Challenges of Framing WWII Grand Strategy
The Combined Chiefs of Staff (“CCS”) Failed to Create a Comprehensive Strategy.
The first seven months of WWII, through June 1943, were chaotic, much akin to the “Little Dutch Boy with his fingers in many dykes.” Although attacked by Japan, the first major U.S. invasion was against Casablanca, Libya on the northwest coast of Africa – the south Atlantic Ocean. It was nowhere near any enemy Axis concentrations, launched with the hope the forces invaded would “throw down the weapons” to hug the invaders as “liberators”. It was the first major U.S. effort against Germany nearly one year after Pearl Harbor.
This North African Campaign ended May 16, 1943, three months after the first major Pacific victory at “Guadalcanal on February 7, 1943. Here then were the sum of U.S. accomplishments in the first 18 months of WW II! Yet, May 16, 1943, marked the Axis “highwater”. Having halted the axis advances in the Pacific and Atlantic, the Allies turned to the “offensive”. In this problems abounded.
The “CCS” Created Competition and Confusion, but No Grand Strategy
WWII in Europe was a competition between commanders, services and nations at every level. That they occurred at the highest command levels, including Roosevelt, Churchill and their Chiefs of Staffs. The problem was clear at the Washington Conference in June 1942 as the British came to “instruct” Americans on the best means to fight WWII. The next, Casablanca Conference in January 1943 exhibited meeting that were “contentious”, even “ugly”! This resulted in a string of short-term, “long-term” strategies. The “root cause” was Churchill, who had to ensure he had swept the floor clean of all “opportunities” before moving to the next level.
The Disagreements in Grand Strategy did not end on D-Day Normandy
From Casablanca in January 1943 to D-Day Normandy in June 1944 the grand strategy disagreements did not end. But the practical veto power of the British did end. As will be clear, once the Royal Navy’s role receded, the power balance shifted to the Americans. The British had two small armies; the Americans had four plus some control of the First French Army they raised. The disagreements gradually ended due to Gen Eisenhower by March 1945 and the British Operation Varsity.
​These Disagreements Guaranteed the British were Denied Any Say in the Pacific Theater.
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Deliberations of the Combined Chiefs of Staff and Major Conferences
Before that point, the Complete Military History covers actors, issues, arguments and the results as the views of the chiefs, FDR and Churchill are revealed. Here the reader attend tablecloth, silver coffee pot major conferences to plunge back into the grease, grime of the war. One reads of the strategic decisions and then battles being fought in a surreal world of opposites. Here readers have current information participants lacked.
The European War was the climax of WWII, the defeat of Japan was a lesser, but important, as success in the ETO affected all else but “all else” also affected the War in Europe.