Invasion of Sicily

                 Shortly after the Battle at Midway, the Allies had been fighting in the North African campaign, in which they win on May 13, 1943. At this point, a quarter million German and Italian troops surrendered on the north coast of Africa, called Tunisia. With this big of an army, the British and American felt the need to do something with them. They had two options: transfer the troops north to invade Europe from the English Channel, or remain where they were at attack at southern Italy. Prime minister Winston Churchill called this the “soft underbelly of Europe.” After the great amount of thought that was put into this decision, they decided the more logical option would be to move into Italy.

                  The first step to get into Italy would be to get through the island of Sicily. The Allies would have an advantage here because of the fighter cover they could rely on. They had air bases on the British Malta which conveniently was 60 miles south of the island, and was recently freed from the power of the Axis.

                  The code name made for the operation against Sicily was “Operation Husky.” It began on July 10, 1943, with combined air and sea landings involving 150,000 troops, 2,000 ships and around 4,000 aircraft- all directed at the southern shores of the island. The night before the planned attack a summer storm hit the sea around the island. While they thought this was going to be a disadvantage and almost cancelled it, this actually worked in their favor. The Axis defenders along the Sicilian coast had the impression that no commander would lead their troops in weather of that sort. By that afternoon of July 10, 150,000 troops entered the Sicilian shores with nearly 600 tanks.

                  The troops progressed on the ground with Lieutenant General George S. Patton in control of the American forces and General Bernard L. Montgomery leading the British ground forces. Hitler had previously been so deceived by “Mincemeat” that he only left two German groups to Battle the Allies in Sicily. In addition to this, the Axis forces were already weakened because of the casualties of several hundred thousand troops in North Africa.

                  For the following five weeks, the Allies continued to move towards the north and mark their territory throughout the whole island of Sicily. On July 25, the first Italian troops started to withdraw. The U.S. and British soldiers continued to push the Axis forces farther and farther until they were basically trapped in the northeastern corner of the island. They continued to move into Messina where they expected to have a battle, but their enemies had already evacuated. The Allies had officially taken over Sicily, and while they did not take out many Germans, they were still very happy with their accomplishment of taking over the territory.

Battle at Midway

                  The next big event to follow the attack at Pearl Harbor would be the Battle of Midway. This was to happen about six months after this traumatizing experience in Hawaii that led the Americans to war. It was all engaged because of the Japanese’s desire to sink the American aircraft carriers that were not destroyed along with all the others during the destruction at Pearl Harbor. Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku, Japanese fleet commander at the time chose this target (close to Pearl Harbor) in hopes to draw out American fleet. This way, once the United States decided to attack them they would be fully prepared. However, through an American intelligence- breakthrough they were able to crack the Japanese code. This enabled Admiral Chester W. Nimitz to understand, and fully comprehend exactly what the Japanese plans were. This was a huge advantage for the Americans. In result to this breakthrough, Nimitz was able to place U.S. carriers in position to surprise attack the Japanese that were moving towards their positions to attack on Midway.

                  The messages that the Americans picked up on were on May 2, and they were able to realize that the Japanese were going to attack, what day and around what time. However, by the time the actual attack came, the Japanese had completely reconstructed their plan. The Americans took off where “intelligence efforts left off.” Scouts found the Japanese early in the morning on June 4, and while their initial airstrikes were unsuccessful American carrier-based planes took control and “turned the tide” as they would say. Torpedo bombers were separated from the dive bombers, and left 36 of the 42 shot down, but distracted the Japanese and gave the dive bombers enough time to arrive and attack. Japanese carriers were also caught while re-fueling and prepping their air carriers, making them exceptionally vulnerable to the attack. Americans sunk four fleet carriers under the name of- Akagi, Kaga, Soryu and Hiryu, shot down 322 aircraft, and over 5,000 sailors. With the Americans advancing into the offense side of things, their losses only included 147 aircraft and more than about 300 seamen.

                  This was a very successful defeat for the Americans against the Japanese at the Battle of Midway. A huge part of this was thanks to the advance in code breaking, which made it so the Americans could counter Japan’s planned ambush of the few remaining aircraft carriers from the recent Pearl Harbor attack. This battle made permanent damage on the Japanese Navy, and was a very important turning point for the Pacific campaign and led the United States and its allies to move into the most desirous position while engaged in war- the offense.

Video Review

                  It is hard to fathom what it would be like to actually be involved in the events of World War ll. Many major devastating events came out of this, one of which is the bombing by the Japanese on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. For some people it may be hard to understand the actual happenings without seeing solid video proof. I am one of these people, so looking up a video that shows live footage helped me more fully understand how big of a deal the events at Pearl Harbor really were.

                  The video I chose to share is called “Attack on Pearl Harbor” and made by the watch mojo group. I thought this was a very effective video in the aspect of getting straight to the point. There are many different parts, and little details that went into making Pearl Harbor the disaster that it was. However, this video does a great job of getting the important details portrayed in a short three minutes and fourteen seconds.

                  It started out with a live footage video of President Roosevelt giving a speech, and stating that “December 7, 1941 is a date that will live in infamy.” I think that this was very effective because it gives the watchers a great look of how the leaders of that time really thought about this attack. It goes on to start to give the history of the event.

                  I think that the makers of this video did a great job in explaining the growing tension that these two countries had leading up to this moment. That is very important to know when learning why this attack initially was put together. It goes on to tell how they signed the Tripartite act, and how this got United States worried, as it made Roosevelt worried that he may get attacked on both of his coasts. They first set Japan off by making it so they could not export products into the United States, and closing shipping lines for their use. On December 1, Japan unofficially declared war against the United States. Six days later came the surprise attack which officially put the United States into war.

                  I greatly enjoyed the video put together by the Watch Mojo group about the Attack on Pearl Harbor. I think it summed up the information very nicely, and made it short and easy enough for anyone to watch. It was very effective for me, and I learned a great deal out of it. With the real footage and great facts to go along with it, I found it very enjoyable and would recommend it to anyone wanting to know about the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.