Throughout 1941 and 1942 the Allies remained on the defensive,
waiting for the enemy offensive to flag. Towards the end of
1942 a change of tide occurred on all fronts. The Allies had not
yet assembled their lull resources, but the enemy was showing
signs of strain. This was the turning point in the war.
The change began in the Pacific. The Japanese had never planned
to invade America or to draw America into an all-out war,
but merely to compel the Americans to recognize their Asian
Empire. In April 1 942, planes from an American aircraft carrier,
which had escaped destruction at Pearl Harbour, bombed
Tokyo. The Japanese were deeply shaken and decided to broaden
their 'defensive perimeter' to include the Aleutian Islands and
Hawaii. They sent a large fleet to capture Midway Island, but
the Americans, who had deciphered the Japanese code, were
able to prepare a defence. The Japanese were badly defeated on
4 and 5 June 1942, largely by American air superiority. The
Japanese lost four aircraft carriers, and with them the air and
naval advantage won at Pearl Harbour. A little later, in August
1942, the Americans launched their first amphibious landing and
checked the Japanese southward advance at Guadalcanal. All
Japanese supplies had to be transported by sea, and their lines of
communication were overstretched. Their convoys were vulnerable
and succumbed easily to American submarine attacks. The
Japanese had lost a million tons of ships by the end of December
1942. Although the Americans had not launched a counteroffensive
in the Pacific, they had succeeded in halting Japanese
expansion.
The Italo- German forces in Africa also met with reverses.
While the Soviet offensive was underway Hitler could not spare
large forces to make inroads towards Gibraltar, Malta and
Bizerta in the Mediterranean. He sent a few squadrons of Luftwaffe
to Sicily and an army, under the command of Rommel, to
Libya. Both camps received essential supplies from convoys,
which were constantly subject to attack. The Allied convoys sailed
east and west across the Mediterreanean while the Axis convoys
sailed north and south. Malta was in a key position at the crossroads
of the two shipping lanes. In spring 1942, after Rommel's
request for reinforcements had been granted, he launched an offensive
which arrived within forty miles of Alexandria in a single
leap. The British fleet cautiously evacuated the port of Alexandria.
Egypt was threatened and Egyptian nationalists began to
stir. Mussolini prepared to march triumphantly into Cairo oiia
white charger. But Rommel, who had spent some of his forces
and had extended supply lines for his offensive, did not have
enough petrol and tanks left for the last thrust to victory. At the
same time, American equipment reached the British. They appointed
a new commander for their forces, and drew up meti
culous plans for a counter-attack, which Montgomery launched
at El Alemein at the end of October 1942. The attack succeeded
and by January 1943 he had captured Tripoli.
The Americans landed in Morocco and Algeria on 8 December
1942 in the Allies' first large scale counter-offensive, which
caught the Axis forces from behind. The French troops in Africa
defied the Vichy government's orders to oppose the Allies and
helped to make the landing a success despite the Allied generals'
inexperience. But the success was limited. From a military point
of view, the line of attack was too narrow to prevent the Italo-
German army forming bridgeheads at Tunis and at Bizerta to
rescue the Afrika Korps. Admiral Darlan's unexpected arrival at
Algiers precipitated an epidemic of political intrigue. Although
Darlan had been chosen to succeed Pétain in the Vichy government,
the Americans elevated him to civil and military head of
the government at Algiers against the objections of both the
Free French movement and the resistance. Darlan's assassination
in December 1942 did not settle the matter. After the Germans
invaded the southern zone of France and the French fleet was
scuttled at Toulon, the Vichy government effectively withdrew
from France, but revived in the Allied camp at Algiers. The advantages
gained by the Allied landing, however, were incontestable.
Malta was saved. The Afrika Korps had merely been
granted a stav of execution. The fragile length of Italy was now
fully exposed to Allied invasion.
The British could not have achieved this break-through on
their own. They had become increasingly dependent on American
consignments of men and arms. The delivery of these in
Anglo-American convoys across the Atlantic to the British Isles
was seriously hampered by attacks of German submarines.
Between September 1939 and December 1941 the Germans
sank 8 million tons of Allied merchant shipping. Losses were
still heavier in June 1942: 800,000 tons were sunk. Every four
hours an Allied ship sank with all hands. British shipyards
worked uninterruptedly while American shipvards proliferated
along the shores of the Great Lakes. Their combined output,
however, could not keep pace with the losses. What is more, the
Germans launched new submarines faster than Allied warships
and aeroplanes could sink them. Unless a solution were found,
Britain would grow steadily weaker. It would not be possible to
use her as a base for a full-scale offensive against the Reich.
Losses were cut Jby increasing the aircraft carrier escort. Then the
new radar apparatus called 'centimetric' began to be used
!)\ the escort ships and planes. It permitted the Allies to detect
submarines with greater precision from greater distances. It became
dangerous for German submarines to surface. In October
1942, the Germans lost thirteen submarines and launched only
eleven replacements. In March 1943, Allied losses began to
abate. The convoys were the lifeblood of the Allied coalition.
The course oi the Battle of the Atlantic was about to be reversed,
but it was impossible to tell ii the change would be permanent
or decisive.
Hitler's gravest defeat occurred in Russia where he had engaged
larger forces. In July 1942, the Fuhrer defined the capture
of Stalingrad as the Wehrmacht's most important objective. The
fall of Stalingrad would sever the main north-south supply lines
along the Volga. But the name of Stalingrad was itself a challenge
to Hitler. Early in August 1942 the German Sixth Army
commanded by Paulus reached the fortifications which had been
thrown up hurridly outside Stalingrad. On 23 August they arrived
at the Volga. Their arrack began on 13 September. A fierce
battle ensued. It was fought in streets and houses and especial lv
in the factories, which the Russians used as fortresses. Both
sides fought for one building after another, on landings, in
rooms, in lift shafts. They fought with hand-grenades and even
with bavonets. The Germans had fulfilled their intentions but
lought on to capture the entire city as a matter of prestige.
Hitler's order assumed that the Russians could not take the offensive
before winter. The Soviet command, however, had amassed
greater forces than the Germans, particularly in armoured
cars. The Russians planned to encircle the German troops inside
Stalingrad. They launched their counter-attack on 19 November
along a shortened front of 130 miles. The Rumanian divisions
were scattered and twenty- two German divisions were surrounded.
Instead of ordering a retreat, Hitler ordered his army
to break out of the Soviet circle. Von Manstein attempted this on
19 December; his spearhead advanced to within twenty-eight
miles of Paulus's army, but Paulus proved too weak to help.
The Russians meanwhile defeated the Italian army which had
fallen back by 130 miles. The Germans' alternative was to supply
their encircled troops by air. They hoped to hold out until
spring, but they were decimated by the cold and by illness while
the Soviet pincer gradually tightened. Paulus surrendered on 2
February 1943. His army had lost 200,000 men. Another 90,000
including 24 generals were captured.
The German troops which had reached the forts in the Cauca
sus were also in danger of being cut off. They hurriedly withdrew
to Rostov. The Russians recaptured Rostov in Februarv 1943.
The myths of the Germans' invincibility and the Fuhrer's infallibility
had been discredited. Soviet prestige swelled everywhere
in the world, particularly in occupied Europe. In every theatre
of the war at the end of 1942 it was no longer clear which side
was the stronger or which side would win.
World History
