The United States faced a mammoth job in December 1941. Ill-equipped and wounded, the nation was at war with three formidable adversaries. It had to prepare to fight on two distant and very different fronts, Europe and the Pacific. President Roosevelt launched a limited preparedness campaign that would require contributions from all Americans, young and old, men and women. Twenty years of military neglect and indifference was quite a challenge for the American government and was responsible for much of the U.S Army’s lack of success early in the war. Meeting these challenges would require massive government spending, conversion of existing industries to wartime production, construction of huge new factories, changes in consumption, and restrictions on many aspects of American life. President Roosevelt called this build up movement the "Arsenal of Democracy." Over nine million soldiers would be needed to ensure victory for the Allies, so the U.S launched new, more realistic training for combat, where civilians became soldiers.
Threatened with an American embargo, Japan organized a sturdy plan of attack to protect their supply and communication lines, as well as send a message to the United States. December 7, 1941 began their perfectly executed plan starting with the attack on Pearl Harbor that severely wounded the U.S Navy. As Japan steamrolled through the Pacific Island, the U.S held on to their territory on Luzon in the Philippines… but not for long. Without support from already warring Allies caused large American casualties and forced the Marines to retreat and regroup, but Japan’s early success would not last forever.
Before the attack on Pearl Harbor and during the period within which the predecessor U.S. Army Air Corps became the Army Air Forces in late June 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave command of the Navy to an aviator, Admiral Ernest King, with a mandate for an aviation-oriented war in the Pacific. FDR allowed King to build up land-based naval and Marine aviation, and seize control of the long-range bombers used in antisubmarine patrols in the Atlantic. At the same time, the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress was developed, which would later play a large role in World War II. Come World War II, General Henry H. Arnold became head of the AAF. One of the first military men to fly, and the youngest colonel in World War I, he selected for the most important combat commands men who were ten years younger than their Army counterparts, including Ira Eaker, Jimmy Doolittle, Hoyt Vandenberg, Elwood "Pete" Queseda, and, Curtis LeMay. However, since the AAF was not yet its own military branch, it was left out of some major decisions of the war.
Strategic bombing is a military strategy used in a total war with the goal of defeating the enemy by destroying its morale or its economic ability to produce and transport material to the theatres of military operations. It is a systematically organized and executed attack from the air which can utilize strategic bombers, long- or medium-range missiles, or nuclear-armed fighter-bomber aircraft to attack targets deemed vital to the enemy's war-making capability. The strategic bombing conducted in World War II was unlike anything the world had seen before. The campaigns conducted in Europe and Asia could involve thousands of aircraft dropping tens of thousands of tons of munitions over a single city. This was essential in defeating Germany in the European Theatre, after the decision to focus on oil refineries and transportation destroyed the German supply system.
The United States Navy grew rapidly during World War II from 1941-1945, and played the central role in the war against Japan, and was a major player in the European war against Germany and Italy. The U.S. Navy grew into a formidable force in the years prior to World War II, with battleship production being restarted in 1937, commencing with the USS North Carolina. It was able to add to its fleets during the early years of the war while the US was still neutral, increasing production of vessels large and small, deploying a navy of nearly 350 major combatant ships by December 1941 and having an equal number under construction. This expansion was authorized with the Two-Ocean Navy Act, also known as the Vinson-Walsh Act, was a United States law enacted on July 19, 1940, and named for Carl Vinson and David I. Walsh, who chaired the Naval Affairs Committee in the House and Senate respectively. The largest naval procurement bill in U.S. history, it increased the size of the United States Navy by 70%.
The United States Navy’s first real offensive success was at the Battle of Midway. Allied forces had broken the Imperial Navy’s codes and were able to intercept the Japanese attack and turn it around in their favor. Japan lost a large number of men and artillery, and thus the tide turned in the Pacific. Years later, American forces would once again prevail in the Battle of Leyte Gulf, despite large losses in manpower and carriers. Although the Japanese battleship Yamato and the remaining force returned to Japan, the battles marked the final defeat of the Japanese Navy, as the ships remained in port for most of the rest of the war and ceased to be an effective naval force.
In the time between the end of the Great War and the start of World War II, marines developed amphibious techniques that would be essential in combat of the Second World War, in addition to forming marine aviation units. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S Marines were the last line of defense on Japan’s next targets on the Pacific Islands, namely in Wake Island and the Philippines. In the Battle of Wake Island, marines were able to fight off the initial Japanese attack, and when asked what they needed, they responded, “Send us more Japs!” Marines also held onto the main island of Philippines as long as they could, but that too would ultimately fall to the Japanese. The Marines continued to play a central role in the Pacific War, along with the U.S. Army. The battles of Guadalcanal, Bougainville, Tarawa, Guam, Tinian, Cape Gloucester, Saipan, Peleliu, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa saw fierce fighting between Marines and the Imperial Japanese Army.
Operation Watchtower was the codename for the Battle of Guadalcanal, which was the first major offensive by Allied forces against Japan. It would mean the beginning of the end for Japan, despite the country’s “Fight to the Death” mantra. The U.S Marines led the Allied attack on Guadalcanal, starting with Henderson Field. Let by Lt. Col. Chesty Puller, the marines fought a bloody battle for the air field losing only 70 men, while the Japanese suffered over 1,400 casualties. In the latter half of the campaign marines took Tarawa on the Gilbert Islands in four days of intense fighting, as the Japanese fought until almost the very last man, and then Iwo Jima, in which the U.S Marines suffered heavy casualties over the five weeks of fighting. But in the end, the Allies were victorious and Japan’s mainland was in sight.
On Sept. 27, 1942, a group of landing craft sped toward the beaches of Guadalcanal. Huddled on shore, and fighting for their lives, were about 500 men of COL Lewis B. "Chesty" Puller's Marines. As the Coast Guard extracted the soldiers, Signalman 1st Class Douglas Munro steered his LCVP between the evacuating Marines and the Japanese. By interposing his craft between the men on the beach and the enemy, Munro allowed the landing craft to safely evacuate all the Marines. As the last men climbed aboard, Munro steered his craft away from the beach. When almost clear, Japanese gunfire struck Munro and killed him instantly. Munro was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. It is fitting that given the Coast Guard's lifesaving tradition and the tremendous part the Coast Guard played during World War II, the Coast Guard's only Medal of Honor winner was not only involved with a rescue but also an amphibious operation. The Coast Guard's participation in amphibious activity during World War II was perhaps the most important war-related job the service performed. Incredibly, the Coast Guard fully manned more than 350 naval ships, including 76 LSTs, 21 cargo and attack-cargo ships, 75 frigates, and 31 transports. In addition, the Coast Guard manned more than 800 cutters, nearly 300 ships for the Army, and thousands of amphibious-type assault craft.