Comments on: 1943: Operation Restored Hope?

By: lyndon

lyndon — Sat, 15 Sep 2012 15:16:45 +0000

Don't forget that by USMC 1st division landing at New Britian in 1943, 100,000 Japlanese at Rabaul were effectively neutralised on land.
Also, by landing at Bouganville Island in the Solomons, Rabaul was effectively put out of action naval-wise.
Also don't forget Tarawa in the island-hopping derby.
The build -up of USAF in Northern Australia meant that the Japanese air force couldn't penetrate south of Darwin in the Northern Territory.
This predominance of air power meant that the industrial heartland of Australia could produce war items in complete safety.

By: MAP OF THE MONTH – Turning Point of WWII, 1942–1943 » Armchair General

Wed, 13 Oct 2010 20:31:06 +0000

[...] Edson's Ridge, Guadalcanal American and Japanese troops slugged it out on Guadcanal. The fighting was especially heavy at an unnamed terrain feature that became known as Edson's Ridge and Bloody Ridge. [...]

By: paul penrod

paul penrod — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 14:57:49 +0000

1943 marked the point where the Alles starting calling the tune, so to speak. There would be no more major German offensives, North Africa was lost, Italy knocked out of the war, requiring the Germans to open a third front and pull resources from the east. Luftwaffe resources were diverted from battle fronts to home defense, and perhaps most importantly of all, the U-Boat force was broken, allowing supplies and forces to be transferred at will by sea for the projected Overlord buildup and lend lease to Russia. In 1943 could only try to hold on to what they had, against ever increasing odds. The inevitable bleeding out of the Wehrmacht had begun

By: Bill Nance

Bill Nance — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 12:36:21 +0000

John,
I understand what you're saying, but 1943 was the year of the long hard slog for the Allies in the Pacific as well.

1942 saw the battles of Coral Sea and Midway, the decisive fighting for Guadelcanal, the loss of the Philippines, the loss of Singapore, the loss of Burma, etc.

1943 on the other hand, though it contained signficant events, most notably the death of Yamamoto, saw a series of bloodybattles that, while important, could hardly be construed as decisive. You might liken some of these early island-hopping battles to the Italian campaign in terms of casualties and overall effect if you were a European focused scholar. They were important to fight, and contributed to victory, but, just like in the European theater, were more of a bloody slog that didn't produce any immediately decisive results.

To continue the trend, 1944 saw: The battle of the Philippine Sea (wherein Japanese naval aviation is crushed), the battle of Leyte Gulf (where the Japanese fleet is destroyed as an effective force), the reinvasion of the Philippines (a major base for operations against Japan,) the first B29 raids on Japan, etc.

In sum, 43 was kind of the "middle child" in all theaters of war. Neither side was completely winning, but neither side was losing anymore either. You could call it the "transistion year" from mostly Allied defeats throughout 39-42 to mostly Allied victories from 44 onwards.

By: John Beatty

John Beatty — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 12:08:54 +0000

Mr. Citino, with respect, your Eurocentric myopia is appalling in a historian. Look into the Pacific, sir, and then say that "nothing decisive happened" in 1943.

By: Michael Stout

Michael Stout — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 02:08:09 +0000

I'm sure that a great deal of higher-ups in the Germany military had thoughts of Germany surviving the war. Rommel was one of them, and it was in 1943 that he mentioned to Hitler the possibility of making peace. The July 20 plot a year later was launched for similar reasons; to get rid of Hitler and try to make peace. Repeated attempts were made to resupply the troops in Stalingrad and to break them out. You even made the point of bashing the general staff for the planning and execution of Operation Citadel (I can't remember if it was in GWoW or DotW or in class last summer) but even as bad as the operation went, it still was the largest possible move that could be made against the Russians to try and get back on the offensive.

On the other side, 1943 was the year the Allies got back on track – 1942 was as painful for them at the beginning as it had been at the end for the Axis – and the successes in Africa and Sicily were intermixed with Kasserine Pass, the command issues between Patton and Monty, and horribly slow fighting in Italy while preparing for, with a great deal of uncertainty, the eventual D-Day landings. The outcome of D-Day was in doubt until June 7, 1944, and the way I'm seeing it, it was that point that the end could really be in sight for the war.