier in June 1946, the Dutch government
and representatives of ethnic and religious groups and the aristocracy from
Sulawesi, Maluku, West New Guinea, and other eastern states met in South
Sulawesi and agreed to form a federal-type government attached to the
Netherlands.  In talks held with the
Indonesian revolutionaries, Dutch authorities presented a similar proposal
which on November 12, 1946, produced the Linggadjati Agreement, where the two
sides agreed to establish a federal system known as the United States of
Indonesia (USI) by January 1, 1949.  The Republic of Indonesia
(consisting of Java, Madura, and Sumatra) would comprise one state under USI;
in turn, USI and the Netherlands
would form the Netherlands-Indonesian Union, with each polity being a fully
sovereign state but under the symbolic authority of the Dutch monarchy.

November 9, 1938 – A German diplomat is assassinated by a Polish Jew; in response, Hitler initiates “Kristallnacht”

On November 9, 1938 in Paris, German diplomat Ernst vom Rath
was assassinated by a Polish Jew. In response, Hitler’s government carried out “Kristallnacht”
(Crystal Night), where the Nazi SA and civilian mobs in Germany went on a
violent rampage, killing hundreds of Jews, jailing tens of thousands of others,
and looting and destroying Jewish homes, schools, synagogues, hospitals, and
other buildings.  Some 1,000 synagogues
were burned, and 7,000 businesses destroyed. 

(Taken from Wars of the 20th Century – World War II in Europe)

Hitler and Nazis in
Power In October 1929, the severe economic crisis known as the Great
Depression began in the United
States, and then spread out and affected
many countries around the world.  Germany, whose economy was dependent on the United States
for reparations payments and corporate investments, was badly hit, and millions
of workers lost their jobs, many banks closed down, and industrial production
and foreign trade dropped considerably.

The Weimar
government weakened politically, as many Germans turned to radical ideologies,
particularly Hitler’s ultra-right wing nationalist Nazi Party, as well as the
German Communist Party.  In the 1930
federal elections, the Nazi Party made spectacular gains and became a major
political party with a platform of improving the economy, restoring political
stability, and raising Germany’s
international standing by dealing with the “unjust” Versailles treaty.  Then in two elections held in 1932, the Nazis
became the dominant party in the Reichstag (German parliament), albeit without
gaining a majority.  Hitler long sought
the post of German Chancellor, which was the head of government, but he was
rebuffed by the elderly President Paul von Hindenburg , who distrusted
Hitler.  At this time, Hitler’s ambitions
were not fully known, and following a political compromise by rival parties, in
January 1933, President Hindenburg appointed Hitler as Chancellor, with few
Nazis initially holding seats in the new Cabinet.  The Chancellorship itself had little power,
and the real authority was held by the President (the head of state).

On the night of February 27, 1933, fire broke out at the
Reichstag, which led to the arrest and execution of a Dutch arsonist, a
communist, who was found inside the building. 
The next day, Hitler announced that the fire was the signal for German
communists to launch a nationwide revolution. 
On February 28, 1933, the German parliament passed the “Reichstag Fire
Decree” which repealed civil liberties, including the right of assembly and freedom
of the press.  Also rescinded was the
writ of habeas corpus, allowing authorities to arrest any person without the
need to press charges or a court order. 
In the next few weeks, the police and Nazi SA paramilitary carried out a
suppression campaign against communists (and other political enemies) across Germany,
executing communist leaders, jailing tens of thousands of their members, and
effectively ending the German Communist Party. 
Then in March 1933, with the communists suppressed and other parties
intimidated, Hitler forced the Reichstag to pass the Enabling Act, which
allowed the government (i.e. Hitler) to enact laws, even those that violated
the constitution, without the approval of parliament or the president.  With nearly absolute power, the Nazis gained
control of all aspects of the state.  In
July 1933, with the banning of political parties and coercion into closure of
the others, the Nazi Party became the sole legal party, and Germany became
de facto a one-party state.

At this time, Hitler grew increasingly alarmed at the
military power of the SA, particularly distrusting the political ambitions of
its leader, Ernst Rohm.  On June 30-July
2, 1934, on Hitler’s orders, the loyalist Nazi SS (Schutzstaffel; English:
Protection Squadron) and Gestapo (Secret Police) purged the SA, killing
hundreds of its leaders including Rohm, and jailing thousands of its members,
violently bringing the SA organization (which had some three million members)
to its knees.  The purge benefited Hitler
in two ways: First, he became the undisputed leader of the Nazi apparatus, and
Second and equally important, his standing greatly increased with the upper
class, business and industrial elite, and German military; the latter,
numbering only 100,000 troops because of the Versailles treaty restrictions,
also felt threatened by the enormous size of the SA.

In early August 1934, with the death of President
Hindenburg, Hitler gained absolute power, as his Cabinet passed a law that
abolished the presidency, and its powers were merged with those of the
chancellor.  Hitler thus became both
German head of state and head of government, with the dual roles of Fuhrer
(leader) and Chancellor.  As head of
state, he also was Supreme Commander of the armed forces, making him absolute
ruler and dictator of Germany.

In domestic matters, the Nazi government made great gains,
improving the economy and industrial production, reducing unemployment,
embarking on ambitious infrastructure projects, and restoring political and
social order.  As a result, the Nazis
became extremely popular, and party membership grew enormously.  This success was brought about from sound
policies as well as through threat and intimidation, e.g. labor unions and job
actions were suppressed.

Hitler also began to impose Nazi racial policies, which saw
ethnic Germans as the “master race” comprising “super-humans” (Ubermensch),
while certain races such as Slavs, Jews, and Roma (gypsies) were considered
“sub-humans” (Untermenschen); also lumped with the latter were non-ethnic-based
groups, i.e. communists, liberals, and other political enemies, homosexuals,
Freemasons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, etc. 
Nazi lebensraum (“living space”) expansionism into Eastern Europe and Russia called
for eliminating the Slavic and other populations there and replacing them with
German farm settlers to help realize Hitler’s dream of a 1,000-year German
Empire.

In Germany
itself, starting in April 1933 until the passing of the Nuremberg Laws in
September 1935 and beyond, Nazi racial policy was directed against the local
Jews, stripping them of civil rights, banning them from employment and
education, revoking their citizenship, excluding them from political and social
life, disallowing inter-marriages with Germans, and essentially declaring them
undesirables in Germany.  As a result, tens of thousands of Jews left Germany.  Hitler blamed the Jews (and communists) for
the civilian and workers’ unrest and revolution near the end of World War I,
ostensibly that had led to Germany’s
defeat, and for the many social and economic problems currently afflicting the
nation.  Following anti-Nazi boycotts in
the United States, Britain, and other countries, Hitler retaliated
with a call to boycott Jewish businesses in Germany, which degenerated into
violent riots by SA mobs that attacked and killed, and jailed hundreds of Jews,
looted and destroyed Jewish properties, and seized Jewish assets.  The most notorious of these attacks occurred
in November 1938 in “Kristallnacht” (Crystal Night), where in response to the
assassination of a German diplomat by a Polish Jew in Paris, the Nazi SA and
civilian mobs in Germany went on a violent rampage, killing hundreds of Jews,
jailing tens of thousands of others, and looting and destroying Jewish homes,
schools, synagogues, hospitals, and other buildings.  Some 1,000 synagogues were burned, and 7,000
businesses destroyed. 

In foreign affairs, Hitler, like most Germans, denounced the
Versailles
treaty, and wanted it rescinded.  In
1933, Hitler withdrew Germany
from the World Disarmament Conference in Geneva,
and in October of that year, from the League of Nations, in both cases
denouncing why Germany
was not allowed to re-arm to the level of the other major powers.

In March 1935, Hitler announced that German military
strength would be increased to 550,000 troops, military conscription would be
introduced, and an air force built, which essentially meant repudiation of the
Treaty of Versailles and the start of full-scale rearmament.  In response, Britain,
France, and Italy formed
the Stresa Front meant to stop further German violations, but this alliance
quickly broke down because the three parties disagreed on how to deal with
Hitler.

November 8, 1940 – World War II: Greek forces repulse an Italian offensive at Elaia-Kalamas

On November 8, 1940, Greek forces repulsed an Italian offensive at the Battle of Elaia-Kalamas during the Greco-Italian War. The Italians launched their invasion of Greece on October 28, 1940. At the coastal flank of the Epirus sector, the Greek main defensive line was located at Elaia-Kalamas, some 30 km south of the Greek-Albanian border. On November 2, Italian forces launched air and artillery strikes on Greek positions, and by November 5, were able to establish a bridgehead over the Kalamas River. However, Greek defenses held despite repeated attempts to break through with infantry and light and medium tanks. The Italian offensive stalled as much as by the tenacity of the defenders and minefields as by the harsh hilly, rugged terrain and muddy ground caused by heavy rains.

(Taken from Greco-Italian War – Wars of the 20th Century – World War II in Europe)

On October 28, 1940, Italian forces in Albania, which were
massed at the Greek-Albanian border, opened their offensive along a 90-mile
(150 km) front in two sectors: in Epirus, which comprised the main attacking
force; and in western Macedonia, where the Italian forces were to hold their
ground and remain inside Albania.  A
third force was assigned to guard the Albania-Yugoslavia frontier.  The Italian offensive was launched in the
fall season, and would be expected to face extremely difficult weather
conditions in high-altitude mountain terrain, and be subject to snow, sleet,
icy rain, fog, and heavy cloud cover.  As
it turned out, the Italians were supplied only with summer clothing, and so
were unprepared for these conditions. 
The Italians also had planned to seize Corfu,
which was cancelled due to bad weather.

At the Epirus
sector, the Italians attacked along three points: at the coast for Konispol and
proceeding to the main targets of Igoumenitsa and Preveza; at the center of
Kalpaki; and in the Pindus Mountains separating Epirus
and western Macedonia,
towards Metsovo.  The coastal advance
made some progress, gaining 40 miles (60 km) in the first few days without
meeting serious resistance and seizing Igoumenitsa and Margariti.  The Italians soon were stalled at the Kalamas River, which was swollen and raging from
recent heavy rains.

Background In
April 1939, Italian forces invaded Albania (previous
article) in what Italian leader Benito Mussolini hoped would be the first
step to founding an Italian Empire (in the style of the ancient Roman Empire)
in southern Europe, which would be added to the colonies that he already
possessed in Africa (Italian East Africa and Libya). 

In September 1939, World War II broke out in Europe when Germany attacked Poland,
prompting Britain and France to declare war on Germany.  After an eight-month period of combat
inactivity in Europe (called the “Phoney War”), in April 1940, Germany launched the invasions to the north and
west, which ended in the defeat of France on June 25, 1940.  In July 1940, Hitler set his sights on
Britain, with the Luftwaffe (German Air Force) launching attacks (lasting until
May 1941) aimed at eliminating the last impediment to his full domination of
Western Europe. 

To Mussolini, France’s
defeat and Britain’s
desperate position seemed the perfect time to advance his ambitions in southern
Europe. 
Just as France was verging on defeat from the German onslaught, on June
10, 1940, in a brazen act of opportunism[1],
Mussolini entered World War II on Germany’s side by declaring war on France and
Britain, and sending Italian forces that attacked France through the
Italian-French border.  Then with Britain grimly fighting for its own survival
from the German air attacks (Battle of Britain, separate article), Mussolini set his sights on British possessions
in Africa, with Italian forces seizing British Somaliland in August 1940, and
advancing into Egypt from Libya
in September 1940.

Mussolini aspired to establish an Italian Empire that would control southern Europe, northern Africa, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Middle East.

At the same time, Mussolini was ready to build an Italian Empire, with
his attention focused on the Balkans which he saw as falling inside the Italian
sphere of influence.  He also longed to
gain mastery of the Mediterranean Sea in the Mare Nostrum (“Our Sea”) concept, and turn it into an
“Italian lake”.  He chafed at Italy’s geographical location in the middle of
the Mediterranean Sea, likening it to being
shut in and imprisoned by the British and French, who controlled much of the
surrounding regions and possessed more powerful navies.  Mussolini was determined to expand his own
navy and gain dominance over southern Europe and northern Africa, and
ultimately build an empire that would stretch from the Strait
of Gibraltar at the western tip of the
Mediterranean Sea to the Strait of Hormuz near the Persian
Gulf.

Meanwhile, Greece had
become alarmed by the Italian invasion of Albania.  Greek Prime Minister Ioannis Metaxas, who
ironically held fascist views and was pro-German, turned to Britain for assistance.  The British Royal Navy, which had bases in
many parts of the Mediterranean, including Gibraltar,
Malta, Cyprus, Egypt,
and Palestine, then made security stops in Crete and other Greek islands.

Italian-Greek relations, which were strained since the late 1920s by
Mussolini’s expansionist agenda, deteriorated further.  In 1940, Italy
initiated an anti-Greek propaganda campaign, which included the demand that the
Greek region of Epirus must
be ceded to Albania,
since it contained a large ethnic Albanian population.  The Epirus
claim was popular among Albanians, who offered their support for Mussolini’s
ambitions on Greece.  Mussolini accused Greece of being a British puppet,
citing the British naval presence in Greek ports and offshore waters.  In reality, he was alarmed that the British
Navy lurking nearby posed a direct threat to Italy
and hindered his plans to establish full control of the Adriatic and Ionian Seas.

Italy then launched
armed provocations against Greece,
which included several incidents in July-August 1940, where Italian planes
attacked Greek vessels at Kissamos, Gulf of Corinth, Nafpaktos, and Aegina.  On August
15, 1940, an undetected Italian submarine sank the Greek light cruiser Elli. 
Greek authorities found evidence that pointed to Italian responsibility
for the Elli sinking, but Prime
Minister Metaxas did not take any retaliatory action, as he wanted to avoid war
with Italy.

Also in August 1940, Mussolini gave secret orders to his military high
command to start preparations for an invasion of Greece.  But in a meeting with Hitler, Mussolini was
prevailed upon by the German leader to suspend the invasion in favor of the
Italian Army concentrating on defeating the British in North
Africa.  Hitler was
concerned that an Italian incursion in the Balkans would worsen the perennial
state of ethnic tensions in that region and perhaps prompt other major powers,
such as the Soviet Union or Britain,
to intervene there.  The Romanian oil
fields at Ploiesti, which were extremely vital
to Germany,
could then be threatened.  In August
1940, unbeknown to Mussolini, Hitler had secretly instructed the Germany military high command to draw up plans
for his greatest project of all, the conquest of the Soviet
Union.  And for this
monumental undertaking, Hitler wanted no distractions, including one in the
Balkans.  In the fall of 1940, Mussolini
deferred his attack on Greece,
and issued an order to demobilize 600,000 Italian troops.

Then on October 7, 1940, Hitler deployed German troops in Romania at the
request of the new pro-Nazi government led by Prime Minister Ion
Antonescu.  Mussolini, upon being
informed by Germany four
days later, was livid, as he believed that Romania fell inside his sphere of
influence.  More disconcerting for
Mussolini was that Hitler had again initiated a major action without first
notifying him.  Hitler had acted alone in
his conquests of Poland, Denmark, Norway,
France, and the Low Countries, and had given notice to the Italians only
after the fact.  Mussolini was determined
that Hitler’s latest stunt would be reciprocated with his own move against Greece.  Mussolini stated, “Hitler faces me with a
fait accompli.  This time I am going to
pay him back in his own coin. He will find out from the papers that I have
occupied Greece.
In this way, the equilibrium will be re-established.”

On October 13, 1940 and succeeding days, Mussolini finalized with his top
military commanders the immediate implementation of the invasion plan for
Greece, codenamed “Contingency G”, with Italian forces setting out from
Albania.  A modification was made, where
an initial force of six Italian divisions would attack the Epirus region, to be followed by
the arrival of more Italian troops.  The
combined forces would advance to Athens and
beyond, and capture the whole of Greece.  The modified plan was opposed by General
Pietro Badoglio, the Italian Chief of Staff, who insisted that the original
plan be carried out: a full-scale twenty-division invasion of Greece with Athens as the immediate objective.  Other factors cited by military officers who
were opposed to immediate invasion were the need for more preparation time, the
recent demobilization of 600,000 troops, and the inadequacy of Albanian ports
to meet the expected large volume of men and war supplies that would be brought
in from Italy.

But Mussolini would not be dissuaded. 
His decision to invade was greatly influenced by three officials:
Foreign Minister Count Galeazzo Ciano (who was also Mussolini’s son-in-law),
who stated that most Greeks detested their government and would not resist an
Italian invasion; the Italian Governor-General of Albania Francesco Jacomoni,
who told Mussolini that Albanians would support an Italian invasion in return
for Epirus being annexed to Albania; and the commander of Italian forces in
Albania General Sebastiano Prasca, who assured Mussolini that Italian troops in
Albania were sufficient to capture Epirus within two weeks.  These three men were motivated by the
potential rewards to their careers that an Italian victory would have; for
example, General Prasca, like most Italian officers, coveted being conferred
the rank of “Field Marshall”. 
Mussolini’s order for the invasion had the following objectives,
“Offensive in Epirus,
observation and pressure on Salonika, and in a second phase, march on Athens”.

On October 18, 1940, Mussolini asked King Boris II of Bulgaria to participate in a joint attack on Greece, but the monarch declined, since under
the Balkan Pact of 1934, other Balkan countries would intervene for Greece in a Bulgarian-Greek
war.  Deciding that its border with Bulgaria was secure from attack, the Greek
government transferred half of its forces defending the Bulgarian border to Albania;
as well, all Greek reserves were deployed to the Albanian front.  With these moves, by the start of the war,
Greek forces in Albania
outnumbered the attacking Italian Army.  Greece
also fortified its Albanian frontier. 
And because of Mussolini’s increased rhetoric and threats of attack, by
the time of the invasion, the Italians had lost the element of surprise.

[1] Mussolini had stated just five days earlier, on June 5, 1940,
“I only need a few thousand dead so that I can sit at the peace conference
as a man who has fought”.

November 7, 1941 – World War II: Joseph Stalin leads the October Revolution celebrations in the midst of the Battle of Moscow

On November 7, 1941, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin led the celebrations for the October Revolution in Moscow’s Red Square. In his speech, Stalin exhorted the parading soldiers as they were about to be sent to battle. Many of them would be killed in the fighting for Moscow. The event took place just as German forces were closing in on the Soviet capital.

In modern-day Russia, November 7th is celebrated as a Day of Military Honour in commemoration of the 1941 parade.

(Taken from Battle of Moscow – Wars of the 20th Century – World War II in Europe)

On October 2, 1941, shortly after the Kiev
campaign ended, on Hitler’s orders, the Wehrmacht launched its offensive on Moscow.  For this campaign, codenamed Operation
Typhoon, the Germans assembled an enormous force of 1.9 million troops, 48,000
artillery pieces, 1,400 planes, and 1,000 tanks, the latter involving three
Panzer Groups (now renamed Panzer Armies), the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th (the latter
taken from Army Group North).  A series
of spectacular victories followed: German 2nd Panzer Army, moving north from
Kiev, took Oryol on October 3 and Bryansk on October 6, trapping 2 Soviet
armies, while German 3rd and 4th Panzer Armies to the north conducted a pincers
attack around Vyazma, trapping 4 Soviet armies. 
The encircled Red Army forces resisted fiercely, requiring 28 divisions
of German Army Group Center and two weeks to eliminate the
pockets.  Some 500,000–600,000 Soviet
troops were captured, and the first of three lines of defenses on the approach
to Moscow had
been breached.  Hitler and the German
High Command by now were convinced that Moscow
would soon be captured, while in Berlin,
rumors abounded that German troops would be home by Christmas.

Some Red Army elements from the Bryansk-Vyazma sector
avoided encirclement and retreated to the two remaining defense lines near
Mozhaisk.  By now, the Soviet military
situation was critical, with only 90,000 troops and 150 tanks left to defend Moscow.  Stalin embarked on a massive campaign to
raise new armies and transfer formations from other sectors, and move large
amounts of weapons and military equipment to Moscow. 
Martial law was declared in the city, and on Stalin’s orders, the
civilian population was organized into work brigades to construct trenches and
anti-tank traps along Moscow’s
perimeter.  As well, consumer industries
in the capital were converted to support the war effort, e.g. an automobile plant
now produced light weapons, a clock factory made mine detonators, and machine
shops repaired tanks and military vehicles.

On October 15, 1941, on Stalin’s orders, the state
government, communist party leadership, and Soviet military high command
evacuated from Moscow, and established (temporary) headquarters at Kuibyshev
(present-day Samara).  Stalin and a small
core of officials remained in Moscow,
which somewhat calmed the civilian population that had panicked at the
government evacuation, and initially had also hastened to leave the capital.

On October 13, 1941, while mopping up operations continued
at the Bryansk-Vyazma sector, German armored units thrust into the Soviet
defense lines at Mozhaisk, breaking through after four days of fighting, and
taking Kalinin, Kaluga, and then Naro-Fominsk (October 21) and Volokolamsk
(October 27), with Soviet forces retreating to new lines behind the Nara
River.  The way to Moscow now appeared open.

In fact, Operation Typhoon was by now sputtering, with
German forces severely depleted and counting only 30% of operational motor
vehicles and 30-50% available troop strength in most units.  Furthermore, since nearly the start of
Operation Typhoon, the weather had deteriorated, with the seasonal cold rains
and wet snow turning the unpaved roads into a virtually impassable clayey
morass (a phenomenon known in Russia as “Rasputitsa”, literally, “time without
roads”) that brought German motorized and horse traffic to a standstill.  The stoppage in movement also prevented the delivery
to the frontlines of troop reinforcements, supplies, and munitions.  On October 31, 1941, with weather and road
conditions worsening, the German High Command stopped the advance, this pause
eventually lasting over two weeks, until November 15.  Temperatures also had begun to drop, and the
Germans were yet without winter clothing and winterization supplies for their
equipment, which also were caught up in the weather-induced logistical delay.

Meanwhile, in Moscow, Stalin and the Soviet High Command took
advantage of this crucial delay by hastily organizing 11 new armies and
transferring 30 divisions from Siberia (together with 1,000 tanks and 1,000
planes) for Moscow, the latter being made available following Soviet
intelligence information indicating that the Japanese did not intend to attack
the Soviet Far East.  By mid-November
1941, the Soviets had fortified three defensive lines around Moscow, set up artillery and ambush points
along the expected German routes of advance, and reinforced Soviet frontline
and reserve armies.  Ultimately, Soviet
forces in Moscow
would total 2 million troops, 3,200 tanks, 7,600 artillery pieces, and 1,400
planes.

On November 15, 1941, cold, dry weather returned, which
froze and hardened the ground, allowing the Wehrmacht to resume its
offensive.  For the final push to Moscow,
three panzer armies were tasked with executing a pincers movement: the 2nd in
the south, and the 3rd and 4th in the north, both pincer arms to link up at Noginsk,
40 miles east of Moscow.  Then with
Soviet forces diverted to protect the flanks, German 4th Army would attack from
the west directly into Moscow.

In the southern pincer, German 2nd Panzer Army had reached
the outskirts of Tula
as early as October 26, but was stopped by strong Soviet resistance as well as
supply shortages, bad weather, and destroyed roads and bridges.  On November 18, while still suffering from
logistical shortages, 2nd Panzer Army attacked toward Tula and made only slow progress, although it
captured Stalinogorsk on November 22.  In
late November 1941, a powerful Soviet counter-attack with two armies and
Siberian units inflicted a decisive defeat on German 2nd Panzer Army at
Kashira, which effectively stopped the southern advance.

To the north, German 3rd and 4th Panzer Armies made more
headway, taking Klin (November 24) and Solnechnogorsk (November 25), and on
November 28, crossed the Moscow-Volga Canal, to begin encirclement of the
capital from the north.  Wehrmacht troops
also reached Krasnaya Polyana and possibly also Khimki, 18 miles and 11 miles
from Moscow,
respectively, marking the farthest extent of the German advance and also where
German officers using binoculars were able to make out some of the city’s main
buildings.

With both pincers immobilized, on December 1, 1941, German
4th Army attacked from the west, but encountered the strong defensive lines
fronting Moscow,
and was repulsed.  Furthermore, by early
December 1941, snow blizzards prevailed and temperatures plummeted to –30°C
(–22°F) to –40°C (–40°F), and German
Army Group
Center, which was
fighting without winter clothing, suffered 130,000 casualties from
frostbite.  German tanks, trucks, and
weapons, still not winterized, suffered operational malfunctions in the wintery
conditions.  Furthermore, because of poor
weather prevailing throughout much of Operation Typhoon, the Luftwaffe, which
had proved decisive in earlier battles, had so far played virtually no part in
the Moscow
campaign.

The final German push for Moscow was undertaken with greatly depleted
resources in manpower and logistical support, but the German High Command had
hoped that one final fierce and determined attack might overcome the last enemy
resistance.  Then with the offensive
failing, the Germans turned to hold onto their positions, and correctly
assessed that the Soviet frontline forces were just as battered, but unaware
that large numbers of Red Army reserve armies were now in place and poised to
go on the offensive.

On December 6, 1941, Soviet forces comprising the Western,
Southwestern, and Kalinin Fronts, with estimates placing total troop strength
at 500,000 to 1.1 million, launched a powerful counter-attack that took the
Germans completely by surprise.  The
Soviets initially made slow progress, but soon recaptured Solnechnogorsk on December
12 and Klin on December 15, and with the German lines crumbling, nearly trapped
the German 2nd and 3rd Panzer Armies in separate encirclement maneuvers.

On December 8, 1941, Hitler ordered German forces to hold
their lines, but on December 14, General Franz Halder, head of the German Army
High Command, believing that the frontline could not be held, ordered a limited
withdrawal behind the Oka
River.  On December 20, a furious Hitler met with
frontline commanders and rescinded the withdrawal instruction, and ordered that
present lines be defended at all costs. 
A heated argument then ensued, with the generals pointing out the
battered conditions of the troops and that German casualties from the cold were
higher than those from actual combat.  On
December 25, Hitler dismissed forty high-ranking officers, including General
Heinz Guderian (2nd Panzer Army), General Erich Hoepner (4th Panzer Army), and
General Fedor von Bock (Army
Group Center),
the latter for “medical reasons”.  One
week earlier, Hitler had also fired General Walther von Brauchitsch,
Commander-in-Chief of the German Armed Forces, and took over for himself the
control of all German forces and all military decisions.

By late December 1941 to January 1942, the Red Army
counter-offensive was pushing back the Germans north, south, and west of
Moscow, with the Soviets retaking Naro-Fominsk (December 26), Kaluga (December
28), and Maloyaroslavets (January 10). 
But on January 7, 1942, the Red Army, soon experiencing manpower losses
and extended supply lines, and increasing German resistance, halted its
offensive, by then having driven back the Wehrmacht some 60-150 miles from Moscow.  The Luftwaffe, which thus far had been a
non-factor, took advantage of a break in the weather and took to the skies,
attacking Soviet positions and evacuating trapped German units, and proved
instrumental in averting the complete collapse of Army
Group Center,
which had established new defense lines, including a section, called the Rzhev
Salient, which potentially could threaten Moscow.

November 6, 1956 – Suez Crisis: Britain declares a unilateral ceasefire

On November 6, 1956, Britain,
without consulting its allies France and Israel, announced a unilateral
ceasefire, ending nine days of fighting in the Suez Crisis. The reasons for the
British sudden about-face in the midst of the fighting stem from both domestic
and international pressures.  In London and other British
cities, anti-war protests and demonstrations immediately broke out after the
war began.  The immense public support
for starting war against Egypt
after Nasser seized the Suez Canal had
subsided by the time of the invasion.

The Suez Crisis was a war between Egypt
against the alliance of Britain,
France, and Israel for control of the politically and
economically vital Suez Canal, a man-modified shipping channel that connects
the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea.

The Suez Crisis was a war between Egypt against the alliance of Britain, France, and Israel for control of the politically and economically vital Suez Canal, a man-modified shipping channel that connects the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea.

(Taken from Suez Crisis – Wars of the 20th Century – Volume 2)

Background The
Suez Canal in Egypt is a
man-made shipping waterway that connects the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian
Ocean via the Red Sea (Map 7).  The Suez Canal was completed by a French
engineering firm in 1869 and thereafter became the preferred shipping and trade
route between Europe and Asia, as it considerably
reduced the travel time and distance from the previous circuitous route around
the African continent.  Since 1875, the
facility was operated by an Anglo-French private conglomerate.  By the twentieth century, nearly two-thirds
of all oil tanker traffic to Europe passed through the Suez
Canal.

In the late 1940s, a wave of nationalism swept across Egypt,
leading to the overthrow of the ruling monarchy and the establishment of a
republic.  In 1951, intense public
pressure forced the Egyptian government to abolish the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of
1936, although the agreement was yet to expire in three years.

With the rise in power of the Egyptian nationalists led by
Gamal Abdel Nasser (who later became president in 1956), Britain agreed to withdraw its military forces
from Egypt
after both countries signed the Anglo-Egyptian Agreement of 1954.  The last British troops left Egypt
in June 1956.  Nevertheless, the
agreement allowed the British to use its existing military base located near
the Suez Canal for seven years and the possibility of its extension if Egypt
was attacked by a foreign power.  The
Anglo-Egyptian Agreement of 1954 and foreign control of the Suez Canal were
resented by many Egyptians, especially the nationalists, who believed that
their country was still under semi-colonial rule and not truly sovereign.

Furthermore, President Nasser was hostile to Israel,
which had dealt the Egyptian Army a crushing defeat in the 1948 Arab-Israeli
War.  President Nasser wanted to start
another war with Israel.  Conversely, the Israeli government believed
that Egypt was behind the
terrorist activities that were being carried out in Israel.  The Israelis also therefore were ready to go
to war against Egypt
to put an end to the terrorism.

Egypt and
Israel sought to increase
their weapons stockpiles through purchases from their main suppliers, the United States, Britain,
and France.  The three Western powers, however, had agreed
among themselves to make arms sales equally and only in limited quantities to Egypt and Israel, to prevent an arms race.

Friendly relations between Israel
and France,
however, were moving toward a military alliance.  By early 1955, France
was sending large quantities of weapons to Israel.  In Egypt,
President Nasser was indignant at the Americans’ conditions to sell him arms:
that the weapons were not to be used against Israel,
and that U.S. advisers were
to be allowed into Egypt.  President Nasser, therefore, approached the
Soviet Union, which agreed to support Egypt militarily.  In September 1955, large amounts of Soviet
weapons began to arrive in Egypt.

The United States
and Britain
were infuriated.  The Americans believed
that Egypt was falling under
the sphere of influence of the Soviet Union,
their Cold War enemy.  Adding to this
perception was that Egypt
recognized Red China.  Meanwhile, Britain
felt that its historical dominance in the Arab region was being
undermined.  The United States and Britain withdrew their earlier
promise to President Nasser to fund his ambitious project, the construction of
the massive Aswan Dam.

Egyptian troops then seized the Suez
Canal, which President Nasser immediately nationalized with the
purpose of using the profits from its operations to help build the Aswan
Dam.  President Nasser ordered the
Anglo-French firm operating the Suez Canal to leave; he also terminated the
firm’s contract, even though its 99-year lease with Egypt still was due to
expire in 12 years, in 1968.

The British and French governments were angered by Egypt’s seizure of the Suez
Canal.  A few days later, Britain and France
decided to take armed action: their military leaders met and began to prepare
for an invasion of Egypt.  In September 1956, France
and Israel also jointly
prepared for war against Egypt.

November 5, 1978 – Iranian Revolution: In a TV broadcast, the Shah of Iran acknowledges the ongoing revolution but disapproves of it

On November 5, 1978, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi acknowledged
in a nationwide broadcast the ongoing popular revolution taking place but says
that he disapproved of it. He also pledged to make amends for his mistakes and
work to restore democracy. The following day, he dismissed Prime Minister
Sharif-Emami, replacing him with General Gholam Reza Azhari, a moderate
military officer.  The Shah also arrested
and jailed 80 former government officials whom he believed had failed the
country and ultimately were responsible for the current unrest; the loss of his
staunchest supporters, however, further isolated the Shah.  Simultaneously, he also released hundreds of
opposition political prisoners.

(Taken from Iranian Revolution – Wars of the 20th Century – Volume 4)

Background Under
the Shah, Iran developed
close political, military, and economic ties with the United States, was firmly West-aligned and
anti-communist, and received military and economic aid, as well as purchased
vast amounts of weapons and military hardware from the United States.  The Shah built a powerful military, at its
peak the fifth largest in the world, not only as a deterrent against the Soviet
Union but just as important, as a counter against the Arab countries
(particularly Iraq), Iran’s traditional rival for supremacy in the Persian Gulf
region.  Local opposition and dissent
were stifled by SAVAK (Organization of Intelligence and National Security;
Persian: Sāzemān-e Ettelā’āt va Amniyat-e Keshvar), Iran’s CIA-trained intelligence and
security agency that was ruthlessly effective and transformed the country into
a police state.

Iran, the
world’s fourth largest oil producer, achieved phenomenal economic growth in the
1960s and 1970s and more particularly after the 1973 oil crisis when world oil
prices jumped four-fold, generating huge profits for Iran that allowed its government to
embark on massive infrastructure construction projects as well as social
programs such as health care and education. 
And in a country where society was both strongly traditionalist and
religious (99% of the population is Muslim), the Shah led a government that was
both secular and western-oriented, and implemented programs and policies that
sought to develop the country based on western technology and some aspects of
western culture.  Iran’s push to
westernize and secularize would be major factors in the coming revolution.  The initial signs of what ultimately became a
full-blown uprising took place sometime in 1977.

At the core of the Shiite form of Islam in Iran is the
ulama (Islamic scholars) led by ayatollahs (the top clerics) in a religious
hierarchy that includes other orders of preachers, prayer leaders, and cleric
authorities that administered the 9,000 mosques around the country.  Traditionally, the ulama was apolitical and
did not interfere with state policies, but occasionally offered counsel or its
opinions on government matters and policies.

In January 1963, the Shah launched sweeping major social and
economic reforms aimed at shedding off the country’s feudal, traditionalist
culture and to modernize society.  These
ambitious reforms, known as the “White Revolution”, included programs that
advanced health care and education, and the labor and business sectors.  The centerpiece of these reforms, however,
was agrarian reform, where the government broke up the vast agriculture
landholdings owned by the landed few and distributed the divided parcels to
landless peasants who formed the great majority of the rural population.  While land reform achieved some measure of
success with about 50% of peasants acquiring land, the program failed to win
over the rural population as the Shah intended; instead, the deeply religious
peasants remained loyal to the clergy. 
Agrarian reform also antagonized the clergy, as most clerics belonged to
wealthy landowning families who now were deprived of their lands.

Much of the clergy did not openly oppose these reforms,
except for some clerics in Qom
led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who in January 22, 1963 denounced the Shah
for implementing the White Revolution; this would mark the start of a long
antagonism that would culminate in the clash between secularism and religion
fifteen years later.  The clerics also
opposed other aspects of the White Revolution, including extending voting
rights to women and allowing non-Muslims to hold government office, as well as
because the reforms would reduce the cleric’s influence in education and family
law.  The Shah responded to Ayatollah
Khomeini’s attacks by rebuking the religious establishment as being old-fashioned
and inward-looking, which drew outrage from even moderate clerics.  Then on June 3, 1963, Ayatollah Khomeini
launched personal attacks on the Shah, calling the latter “a wretched,
miserable man” and likening the monarch to the “tyrant” Yazid I (an Islamic
caliph of the 7th century).  The
government responded two days later, on June 5, 1963, by arresting and jailing
the cleric.

Ayatollah Khomeini’s arrest sparked strong protests that
degenerated into riots in Tehran, Qom, Shiraz,
and other cities.  By the third day, the
violence had been quelled, but not before a disputed number of protesters were
killed, i.e. government cites 32 fatalities, the opposition gives 15,000, and
other sources indicate hundreds.

Ayatollah Khomeini was released a few months later.  Then on October 26, 1964, he again denounced
the government, this time for the Iranian parliament’s recent approval of the
so-called “Capitulation” Bill, which stipulated that U.S.
military and civilian personnel in Iran, if charged with committing criminal
offenses, could not be prosecuted in Iranian courts.  To Ayatollah Khomeini, the law was evidence
that the Shah and the Iranian government were subservient to the United States.  The ayatollah again was arrested and
imprisoned; government and military leaders deliberated on his fate, which
included execution (but rejected out of concerns that it might incite more
unrest), and finally decided to exile the cleric.  In November 1964, Ayatollah Khomeini was
forced to leave the country; he eventually settled in Najaf, Iraq,
where he lived for the next 14 years.

While in exile, the cleric refined his absolutist version of
the Islamic concept of the “Wilayat al Faqih” (Guardianship of the
Jurisprudent), which stipulates that an Islamic country’s highest spiritual and
political authority must rest with the best-qualified member (jurisprudent) of
the Shiite clergy, who imposes Sharia (Islamic) Law and ensures that state
policies and decrees conform with this law. 
The cleric formerly had accepted the Shah and the monarchy in the
original concept of Wilayat al Faqih; later, however, he viewed all forms of
royalty incompatible with Islamic rule. 
In fact, the ayatollah would later reject all other (European) forms of
government, specifically citing democracy and communism, and famously declared
that an Islamic government is “neither east nor west”.

Ayatollah Khomeini’s political vision of clerical rule was
disseminated in religious circles and mosques throughout Iran from audio
recordings that were smuggled into the country by his followers and which was
tolerated or largely ignored by Iranian government authorities.  In the later years of his exile, however, the
cleric had become somewhat forgotten in Iran, particularly among the
younger age groups.

Meanwhile in Iran,
the Shah continued to carry out secular programs that alienated most of the
population.  In October 1971, to
commemorate 25 centuries since the founding of the Persian Empire, the Shah
organized a lavish program of activities in Persepolis, capital of the First Persian
Empire.  Then in March 1976, the Shah
announced that Iran
henceforth would adopt the “imperial” calendar (based on the reign of Persian
king Cyrus the Great) to replace the Islamic calendar.  These acts, considered anti-Islamic by the clergy
and many Iranians, would form part of the anti-royalist backlash in the coming
revolution.

November 3, 1969 – Vietnam War: President Nixon delivers his “silent majority” speech

On November 3, 1969, U.S. President Richard Nixon addressed the nation on television and radio in what became known as the “silent majority” speech. In his address, Nixon stated “…to you, the great silent majority of my fellow Americans—I ask for your support”, in reference to the ongoing Vietnam War. Nixon was continuing his predecessor President Lyndon B. Johnson’s program of “Vietnamization”, that is, gradual American disengagement from the war, with the South Vietnamese military gradually taking over the fighting after a period of being built up. During his campaign for president, Nixon had stated that he had a “secret plan” to end the war, which anti-war advocates believed was a quick end of American involvement in Vietnam. But once in office, Nixon continued with the United States being involved in the war, stating that a sudden withdrawal “would result in a collapse of confidence in American leadership”, and that “a nation cannot remain great if it betrays its allies and lets down its friends”.

In October 1969, protesters staged a giant rally in Washington, D.C., prompting President Nixon to address the nation on November 3 with his “silent majority” speech. In it, he stated that the United States must continue with gradual disengagement from the war to achieve “peace with honor”. He concluded by appealing to the “great silent majority” for support. A White House official later stated that “silent majority” refers to “a large and normally undemonstrative cross-section of the country that…refrained from articulating its opinions on the war”. Nixon also said that he would not be “dictated by a minority staging demonstrations in the streets”.

Southeast Asia during the 1960s

(Taken from Vietnam War – Wars of the 20th Century – Twenty Wars in Asia)

Nixon and the Vietnam
War In 1969, newly elected U.S.
president, Richard Nixon, who took office in January of that year, continued
with the previous government’s policy of American disengagement and phased
troop withdrawal from Vietnam,
while simultaneously expanding Vietnamization, with U.S. military advice and material
support.  He also was determined to
achieve his election campaign promise of securing a peace settlement with North Vietnam under the Paris
peace talks, ironically through the use of force, if North Vietnam refused to negotiate.

In February 1969, the Viet Cong again launched a large-scale
Tet-like coordinated offensive across South Vietnam, attacking villages,
towns, and cities, and American bases. 
Two weeks later, the Viet Cong launched another offensive.  Because of these attacks, in March 1968, on
President Nixon’s orders, U.S.
planes, including B-52 bombers, attacked Viet Cong/North Vietnamese bases in
eastern Cambodia
(along the Ho Chi Minh Trail).  This
bombing campaign, codenamed Operation Menu, lasted 14 months (until May 1970),
and segued into Operation Freedom Deal (May 1970-August 1973), with the latter
targeting a wider insurgent-held territory in eastern Cambodia.

In the 1954 Geneva Accords, Cambodia had declared its
neutrality in regional conflicts, a policy it maintained in the early years of
the Vietnam War.  However, by the early
1960s, Cambodia’s reigning
monarch, Norodom Sihanouk, came under great pressure by the escalating war in Vietnam, and especially after 1963, when North
Vietnamese forces occupied sections of eastern Cambodia
as part of the Ho Chi Minh Trail system to South Vietnam.  Then in the mid-1960s, Sihanouk signed
security agreements with China
and North Vietnam, where in
exchange for receiving economic incentives, he acquiesced to the North
Vietnamese occupation of eastern Cambodia.  He also allowed the use of the port of Sihanoukville
(located in southern Cambodia)
for shipments from communist countries for the Viet Cong/NLF through a newly
opened land route across Cambodia.  This new route, called the Sihanouk Trail
(Figure 5) by the Western media, became a major alternative logistical system
by North Vietnam
during the period of intense American air operations over the Laotian side of
the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

In July 1968, under strong local and regional pressures,
Sihanouk re-opened diplomatic relations with the United States, and his government
swung to being pro-West.  However, in March
1970, he was overthrown in a coup, and a hard-line pro-U.S. government under
President Lon Nol abolished the monarchy and restructured the country as the Khmer Republic. 
For Cambodia, the
spill-over of the Vietnam War into its territory would have disastrous
consequences, as the fledging communist Khmer Rouge insurgents would soon
obtain large North Vietnamese support that would plunge Cambodia into a full-scale civil
war.  For the United States (and South
Vietnam), the pro-U.S. Lon Nol government served as a green light for American
(and South Vietnamese) forces to conduct military operations in Cambodia.

The U.S.
bombing operations on Viet Cong/North Vietnamese bases in eastern Cambodia forced North
Vietnam to increase its military presence in other parts
of Cambodia.  The North Vietnamese Army seized control
particularly of northeastern Cambodia,
where its forces defeated and expelled the Cambodian Army.  Then in response to the Cambodian
government’s request for military assistance, starting in late April to early
May 1970, American and South Vietnamese forces launched a major ground
offensive into eastern Cambodia.  The main U.S. objective was to clear the
region of the North Vietnamese/Viet Cong in order to allow the planned American
disengagement from the Vietnam War to proceed smoothly and on schedule.  The offensive 
also served as a gauge of the progress of Vietnamization, particularly
the performance of the South Vietnamese Army in large-scale operations.

In the nearly three-month successful operation (known as the
Cambodian Campaign) which lasted until July 1970, American and South Vietnamese
forces, which at their peak numbered over 100,000 troops, uncovered several
abandoned major Viet Cong/North Vietnamese bases and dozens of underground storage
bunkers containing huge quantities of materiel and supplies.  In all, American and South Vietnamese troops
captured over 20,000 weapons, 6,000 tons of rice, 1,800 tons of ammunition, 29
tons of communications equipment, over 400 vehicles, and 55 tons of medical
supplies.  Some 10,000 Viet Cong/North
Vietnamese were killed in the fighting, although the majority of their forces
(some 40,000) fled deeper into Cambodia.  However, the campaign failed to achieve one
of its objectives: capturing the Viet Cong/NLF leadership COSVN (Central Office
for South Vietnam).  The Nixon administration also came under
domestic political pressure: in December 1970, and U.S. Congress passed a law
that prohibited U.S. ground forces from engaging in combat inside Cambodia and Laos.

Before the Cambodian Campaign began, President Nixon had
announced in a nationwide broadcast that he had committed U.S. ground troops to the
operation.  Within days, large
demonstrations of up to 100,000 to 150,000 protesters broke out in the United States,
with the unrest again centered in universities and colleges.  On May 4, 1970, at Kent State University, Ohio,
National Guardsmen opened fire on a crowd of protesters, killing four people
and wounding eight others.  This incident
sparked even wider, increasingly militant and violent protests across the
country.  Anti-war sentiment already was
intense in the United States
following news reports in November 1969 of what became known as the My Lai
Massacre, where U.S. troops
on a search and destroy mission descended on My Lai
and My Khe villages and killed between 347 and 504 civilians, including women
and children.

American public outrage further was fueled when in June
1971, the New York Times began publishing the “Pentagon Papers” (officially
titled: United States
– Vietnam Relations, 1945–1967: A Study Prepared by the Department of Defense),
a highly classified study by the U.S. Department of Defense that was leaked to
the press.  The Pentagon Papers showed
that successive past administrations, including those of Presidents Truman,
Eisenhower, and Kennedy, but especially of President Johnson, had many times
misled the American people regarding U.S.
involvement in Vietnam.  President Nixon sought legal grounds to stop
the document’s publication for national security reasons, but the U.S. Supreme
Court subsequently decided in favor of the New York Times and publication
continued, and which was also later taken up by the Washington Post and other
newspapers.

As in Cambodia,
the U.S. high command had
long desired to launch an offensive into Laos to cut off the logistical
portion of the Ho Chi Minh Trail system located there.  But restrained by Laos’ official neutrality,
the U.S. military instead carried out secret bombing campaigns in eastern Laos
and intelligence gathering operations (the latter conducted by the top-secret
Military Assistance Command, Vietnam – Studies and Observations Group, MACV-SOG
that involved units from Special Forces, Navy SEALS, U.S. Marines, U.S. Air
Force, and CIA) there.

The success of the Cambodian Campaign encouraged President
Nixon to authorize a similar ground operation into Laos.  But as U.S. Congress had prohibited American
ground troops from entering Laos,
South Vietnamese forces would launch the offensive into Laos with the objective of destroying the Ho Chi
Minh Trail, with U.S. forces
only playing a supporting role (and remaining within the confines of South Vietnam).  The operation also would gauge the combat
capability of the South Vietnamese Army in the ongoing Vietnamization program.

November 2, 1949 – The Netherlands and Indonesian revolutionary government establish the United States of Indonesia

Indonesia in Southeast Asia. During its colonial period, Indonesia was known as the Dutch East Indies.

(Taken from Indonesian War of Independence – Wars of the 20th Century – Twenty Wars in Asia)

By late 1946, the British military had completed its mission in the Dutch East Indies (present-day Indonesia), that of repatriating Japanese forces to Japan and freeing the Allied prisoners of war following the end of World War II.  By December 1946, British forces had departed from the islands, but not before setting up mediation talks between the Dutch government (which wanted to restore colonial rule) and the Indonesian revolutionaries (which desired independence), an initiative that led the two sides to agree to a ceasefire in October 1946.  Earlier in June 1946, the Dutch government and representatives of ethnic and religious groups and the aristocracy from Sulawesi, Maluku, West New Guinea, and other eastern states met in South Sulawesi and agreed to form a federal-type government attached to the Netherlands.  In talks held with the Indonesian revolutionaries, Dutch authorities presented a similar proposal which on November 12, 1946, produced the Linggadjati Agreement, where the two sides agreed to establish a federal system known as the United States of Indonesia (USI) by January 1, 1949.  The Republic of Indonesia (consisting of Java, Madura, and Sumatra) would comprise one state under USI; in turn, USI and the Netherlands would form the Netherlands-Indonesian Union, with each polity being a fully sovereign state but under the symbolic authority of the Dutch monarchy.

This Agreement met strong opposition in the Indonesian
government but eventually was ratified in February 1947 with strong pressure
for its passage being exerted by Sukarno and Hatta.  In December 1946 in South
Sulawesi, Pemuda fighters who opposed the agreement restarted
hostilities.  Dutch forces, led by
Captain Raymond Westerling, used brutal methods to quell the rebellion, killing
some 3,000 Pemuda fighters.  The
Agreement also was resisted in the Netherlands, but in March 1947, a
modified version was passed in the House of Representatives of the Dutch
parliament.

Then in July 1947, declaring that the Indonesian government
did not fully comply with the Agreement, Dutch forces launched Operation
Product, a military offensive (which the Dutch government called a “police
action”) in Java and Sumatra, seizing control of the vital economic regions,
including sugar-producing areas in Java, and the rubber plantations in Medan,
and petroleum and coal facilities in Palembang and Padang.  Dutch ships also imposed a naval blockade of
the ports, restricting the Indonesian
Republic’s economic
capacity.

In early 1947, acting on the diplomatic initiative of India and Australia, the United Nations
Security Council (UNSC) released Resolution 27, which called on the two sides
to stop fighting and enter into peaceful negotiations.  On August 5, 1947, a ceasefire came into
effect. A stipulation in Resolution 27 established the Committee of Good Office
(CGO), a three-person body consisting of representatives, one named by the Netherlands, another by Indonesia, and
a third, mutually agreed by both sides. 
In subsequent negotiations, the two sides agreed to form the Van Mook
Line to delineate their respective areas of control which, because of the
fighting, the Dutch-held territories in Java and Sumatra increased, while those
of the Indonesian
Republic decreased.

In January 1948, the two sides signed the Renville Agreement
(named after the USS Renville, a U.S. Navy ship where the negotiations were
held), which confirmed their respective territories in the Van Mook Line, and
in the Dutch-held areas, a referendum would be held to decide whether the
residents there wanted to be under Indonesian or Dutch control.  Furthermore, in exchange for Indonesian
forces withdrawing from Dutch-held areas as stipulated in the Van Mook Line,
the Dutch Navy would end its blockade of the ports.

The Indonesian Republic, already weakened politically and
militarily, was undermined further when its Islamic supporters in now
Dutch-controlled West Java objected to the Renville Agreement and broke away to
form Darul Islam (“Islamic State”), with the ultimate aim of turning Indonesia
into an Islamic country.  It opposed both
the Indonesian government and Dutch colonial authorities.  Darul Islam subsequently would be defeated
only in 1962, some 13 years after the war had ended.

The Indonesian Republic also faced opposition from its other
erstwhile allies, the communists (of the Indonesian Communist Party) and the
socialists (of the Indonesian Socialist Party), who in September 1948, seceded
and formed the “Indonesian Soviet Republic”
in Madiun, East Java.  Fighting in September-October and continuing
until December 1948 eventually led to the Indonesian Republic
quelling the Madiun uprising, with tens of thousands of communists killed or
imprisoned and their leaders executed or forced into exile.  Furthermore, the Indonesian Army itself was
plagued with internal problems, because the government, suffering from acute
financial difficulties and unable to pay the soldiers’ salaries, had disbanded
a number of military units.

With the Indonesian revolutionary government experiencing
internal problems, on December 19, 1948, Dutch forces launched Operation Kraai
(“Operation Crow”), another “police action” on the contention that Indonesian
guerillas had infiltrated the Van Mook Line and were carrying out subversive
actions inside Dutch-held areas in violation of the Renville Agreement.  Operation Kraai caught the revolutionaries
off guard, forcing the Indonesian Army to retreat to the countryside to avoid
being annihilated.  As a result, Dutch
forces captured large sections of Indonesian-held areas, including the
Republic’s capital, Yogyakarta.  Sukarno, Hatta, and other Republican leaders
were captured without resistance and exiled, this action being deliberate on
their part, as they believed that this latest aggression by the Dutch military
would be condemned by the international community.  Before allowing himself to be captured,
Sukarno activated a clandestine “emergency government” in West
Sumatra (to act as a caretaker government), which he had arranged
beforehand as a contingency measure.

On December 24, 1948, the UNSC passed Resolution 63 which
demanded the end of hostilities and the immediate release of Sukarno and other
Indonesian leaders.  Also by this time,
the international media had taken hold of the conflict.  The United
States also exerted pressure on the Dutch government,
threatening to cut off Marshall Plan aid for the Netherlands’ post-World War II
reconstruction.  Operation Kraii also
generated division within USI as the Cabinets of Dutch-controlled states of East Indonesia and Pasundan resigned in protest of the
Dutch military actions. As a result of these pressures, a ceasefire was agreed
by the two sides, which came into effect in Java (on December 31, 1948) and Sumatra (on January 5, 1949).

November 1, 1922 – The new nation of Turkey abolishes the Ottoman Sultanate

On October 29, 1923, the Republic of Turkey was established with Ankara as its capital and Mustafa Kemal as first president. This followed the successful Turkish War of Independence. One year earlier, on November 1, 1922, the Grand National Assembly (the Turkish national parliament), abolished the Ottoman Sultanate, forcing the Sultan Mehmed VI to abdicate and leave for exile abroad. The Ottoman Empire ended, and 600 years of Ottoman dynastic rule came to an end. In March 1924, the Caliphate was abolished, and Turkey transitioned into a secular, democratic state, which it is to this day.

The Ottoman Empire at its peak territorial extent

(Taken from The Ottoman Empire – Wars of the 20th Century – Volume 3)

History The imperial Islamic power known as the Ottoman Empire has its origin as one of many semi-independent Turkish tribal states (called beyliks) that formed during the breakdown and collapse of the Seljuk Turkish Empire.  Founded by Osman I (whose name was anglicized to Ottoman and from whom the empire derived its name), the Ottoman beylik achieved sovereignty from the Seljuk Sultanate in 1299.  With the influx of large numbers of Ghazi warriors (both Muslims and Christians) into his beylik, Osman built an army hoping to expand his domain at the expense of the tottering Byzantine Empire* situated to the west of his beylik.

In 1324, the Ottomans captured Bursa,
where they established their new capital; Bursa’s
fall also ended the Byzantine Empire’s presence in Anatolia.  On Osman’s death in 1326, the succession of
Ottoman rulers, first by Osman’s son Orhan, continued to expand the emerging
empire.  In 1387, Thessalonica was taken,
marking the Ottomans’ first entry into Europe
(via the southeast), a presence that would last, except for a brief pause, for
six centuries.  Further expansion into
Balkan Europe continued during the second half of the 1300s with the defeats of
the Serbian and Bulgarian empires, and annexation of sections of what comprise
modern-day Serbia, Bulgaria, Macedonia,
and Albania.

In 1402, Ottoman power was briefly eclipsed when Tamerlane,
the Turkic-Mongol conqueror, invaded Anatolia.  Bayezid, the Ottoman ruler, was captured by
Tamerlane in battle, starting a turbulent period in the Ottoman court known as
the Ottoman Interregnum.  After an
eleven-year power struggle among Bayezid’s sons for succession to the throne,
Mehmed I prevailed and became the new sultan. 
With its leadership crisis resolved, the Ottomans resumed their campaign
in Europe, recapturing parts of the Balkans
that had been lost during the interregnum.

By the mid-fifteenth century, Constantinople, the Byzantine Empire’s capital, had been surrounded by
Ottoman territories.  In early April
1453, the Ottomans launched an attack on the city, starting a six-week siege on
the nearly impregnable fortress that was protected by two layers of defensive
stone walls.  On May 29, 1453, the walls
were breached, and Constantinople fell.  The Ottomans then moved their capital to Constantinople.

Constantinople’s fall sent shock waves across Western Europe, which at that time was made up of many
small rival Christian kingdoms, duchies, and principalities, and which all
feared falling under Muslim rule.  The
Ottomans advanced further into Europe with the invasion of lands that comprise
present-day Bulgaria, Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina,
Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro,
and Albania.  Other conquests also were made in parts of
modern-day Hungary and Romania.  The invasion of Greece
began with the capture of Athens
in 1458; by the end of the century, most of the Greek mainland had been
taken.  By the first quarter of the
sixteenth century, nearly all of the Balkans and some sections of eastern and
central Europe were under Ottoman
control.  However, two attempts (in 1529
and 1532) to take Vienna failed, which were
resisted by the combined forces of the Habsburg monarchy of Austria and its Christian allies.

Under the rule of Suleiman the Magnificent, the Ottomans
reached the height of their power.  In
Anatolia, other Turkish beyliks were defeated, making the Ottoman Sultan the
master of Asia Minor.  Suleiman’s forces also advanced into western
Asia and northern Africa, incorporating more
territories to those previously won under the previous rulers, Mehmed II and
Selim I.  In the east, Mesopotamia
(present-day Iraq) also was
taken, while in the south, the Ottomans advanced into the Arabian
Peninsula.

            Ottoman
expansion continued up to the mid-seventeenth century.  By then, the empire extended from Baghdad to Algeria
and from the Caucasus to eastern Europe.  The Ottomans owed much of their military
success to their Janissary Army, an elite corps made up of professional
soldiers.  At its peak and like the
Byzantine Empire before it, the Ottoman Empire was the wealthiest state in
Europe, since its strategically located capital of Constantinople allowed the
Ottomans to control the main trade routes of the Silk Road that connected
Europe and Asia.  Furthermore, peace prevailed in conquered
lands, as the Ottoman Empire did not carry out
forced conversion to Islam, but allowed its subjects to freely practice their
own faiths.  As well as diversity in
religion, the empire also contained many ethnicities, cultures, and languages,
an aspect that ultimately would contribute to the Ottomans’ fall.

In May 1683, a major Ottoman offensive in Vienna was defeated by the Holy League, an
alliance of the Habsburg, German, and Polish forces.  This defeat marked the farthest extent of the
Ottoman advance into Europe and the start of
the empire’s decline.

Then in the 1600s onward, Western
Europe made rapid advances in the development of science and
technology, leading to the production of stronger weapons.  The West also became wealthy; starting in
1498 when the Portuguese discovered the sea route to Asia, the Ottoman Empire’s monopoly on the Silk trade ended.  Furthermore, Europe’s discovery and
development of the New World brought enormous
riches to the emerging Western European empires.

At the same time, the Ottoman Empire
experienced a long period of stagnation, where its economy floundered,
bureaucratic corruption prevailed, and a rising inward-looking, Islam-centered
element in government resisted the demands to carry out reforms.

Then, wars in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
against the Austrian Empire, and especially against the rising Russian Empire,
revealed for the first time, the weakening Ottoman power.  In the Crimean War of 1853-1856, British and
French forces intervened to prevent the Russians from seizing large parts of
Ottoman territory, including Constantinople
itself.

Then after its defeat in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878,
the Ottoman Empire was forced to allow Romania,
Serbia, and Montenegro to achieve their independences, while
Bulgaria,
though remaining under Ottoman rule, became de facto sovereign with its own
government.  Some fifty years earlier, in
1832, Greece
had won its own war of independence, which ended four centuries of Ottoman rule.  By the 1800s, the Ottoman Empire was referred
to disparagingly as the “sick man of Europe”,
since it was unable to defend its territories against attacks by European
powers.

The Ottoman demise came following World War I, where the Ottoman Empire emerged as a spent power after throwing
its support behind the Central Powers, which likewise was defeated in the
war.  As a result, the Ottoman
Empire lost all its remaining colonies and was itself partitioned
by the victorious Allied Powers.  Turkish
nationalists, led by Mustafa Kemal (whose surname “Ataturk” was added later),
then emerged and began the Turkish War of Independence (separate article),
which established the modern state of Turkey, consisting of the Turkish
heartland of Anatolia as well as eastern Thrace, a sliver of land in the
European mainland.

October 31, 1941 – World War II: A U.S. destroyer is sunk by a German U-boat torpedo near Iceland, killing 100 sailors

On October 31, 1941, the U.S. Navy destroyer, USS Reuben James, was sunk after being struck by a torpedo from the German U-boat U-552 near Iceland.  Of the 144 crew comprising 7 officers, 136 sailors and 1 passenger, 100 were killed and 44 rescued.

At this point in World War II, the United States was still officially a non-belligerent, but effectively sympathetic to the side of the Allies. The American destroyer was part of the force escorting the convoys carrying war materials to Iceland, with Great Britain as their final destination. The American force protected the convoys to Iceland, after which escort security passed on to the British Navy.

(Taken from Wars of the 20th Century – World War II in Europe)

The United States enters World War II At the
outbreak of World War II, the isolationist United States declared its
neutrality based on the U.S. Neutrality Act of 1937.  However, the U.S. government, led by
President Franklin D. Roosevelt, was greatly alarmed by Hitler’s increasingly
belligerent foreign policy, and with its sympathy turned toward the European
democracies, it had provided the 1937 Neutrality Act with a stipulation that
the United States could sell weapons to hostile nations on a “cash and carry”
basis, i.e. that the purchaser pay for the munitions in cash and transport them
at its own expense and risk.  This
provision was intended to benefit Britain
and France,
as their powerful navies dominated the seas. 
In November 1939, the United
States re-affirmed its neutrality, again
with the “cash and carry” provision that favored the Allies.  In June 1940, with the defeat of France, and Britain
losing much of its military equipment at Dunkirk,
President Roosevelt approved the sale of thousands of old U.S. Army rifles and
tons of ammunition to Britain.  Also, as the British Navy had lost many ships
in the campaigns in Norway and France, and in the defense of the English
coasts, in September 1940, the U.S. and British governments signed the
“Destroyers for Bases” Agreement, where the United States transferred fifty old
destroyers to Britain in exchange for the British granting to the United States
99-year leases to military bases in the Caribbean.  As well, the U.S.
military was granted base rights in Newfoundland
(in Canada) and Bermuda.

In a major act that moved the United States away from its
nominal neutrality, March 1941, the U.S. government approved the Lend-Lease
Act, where the United States could give weapons and other defense materials
free of charge to “any country whose defense the [U.S.] President deems vital
to the defense of the U.S.”  Armaments,
food, and funds soon arrived in Britain
(and China, and later, the Soviet Union).  The
next month, April 1941, the Pan-American Security Zone (established in October
1939) was extended to 22° longitude to just west of Iceland.  In June 1941, following the U-boat sinking of
the American vessel, the SS Robin Moor (its crew and passengers were allowed to
board lifeboats beforehand), the U.S. government froze German assets in the
United States, and ordered Germany (and Italy) to close their consulates,
except their embassies.

Finally, on December 8, 1941, the United
States entered World War II by declaring war on Japan following the attack on Pearl
Harbor.  Three days later,
December 11, Germany (and Italy) declared war on the United States; that same day, the latter
declared war on Germany (and
Italy).

The United States in the Battle
of the Atlantic At the outset, the United States was unprepared to
confront the U-boat threat, despite being able to draw on the British
experience and itself having faced many hostile encounters with U-boats.  The U.S. Navy ignored British Navy
recommendations to impose a blackout of coastal areas, or that merchant ships
travel in convoys, or that ships avoid regular maritime routes, and that
lighthouses and other navigational aids be deactivated.

What ensued was the German U-boat fleet’s  (second) “Happy Time” from January to June
1942, where for the loss of only 22 U-boats, the Allies lost 1,000 lives and
609 ships (9.1 million tons), comprising 25% of all Allied number of ships lost
in World War II.  This episode in the
Atlantic struggle was particularly tragic, as the U.S. Navy’s apparent disregard
to implement war-time measures allowed the U-boats to attack with near
impunity, most notably by using the nighttime silhouette of the docked merchant
ships against the backdrop of the bright city lights to torpedo the
vessels.  Admiral Ernest King, commander
in chief of the U.S. Fleet, received criticism for not implementing the convoy
system, which British experience had shown was less vulnerable to U-boat
attacks than individual ships traveling alone. 
As well, he was blamed for the feeble naval defense of the American
eastern seaboard, although at the outbreak of war, the U.S. Navy was severely
overstretched, engaging in naval operations in Asia
and providing convoy escort for Atlantic convoys.  Also, the sale of 50 destroyers to Britain
weakened U.S. naval strength, and the U.S. Eastern Sea Frontier, tasked to
safeguard the East Coast, possessed obsolete vessels, including two
1905-vintage gunboats, three 1919-era patrol boats, four converted yachts, and
four wooden submarines.

By May 1942, the U.S. Navy had assembled enough ships for
convoy protection and coastal defenses. 
In June 1942, the convoy system was extended to the Gulf of Mexico and
the Caribbean, which had seen a rise in U-boat
activity.  Other British recommendations,
such as a coastal blackout, were enforced. 
In July 1940, a fleet of British trawlers, refitted for anti-submarine
warfare, arrived in the United States and were manned with British Royal Navy
crews, to assist in convoy escort.  By
August 1942, with the Western Hemisphere Atlantic coast bristling with naval
defenses, Allied merchant losses dropped considerably, and the withdrawal of
U-boats from the American continental coastline marked the end of the Second
Happy Time.

The second half of 1942 marked the return of the U-boats to
the Atlantic, with wolf pack attacks concentrated
along the mid-Atlantic air gap.  During
this period, 575 merchant ships were sunk. 
Starting in November 1942, the Allies introduced many strategic and
technological innovations that would finally turn the fortunes of the battle
away from the Germans.  Aside from
escorts that remained with the convoys, naval “support groups” were deployed,
which patrolled known wolf pack haunts and were tasked mainly to hunt down and
destroy U-boats.  Ahead-throwing weapons,
such as the “hedgehog” and “squid”, were introduced against submerged U-boats,
which had one vital advantage over the traditional depth charges in that these
new weapons, when fired, allowed the ASDIC to maintain contact with the
U-boat.  The British success rate of 1.6%
using depth charges rose to 17.5% using hedgehog and squid.

The “mid-Atlantic air gap” was finally closed with the
long-range B-24 Liberator anti-submarine bombers.  As well, Allied planes were equipped with
very sensitive centimetric radars, (replacing the metric radars), which could
detect surfaced U-boat towers and even periscopes from long distances.  A powerful spotlight, called a Leigh Light,
worked at night in conjunction with the new radar: as the Allied plane
approached its target, the Leigh Light, responding to radar tracking,
automatically turned on and pointed at the surfaced U-boat, which was then
destroyed with the plane’s weapons.

Furthermore, merchant aircraft carriers (MAC ships) and U.S. escort carriers appeared in greater numbers
and patrolled the whole range of the Atlantic,
and together with their modern fighter planes equipped with powerful radars and
anti-submarine weapons, made U-boat operations extremely difficult and
dangerous.  Direct convoy protection also
increased substantially, as large numbers of American destroyer escorts (aka
frigates) were introduced, largely replacing the less effective corvettes.  Also in October 1942, British intelligence
broke the code of the German Navy’s new Enigma network, TRITON, following the
retrieval of codebooks and key settings of the advanced M4 Enigma machine from
a captured U-boat at Port Said,
Egypt.

These new Allied measures did not become apparent
immediately, and for a time, the British actually seemed headed for
defeat.  Following a lull in fighting
during the winter, in March 1943, Admiral Donitz, now commander-in-chief of the
Kriegsmarine, confident of victory, unleashed virtually the whole U-boat fleet
in the Atlantic.  Spectacular success was achieved, with wolf
packs sinking over 80 Allied merchant ships in the Atlantic, this high loss
causing supplies in Britain
to fall and so alarming Churchill that he considered ending the convoy
system.  But in April 1943, the new
Allied anti-submarine measures from the previous months began to take effect:
15 U-boats were sunk for a loss of 39 merchant ships.  Then in May 1943, in what is known as “Black
May”, the German Navy lost a catastrophic 43 U-boats against 34 merchant ships
in the Atlantic (58 worldwide).  Admiral Donitz suspended all operations in
the Atlantic, admitting that the war in the Atlantic
was lost.

In the ensuing period until the end of the European war in
May 1945, the Kriegsmarine introduced several technological measures to try and
wrest back the initiative in the Atlantic.  U-boats were equipped with improved radar
warning systems, two types of modern torpedoes were developed: the acoustic
torpedo that homed in on the enemy ship’s propeller and the FAT
(Flächen-Absuch-Torpedo) that moved in a criss-cross pattern inside a convoy
until it hit a ship; and sonar decoys that were launched from U-boats to
generate false ASDIC readings.  A small
number of U-boats were modified as Flak Boats, which used their greater
anti-aircraft firepower to engage (rather than avoid by submerging) enemy
aircraft. The German Navy’s most notable achievement was in the improvement of
the submarine itself, with the introduction of the Type XXI U-boat
“Elektroboote” (“Electric boat”), whose clean hull design became the model for
modern-day submarines, and which allowed it to dive faster, range farther, and
move faster underwater.  Only four
Elektroboote submarines were completed (two of which were deployed) as a result
of production deficiencies and because U-boat factories were destroyed by the
advancing Allies towards the end of the war.

These German innovations ultimately were futile, because of
Allied counter-measures against them, and also because of the sheer number of
Allied ships, both merchant and military, in the Atlantic, because of the
enormous production output from the U.S. shipbuilding industry.  The elimination of the U-boat threat allowed
the Allied buildup in Britain
in 1943-1944, with some three million American and other Allied troops
transported across the Atlantic, for the eventual launching in June 1944 of Operation
Overlord, the reconquest of German-occupied Western Europe.

In the Battle of the Atlantic, the Allies lost 3,500 merchant ships and 175
warships, while the Germans lost 783 U-boats.