The One Move Germany Never Expected America to Make

by 1942 everything seemed to be going according to plan for the vermont the german troops were dashing across eastern europe and russia towards stalingrad and the caucasus and the soviets were desperately reeling before the onslaught meanwhile in northern africa general ervin rommel had pushed the commonwealth forces back to egypt demonstrating the remarkable capabilities of german armed tactics because of these victories hitler felt confident that the united states would mainly focus their efforts on the pacific theater giving the germans enough time to capture the soviet oil fields that would supply their eventual confrontation against each other however something unexpected happened in november german and italian intelligence detected a significant build-up of allied ships near gibraltar but germany disregarded the warning as simply another supply convoy to reinforce malta the italians however were not so sure and they pleaded with germany to investigate the anomaly still hitler had lost all faith in the italians by then and he refused their request the decision would prove costly for germany as what they believed to be a supply convoy was actually a transport fleet carrying 65 000 u.s servicemen commanded by lieutenant general dwight d eisenhower operation torch the first american incursion on the mediterranean was about to begin allies and discord when the u.s joined the war during the final days of 1941 british prime minister winston churchill read the sigh of relief as britain would finally receive the military support it so desperately needed but things didn't go as smoothly as the british would have hoped as the objectives and priorities of british and american commanders were not always the same general george c marshall the us army's chief of staff wanted to concentrate on liberating europe and taking the fight to the germans in their own territory at the same time his british counterpart field marshal alan brooke chief of the imperial general staff didn't want the allies to focus on europe yet the british had been massively weakened during the blitz and they knew that even though the american troops were numerous and eager to fight they were still inexperienced and disorganized for brooke the idea of conducting a massive amphibious landing in france was a terrible idea the uk would have to bear much of the military burden for such an operation and they were just not ready years later after the war brook would describe his frustration in dealing with marshall quote i found marshall's rigid form of strategy very difficult to cope with he never fully appreciated what operations in france would mean the different standard of training of german divisions as opposed to the raw american divisions and to most of our new divisions you could not appreciate the fact that the germans could reinforce the point of attack some three to four times faster than we could nor would he understand that until the mediterranean was open again we should always suffer from a crippling shortage of sea transport thus the allied strategy turned into a deadlock the americans wanted to liberate france while the british wanted the americans to clear the mediterranean first the situation was so frustrating that it led marshall to briefly consider switching the us army's emphasis on the european theater of operations to the pacific leaving britain alone on the western front in fact the us army probably would have focused on the pacific if it wasn't for president franklin d roosevelt who did something that even churchill would never do during the war overrule his military high command roosevelt had been invested in britain's plight from the onset of the war and he was not about to let the germans think that the western allies were not unified what's more the american public was bent on confronting the nazi regime and the u.s president wanted his troops to fight the germans as soon as possible another factor crucial to roosevelt's decision was the recent humiliating defeat of british forces into brook coincidentally trichlo was at the white house when he learned about the devastating loss in the libyan city and as the u.s president saw the prime minister's shocked reaction to the news he pledged to send american troops to north africa hence against his general's advice roosevelt ordered the army to do as the british wanted and strike northern africa to free the mediterranean this decision would end the allied deadlock and change the course of the war surprising the enemy operation torch was an ambitious scheme the allies would transport 65 000 soldiers led by lieutenant general dwight d eisenhower from seaports in the united states and england and attack french north african possessions at casablanca iran and algier the objectives were controlled by vichy france the puppet state set up by the nazis after their hasty conquest of france in 1940 [Music] meanwhile the allied call to invade french north africa benefited immensely from the fact that the attention of axis leaders remained focused elsewhere the germans were utterly engaged in their struggle for stalingrad and the caucasus while rommel's africa corps were rather busy in egypt holding the territory they had gained as british reinforcements threatened to push them back to libya improving the odds of the operation even further was the fact that the third reich didn't trust the vichy french regime they were constantly expecting to be betrayed so they didn't adequately supply french africa leaving the troops stationed there with outdated equipment and little training still the axis intelligence eventually detected significant ship build-up near gibraltar but despite italy's voice concerns germany discarded the event as another supply run to malta the severity of that decision would dawn on the germans on november 8th 1942 at 5 30 in the morning a fidgety and anxious ulrich ocum von ribentrop the german foreign minister called the italian foreign minister galat sociano to inform him that american troops had landed on algerian and moroccan ports [Music] siano was perplexed and still sleepy and when asked what the italians intended to do he had no idea what to answer still something was clear the access commanders had not been expecting american troops to strike in northern africa a french resistance during a crucial series of months the churchill would later call the hinge of fate american troops stormed the key ports and airports of morocco and algeria targeting casablanca iran and algier at the same time the germans were halted at stalingrad never to advance east again while rommel was getting his first taste of defeat in egypt in less than six months the tide of the war had shifted entirely the u.s forces continued to advance through french africa successfully as the depleted vichy french forces were no match for american military tactics and equipment still not everything went according to plan as the allies had expected that most of the french troops would turn on the germans and join them as soon as the invasion began but that did not happen in fact the bulk of the french forces fiercely resisted the attack one notable exception was carried out by general antoine betwa who as the american and british troops landed in morocco attempted a coup d'etat against the french military command so that he could surrender to the allies the next day and save lives during the maneuver betwar's men surrounded the villa of high commissioner general charles new guy but the corner general was able to call for help before coup forces could breach the building then after bechtoir's insurrection was taken care of nougat immediately reinforced the beaches to resist the allied landings many u.s troops could not believe that the french who had been so disgracefully humiliated by the nazis recently would decide to fight for them instead of joining the allies still despite their failure to lay down their weapons the french failed to offer any significant resistance to the us troops in morocco it was the wild atlantic surf that would instead prove a massive headache for the arriving allied forces while landing at fidala the leonard wood transport lost 21 of its landing ships to the surf causing several casualties also the thomas jefferson ship lost 16 of its 31 craft during its first landing attempt while the carroll transport lost 18 of her 25 landing craft many others were damaged leaving just two boats to deliver troops and supplies to the beach many brave american soldiers eager to prove themselves in combat would never make it to the beach as their boats were engulfed by the sea the allied landing was also crippled by the savage sea on the algerian coast still the u.s troops that managed to land were able to capture most of their objectives thanks in part to the exemplary leadership of brigadier general theodore roosevelt jr still despite the losses to the surf and the heavy french resistance in some areas the us and british forces were able to secure most of their targets and were prepared to move further inland continuing their successful invasion fate would smile on the allies when as by chance second in command admiral francois darlan happened to be in north africa tending to his sick son as the french official witnessed the allied invasion he decided that resistance was futile and arranged a meeting with the us commanders the french and the americans then reached an agreement and the french stopped fighting the anglo-american forces and instead joined them to fight the germans a fateful decision when he learned of admiral francois darlan's actions hitler was furious not only had the americans surprised him by invading north africa but they had also captured most ports and airfields in morocco and algeria and convinced the french to join them filled with rage the nazi high command made one of the most disastrous decisions of the war despite being highly spread out in the eastern front and having the launch of their stalingrad counter-offensive in a few weeks hitler ordered the caesar of tunisia the fuhrer completely disregarded the advice of some of the commanders who told him that it was impossible to hold north africa and he diverted precious troops that were needed in stalingrad to tunisia at first the german invasion of tunisia seemed to be a significant success they were able to capture the territory and hold back the allied advance while the u.s forces in north africa used to dealing with depleted french troops would experience what it was like to face off against the german contingent the crush of u.s forces at kassarin pass by ramos africa corps in february of 1943 highlighted the weaknesses of the u.s troops and their leaders still one of the marks of u.s military prowess throughout the war was the learning curve with which troops adapted to combat conditions rommel and other german commanders were correct they could not hold north africa in the long run despite early success with an extensive and diminished supply line the german troops had set a trap for themselves by spring the allies had cut off axis maritime communications in the mediterranean sea and the german forces could only deliver supplies by air leaving their troops in tunisia depleted as april came the allied forces decided to exercise air superiority over the mediterranean raiding life aircraft to devastate the ju52 transports and leaving german troops in africa wholly starved knowing that reinforcements were not coming after the failure in stalingrad the remaining german and italian forces in north africa surrendered in may leaving italy unprotected before an allied invasion in the end roosevelt's decision to send us troops to north africa instead of france paid off inexperienced u.s troops had learned how to fight against the vermont and the mediterranean sea was now controlled by the allies which would become helpful to supply an invasion of france most importantly by 1943 the americans had proved to be formidable fighters and leaders so much so that now they could dictate allied strategy and plan the invasion of france with the complete support of the british forces thank you for watching my video if you liked it please make sure to share it and give us a thumbs up and don't forget to subscribe to our doc documentaries channels for more exciting history inspired content stay tuned

Channel: Dark Docs

Views: 3,299,688

Keywords: history, history channel, military, military history, dark docs, education, documentary, operation torch, ww2, wwii, world war, history documentary, edutainment, documentaries, history education, factual, axis, allies, europe, germany, america, world war 2, world war ii, decisive battles, france, africa, north africa

Id: SgiXLwTAyXU

Length: 12min 20sec (740 seconds)

Published: Sat May 07 2022