Unit 9 Fighting the war: resources, technology and medicine Flashcards
9 Introduction and 9.1 Resources and mobilisation
David Edgerton’s - ‘Britain’s war Machine’ gives a positive slant to Britain’s preparedness, resources and material strength to prosecute war - GOOD
Britain was a ‘warfare state’ that remains the world’s composite military power throughout the interwar years investing in the most modern weaponry - aircraft, radar, it expected to win.
In the first part of WWII economic considerations were lesser than the military ones, in this period the Axis profited from aggression i.e. until 1941-42. After that economic fundamentals reasserted themselves esp. after Stalingrad
Ultimately economics determined the outcome
9.2.1 Brian and France face Germany
Britain’s intelligence services overestimated Axis airpower and depended too much on the Maginot Line’s resilience
Economic stability was an arm of defence
Manpower availably in France and Britain was low compared to Germany’s
Germany’s military strategy (coming through the Ardennes) defeats France in six weeks thanks to General Erich von Manstein’s strategy using rapid attacks by tanks and aircraft
9.2.1 Britan and France face Germany 2
The fact that German tanks had radios and could travel further without refuelling proved more important than French numbers especially when used as a spearhead and Blizkreig
Allies thought German staff would consider a short war risky, but a key factor was Hitler’s willingness to gamble
9.2.2 Operation Barbarossa 22 June 1941 - the largest military operation in history
1940 - Hitler decides to invade Russia, why?
Britain was still strong across the channel and had US support i.e. it had resources, therefore Hitler needed the resources of the Soviet Union
Conquest of the USSR seemed more attractive than an alliance
Strategy based on a two pincer movement incorporating swift moving Panzergruppen
9.2.2 Operation Barberossa - General Franz Hadler’s (chief of the general staff 1938-42) war diaries
An increasingly pessimistic tone of the entries compared to the first ‘astonishing progress’ comments
Bitter Russian resistance, poor condition of the roads, exhausted troops, Hitler’s indifference to the logistics needed to maintain positions
Russia was much bigger than France, resources needed therefore greater and supply logistics a problem. Vehicles (many captured in France) not standardised
The pincers closed too slowly and too many Russian soldiers escaped - High command knew it was too little too late
9.2.2 Operation Barberossa - General Franz Hadler’s (chief of the general staff 1938-42) war diaries
By the end of July 1941 3/4 of Guderian’s tanks were in need of repair
5 December Red Army counter attacks reclaiming much territory - German hopes, dependant on a rapid victory and as its resources dwindled so did its chances of victory
It was nature, not technology that decided who or who would not win though some historians (Over) argue that it wasn’t until Stalingrad that Hitler could truly be said to have been defeated
9.2.2 Operation Barberossa - General Franz Hadler’s (chief of the general staff 1938-42) war diaries
Germany starts a war of attrition, impossible tasks leads to acts like the starvation of Russian prisoners of war as they had made no provision for feeding them
The Soviet economy came into play and expanded the production of war materials
9.3 The Battle of the Atlantic
German strategy changes in 1940 to submarine warfare and steps up production of the long range VIIC type
German submarines learn to evade Allied ASDIC (sensor search of submerged subs) by switching to surface attacks
Long range radio enables wolf pack coordination and long range aircraft Condors, used to find and attack allied convoys
Donitz sees allied options as 1) building more ships to replace those destroyed, 2) Better evasion techniques - especially after Enigma was deciphered, 3) defence via convoys and escorts, 4) offence, via radar HF-DF, ASDIC, depth charges,
The tide turns in May 1943 - 41 U boats lost and the U boat war of supremacy is lost
- 4 Medicine and warmth case of penicillin
9. 4.1 Discovering penicillin
Penicillin become available in 1944 and proves of value in saving the lives of sick and wounded soldiers, UK and especially US go into mass production of the drug
Alexander Fleming discovers it in 1928 at ST Mary’s Medical School London
Emerges 10 years later (1938) as an anti-bacterial drug
9.4.2 Producing penicillin
British researcher Howard Florey (Australian) tells US pharmaceutical companies and government agencies about penicillin and seeks cooperation to manufacture large scale - The Best strain turns up in a melon at a local market!
British Therapeutic Research Council (TRC) formed to pool limited resources for penicillin’s manufacture
US companies use high production via deep tank fermentation Britain and US reach parity of production in 1946
Puzzling that Germans with large pharmaceutical resources fail to produce penicillin on a large scale?
9.4.3 The Impact of penicillin
A huge breakthrough in medicine especially on venereal disease (5% of all hospital cases in the North African campaign) and gonorrhoea (now cured with days) as well as wounded soldiers
Penicillin, perhaps the most significant achievement of WWII, science and technology saving thousands soldiers lives from gas gangrene and other bacterial diseases. 12-15% of wounded died in WWI, in WWII only 3%
9.4.4 Penicillin Myths
Portrayed in 1942 as a brilliant scientist, revisionists in 1986 suggest his discoveries owed a lot to luck and sloppy lab work
1944 film shows US input in 13 seconds, revisionists in 1986 show American work as crucial and British as incidental or lesser
