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During World War I, The United States joined the mighty militaries of Britain and France. In World War II with Britain humiliated and France defeated, it became clear that the United States would have to do much more of the fighting. One of the remarkable stories of the War was the emergence of the U.S. Navy as the world's premier naval force. Ships, especially large ships, can not be built over night. As the NAZI Panzers raced through France and the Japanese becoming increasingly belligerent in the Pacific, President Roosevelt spoke to the nation as to how much had been accomplished in preparing the Navy during the 1930s, ships that would turn the tide in the Pacific only 6 months after Pearl Harbor. Speaking to the nation in one of his iconic Fireside Chats after the French Army began to disintegrate, the President explained how he had prepared for such emergencies, especially expanding and modernizing the Fleet. "It is a known fact, however, that in 1933, when this Administration came into office, the United States Navy had fallen in standing among the navies of the world, in power of ships and in efficiency, to a relatively low ebb. The relative fighting power on the Navy had been greatly diminished by failure to replace ships and equipment, which had become out-of-date. But between 1933 and this year, 1940 -- seven fiscal years -- your Government will have spent ($1,487,000,000) a billion, four hundred eighty-seven million dollars more than it spent on the Navy during the seven years (before) that preceded 1933. What did we get for the money, money, incidentally, not included in the new defense appropriations -- only the money heretofore appropriated? The fighting personnel of the Navy rose from 79,000 to 145,000. During this period 215 ships for the fighting fleet have been laid down or commissioned, practically seven times the number in the preceding (similar) seven year period. Of these 215 ships we have commissioned 12 cruisers; 63 destroyers; 26 submarines; 3 aircraft carriers; 2 gunboats; 7 auxiliaries and many smaller craft. And among the many ships now being built and paid for as we build them are 8 new battleships." This is the Navy that wold have to stop the Imperial Fleet after Pearl Harbor. The Fall of France led to the Two Ocean Naval Act (1940) and Pearl Harbor led to the expansion of Naval Construction on an unprecedented level, levels the Japanese did not think possible.
President Franklin Roosevelt, May 26, 1940
The U.S. Navy did not have the long tradition of the British Royal Navy, but interestingly the United States was the only country that had any success in individual ship to ship combat against Royal Navy ships. The primary achievement of the U.S, Navy had been its role in blockading the southern Confederacy in the Civil War. The U.S. Navy was not heavily involved in World War I. America entered the War after the major sea battles (especially Jutland) had been fought. The Navy's principal task was getting the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) safely to France to reinforce the Allies on the Western Front. The Navy's Marine Corps was deployed there as infantry with the U.S. Army. The U.S. Navy like the Royal Navy decommissioned many vessels in the inter-War years as part of the Washington Naval Arms Limitation Treaties. In contrast to the Army, the Congress approved substantial appropriations for naval construction, especially after Japan failed to accept continued limits on naval construction. Most naval strategists before the War believed that the backbone of the fleet was the big-gun battleships. The United States also built a fleet of carriers. The U.S. Navy was America's primary military force in 1941. President Roosevelt committed the Navy to an undeclared war against German in the North Atlantic even before America entered the War. He also moved the Pacific Fleet, including the new carriers, from San Diego to Pearl Harbor as a show of force against the Japanese. The American carriers were the primary target of Admiral Yamamoto's surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. The U.S. Pacific Fleet was the only threat to Japan's desire to seize the Southern Resource Zone it coveted. The Japanese carrier attack devastated Battleship Row, but the carriers were not at Pearl when the Japanese attacked (December 1941). Had there been a climatic battle at sea, given the capacity of the Japanese carriers, the Pacific fleet might have been much more seriously damaged than what occurred at Pearl. With the battleships destroyed or sunk, Thus the Navy was forced to develop new tactics built around carriers. The Japanese were able in 6 months to seize most of the Southeast Asia and the South Pacific, including the oil fields in the Dutch East Indies. The American carriers that escaped destruction at Pearl managed to sink four of the six Japanese fleet carriers at Midway (June 1942). That bought the United States the time for American industry to deliver large numbers of ships of every category. The most important was of course the Essex class carriers. Carrier tasks forces spearheaded the Navy's heralded 'island hopping' campaign. The U.S. Navy was forced to fight a two ocean war. They not only faced the Japanese in the Pacific, but a formidable U-boat campaign in the Atlantic. It was not the Germans, however, that conducted the only successful commerce war. It was the American submarine force which virtually destroyed the Japanese merchant marine and cut Japan off from the resources it won in its Southern Resource Zone. Southeast Asia. Whole new ship types were created, including destroyer escorts (DE), motor torpedo boats (PT) and jeep carriers. The Navy also created a wide range of landing craft to support amphibious operations, including Landing Ship, Tanks (LSTs). Those that sailed LSTs called them Large Slow Targets. Fortunately, the Japanese submarine service had no interest in commerce raiding. Both Japan and Germany built ships during the war, nut neither could match the productive capability of the United States which opened whole new shipyards. The United States mid-way through the (1943) had a navy that was larger than the combined fleets of all the other combatant countries, both Allied ans Axis. By the end of the War, the U.S. Navy had added hundreds of new ships. This included 18 fleet carriers and eight battleships. The U.S. Navy had over 70 percent of the naval vessels of 1,000 tons or larger. This was the result of both American construction and Axis losses.
The U.S. Navy did not have the long tradition of the British Royal Navy, but interestingly the United States was the only country that had any success in individual ship to ship combat against Royal Navy. But there were accomplishments. During the Revolutionary War, the small Colonial America Navy, basically privateers, caused British merchant insurance rates to soar--very important for an Empire based on trade. The fledgling American Navy defeated the French in the Quasi War and the Barbary Pirates in two wars. The Navy helped supress Caribbean piracy. During the war of 1812, the Royal Navy had to order frigate captains not to engage in single vessel combat. During the Mexican War, the U.S. Navy brought the Army to Vera Cruz and the war-winning campaign to Mexico City. The U.S. Navy opened Japan (1853). The U.S. Navy participated in anti-slave patrols off West Africa. The primary achievement of the U.S. Navy had been its role in blockading the southern Confederacy in the Civil War. During the Spanish War, the U.S. Navy won America an empire.During World War I, the American destroyer played an important role in defeating the U-boats.
America's entry into World War I was the deciding factor in the War. Here it was the American infantry that broke the dead lock on the Western Front. The Royal Navy and French blockade of Germany played a major role in undermining the German and Austrian economies and civilian morale. This was largely accomplished before America entered the War. America had the third largest navy in the world, second only to the British and German navies. The U.S. Navy was not heavily involved in World War I even though it was the German resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare that brought the United States into the War. America entered the War after the major sea battles (especially Jutland) had been fought. The 300 warships of the American Navy only added to the effectiveness of the Allied blockade, but were primarily deployed in the North Atlantic to guard the sea lanes between America and the Britain and France. Especially important was guarding the troopships that delivered the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) to France.
The AEF was safely delivered to France to reinforce the Allies on the Western Front. The Navy's Marine Corps was deployed there as infantry with the U.S. Army. A few Navy vessels were deployed in the Mediterranean, but the bulk of the Navy was deployed in the North Atlantic. Only a few Navy vessels were sunk during the War. The cruiser USS San Diego sunk by mines laid by a German U-boat off New York. Two Navy destroyers protecting convoys were sunk by U-boats. It was German U-boats and the German decision to resume unrestricted submarine warfare that brought America into the War. The German U-boat campaign proved unsuccessful because of the convoy system implemented by the Royal Navy and the invention of ASDAC (SONAR). The United States had a small submarine force of 30 boats. The U.S. Navy established its Submarine School at the main Submarine Base in New London, Connecticut (January 19, 1917). The American submarines would play little role in World War I, but the force would play a major role in World War II.
The U.S. Navy was affected by the end of World War I and the overall political and economic trends of the inter-War era. The American people turned away from the Democrats and Wilsonian Idealism. The vast majority of Americans not only wanted a return to peacetime pursuits, but were less interested in the progressive reform movement pf the early-20th century. There were a range of issues that America needed to address, almost all of which were domestic matters: adjusting to demobilization, farm problems, labor issues, immigration, prohibition, and a range of other issues. The euphoria of the World War I victory soon dissolved into disillusionment and rejection of war. Many Americans came to regret participation in World War I. Many were objected to the treaty-making process that followed the War. There was not only a rejection of the War, but a growing feeling that industrialists (arms makers which began to be referred to as the 'merchants of death') had drawn America into the War. The result was a rapid growth in isolationism with substantial pacifist overtones, Americans attempted to withdraw from international commitments. Wilson attempted to make the League of Nations the center piece of post-War policy. The U.S. Senate rejected the League and as a result the Treaty of Versailles (March 1920). Americans wanted no part of the responsibilities associated with world leadership. Republican Senator Warren G. Harding and Republican presidential candidate encapsulated what was on the minds of most voter called for 'a return to normalcy'. It was not even a world, but most Americans liked the sound of it. It would only later become all too apparent that try as it might to isolate itself, the United States would not be able to isolate itself from the world. The U.S. Navy like the Royal Navy decommissioned many vessels in the inter-War years as part of the Washington Naval Arms Limitation Treaties. Thus the U.S. Navy had the task of meeting its responsibilities with a much smaller force. In contrast to the Army, the Congress approved substantial appropriations for naval construction, especially after Japan failed to accept continued limits on naval construction. Most naval strategists before the War believed that the backbone of the fleet was the big-gun battleships, but an increasing number of visionary thinkers began to see air power as the future.
When the Japanese struck at Pearl Harbor, the United States had a fleet of nearly 350 major combat ships (December 1941). An equal number tanks to the Two Ocean Navy Act (1940) were under construction. [Westcott] Japanese pre-War assessments were based primarily on the active units at the time. Of course, the US. Navy, unlike the Imperial Fleet had to ocean commitments. The Japanese had out-built the Americans during the inter-War period. There seems to have been little realization of how quickly and massively the United States could increase construction. Rather the Japanese including Yamamoto believed that the War would be decided by the battle fleets the two countries had in 1942. The United States had a substantial force of big-gun battleships. The general consensus within the Navy at the time was that battleship was the capital ship type and that fleet actions would be won by big-gun battleships. Fortunately for the United States, this was also the assessment of most Japanese commanders.
The U.S. Navy after the Japanese pulled out of the Washington naval limitation treaty resumed building battleships, although not immediately. The first new battle ship was the USS North Carolina (BB-55) (1937). As the danger of war increased, the United States began expanding the fleet.
There were some forward thinking admirals that saw the future was with carriers and naval aviation. Thus the United States also built a fleet of carriers, smaller than the battleship fleet, but still substantial. And although given little attention at the time, there was also a sizeable submarine force. Tragically, the Navy refused to invest in developing a reliable torpedo. The United States fleet was substantial. The backbone of the fleet was 17 battleships (with 15 under construction). They included: 1 Arkansas (1912), 2 New York class (1914), 2 Nevada class (1916), 2 Pennsylvania class (1916), 3 New Mexico class (1917-1919), 2 California class (1920-1921), 3 Colorado class (1921-1923), 2 North Carolina class (1941). Not fully appreciated were 7 aircraft carriers (with 11 under construction): 2 Lexington class (1927), 1 Ranger (1933), 3 Yorktown class (1937-1941), 1 Wasp (1941). Also important were 18 heavy cruisers (with 8 Baltimore class under construction): 2 Pensacola class (1929-1930), 6 Northampton class (1929-1930), 2 Indianapolis class (1932-1933), 7 Astoria class (1934-1937), 1 Wichita (1939). There were 19 light cruisers (with 32 Cleveland class under construction): 10 Omaha class, 7 Brooklyn class, 2 Helena class, 6 anti-aircraft cruisers (4 in service, 2 almost ready). There were 171 destroyers (with 188 Benson, Livermore and Fletcher class under construction): 1 Allen (1917), 71 Flush-Deckers (1918-1922), 8 Farragut class (1934-1935), 12 Mahan class (1936-1937), 8 Porter class (1936-1937), 5 Somers class (1938-1939), 2 Dunlop class (1938), 19 Gridley class (1938-1940), 38 Benson and Livermore class (1940-1941). Finally there were 114 submarines (with 79 Gato class under construction): 8 ‘O’ class (1918), 19 ‘R’ class (1918-1919), 38 ‘S’ class (1919-1924), 3 Barracuda class (1924-1925), 1 Argonaut mine-layer (1928), 2 Nautilus class (1930), 1 Dolphin (1932), 2 Cachalot class (1934), 10 ‘P’ class (1935-1937), 16 ‘new S’ class (1937-1939), 12 ‘T’ class (1941-1942).
The Navy would prove to be unprepared for world war II, but it was much better prepared than the Army. Fortunately for the Army, it would have more time than the Navy to prepare for combat. The U.S. Navy was America's primary military force in 1941. It fit in more with isolationist thinking which was opposed to American participation in another War. Many thought that the Navy by dominating the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans could provide the security needed to keep America out of another War. As World War II developed, President Roosevelt would order the U.S. Navy into an undeclared shooting war with German U-boats (September 1941) before the Japanese carrier attack on Pearl Harbor propelled America into the War.
It was a combination of code breaking, the number of ships under construction, and rapid development of advanced planes that would allow the U.S. Navy to recover so quickly from Pearl Harbor. Here the key factor was the power of the engines. The United State had the industrial power to build big engines in large quantity. The Japanese did not.
Carl Vinson was an influential Democratic Congressman from Georgia, serving for over 50 years. He played a critical role in the pre-War expansion of the U.S. Navy. He entered Congress just before World War I (1914). He from the onset was an ardent champion for national defense and especially the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Marine Corps. He joined the House Naval Affairs Committee shortly after World War I and became the ranking Democratic member in the early-1920s. After World War I, America became disillusioned with the military, seeing World War I as a huge mistake. This was at a time that there was little or no interest in the military. After World War I, three Republican administrations refused to lay down a single new ship. This changed with President Roosevelt. Military spending continued to be resisted by Congress, but naval spending could be justified defending America. And Vinson was Roosevelt's point man for pushing through naval spending projects. Vinson became chairman of the House Naval Affairs Committee (1931). Vinson helped push the Vinson–Trammell Act (1934). Trammell was Democratic Senator Park Trammell of Florida (1934). The bill authorized the replacement of existing obsolete vessels with new construction. And a gradual increase of ships within the limits of the 1922 Washington Naval Treaty. Initial funding for the Vinson–Trammell Navy Act was authorized by the Emergency Appropriations Act of 1934. Japan repudiated the naval treaties in late 1934.
Vinson was the major Congressional supporter for the additional naval expansion legislation that followed: , the Naval Act of 1938 ('Second Vinson Act') and the Third Vinson Act of 1940 (precursor to the Two-Oceans Act that followed a month later), and the Two-Ocean Navy Act of 1940. The later was of such staggering proportions that the U.S. Navy would replace the Royal Navy as the world's preeminent naval force. These naval building programs provided the ships that would enable the Pacific Fleet to match and quickly counter Japanese aggression after Pearl Harbor. Vinson was also an ardent segregationist. An a prime example as why Civil Rights, while important, is not the only measure of a legislator's service.
The United States declared itself neutral when Hitler and Stalin launched World War II in Europe as required by the neutrality laws (1939). The Roosevelt Administration was, however, far from neutral and moved to repeal and evade the neutrality laws. The American people assumed that Britain and France could contain the Germans in Europe. This proved an illusion when the Germans Panzers raced through France, humiliating Britain and defeating France. Shepherded by Georgia Republican Carl Vinson, the Two Ocean Expansion Act authorized a massive expansion of the fleet (1940). These were vessels which began reaching the fleet shortly after Pearl Harbor. President Roosevelt committed the Navy to an undeclared war against German in the North Atlantic even before America entered the War. He also moved the Pacific Fleet, including the new carriers, from San Diego to Pearl Harbor as a show of force against the Japanese. President Roosevelt was fovcused on developments in Europe. He hoped that thismassive expamsion of naval power would intimidate the Japanese. It did not. Itbdid impress the Japanese, but like the Oil Embargo set the clock ticking. The Japanese realssed that if they were going to have any chance of winning a naval war it had to be before all the new ships began reaching the Pacific Fleet in 1942. .
The Isolationists were one of the most powerful political movements in American history. Beginning with President Washington, there has always been a strong isolationist movement in America, one that is still present today. For about 4 years President Roosevelt had been fighting the isolationists who had come to see him as a war monger, determined to drag America into the European war. Republican Congressmen were important isolationists. There were also Democrats, including the Ambassador to Great Britain, Joseph P. Kennedy. Perhaps the most important isolationist was aviator Charles Lindbergh. the greatest hero of the inter-War era. He was an influential voice in the most important isolationist group--the American First Committee. The President won the major battles with the isolationists, including repealing the Neutrality Acts, aiding Britain, beginning a peace-time draft, and Lend Lease. Even so, the isolationists significantly impeded his efforts to resist Axis aggression. Even as the bombs were falling at Pearl, the American Firsters staged a major rally in Pittsburgh. In a hall festooned with red, white, and wall banners, the American Firsters engaged in anti-Roosevelt cheers awaiting the main address by Congressman Gerald Nye. He brushed aside the first news reports of the attack and delivered an anti-Roosevelt tirade, charging that the President was leading us into War and included the standard isolationist line that the munition makers were behind the War. Immediately afterwards Nye would blame the British. Few of the isolationists including Nye knew as they filed out of the auditorium that their movement that had been so powerful and influential had literally evaporate as soon as the American public learned about the Japanese sneak attack on America.
The American carriers were the primary target of Admiral Yamamoto's surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. The U.S. Pacific Fleet was the only threat to Japan's desire to seizure the Southern resources it coveted. The Japanese carrier attack devastated Battleship Row, but the carriers were not at Pearl when the Japanese attacked (December 1941). Had there been a climatic battle at sea, given the capacity of the Japanese carriers, the Pacific fleet might have been much more seriously damaged than what occurred at Pearl.
Naval forces perhaps more than any other military force was a reflection of a country's industrial might. America even with the Depression was the largest industrial power in the world. It thus had the potential to be the world's largest naval power. No single power, including Britain, could have challenged the United States. A weakened Britain after World War I made the monumental decision not to resist American emergence as the world's primary naval power, but rather to cooperate with America. Japan could not have matched American naval power except for the fact that the United States strictly limited naval building while the Japanese used a substantial share of its growing industrial base to military production, especially naval construction. The Washington Naval Treaties which widely unpopular in Japan, were actually highly advantageous to Japan. While they limited American naval construction, they had little impact on the Imperial Navy. Japan did not have the industrial capacity to build much beyond its treaty capacity, especially in the 1920s. This began to change in the 1930s when Japan withdrew from naval limitation treaties. Pearl Harbor instantly removed any self-imposed American constraints on naval building. This is one reason that naval appropriations wee so imprtant in the 1930s. It oresereved the shipyards and the skills of shipyard workertrs whobcould pass on thosde skills to the unskilled workts that flooded into rtther shipyards especially after Oearl Harbor. The full force of American industry was this thrown into building a naval force and merchant marine, an undertaking Japan could not hope to match or even approach. It would take some time, however, for American industry to overcome years of self imposed limitations. So Japan to win the war it had to be in 1942. And they failed ay Midway (June 1942) only 6 months into the War.
It was in World War II that the balance of naval power shifted from the British Royal Navy to the United States Navy. The United States Navy, although severely weakened by the Japanese carrier strike on Pearl Harbor, played a decisive role in the defeat of both Japanese militarism and European Fascism.
Unexpectedly. it was the American submarine force that would play another critical role. American carriers cut Japan off from the resources of the empire it had seized. It was America that conducted the only successful submarine campaign of the War. Not only was the Japanese war economy starved of raw material, but by the end of the War, the Japanese people were facing starvation. The war in Europe is often seen as primarily a air and ground war. The most important battle of the war the Battle of the Atlantic. The U.S. Navy entered this battle even before America entered the War. Without victory here, none of the other Allied land and air battles were possible. And all of Europe would have fallen to either Soviet of NAZI totalitarian rule. American shipyards including many new ones would produce a miracle of construction. American shipyards produce more ship tonnage than all foreign shipyards combined, both naval vessels and merchant vessels. At the end of the War the United States possessed a massive fleet, the most powerful naval force in the history of warfare.
The Pacific War was primarily a naval warm fought out by the two most powerful navies ever created up to that time. Naval warfare was essentially industrial war. And incredibly, Joana with a limited industrial base sought to wage a naval war with the world's preeminent industrial power. It was fought out over the vast reaches of the Pacific Ocean and became basically the use of naval power to obtain islands which could support air bases. These islands includes fog covered Arctic bases to malarial infested juggle islands in the South Pacific. Most of these islands were unknown to anyone in Japan or America before the War. The battleships which naval planners thought would decide a Pacific War played only a minor part in the War. With the battleships destroyed or sunk, Thus the Navy was forced to develop new tactics built around carriers. It was carriers that began the war and would play the key role in the War. The Japanese were able in 6 months to seize most of the Southeast Asia and the South Pacific, including the oil fields in the Dutch East Indies. It was American carriers that would destroy the Imperial Fleet and help seize the islands that would bring the war home to the Japanese people. The American carriers that escaped destruction at Pearl managed to sink four of the six Japanese fleet carriers at Midway (June 1942). That bought the United States the time for American industry to deliver large numbers of ships of every category. The most important was of course the Essex class carriers. Carrier tasks forces spearheaded the Navy's heralded "island hopping" campaign. It was not the Germans, however, that conducted the only successful commerce war. It was the American submarine force which virtually destroyed the Japanese merchant marine and cut Japan off from the resources it won in its Southern Resource Zone (SRZ)--Southeast Asia.
The U.S. Navy was forced to fight a two ocean war. They not only faced the Japanese in the Pacific, but a formidable U-boat campaign in the Atlantic. This complicated American naval operations because American and Britain even before the United States entered the War agreed that NAZI Germany was the greatest threat and that Allied power had to focus on Germany first. This had to tactfully handled because the American public wanted action against the Japanese who after Pearl Harbor executed a series of victories in the Western Pacific and Southeast Asia. As Germany did not have a sizeable surface fleet, the United States did not engage in major fleet actions in the Atlantic. The Royal Navy dis, but not the U.S. Navy. Rather the U.S, Navy was primarily committed to first protecting the convoys to Britain and then offensive operations against the U-boats. And in the Atlantic, unlike the Pacific, the Navy had very important allies--the Royal Navy and Riyal Canadian Navy. The Canadians are often lost in World War II naval histories, but basically built a major naval force virtually from scratch--consisting primarily escort vessels. The Battle of the Atlantis was won won with a combination of America's prodigious industrial might, building more ships than the German U-boats could sink, technology, intelligence, and air cover. The Allied strategic bombing of Germany assigning priority to U-boat yards was another important factor. While the German U-boat wolf packs for a time were the terror of the Atlantic and threatened Britain's very existence, in the end U-boat service became the most deadly pf all military operations.
Whole new ship types were created, including destroyer escorts (DE), motor torpedo boats (PT) and jeep carriers. The Navy also created a wide range of landing craft to support amphibious operations, including Landing Ship, Tanks (LSTs). Those that sailed LSTs called them Large Slow Targets.
Both Japan and Germany built ships during the war, but neither could match the productive capability of the United States which opened whole new shipyards. The United States mid-way through the (1943) had a navy that was larger than the combined fleets of all the other combatant countries, both Allied ans Axis. By the end of the War, the U.S. Navy had added hundreds of new ships. This included 18 fleet carriers and eight battleships. The U.S. Navy had over 70 percent of the naval vessels of 1,000 tons or larger. This was the result of both American construction and Axis losses.
Westcott, Allan Ferguson et al. American Sea Power Since 1775 (Chicago: J.B. Lippincott Company: 1947). This is a United States Naval Academy textbook.
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