Figure 1.--World War I and World War II in Europe were fought over familiar ground. The Pacific War was a very different matter. Most Americans had never heard of Pearl Harbor when the Japanese attacked. The key battle of Miday was fought over a tiny Pacific atol. The turning point of the ground war occured at Gudacanal in the Solomons. The larger island to the west was New Guinea. This was a huge island as remote geograpically and culturally a one could imagine. The local stone-age people who had little concept of the outside world, suddenly found their island the center of the Pacific War. the west was New Guinea. This was a huge island as remote geograpically and culturally a one could imagine. There America and Australia fought the Japan for 2 years.

Quite a number of small islands or island groups played important roles in World War II. Unlike the battlefields of Europe, the islands in many cases were places were virtually unknown to the general public before the War. These islands at the time were not countries, but the territorial pssessions or proivinces of the various beligerant powers, although a few were possessions of neutral countries. Most but not all were Pacific islands. Several were the scene of major battles involving some of the most bitter fighting of the War. Others played important supporting roles. Few of the islands had vital natural resources. For the most part what was important was their strategic location. Many of these islands since the War have become independent countries.

Atlantic Ocean

The two critical battlefields of World War II were the savage conflict on the Eastern Front and the desperate naval struggle to control the Atlantic. The Battle of the Atlantic was cricial for the Western Allies. After the fall of France (1940), only the intervention of the United states with its emense manpower and resources could save Britain and liberate the occupied countries of Western Europe from the NAZI tyranny. And for this to occur, Britain and the United States had to defeatvthe U-boat threat and control the sea laes from America to Britain. Prime Minister Churchill was to save after the War that it was te Battle of the Atlantic that he was really concerned with during the War. And here several islands played important roles. Key to the Allied victory was establish air cover for the convoys carrying ams and supplies from America to Britain. And islands provided air cover for major portions of the Atlantic. As the Battle of the Atlantic developed, it was in the mid-ocean gaps where the Battle of the Atlantic was fought out by the American, British, and Canadian navies and the German U-boats. Most of the Battle of the Atlantic wasfought out in the North Atlantic, but there were a few South Atlantic islands of some importance. Ironically the most heaviky fortified Atlantic islands were the Channel Islands--islands of virtually no real importance.

Caribbean Sea

Bahamas

The Bahamas is actually located north of Cuba outside the Caribbean, but it is so close to the Caribbean that for our purpses makes more sence to consider as a Caribbean Island. The Duke of Windsor (former Edward VIII) was proving an embarassment. So the British Government safely sidelined him from the British war effort by making him Govenor General of the Bahamas.

Barbados

Cuba

Dutch West Indies

Guadeloupe

Martinique

Martinique was one of the two principal French Caribbean possessions. The other was Guadelupe. After the fall of France, Martinique authorities remained loyal to Marshall Petain's Vichy government. Elements of the French fleet, including an aircraft carrier, were interned at Marinique. The situation on the island, however, as volitile. Unlike France itself, support for Vichy seems limited on Martinque. Vichy was neutral in the War, but in many ways cooperated with the NAZIs. This was of considerable concern tamong American authorities over Martinique because of the security of the Panama Canal, vital in American defense strategy. French French support grew on the island. At for a time an insurection was possible. The United States prepared to intervene. The United States organized a joint Army-Marine Corps task force on Puerto Rico (the 295th Infantry and the 78th Engineer Battalion). American intervention proved unecessary when Martinique authorities decided to recognize the French Committee of National Liberation. br>

Puerto Rica

Trinidad

Trinidad is the largest island of the Lesser Antilles. It is located off the coast of eastern Venezuela. At the time of World war II, Trnidad was a British colony. Bases on Trnidad were valuable for both protecting approaches to the Panama Canal and patrolling streaches of the Atlantic. Trinidad was one of the islands includes in the important "Bases for Destroyers" deal btween America abd Britain (1940). This resulted in the United States opening naval and air bases that played an important role in the Battle of the Atlantic.

Mediterranean Sea

Crete

Greek, British and Commonwealth forces withdrawing from Greece, attempted a stand on nearby Crete. There they were reinforced by fresh New Zealand, British and Australian forces. Hitler ordered an airborn invasion of Crete. General Kurt Student's parachutists attacked (May 20). The assault was daring, but very costly. In the period before Barabrossa, the Germans were still accustomed to largely light casualties. The Crete invasion nearly failed but the British after heavy fighting had to abandon Crete as well. The invasion of Crete had two consequences. The Germans suffered such heavy losses that Hitler would never again allow a parachute assault. (Many military historians see the operation as aimed at the wrong island. Malta would have been a more strategically important prize.) The Allies were so impressed with the German paratroopers that they formed their own parachute units that would play important roles, most prominatey to support the D-Day invasion.

Corsica

Malta

Malta was the cornerstone of the British campaign in the Western Desert. British possession of Malta and the invaluable naval and air bases there played a major role in interdicting Italian and Germany supply convoys to Libya. And it was supply shortages that played a key role in defeating Rommel and the Afrika Korps. Malta became the most bombed place on earth. German and Italian air forced relentlessly pounded the island. The island somehow managed to with tand the fiercest air assault of the War. The Italians began bombing Malta in 1940. The Luftwaffe joined in the campaign (January 1941) even before Rommel arrived in North Africa. Malta by March 1942 was enduring an average of 10 air raid alerts daily and there had been 117 straight days of bombing. The bombing was devestating. It also prevented supplies, food, and fuel from reaching the island. At one point Malta was near to capitulation, left virtual no fuel, food, or fighters. It was a convoy with an American carrier that finally succeeded in getting needed supplies through. Civilians suffered teribly. They had to move underground. Newsreels in Britain and America showed school children moving rapidly into undergrond bunkers when the air raids sireens sounded. The population was near starvation at one point. The Axis did not, however, launch a parachute assault on the island. They had the capability as shown in Crete. Senior Axis commanders advised just sych an action. After the German terrible losses suffed by the German parachute units on Crete, however, Hitler demured, After the War, historians have taken to summrizing the assul on Cretr as "the wrong island". The Axis seige was not fully lifted until July 1943 after the Axis surrender in Tunis and the invasion of Sicily. [Holland] Operaions from Malta also played an important role in interducting Axis supply lines to Tunis, fforcing the surrender there. Some orphaned children were sent to Australia. Martinique

Sicily

Some battles occur by accidenys of history such as Waterloo or Gettysbrg. Others are no accident and preordained by geography. Sicily has been fought over from time immemorial. There was a reason for that. Sicily placed in the middle of the Mediterranean was critical for any country trying to dominate the Mediterranean. Major battles of the Phelopenisan War were fought here rather than the Phelopenese itself. It was here the Punic Wars between Rome and Carthage began. Sicily was sed by the Italians and Germans in their attempt to dominate the Mediterranean and seized Malta. After the Axis surrendered in Tunisia the Allies decided to invade Sicily. It was an obvious choice, but the Allies managed to confuse the Germans. Sicily would make possible the invasion of Italy because air bases in Sicily could provide air support over invasion beaches in southern Italy.

Indian Ocean

Ceylon

One of these least noted naval campaign was the Indian Ocean engaements during early 1942. Admiral Nagumo with the First Air Fleet entered the Indian Ocean with a force of five carriers and four fast battleships as well as cruisers and destroyers (March 26, 1942). The purpose appears to have been to support Army operations in Burma and escort a convoy to Rangoon and then strike the Btitish naval base in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) where the Royal Navy had been building a substantial naval force. Incredibly this was a larger carrier force than deployed two months later against Midway. The force succeeded in sinking the British light carrier HMS Hermes, two cruisers, and smaller ships. The Royal Navy was asonished with the power of the Japanese carrier force. At this stage of the War, the Japanese carrier aircraft were far superior to the British carrier aircraft. After the engagement the Royal Navy retired from the eastern Indian Ocean. It is unclear what the value of this campsign was. At the time the only creditable threat to Japan was the badly mauled American Pacific fleet and its four priceless carriers. Any assessment of the military situation would suggest that Japan should have focused on bringing the Pavific fleet to battle to get at those carriers. It is unclear what the purpose of this powerful force was. They could have seized Ceylon or even attacked British facilities in India. While Nagumo had considerable success against the Royal Navy force, the Royal Air Force from bases in Ceylon had downed or damaged a substantial number of Japanese planes. Nagumo had dispersed the British threat, but the American Pacific fleet carriers were still a threat and the British had impaired the combat effectiveness of the First Air Fleet

Madagascar

After the fall of France (June 1940), French authorities on Madagascar remained loyal to Vichy. The French do not interfere with German U-boats and Japanese submarines operating in the Indian Ocean from obtaining supplies on the island. The British land forces at Ambarartra Bay (May 5, 1942). The area was held by French French Senegalese troops. The lndings were not heavily resisted. Swordfish torpedo planes from HMS Illustrious sink a French armed merchant cruiser and the submarine Beveziers. More modern Sea Hurricanes and F4F Martlet (Wildcat) fighters from HMS Indomitable and Illustrious destroy the French aircraft on the island. The British rapidly press forward to Diego Suarez, at the northern tip of the island defended by the Antsirane Fort. The fort is defended by 75mm artillery which destroy some of the British tanks. Welch Fusiliers seized the fort. The British occupation of the island make it much more difficult for U-boats to operate in theIndian Ocean and hlp to secure the supply lines to the British 8th Army locked in a desperate strugglwith the Afrika Korps in the Western Desert.

Pacific Ocean

The Battle of the Atlantic was an Allied effort. The Pacific War was a largely American effort as two great naval forces gave battle over the tractless Pacific. The Philippines became tghe linchpin in the road to war. The war in Japanese eyes became necessary after the United States embargoed oil. The oil the Japanese needed was available in the Dutch East Indies and the Dutch could not prevent the Japanese from seizing it. The problem for the Japanese was that the American-held Phillipine Islands lay astride the sea routes between the Home Islands aqand the Resource Area of Southeast Asia tht the military leaders who goverened Japan saw a necssary for Japan to complete its conquest of China. Not only did the Philippines present a barrier to Japanese expansion, but the United States possessed the only naval force in the Pacific capable of opposing thepowerful Imperial Navy. Of particular importance was the Dutch East Indies which had the petroleum resources that Japan lacked. Japan launched the War by a carrier attack on the Haiwaiian Islands, the base of the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor. This launched the Pacific War in which America and Japan fought out naval engagements in the vast Pacific, but amphibious invasions of islands that the people of the two contrie had never even heard about before the War. Unlike the DutchEast Indies, these islands had little intrnsic value in terms of resources, only theirgeographic location made them strategically important. These islands ranged from the frigid Alutians in the North Pacific to the steemy jungle islands of the South Pacific.

Sources

"Spitsbergen party," Time September 21, 1941.

Created: 2:48 AM 4/18/2008
Last updated: 2:34 AM 9/24/2009