ARAB ISRAEL WAR – 1948-1949

Posted on December 5, 2007 by admin

Map of Israel

Above: Map of Israel in 1948 – 1949

{mosimage}Civil war broke out in Palestine following the declaration of Partition by the United Nations. During its course, the Jews consolidated their control on their assigned part of Palestine. During this period some of Arabs of Palestine suddenly became refugees. Many left the Jewish areas of their own accord, some were encouraged to leave by other Arabs and some were coerced to leave by the Jews.

Massacre During The War

Above: picture of Soldier killed during the war

On May 14th all the neighboring Arab states attacked Israel. In the course of the subsequent months Israel managed to repulse those armies but at a great cost. Over 6,000 Israelis were killed during the War of Independence

The declaration of Independence led to the invasion of Israel by the combined armed might of the neighboring Arab states. At that point Israel had 30,000 troops with negligible armor or heavy equipments. Its Air Force consisted of a few Piper Clubs. Later however the picture changed but the Arabs were still held an overwhelming advantage.

The Arabs converged from all sides. Lebanon seized Malkiyah border, Syria attacked the area around the Sea of Galilee and advanced on Kibbutz Degania, from where they had to however retreat. Iraq attacked across River Jordan near Besian town but they too had to withdraw, and take up defensive positions in Samaria.

The real threat was Egypt. One column headed for the Negev Desert hoping to reach Jerusalem via the Hebron Hills. Another column advanced along the coast towards Tel Aviv. For five tensed days the army was held up by the brave defense of Kfar Kordechai. Next they encountered but had to bypass Kibbutz Negba. Nevertheless Egyptian armies marched up to present-day Ashdod and pause. On 29th May counter offensive action by Israel put an end to Egyptian ambitions on Tel Aviv.

Arab Legions

Above: Arab Legions – armed and ready

The Arab Legion of Jordan, consisting of the cream of the Arab army and commanded by experienced British officers, was another invading force. Fortunately for Israel the Legion, with only 4,500 troops was relatively small. It was hoped that secret negotiations between the Jewish agency and the Hashamite King Abdullah would keep the Legion out of the war. But in the end the King had to join so as not to make his position in the Arab world untenable. On the day of declaration of Israel’s Independence, the Legion captured Jewish settlements in the Etzion Block located between Hebron and Bethlehem. The main prize however was Jerusalem. On 28th May the outnumbered and less equipped defenders surrendered the ancient Jewish quarters of the city. Western Jerusalem was defended successfully although under a virtual siege. Hunger, thirst and lack of arms plagued the citizens. The coastal road had been blocked from the start of the war when the Legion had occupied Latrun fortress, having taken it from the British. Strategically situated Latrun overlooked the road to Jerusalem at the point of its ascent into the hills from the plains. Control of Latrun meant control of Jerusalem road. Starting from 25th May repeated Israeli attempts to capture the fort failed. Fortunately an American (member of the Volunteers from Overseas) Colonel David Marcus discovered a narrow path to Jerusalem. Hastily widening it into a crude road the Israelis were just in time to relieve the siege of Jerusalem before effectuation of the first truce.

Mutual exhaustion led to cessation of fighting. It was mediated by Swedish count Bernadette. Under the terms of the truce neither side was to reinforce. But as expected soon both resumed hostilities. During cease-fire a ship full of arms purchased by the Irgun arrived. When Irgun wanted to retain some for its own use, Israel’s Prime Minister Ben Gurion ordered forcible seizure of the ship. Civil war was averted but ultimately the Israel Defense Force (IDF) became the only legitimate arms bearing force in Israel.

Result After The Arab - Israel War in 1948-1949

Above: Israel’s state after the Israel – Arab War in the year 1948 – 1949

Just before expiry of the truce Egyptian attack on Kibbutz Negba was repulsed. Moreover the IDF made some gains in the Negev. Major successes were the capture of Arab cities of Ramla and Lod in the heart of the new nation as well as Nazareth and Galilee areas that hitherto had been in Arab hands. Israel’s policy to wards the Arabs till now was mixed but henceforth they were encouraged to be taken to the Legion lines in trucks.

During the second cease-fire Bernadette proposed the giving of entire Galilee to Israel and Negev desert to the Arabs. Jerusalem was to be internationalized. Both parties rejected the plan. Bernadette was assassinated in Jerusalem by the Jewish extremists on 17th September 1948.

Armies in Sinai

Above: Egyptian Army in Sinai

Equipped with modern aircraft and vehicles Israel quickly captured key Egyptian positions, captured Beersheba in the Negev and soon opened the road to Eilat in the southern tip. A large Egyptian army was surrounded but refused to surrender. Israel marched as far as El Arish in the Sinai. But when Israel shot down five Egyptian planes in a single dogfight Britain threatened to intervene. Israel troops now had to pull back.

The American Civil War

Posted on December 5, 2007 by admin

Map of Civil War in America colour

Above: Map of Civil War in America (1861 – 1865)

The American Civil War (1861-1865) was a separatist conflict between the United States Federal government (the “Union”) and eleven Southern slave states that declared their secession and formed the Confederate States of America, led by President Jefferson Davis. The Union, led by President Abraham Lincoln and the Republican Party, opposed the expansion of slavery and rejected any right of secession. Fighting commenced on April 12, 1861, when Confederate forces attacked a Federal military installation at Fort Sumter in South Carolina.

Casualties in Civil War 1861 - 1865

Above: Massive Death of soldiers during the American Civil War

[1]During the first year, the Union asserted control of the border states and established a naval blockade as both sides raised large armies. In 1862 large, bloody battles began, causing massive casualties as a result of new weapons and old battlefield tactics. In September 1862, Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation[2] made the freeing of the slaves a war goal, despite opposition from northern Copperheads who tolerated secession and slavery. Emancipation ensured that Britain and France would not intervene to help the Confederacy. In addition, the goal also allowed the Union to recruit African-Americans for reinforcements, a resource that the Confederacy did not dare exploit until it was too late. War Democrats reluctantly accepted emancipation as part of total war needed to save the Union. In the East, Robert Edward Lee rolled up a series of Confederate victories over the Army of the Potomac, but his best general, Thomas Jonathan “Stonewall” Jackson, was killed at the Battle of Chancellorsville in May 1863.[3] Lee’s invasion of the North was repulsed at the Battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania in July 1863;[4] he barely managed to escape back to Virginia. In the West, the Union Navy captured the port of New Orleans in 1862, and Ulysses S. Grant seized control of the Mississippi River by capturing Vicksburg, Mississippi in July 1863,[5] thus splitting the Confederacy.

more casualties during Civil War in America

Above: soldiers died in battle of Chancellorsville (1863)

By 1864, long-term Union advantages in geography, manpower, industry, finance, political organization and transportation were overwhelming the Confederacy. Grant fought a number of bloody battles with Lee in Virginia in the summer of 1864. Lee won most of the battles in a tactical sense but on the whole lost strategically, as he could not replace his casualties and was forced to retreat into trenches around his capital, Richmond, Virginia. Meanwhile, William Tecumseh Sherman captured Atlanta, Georgia.[6] Sherman’s March to the Sea destroyed a hundred-mile-wide swath of Georgia. In 1865, the Confederacy collapsed after Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House; all slaves in the Confederacy were freed by the Emancipation Proclamation. Slaves outside Confederate control were freed by state action or by the Thirteenth Amendment.

Slaves in South Carolina plantation (1860)

Above: Picture of slaves in South Carolina (1860)

The full restoration of the Union was the work of a highly contentious postwar era known as Reconstruction. The war produced about 970,000 casualties (3% of the population), including approximately 620,000 soldier deaths-two-thirds by disease.[7] The causes of the war, the reasons for its outcome, and even the name of the war itself are subjects of lingering controversy even today. The main results of the war were the restoration and strengthening of the Union, and the end of slavery in the United States.

Below: Another map of American civil war (1861 – 1865)

Map of Civil War in America

GULF WAR

Posted on December 5, 2007 by admin

Above: The Allied battle plan Map

Amidst growing tensions between the two Persian Gulf neighbors, Saddam Hussein concluded that USA and the rest of the world would not interfere to defend Kuwait. On 2nd August 1990 Iraq invaded and came to control Kuwait. Within days USA along with the UN demanded Iraq’s immediate withdrawal. Few weeks later USA and member nations of UN deployed troops in Saudi Arabia. Under the aegis of the UN a worldwide coalition began to form.

An Allied Aircraft deployed for bombing operations

Above: An Allied Aircraft deployed and dropping bombs in Kuwait

By early January 1991 over half million Allied troops made their presence felt in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf region. Intense diplomacy between USA and Iraq failed to bring about Iraqi withdrawal. Thus from 16th January 1991 Allied forces began ruthlessly bomb Iraqi forces in Kuwait. The target was to damage Iraq’s infrastructure, crumble the morale of the civilians as well so as to cripple her militarily.

Iraq Missiles on display

Above: Picture of Iraq missiles on display

To counter the attack Saddam launched his feared SCUD missiles targeting both Israel and Saudi Arabia. He wanted to provoke Israel into striking back at Iraq. This would split the Arab nations and focus their attention away from Iraq and on hostilities between Israel and the Arab world in general. Israel nearly retaliated but held back after American President George Bush pledged to protect Israeli cities from the SCUDs by using American Patriot Missiles. Allied power however got diverted from hitting the Iraqi army to hunting for elusive mobile missile launchers. Nevertheless allied air and missile attacks against Iraq proved to be deadlier than ever expected.

US Infantry ground attack in Iraq

Above: US Infantry ground attack in Iraq

Iraqi occupation forces, cut off from supply bases and headquarters, were already beaten by intense air attacks, when the Allies started the ground war on 23rd February. They simply gave up without resistance. In few cases elite Iraqi forces like the Republican Guards stood their ground. But Soviet backed Iraq crumbled against superior American, British and French might.

Map of Tigris-Euphrates River

Above: Map of Iraq (Tigris-Euphrates River)

By 26th February US and Allied Arab forces along with underground Kuwait Resistance came to control Kuwait. Allied air forces pounded the retreating Kuwaiti army. In southern Iraq the Allied forces stood at Basra on the Euphrates River as internal rebellions against Saddam broke out sporadically. On 27th February President Bush ordered a cease-fire and the surviving Iraqi troops were allowed to escape into southern Iraq. On 3rd March with the acceptance of the cease-fire by Iraq the fighting ended.

The Spanish – American War

Posted on December 5, 2007 by admin

Spanish - America war scene

Above: Scene of Spanish – American War in 1898

{mosimage}(1898), conflict between the United States and Spain that ended Spanish colonial rule in the Americas and resulted in U.S. acquisition of territories in the western Pacific and Latin America.

The war originated in the Cuban struggle for independence from Spain, which began in February 1895. Spain’s brutally repressive measures to halt the rebellion were graphically portrayed for the U.S. public by several sensational newspapers, and American sympathy for the rebels rose.

USS maine destroyed

Above: USS Maine battleship anchored in Havana, Cuba destroyed!

The growing popular demand for U.S. intervention became an insistent chorus after the unexplained sinking in Havana harbour of the battleship USS Maine (Feb. 15, 1898; see Maine, destruction of the), which had been sent to protect U.S. citizens and property after anti-Spanish rioting in Havana. Spain announced an armistice on April 9 and speeded up its new program to grant Cuba limited powers of self-government, but the U.S. Congress soon afterward issued resolutions that declared Cuba’s right to independence, demanded the withdrawal of Spain’s armed forces from the island, and authorized the President’s use of force to secure that withdrawal while renouncing any U.S. design for annexing Cuba.

Map of West Indies and Philippine Islands

Above: Map of West Indies and Philippine Islands

Spain declared war on the United States on April 24, followed by a U.S. declaration of war on the 25th, which was made retroactive to April 21. The ensuing war was pathetically one-sided, since Spain had readied neither its army nor its navy for a distant war with the formidable power of the United States. Commo. George Dewey led a U.S. naval squadron into Manila Bay in the Philippines on May 1, 1898, and destroyed the anchored Spanish fleet in a leisurely morning engagement that cost only seven American seamen wounded. Manila itself was occupied by U.S. troops by August.

US Volunteer Cavalry led by Theodore Roosevelt

Above: Volunteered troops of US & The “Rough Riders”

The elusive Spanish Caribbean fleet under Adm. Pascual Cervera was located in Santiago harbour in Cuba by U.S. reconnaissance. An army of regular troops and volunteers under Gen. William Shafter (and including Theodore Roosevelt and his 1st Volunteer Cavalry, the “Rough Riders”) landed on the coast east of Santiago and slowly advanced on the city in an effort to force Cervera’s fleet out of the harbour. Cervera led his squadron out of Santiago on July 3 and tried to escape westward along the coast. In the ensuing battle all of his ships came under heavy fire from U.S. guns and were beached in a burning or sinking condition. Santiago surrendered to Shafter on July 17, thus effectively ending the war.

By the Treaty of Paris (signed Dec. 10, 1898), Spain renounced all claim to Cuba, ceded Guam and Puerto Rico to the United States, and transferred sovereignty over the Philippines to the United States for $20,000,000. The Spanish-American War was an important turning point in the history of both antagonists. Spain’s defeat decisively turned the nation’s attention away from its overseas colonial adventures and inward upon its domestic needs, a process that led to both a cultural and a literary renaissance and two decades of much-needed economic development in Spain. The victorious United States, on the other hand, emerged from the war a world power with far-flung overseas possessions and a new stake in international politics that would soon lead it to play a determining role in the affairs of Europe.

World War II

Posted on December 5, 2007 by admin

Abovee: Map of World War II

In the aftermath of World War I, the United States attempted to disengage itself from European affairs. The U.S. Senate rejected American membership in the LEAGUE OF NATIONS, and in the 1920s American involvement in European diplomatic life was limited to economic affairs.

Moreover, the United States dramatically reduced the size of its military in the postwar years, a measure widely supported by a public increasingly opposed to war. Events in Europe and Asia in the 1930s and early 1940s, however, made it impossible for the United States to maintain a position of neutrality in global affairs.

Gathering of the Nazi Party

Above: The Nazi Party gathering

Rise of the Nazi Party and German Aggression

After its defeat and disarmament in World War I, Germany fell into a deep economic decline that ultimately led to the rise to power of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party during the 1930s. The Nazis rearmed the nation, reentered the Rhineland (1936), forced a union with Austria (1938), seized Czechoslovakia under false promises (1938), made a nonaggression pact with Russia to protect its eastern frontier (1939), and then overran Poland (September 1939), bringing France and Great Britain into the war as a consequence of their pledge to maintain Polish independence. In May 1940 a power thrust swept German troops forward through France, drove British forces back across the English Channel, and compelled France to surrender. An attack on England, aimed to deny use of Britain as a springboard for reconquest of the Continent, failed in the air and did not materialize on land. Open breach of the nonaggression treaty was followed by a German invasion of Russia in June 1941.

Naval Battle in World War II

Above: Naval war between US and Japan During WWII (1941-1945)

Prior to America’s formal entry into war, the United States assisted France and Britain by shipping tanks and weapons. The United States turned over naval destroyers to Britain to hold down the submarine menace and itself patrolled large areas of the Atlantic Ocean against the German U-boats, with which U.S. ships were involved in prewar shooting incidents. The United States also took over rights and responsibilities at defense bases on British possessions bordering the Atlantic.

German Army Invading Poland

Above: German Army invading Poland in the year 1939 0f world war II

In 1940 the U.S. course was mapped by rapidly passing events. The German invasions of Norway, Denmark, Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France triggered American actions. In his Chicago speech of 1937, President Franklin D. Roosevelt had promised to quarantine aggressors. In his Charlottesville, Virginia, speech on 10 June 1940, he went further. He not only indicted Germany’s new partner, Italy, but also issued a public promise of help to “the opponents of force.” In June also he assured himself of bipartisan political support by appointing the Republicans Frank Knox and Henry L. Stimson to head the Navy and War Departments, respectively.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt

Above: President Franklin Roosevelt signing the Selective Service and Training Act on September 16, 1940

The Selective Service and Training Act of 1940 instituted peacetime conscription for the first time in U.S. history, registering sixteen million men in a month. In August 1941 Roosevelt and the British prime minister, Winston Churchill, met at Argentia, Newfoundland, to formulate war aims; with their staffs they delved into overall strategy and war planning. For the first time in U.S. history the country was militarily allied before a formal declaration of war. At this meeting the ATLANTIC CHARTER was established. In September 1941 the draft act was extended beyond its previous limit of one year-even though by the slim margin of a single vote in Congress-and the full training, reorganization, and augmentation of U.S. forces began.

Map of Japan Sneak Attack in Pearl Harbor

Above: Map showing Japanese sneak attack against Pearl Harbor

Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor

During the Nazi buildup in Germany, Japan had been fortifying Pacific islands in secret violation of treaties, encroaching on China in Manchuria and Tientsin in 1931 and in Shanghai in 1932, starting open war at Peking in 1937, and thereafter, as Germany’s ally, planning further conquests.

The United States opposed this Japanese expansion diplomatically by every means short of war, and military staff planning began as early as 1938 for the possibility of a two-ocean war. American policymakers determined that the nation’s security depended on the survival of the British Commonwealth in Europe and the establishment in the Pacific of a U.S. Navy defense line that must run from Alaska through Hawaii to Panama.

On 7 December 1941, a sneak attack by Japanese carrier-based planes surprised and severely crippled the U.S. fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, dooming American forces in the PHILIPPINES. Japan was now free to expand into Southeast Asia and the East Indies, toward Australia. On 8 December, Congress declared war on Japan, and on 11 December it responded to war declarations from Italy and Germany-allied to Japan by treaties-by similar declarations put through in a single day of legislative action in committees and on the floor of both houses of Congress.

Below: US battleship sinks in the sudden air-attack of Japanese in Pearl Harbor

Battleship Sinks in Pearl Harbor Attack

Before the month of December was out, Churchill was again in Washington, bringing with him military and naval experts for what has been called the Arcadia conference. Within weeks Washington had created the Combined Chiefs of Staff, an international military, naval, and air body that was used throughout the war to settle strategy, establish unified command in the separate theaters of war, and issue strategic instructions to theater commanders.

Bombing in Germany

Above: Allied Aircraft dropping bombs in Germany

Organization, Preparation, and Strategy

Almost immediately after the declaration of war, under the first WAR POWERS ACT, the United States began a reorganization and expansion of the army and the navy, including the National Guard already in federal service. Increasing numbers of reservists were called to active duty, not as units but as individuals, to fill gaps in existing units, to staff the training centers, and to serve as officers in new units being formed. Additional divisions were created and put into training, bearing the numbers of World War I divisions in most cases, but with scarcely any relation to them in locality or in personnel of previously existing reserve divisions. New activities were created for psychological warfare and for civil affairs and military government in territories to be liberated or captured. The air force also underwent a great expansion, in personnel, in units, and in planes. Notable was the creation and shipment to England of high-level, precision daylight bombing units, which worked with the British to rain tons of bombs on enemy centers. Later they assisted the invasions and major attacks. Disrupting German factories and rail lines and weakening the entire German economy, the bombing campaign was extremely important in Hitler’s downfall. The armed forces of the United States, in general, expanded their strength and put to use a host of details in tactics and in equipment that had been merely experimental in the preceding years. From new planes to new rifles, from motorization to emergency rations, from field radio telephones to long-range radar, progress was widespread.

In addition to new concepts of operation and new and improved mechanized matériel, there was an all-out popular war effort, a greater national unity, a greater systematization of production, and, especially, a more intense emphasis on technology, far surpassing the efforts of World War I. The U.S. effort would truly be, as Churchill predicted after the fall of France in 1940, “the new world with all its power and might” stepping forth to “the rescue and liberation of the old.”

Picture of Sewell Avery

Above: President Sewell Avery of Montgomery Ward 1944 removed from his office due to disobedience of National War Labor Board rules.

In an unprecedented burst of wartime legislative activity, Congress passed the Emergency Price Control Act and established the War Production Board, the NATIONAL WAR LABOR BOARD, the Office of War Information, and the Office of Economic Stabilization. Critical items such as food, coffee, sugar, meat, butter, and canned goods were rationed for civilians, as were heating fuels and gasoline. Rent control was established. Two-thirds of the planes of civilian airlines were taken over by the air force. Travel was subject to priorities for war purposes. There was also voluntary censorship of newspapers, under general guidance from Washington.

Plane on Aircraft Carrier

Above: Picture of a plane on aircraft-carrier vessel

There was special development and production of escort vessels for the navy and of landing craft-small and large-for beach invasions. There was a program of plane construction for the air force on a huge scale and programs for the development of high-octane gasoline and synthetic rubber. Local draft boards had been given great leeway in drawing up their own standards of exemption and deferment from service and at first had favored agriculture over industry; soon controls were established according to national needs. By 1945 the United States had engaged more than sixteen million men under arms and improved its economy.

Picture of George C. Marshalls

Above: Picture of Gen. George C. Marshall

The grand strategy, from the beginning, was to defeat Germany while containing Japan, a strategy maintained and followed by the Combined Chiefs of Staff. The strategy was closely coordinated by Roosevelt and Churchill-except on one occasion when, in the early summer of 1942, Admiral Ernest J. King (chief of naval operations) and General George C. Marshall (army chief of staff) responded to the news that there would be no attempt to create a beachhead in Europe that year by suggesting a shift of U.S. power to the Pacific. Roosevelt promptly overruled them.

World War II Pacific Campaign Map (Philippine Islands)

Above: World War II Pacific Campaign Map (Philippines)

Campaign in the Pacific

Almost immediately after the strike at Pearl Harbor, the Japanese invaded the Philippines and overran American garrisons on Guam and Wake Island in late December. They soon captured Manila and then conquered the U.S. forces on the Bataan peninsula by April 1942, along with the last U.S. stronghold on Corregidor on 6 May. Japan then feinted into the North Pacific, easily seizing Attu and Kiska in the Aleutian Islands, which it held until March 1943.

Gen. Douglas MacArthur had been pulled out of the Philippines before the fall of Corregidor and sent to Australia to assume responsibility for protecting that continent against Japanese invasion, increasingly imminent since Singapore and Java had been taken. With great skill, MacArthur used American and Australian forces to check Japanese inroads in New Guinea at Port Moresby. He also used land and sea forces to push back the Japanese and take the villages of Buna and Sanananda, although not until January 1943. To block a hostile thrust against MacArthur’s communications through New Zealand, marine and infantry divisions landed in the Solomon Islands, where they took Guadalcanal by February 1943 after bitter, touch-and-go land, sea, and air fighting.

US Army Led by Gen. Douglas MacArthur(Center)

Above: US Army led by Gen. Douglas MacArthur(Center) inspecting beachhead on Leyte, Philippines.

Almost concurrently, the navy, with marine and army troops, was attacking selected Japanese bases in the Pacific, moving steadily westward and successfully hitting the Marshall Islands at Eniwetok and Kwajalein, the Gilberts at Makin and Tarawa, and-turning north-the Marianas at Guam and Saipan in June and July 1944. To assist the army’s move on the Philippines, the navy and the marines also struck westward at the Palau Islands in September 1944 and had them in hand within a month. American control of the approaches to the Philippines was now assured. Two years earlier, in the Coral Sea and also in the open spaces near Midway, in May and June 1942, respectively, the U.S. Navy had severely crippled the Japanese fleet. MacArthur’s forces returned in October 1944 to the Philippines on the island of Leyte. Their initial success was endangered by a final, major Japanese naval effort near Leyte, which was countered by a U.S. naval thrust that wiped much of the Japanese fleet. U.S. forces seized Manila and Corregidor in February 1945, thus bringing to a successful conclusion the BATAAN-CORREGIDOR CAMPAIGN.

Marines Captured Iwo Jima from Japanese

Above: Marines landed in and captured Iwo Jima Island from the Japanese

American land and sea forces were now in position to drive north directly toward Japan itself. Marines had landed on Iwo Jima on 19 February and invaded Okinawa on 1 April, both within good flying distance of the main enemy islands. The Japanese navy and air force were so depleted that in July 1945 the U.S. fleet was steaming off the coast of Japan and bombarding almost with impunity. Between 10 July and 15 August 1945, forces under Adm. William F. Halsey destroyed or damaged 2,084 enemy planes, sank or damaged 148 Japanese combat ships, and sank or damaged 1,598 merchant vessels, in addition to administering heavy blows at industrial targets and war industries.

Fighter Planes

Above: Fighter Planes at the Air Base of China

Until the island hopping brought swift successes in 1944, it had been expected that the United States would need the China mainland as a base for an attack on Japan. The sea and land successes in the central and western Pacific, however, allowed the United States, by the spring of 1945, to prepare for an attack on Japan without using China as a base.

Gen. Douglas MacArthur

Above: Picture of General Douglas MacArthur

This situation was the result of three major factors: (1) the new naval technique of employing the fleet as a set of floating air bases, as well as for holding the sea lanes open; (2) the augmentation and improvement of U.S. submarine service to a point where they were fatal to Japanese shipping, sinking more than two hundred enemy combat vessels and more than eleven hundred merchant ships, thus seriously disrupting the desperately needed supply of Japanese troops on the many islands; and (3) MacArthur’s leapfrogging tactics, letting many advanced Japanese bases simply die on the vine. Not to be overlooked was MacArthur’s personal energy and persuasive skill.

Map of Italy Invasion in World War II

Above: Map of Italy Invasion in World War II

Campaigns in Africa and Italy

Pressures, notably from Russian leaders, began building early in the war for an invasion of the European mainland on a second front. Because of insufficient buildup in England for a major attack across the English Channel in 1942-even for a small preliminary beachhead-U.S. troops were moved, some from Britain with the British and some directly from the United States, to invade northwest Africa from Casablanca to Oran and Algiers in November 1942. After the long coastal strip had been seized and the temporarily resisting French brought to the side of the Allies, British and American forces under the command of Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower pushed east. The Germans were reinforced and concentrated. Sharp and costly fighting by air, army, and armor attacks and counterattacks, notably in February 1943 at the Kasserine Pass, ended with the Allied conquest of Tunisia and a great German surrender at Tunis, Bizerte, and Cape Bon. Meanwhile, at the CASABLANCA CONFERENCE in late January, Roosevelt and Churchill called for the “unconditional surrender” of the Axis powers. It would be a war to the finish, not a negotiated, temporary peace.

Map of Italy (Inland) in World War II

Above: Map of Italy (Inland) in World War II

The next step was an invasion of Sicily, using large-scale parachute drops and perfected beach-landing skills, as a step toward eliminating Italy from the war. In September, Italy proper was invaded, the British crossing the Strait of Messina and the Americans landing at Salerno near Naples. Five days later, Italy surrendered, but the Germans occupied Rome and took control of the Italian government. After a long check midway up the “boot” of Italy on a line through Cassino, a dangerous landing was made at Anzio. Fierce German counterattacks there were stopped, and a following breakthrough carried U.S. forces past Rome, which fell on 4 June 1944. In July the Allied forces pushed through to the line of Florence and the Arno River, the British on the east and the Americans on the west. Thereafter, although some British and American advances were made and a final offensive in April 1945 sent American troops to the Po Valley, Italy ceased to be the scene of major strategic efforts; the theater was drained to support the Normandy invasion, in southern France.

Seaborne Reached Normandy

Above: Seaborne reached the shoreline of Normandy

Invasion At Normandy and the Liberation of France

For the principal invasion of France, an inter-Allied planning staff had been created in March 1943 in London. In May the first tentative attack date was set, for early May of the following year, in what was called Operation Over-lord. The buildup of units and supplies proceeded steadily for nearly a year, aided by improved successes against German submarines targeting seagoing convoys. Finally, after several weeks of delays, on 6 June 1944-popularly known as D DAY-the greatest amphibious invasion in history was launched across the English Channel, involving more than 5,300 ships and landing craft. It was a huge, carefully and intricately coordinated land, sea, and air action, with a precisely scheduled flow of reinforcements and supplies. The Germans anticipated that the Allies would land at Calais, so the landings along the Normandy coast caught the Germans completely by surprise.

Soldier killed in combat at Omaha Beach

Above: Soldier killed in combat at Omaha Beach

The battle on the Normandy beaches on 6 June was vicious, particularly at Omaha Beach, where U.S. troops encountered stubborn German resistance. By nightfall the Allies had established a beachhead on the French coast, and within weeks they drove from the Normandy coast deep into the French countryside. Thick hedgerows provided the Germans with excellent defensive terrain, but relentless Allied aerial bombardment and a flank attack by U.S. infantry and tanks, under the command of Gen. George Patton, split the German lines.

Picture of General Omar Bradley

Above: Picture of General Omar Nelson Bradley

The Germans reacted to this penetration by finally drawing their reserve Fifteenth Army out of the Calais area, where it had been held by an Allied ruse and the threat of a second beach landing there. They struck directly west across the American front to try to cut off the leading U.S. troops who had already begun entering Brittany. This German effort was blocked by General Omar Bradley’s forces. Relentless Allied attacks shattered German resistance in northern France and on 25 August Paris fell to American divisions with scarcely a battle.

Allied Forces Occupying Southern France

Above: Allied Forces occupying Southern France

The Germans retreated rapidly and skillfully for the distant frontier and their defense lines, except where they at points resisted the British in order to try and hold the seaports along the northern coast. While these events were taking place, a landing had been made in southern France on 15 August 1944, by a Franco-American force under U.S. command. It swept from the Riviera up the Rhone Valley and joined U.S. forces that had come east across northern France from Normandy. By September Brest fell into U.S. hands, and a German army in southwest France had surrendered, completely cut off. France was almost completely liberated from German occupation.

American Troops in Ardennes Forest at Bulge

Above: American troops in Ardennes Forest in the region of Belgium and Luxembourg.

Battle of the Bulge and German Surrender

In the fall of 1944, Allied forces began the invasion of Germany, which many observers believed tottered on the brink of collapse. On 16 December, however, the Germans launched a sweeping counterattack that caught American and British forces completely by surprise. In several days of intense fighting, the outcome of the Battle of the Bulge hung in the balance. On Christmas Eve, however, an American counterattack sent German forces reeling. American air bombardments turned the German retreat into a crushing rout. The Battle of the Bulge was the Germans’ final major effort of the war. They had used up their last major resources and had failed.

Allied Air Forces

Above: Allied air forces on strike

Through large-scale production and mass transportation, the U.S. air forces in Europe had been built to high strength so that they could take severe losses and still defeat the enemy. From bases in Britain and from bases successively in North Africa and Italy, American bombers had struck at the heart of the German economy. Through large-scale air raids, like those on Ploesti, Romania, a decisive proportion of German oil refinery production was disabled. German planes and tanks faced severe fuel shortages. German fighter planes, beaten back by the British in 1940, were later cut down by the Americans’ heavily armed bombers and their long-range fighter escorts. Except for a short, sharp, and costly new campaign in the final month of 1944, German planes had ceased to be a serious threat. At the same time, to aid the ground troops, the U.S. fighter-bombers were taking to the air under perilous conditions over the Ardennes. German flying bombs (V-1s) and rocket bombs (V-2s) had continued to blast Britain until their installations were overrun in late March 1945, but they had no effect on ground operations or on air superiority as a whole.

Rhine River Bridge

Above: Rhine River Bridge Collapsed

In February 1945 the American armies struck out into the Palatinate and swept the German forces across the Rhine. The enemy forces destroyed bridges as they crossed-all but one. On 7 March an advanced armored unit of the U.S. First Army approached the great railway bridge at Remagen, downstream from Koblenz, found it intact, dashed over it, tore the fuses from demolition charges, and drove local Germans back. Troops were hustled over the bridge for several days before it collapsed from damage, but by then pontoon bridges were in place.

German Soldiers Captured at Ruhr Pocket

Above: German soldiers captured in Ruhr pocket near Gummersbach, Germany

Avoiding the heavily wooded Ruhr region in the center, the previously planned northern crossing of the Rhine was effected with navy, air, and parachute help on 2 March 1945; all arms drove directly eastward into Germany while the First and Third Armies drove eastward below the Ruhr, the First Army soon swinging north through Giessen and Marburg to make contact at Paderborn and Lippstadt with the northern force. More than 300,000 Germans were thus enclosed in the Ruhr pocket.

German Army Collapsed and Surrendered

Above: Portrait of victory celebration for the downfall of Germany’s Military Potency

Germany’s military strength had now all but collapsed. The British on the American left raced toward Hamburg and the Baltic. The U.S. First Army pressed through to Leipzig and met the Russians on 25 April 1945 at Torgau on the Elbe River, which had been established at the YALTA CONFERENCE as part of the post hostilities boundary with Russia. The U.S. Third Army dashed toward

Gen. Alfred Jodl of Germany

Above: Gen. Alfred Jodl of Germany signing the unconditional surrender document

Bavaria to prevent possible German retreat to a last stand in the south. The southernmost flank of the American forces swung southward toward Austria at Linz and toward Italy at the Brenner Pass. The U.S. Seventh Army, on 4 May, met the Fifth Army at Brenner Pass, coming from Italy, where German resistance had likewise collapsed. Germany asked for peace and signed its unconditional surrender at Allied headquarters at Reims on 7 May 1945.

Atomic Explosion in Hiroshima, Japan

Above: Atomic bomb explosion in Hiroshima, Japan (August 6, 1945)

Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki; Japanese Surrender

Progress in the Pacific theater by this time had been substantial. U.S. ships and planes dominated sea and air close to Japan. Troops were soon to be redeployed from the European theater. Protracted cleanup operations against now-isolated Japanese island garrisons were coming to a close. American planes were bombing Tokyo regularly. A single raid on that city on 9 March 1945 had devastated sixteen square miles, killed eighty thousand persons, and left 1.5 million people homeless, but the Japanese were still unwilling to surrender. Approved by Roosevelt, scientists working under military direction had devised a devastating bomb based on atomic fission. A demand was made on Japan on 26 July for surrender, threatening the consecutive destruction of eleven Japanese cities if it did not. The Japanese rulers scorned the threats. President Harry S. Truman gave his consent for the use of the atomic bomb, which was dropped on Hiroshima on 6 August, killing 75,000. There were more warnings, but still no surrender. On 9 August, Nagasaki was bombed. Two square miles were devastated, and 39,000 people were killed. Five days later, on 14 August, the Japanese agreed to surrender. The official instrument of surrender was signed on 2 September 1945, on board the battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay.

Below: Picture of damage caused by the atomic bomb explosion

Damage Caused of The Atomic Bomb Explosion

State of Hiroshima, Japan after impact & boy suffers from a radiation burn

The defeat of the Axis powers did not resolve all of the geopolitical issues arising from World War II. The spirit of amity among the Allied powers collapsed shortly after the war, as the United States and the Soviet Union rapidly assumed a position of mutual hostility and distrust. Germany was divided in half by the Allied victors, with West Germany aligned with the United States and East Germany with the Soviet Union. The United States also established security pacts with Japan and Italy, bringing them within the American defense shield against the Soviets. Ironically, therefore, during the Cold War the United States found itself allied with the former Axis nations and found itself at odds with its former ally, the USSR. Not until 1990, when the COLD WAR finally came to an end with the collapse of the Soviet Union, was Germany reunited as one nation.

INDO-PAKISTANI WAR OF 1971

Posted on December 5, 2007 by admin

Map of Kashmir Region

Above: Map of Kashmir Region

It was a major war between India and Pakistan, which finally led to the Bangladesh Liberation War or the Pakistani Civil War. Exact dates are under dispute. The battle in western India from 3rd to 16th December 1971 is termed the Indo-Pakistani war by both India and Bangladesh. Within two weeks Pakistan suffered a humiliating defeat.

Picture of Sheik Mujibur Rahman

Above: Picture of Sheik Mujibur Rahman

LIBERARTION WAR OF BANGLADESH:
The Bangladesh Liberation War was the main cause behind the Indo-Pakistani conflict. The former was an outburst of the tensions between the dominant West Pakistanis and the majority of Bengalis in East Pakistan. Sparks began to fly with the victory of the Awami League in the 1970 elections in Pakistan. It won 167 of the 169 seats in East Pakistan thus securing a simple majority in the 313-seat Lower House of the Pakistani Parliament. Mujibur Rahman, the leader of the Awami League presented six points and claimed the right to form a government. The leader of Pakistan’s Peoples Party, Bhutto, refused to allow Mujibur Rahman to become the Prime Minister and President Yahya Khan summoned military action – the military largely consisting of men from West Pakistan.

Awami League in protest march

Above: Awami League protest march

Dissidents began to be arrested en masse and East Pakistani soldiers and police personnel began to be disbanded. There were strikes and non-cooperation movements and soon the military began to take action on Dhaka from the night of 25th March 1971. The Awami League was declared illegal and several members fled to exile. Mujib was arrested and taken to West Pakistan. On 27th March 1971, Ziaur Rahman, a Major in the Pakistani army rebelled and declared the independence of Pakistan on behalf of Mujibur. The exiled Awami League leaders formed a government in exile in April in Badyanathtola of Meherpur. The East Pakistan Rifles, an elite paramilitary forced, defected and extended support the new government. The Bangladesh Army took shape with the support of civilian guerillas.

Refugees fleed passing through dead brethren

Above: Refugees fleed, walking through dead brethren

LIBERATION WAR OF BANGLADESH – INDIA’S INVOLVEMENT:
Indira Gandhi, the then Prime Minister of India, extended full support to Bangladesh on 27th March 1971. Bangladesh-India border came to be opened. Frightened citizens ran to India for shelter. The Indian provinces of West Bengal, Bihar, Assam, Meghalaya and Tripura opened border refugee camps. Exiled Bangladeshi officers and Indian volunteers immediately set about to recruit and train freedom fighters of the Mukti Bahini guerillas.
With the intensification of massacres on East Pakistan, an estimated 10 million refugees fled to India starting of a chain of economic and social instability in the host country. The USA, an old friend and ally, continued to materially help West Pakistan.

Picture of Indira Ghandi - The First Lady Prime Minister in India

Above: Picture of Indira Ghandi - First lady Prime Minister in India

In the middle of 1971 Indira Gandhi began diplomatic maneuvers by touring Europe. She was able to win over both UK and France to block USA in any pro Pakistani moves in the UN. Gandhi’s trump card was the signature of a 22-year treaty of friendship and cooperation with the Soviet Union. A stunned USA saw India given the assurance that China would not be involved in the conflict. So far China had been giving moral support to Pakistan but little in terms of military aid. China did not move her troops further into India.

Mukti Bahini - Freedom Fighters of India

Above: Formation of the freedom fighters Mukti Bahini

Meanwhile activities of the Mukti Bahini began to tell upon the Pakistani Army. But the swell of refugees rushing to India turned into a tide causing immense pressure. India became more involved by supplying weapons and training to the Mukti Bahini and began to take part in the shelling of East Pakistani targets.

Above: map of Pakistan and its border from India and Iran (click map to enlarge)

INDIA’S OFFICIAL ENGAGEMENT WITH PAKISTAN:
By November there was a huge build up of Indian forces on the border. War seemed imminent. India was just waiting for the rains to cease to allow for freer movement. Moreover snow and ice would close the mountain passes thus stalling Chinese intervention. On 23rd November Yahya Khan declared Emergency asking the people to be ready for war.

Submarine operation

Above: Picture of submarine in operation

Sunday 3rd December – in the evening Pakistan attacked eight air fields in northwest India. The inspiration behind this operation was Israeli success in the Arab-Israel Six Day War. The lesson gained was to strike without warning. But in this case the Indians were ready. The raid proved a failure. In a counter attack the Indians proved their superiority. In the east India joined hands with the Mukti Bahini to form the Mitro Bahini (Allied Forces) and an impressive air, sea and land attack was made on East Pakistan.

Massacre under Yahya Khan’s reign

Above: Massacre during the reign of Yahya Khan

Yahya Khan swiftly tried to capture territory in the western zone so as to be in a bargaining position in the east. For Pakistan’s very existence as a united country the operation in the western zone was of vital importance. India however made rapid gains in the west by capturing 5,500 square miles of Pakistani territory. As a gesture of goodwill, by the Simla Agreement of 1972 India returned to Pakistan the regions she had gained in Pak occupied Kashmir and Pakistan-Punjab. India’s involvement in the Bangladesh war of liberation gave the deathblow to Pakistan’s existence in the eastern region.

“The Indian Army merely provided the coup de grace to what the people of Bangladesh had commenced–active resistance to the Pakistani Government and its Armed Forces on their soil.”

Indian Air Force assault in Pakistan

Above: Indian Air Force assault in Pakistan

The Indian Navy proved its superiority in the ocean by successfully carrying out Operation Trident – which was an assault on the Pakistani seaport of Karachi. Two of Pakistan’s Destroyers and one Minesweeper were destroyed in Operation Python. The Indian Navy made its presence felt in the Bay of Bengal also. The Indian Air Force conducted 4,000 sorties in the west but its counterpart in Pakistan could hardly retaliate. This was because hitherto the technical personnel had mainly been Bengalis. Another reason for defeat was that the PAF, riddled with losses because of its eastern operations was in no position to further worsen matters. In the east the small air contingent of PAF no 14 squadron was easily destroyed giving Indian Air Force undisputed mastery of the air space. Within only a fortnight Pakistan was brought to its knees. The Pakistani forces surrendered on 16th December. On 17th December India announced a unilateral cease-fire to which Pakistan agreed.

Picture of President Richard Nixon

Above: Picture of US former President Richard Nixon

INVOLVEMENT OF AMERICA AND SOVIET UNION:
Pakistan was supported politically and materially by USA. Nixon, backed by Kissinger was afraid of Soviet plans towards the south and southeast. Pakistan was close to China, with whom USA was looking for a rapprochement. A visit was scheduled for February 1972. Nixon reasoned that Indian victory over West Pakistan would lead to total influence of Soviet Union. It would seriously harm the global image of America as well as its new ally – China. In order to prove its credentials to China, Nixon directly violated the US congress imposed bans on Pakistan and sent military support via Jordan and Iran. Parallel to this action China was encouraged to supply arms to Pakistan. The Nixon administration turned a blind eye to reports about genocide in East Pakistan and even ignored the ‘blood telegram.’

US 7th fleet Aircraft Carrier heading to the Bay of Bengal

Above: US 7th fleet Aircraft Carrier heading to the Bay of Bengal

When no doubt remained about Pakistan’s defeat Nixon sent a naval ship, USS Enterprise to the Bay of Bengal on 11th December 1971. It was interpreted by India to be a nuclear threat. On 6th and 13th December, the Soviet Union dispatched from Vladivostok, two groups of ships containing nuclear arms as well as a submarine. From 18th December to 7th January 1972 the Soviet ships trailed the US task force.

Above: Map of Bangladesh with troop and refugee route movements (click map to enlarge

Bangladesh had won the sympathies of the Soviet Union. The Communist country gave support to the Indian Army as well as to the Mukti Bahini. Soviet Union had reasoned that the independence of Bangladesh would weaken both USA and China. Therefore India was assured of Soviet Union’s support in the Indo-Soviet friendship treaty of August 1971.

Soldiers and Civilian brutally murdered during the war

Above: Soldier and Civilian brutally murdered during the war

RESULTS:
The immediate result was the surrender of Pakistan to the Mitro Bahini – joint forces of Bangladesh and India. Secondly Bangladesh was born as an independent nation – being the third largest Muslim country in the world. Pakistan’s military became demoralized and Yahya Khan had to resign. Bhutto replaced him. Released from West Pakistani prison, Mijibur Rahman returned to Dhaka on 10th January 1972. Approximately one to three millon people were killed during the war. Some however put the toll lower at 300,000.
Faced with imminent and sure defeat, on 14th December the Pakistani army together with local cohorts killed Bengali doctors, teachers and other intellectuals as part of their programme against Hindu minorities. The latter made up the majority of urban educated elite. Young men, seen as potential rebels, especially students were also targeted.

Picture of Indian Soldiers in prison

Above: Picture of Indian Soldiers in prison

A Pakistani stamp was issued showing 90,000 prisoners of war in Indian camps to of globalize the issue. Pakistan had to pay a heavy price in terms of man and money power. Tariq Ali in ‘Can Pakistan Survive/’ says that the country lost half its navy, quarter of its air force and a third of its army. India took about 93,000 prisoners of war including Pakistani soldiers and East Pakistani quislings. Some were family members of the military or Bihari razarkars. Of these 79,676 were uniformed – the break up being as follows:

1. Army – 55,692
2. Paramilitary – 16,354
3. Police – 5,296
4. Navy – 1,000
5. Air Force – 800

Below: Stamp imprinted with an image of prisoners

Stamp imprinted with prisoners image

Since the last World War this was the largest surrender. Initially India wanted to try them for war crimes and brutality in East Pakistan but ultimately they were released as a goodwill gesture. As part of the hand-shaking mood and desire for lasting peace, in the Simla Agreement about 13000 square kilometers of territory was returned to Pakistan.

IMPORTANT DATES:
• March 7, 1971: Declaration by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman that, “The current struggle is a struggle for independence”, in a public meeting attended by almost a million people in Dhaka.
• March 25, 1971: Start of Operation Searchlight to eliminate any resistance. In Dhaka thousands are killed in student dormitories and police barracks
• March 26, 1971: Major Ziaur Rahman declares independence over the radio from Chittagong. Indian radio stations relay the message globally.
• April 17, 1971: Provisional government formed by exiled Awami League leaders
• December 3, 1971: West Pakistan launches a series of preemptive air strikes on Indian airfields. Officially the war between the two countries begins.
• December 14, 1971: Pakistan army starts systematic extinction of intellectuals and quislings.
• December 16, 1971: Lieutenant-General A. A. K. Niazi, supreme commander of Pakistani Army in East Pakistan, surrenders to the Allied Forces (Mitro Bahini) represented by Lieutenant General Aurora of Indian Army. Bangladesh gains independence.

INDO-PAKISTANI WAR OF 1965

Posted on December 5, 2007 by admin

Map of Pakistan during the Second Kashmir War

Above: Map of Pakistan during the Second Kashmir War

The Indo-Pakistani War of 1965, or Second Kashmir War, was the culmination of a series of hostilities that occurred between April 1965 and September 1965 between India and Pakistan. The war was the second one fought between India and Pakistan over Kashmir, the first having been fought in 1947. The war lasted for five weeks, resulted in thousands of casualties on both sides and it ended in a United Nations (UN) ordered ceasefire.

Scene during the Second Kashmir war

Above: Scene during the Second Kashmir War

It is generally accepted that the war began following the failure of Pakistan’s Operation Gibraltar’ which was designed to infiltrate and invade Jammu and Kashmir. Land forces along the International Border running in Kashmir between India and Pakistan mainly fought the war. The air forces of both countries also participated. This war saw the largest amassing of troops. This number was overshadowed only during 2001/2002 standoffs. Many details remain unclear and riddles with media biases.

Above: Runn of Kutch - region of mudflats and salt marshes in western India and southern Pakistan (click map to enlarge)

A declassified US Sate department telegram confirms the existence of innumerable ‘infiltrators’ in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. This was just before the 1965 war.
Fighting broke out in the barren region of the Rann of Kutch in Gujarat province.
Initially border police broke into skirmishes but it soon escalated into a full scale armed operation starting from 20th March and then again from April 1965. In June that year, British Premier Harold Wilson persuaded both countries to cease hostilities and set up a tribunal to resolve disputes. The verdict in 1968 saw Pakistan gaining only 350 square miles/900 square kilometers of the against Pakistan’s original claim of 3500 square miles.

Picture of Field Marshal Ayub Khan

Above: Picture of Field Marshal Ayub Khan

The success in the Rann of Kutch made Pakistan under General Ayub Khan believe that India would not be able to stand up to a quick military campaign in Kashmir following her defeat in the Indo-Chinese war in 1962.Pakistan also thought that the general public of Kashmir were discontented with Indian rule and as such only a few infiltrators could easily spark off a resistance movement. The code name for this was ‘Operation Gibraltar’. Pakistan expressed concerns of Indian attempts to absorb Kashmir (a state under dispute) by articles 356 and 357 of the Indian Constitution by which President’s Rule could be declared. However lack of support from its ally the USA, with whom had been signed an Agreement of Cooperation, took Pakistan by surprise. Refusing to aid Pakistan the USA cut off military supplies to both sides. Indian troops took control of Pakistan’s vital link – the Ichhogil Canal.

Indian Troops occupied and captured Haji Pir pass during Indo-Pakistani War 1965

Above: Indian Troops occupied and captured Haji Pir pass during Operation Gibraltar in Indo-Pakistani War 1965

The war
Crossing the cease-fire line India launched an attack on Pakistan-administered Kashmir marking the official start of the war. Pakistan reported this attack to be an unprovoked one. India said that it was in response to a massive armed infiltration. Initially India met with considerable success in the northern sector of Kashmir. Prolonged artillery barrage led to the capture of three important mountain positions. However by the end of the month both sides were on even footing. Pakistan had made gains in Tithwal, Uri and Punch. India had captured the Haji Pir Pass, eight km inside Pakistan-occupied territory. Following the failure of Operation Gibraltar, Pakistan launched a bold counter attack on 1st September 1965 to reclaim vital posts in Kashmir previously lost to India. This attack, known as ‘Operation Grand Slam’ was intended to capture the strategic town of Akhnoor in Jammu. Vital supply lines of the Indian army would have been cut off. Attacking with much superior troops and tanks Pakistan sprung a surprise and India suffered heavy losses. India now used air attacks on Pakistani southern sector. Pakistan retaliated in the air against both Kashmir and Punjab regions. But Pakistani ground forces were unable to follow up the advantage and capture any town. Operation Grand Slam failed. The tide turned. India kept the heat on and attacked further south.

Bridge accross Ichhogil Canal destroyed by Pakistan Army before retreating

Above: Bridge accross Ichhogil Canal destroyed by Pakistan Army before retreating

On 6th September India crossed the Western International Border (IB). Some claim this to be the official start of the war. Under World War II veteran, Major General Prasad, the 15th infantry of the Indian army battled a massive counter attack by Pakistan near the west bank of Ichhogil Canal (BRB Canal) which was the de facto border. The General’s entourage was ambushed and he was forced to flee. The second attempt to cross the canal over a bridge near Barki village, just east of Lahore, was successful. Lahore International Airport came within range of the Indian arm. Hastily USA requested a temporary cease-fire to allow evacuation of its citizens. A unit of the Jat regiment had crossed the canal and captured Batapore town (Jallo Mur to Pakistan) on the west side of the canal – thus threatening Lahore at the very start of the war.

Indian troops in Dograi village on the Ichhogil Canal, Lahore

Above: Indian troops in Dograi village on the Ichhogil Canal, Lahore

On the same day a counter offensive both on land and air (Air Force Sabers) was launched against the Indian 15th division forcing it to fall back on its starting point. 3 Jat suffered minor causalities but the bulk of the damage was borne by ammunition and stores vehicles. The higher commanders however did not know about the capture of the Jats of Batapore. Misleading information led to the withdrawal from Batapore and Dograi to Ghosal-Dial. Lt. Col Desmond Hayde, CO of 3 Jat was extremely disappointed. After a more severe struggle because of Pakistani reinforcements, 3 Jat eventually recaptured Dograi on 21st September for the second time.

Destroyed Pakistani Tanks parked in Patton Nagar

Above: Destroyed Pakistani Tanks parked in Patton Nagar

On the days following 9th September the premiere formations of both nations were routed in unequal battles. India’s 1st Armored Division known as the ‘Pride of the Indian Army’ launched an offensive towards Sialkot by dividing into two prongs. Coming under heavy Pakistani fire at Taroah it had to withdraw. Similarly Pakistan’s pride, the 1st Armored Division took up an offensive towards Khemkaran with the aim of capturing Amritsar and the bridge on the River Beas en route to Jalandhar. They could not get past Khem Karan and by 10th September lay disintegrated under the India’s 4th Mountain Division at the Battle of Asal Uttar (Real Answer). The area came to be Patton Nagar (Patton Town) as Pakistan abandoned nearly 100 tanks named Patton.

Indian Soldier corpse

Above: more casualties during the war

The war was heading for a stalemate with both nations holding territory of the other. India suffered the loss of 3000 on the field while Pakistan suffered no less than 3,800. India came to occupy 710 miles (1,840 square miles) of Pakistani territory while the latter held 210 miles (545 square miles) of Indian territory, mostly in Chumb in the north sector.

Above: Map for Dwarka’s location (click map to enlarge)

NAVAL HOSTILITIES:
Neither the Indian nor Pakistani navy had a prominent role to play in the 1965 war. Under the name of Operation Dwarka, on 7th September a Pakistani flotilla bombarded the coastal town of Dwarka, (200 miles (300 km) of Pakistan’s Karachi) and its radar station. India did not immediately retaliate but sent a fleet to patrol the region to deter further aggression.

Picture of Pakistan Army in 1965

Above: Picture of Pakistan army in 1965

Some Pakistan sources claim that one submarine, PNS Ghazi, kept an aircraft of the Indian naval aircraft carrier, INS Vikrant, under siege off Bombay throughout the war. Indian sources say that the latter did not want any naval conflict but to keep it restricted to land battles. Moreover the ship was being refitted on dry dock and was not deployed. Even Pakistan defense writers have dismissed the idea as a myth that the India Navy was kept bottled up by a single submarine! They say that 75% of the naval ships were undergoing maintenance in the harbor. There were unconfirmed reports that further south, towards Bombay, the Indian Navy attacked American-supplied submarines that were being used by Pakistan.

Picture of Indian prisoners playing three legged race inside prison camp

Above: Picture of Indian prisoners playing three-legged race inside prison camp

COVERT OPERATIONS:
Pakistan launched some secret operations to infiltrate and sabotage Indian air bases. According to Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff, General Musa Khan, about 135 commandos of the Special Services (SSG) parachuted into three airfields. The targets were Halwara, Pathankot and Adampur – all deep inside India. As such only 22 commandos made it back alive. Thus the operation failed. 93 were taken prisoners and 20 were killed by either the military, police or civilians. Even by Pakistani accounts the attempt was an ‘unmitigated disaster’ especially when one of the commanders, Major Khalid Khan, was taken captive. But Pakistan claim that it did have an impact on Indian plans. 14 divisions were diverted to hunt for the paratroopers. When the PAF found the road filled with transport they destroyed many vehicles. They attributed the failure to lack of proper maps, briefing, planning and preparation. Apprehending an Indian retaliation on Pakistani air bases, the SSG commandos fired innumerable rounds of small arms ammunition at imaginary Indian commandos!

Destroyed Pakistani M4A1 Sherman Tank

Above: Picture of a Destroyed Pakistani M4A1 Sherman Tank

INDO-PAK TANK BATTLES:

International Assessment:
The 1965 war witnessed the largest tank battles since World War II. In its Patton tank Pakistan was numerically and technically at a better advantage than India. India’s M4 Sherman tanks were not quite up to the mark in comparison to the Patton. The Pakistani Sherman tank with 90 mm guns was superior to the India Sherman tank with 75 mm guns. But the performance of Indian tank crews far outclassed their Pakistani counterparts.

Losses:
India and Pakistan hold widely divergent claims on the damage inflicted on each other. The following summarizes each nation’s claims.

	Indian claims^[18]	Pakistani claims^[19]	Independent Sources^[5][20]
Casualties	-	-	2763 Indian soldiers, 3800 Pakistani soldiers
Combat flying effort	4073+ combat sorties	2279 combat sorties
Aircraft lost	35 IAF (official), 73 PAF.Other sources^[21] based on the Official Indian Armed Forces History^[22] put actual IAF losses at 71 including 19 accidents (non combat sortie rate is not known) and PAF’s combat losses alone at 43.	19 PAF, 104 IAF	20 PAF, Pakistan claims India rejected neutral arbitration,^[23] India retorts that the neutral arbitration by John Fricker was nothing but a commissioned work. (Singh, Pushpindar (1991). Fiza ya, Psyche of the Pakistan Air Force. Himalayan Books. ISBN 8170020387. )
Aerial victories	17 + 3 (post war)	30	-
Tanks destroyed	128 Indian tanks,^[24] 152 Pakistani tanks captured, 150 Pakistani tanks destroyed.^[24] Officially 471 Pakistani tanks destroyed and 38 captured^[25]	165 Pakistan tank, ?? Indian tanks	200 Pakistani tanks
Land area won	1,500 mi² (2,400 km²) of Pakistani territory	2,000 mi² (3,000 km²) of Indian territory	India held 710 mi² (1,840 km²) of Pakistani territory and Pakistan held 210 mi² (545 km²) of Indian territory

Neutral assessments:
• USA – LIBRARY OF CONGRESS COUNTRY STUDIES
The war was at the point of stalemate when the UN Security Council unanimously passed a resolution on September 20 that called for a cease-fire. New Delhi accepted the cease-fire resolution on September 21 and Islamabad on September 22, and the war ended on September 23. The Indian side lost 3,000 while the Pakistani side suffered 3,800 battlefield deaths.”
• ‘INDIA’ – STANLEY WOLPERT
• “In three weeks the second IndoPak War ended in what appeared to be a draw when the embargo placed by Washington on U.S. ammunition and replacements for both armies forced cessation of conflict before either side won a clear victory. India, however, was in a position to inflict grave damage to, if not capture, Pakistan’s capital of the Punjab when the cease-fire was called, and controlled Kashmir’s strategic Uri-Poonch bulge, much to Ayub’s chagrin.”

Picture of the Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Sashtri

Above: Picture of Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri

Ceasefire:

On 22nd September United Nation’s Security Council asked of both nations to an uncontrolled cease-fire. The war ended on the 23rd. Kosygin of the Soviet Union brokered it at Tashkent (now in Uzbekistan) in the presence of India’s Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri and Pakistan’s Ayub Khan. Both countries were to withdraw to Pre-August lines not later than 25th February 1966. The criticism leveled against the agreement by hardliners in Pakistan was that the leaders had surrendered military gains. It was mainly the media in Pakistan, which highlighted this point. One of the recent books authored by an exISI chief of Pakistan titled ‘the Myth of 1965 Victory’ allegedly exposed Pakistani fabrications about the war. But being a ‘too sensitive’ issue its sale was blocked.

Fighter Planes lined up in Ambala Air Base at India

Above: Fighter Planes lined up in Ambala Air Base at India

India reported a number of ceasefire violations and alleged that Pakistan took advantage of it to capture the Indian village of Chananwalla in the Fazilka sector. It was recaptured on 25th December. On 10th October a B-57 Canberra of Pakistan was hit by 3 SA2 missile fired from Ambala air base of India. Pakistan claims that the pilot, Rashid Meer somehow flew it back but the nature of the damage was such that the plane was written off. On 16th December A Pakistani Armu Auster was shot down killing an army Captain. Again on 2nd February 1967 an AOP was shot down by the IAF.

The cease-fire was maintained for six years with relative peace reigning between the two neighbors. But in 1971 war broke out again.

General J.N. Chaudhuri presents silver replica of a Patton tank to Air Chief Marshal Arjan Singh

Above: Picture of General J.N. Chaudhuri presenting silver replica of a Patton tank to Air Chief Marshal Arjan Singh

The stalemate continued due to miscalculations by both nations. India failing to apprehend the presence of heavy Pakistani concentrations in Chumb, suffered losses. The ‘Official History of the 1965 War’ by the India’s Ministry of Defense had been kept suppressed mainly because it outlined the intelligence and strategic blunders of India. On 22nd September, when the Security Council, was talking of cease-fire the Indian Prime Minister was asking General Chaudhuri that by delaying acceptance of the offer could the war be won? The reply was that most of frontline ammunitions had been exhausted and many tanks had been lost. But later it was found that only 14% of the frontline ammunition had been fired and India still had double the number of tanks compared to Pakistan. On the other hand at that point Pakistan had exhausted nearly 80% of its ammunition. P.C.Lal the then Air Chief Marshal referred to the lack of coordination between the Indian army and air force. The war plans chalked out by the Defense Ministry and General Chaudhuri did not assign a specific role to the Air Force. Lal caustically termed Chaudhuri’s attitude as ‘Supremo Syndrome’. The Indian army seemed to have a patronizing attitude towards the other divisions of the armed forces.

Location of Sialkot and Lahore - Punjab Province Map

Above: Location of Sialkot and Lahore (Punjab Province Map)

PAKISTANI MISCALCULATIONS:
Pakistan’s failure started from the very beginning with the basic assumption that the Kashmiri people were so dissatisfied that they would spontaneously rise and revolt against India. All that was required was a spark. But on the contrary they leaked the information to the Indian Army about Operation Gibraltar who came to know that they were fighting not insurgents but the regular Pakistani army. Then again Pakistan failed to apprehend the possibility of India attacking the southern sector and opening up another front. So instead of penetrating further into Kashmir they had to rush to protect Sialkot and Lahore. Thirdly Operation Grand Slam intended to capture the strategic town of Akhnur lying to north east of Jammu to cause communication disruptions also failed. Many have blamed Ayub Khan for this wavering attitude. He knew very well that Akhnur was a jugular vein to India but he did not want a full-scale war on his hands. For some unexplained reason at a crucial moment he replaced the commanding Major General Akhtar Hussain Malik by General Yahya Khan. During the 24-hour lull India got enough time to recoup in Akhnur and successfully oppose an attack by Yahya Khan. “The enemy came to our rescue” said the Western Command Chief of Staff of India. Some are of the opinion that Pakistan might have been lured into the battlefield by war games conducted in March 1965 at the Institute of Defense Analysis, USA from which they concluded that in the event of a war Pakistan would come out victorious. Authors like Stephen Philip Cohen opine that Pakistan had an exaggerated idea of India’s military weakness. The 1965 War was a tremendous shock. Nur Khan, the then Pakistani Air Marshal and Commander-in-Chief that Pakistan and not India was to be blamed for starting the war. However propaganda continued in Pakistan against the leadership and not against intelligence failures. Till the debacle of 1971 this state continued when Pakistan was humbled and Bangladesh was carved out of it.

More human lives lost in the war

Above: More Innocent lives lost in Indo-Pak War

RESULTS:
Tension persisted after the indecisive war. Pakistan however had suffered more in terms of material and human loss. Many historians opine that if the war had continued Pakistan would have been finally humbled. Indians were unhappy with India’s decision to accede to the cease-fire at a crucial point when victory was within its grasp. Another consequence was that both sides considerably increased their defense spending. Cold War spread its tentacles across the subcontinent. Rapid changes took place within the army in India – expansions were initiated in various commands and control departments to rectify shortcomings. The Research and Analysis wing for external espionage and information network was established. The political and military tilt in Indian was towards the Soviet Union. Prior to the Bangladesh Liberation War this bond was officially cemented. Against the background of the war against China this war was a political and strategic victory for India and her premier, Shastri, came to be hailed by his countrymen as a hero.

Cam Shots of PAF craft being shot down by an IAF Gnat

Above: Cam Shots of PAF craft being shot down by an IAF Gnat

In Pakistan however there were many who looked positively at their country’s military performance, with 6th September being observed as ‘Defense day’ – marking the successful defense of Sialkot against invaders. The air force was given greater praise than the ground forces. The myth of a hard-hitting Pakistani army blew up in smoke. However the final results were disappointing to all – Pakistan had failed in its primary objective of occupying the whole of Kashmir. Many officials began to criticize the failure of Operation Gibraltar – the direct cause for the outbreak of war. The Tashkent deal was thought of to be unkind towards Pakistan. Few cared to read the consequences of what would have happened if the agreement had fallen through. Advised by the Foreign Minister, Bhutto, Ayub Khan had raised the expectations of the people about the invincibility of Pakistan’s armed might. But the failure proved to be a liability for Ayub Khan. Opposition became more vocal. Pakistan’s economy, which had been rapidly progressing during the early 60′s, got a severe beating with the escalation of military expenses. Then Pakistan, disgruntled with the USA for having failed to give support began to slowly gravitate towards China for military aid and political support. Another fall out was the growing anger against the Pakistani government in East Pakistan. Bengali leaders blamed the government for not giving necessary security for the East although huge funds were withdrawn from this region to fund the battle. Some PAF attacks were launched from East Pakistan but India did not react to it in this area, although here there were only two infantry brigade divisions minus tank support. This had caused Mujibur Rahman to be apprehensive of the situation. He began to feel the need that the east should be more autonomous to be able to protect its own interests. This bend of thinking began to take roots and ultimately led to another war between the two neighbors in 1971.

Below: Graph for Defense Spendings and others from year 1960 and upwards

Graph for Defense Spendings and others from year 1960 upwards

World War I

Posted on December 5, 2007 by admin

Above: Map of Europe during World War I (click map to enlarge)

The United States did not enter World War I until April 1917, although the conflict had begun in August 1914. After an intense period of military buildup and imperial competition, war broke out in Europe between Germany and Austria-Hungary (the Central Powers) and Britain, France, and Russia (the Allies). Turkey quickly joined the Central Powers and Italy joined the Allies in 1915.

German U-Boats moored in the dock of Lisahally

Above: Picture of German U-Boats moored in the dock of Lisahally

Prelude to Involvement

Immediately, President Woodrow Wilson issued a declaration of neutrality. He was committed to maintaining open use of the Atlantic for trade with all the European belligerents. However, British naval supremacy almost eliminated American trade with Germany while shipments to the Allies soared. To counter this trend, German U-boats (submarines) torpedoed U.S. merchant vessels bound for Allied ports. In May 1915, Germans sunk the British passenger ship Lusitania, killing 128 Americans. Strong protest from Wilson subdued the submarine campaign, but it would emerge again as the war ground on and became more desperate. In late January 1917, Germany announced it would destroy all ships heading to Britain. Although Wilson broke off diplomatic ties with Germany, he still hoped to avert war by arming merchant vessels as a deterrent. Nevertheless, Germany began sinking American ships immediately.

Picture of Arthur Zimmerman

Above: Picture of Arthur Zimmerman

In February 1917, British intelligence gave the United States government a decoded telegram from Germany’s foreign minister, Arthur Zimmerman, that had been intercepted en route to his ambassador to Mexico. The Zimmerman Telegram authorized the ambassador to offer Mexico the portions of the Southwest it had lost to the United States in the 1840s if it joined the Central Powers. But because Wilson had run for reelection in 1916 on a very popular promise to keep the United States out of the European war, he had to handle the telegram very carefully. Wilson did not publicize it at first, only releasing the message to the press in March after weeks of German attacks on American ships had turned public sentiment toward joining the Allies.

American Expedition Force (AEF) parade in World War I

Above: American Expedition Force (AEF) parade in World War I

Gearing Up for War: Raising Troops and Rallying Public Opinion

On 2 April 1917, Wilson asked Congress for a declaration of war and four days later all but six senators and fifty representatives voted for a war resolution. The Selective Service Act that was passed the following month, along with an extraordinary number of volunteers, built up the army from less than 250,000 to four million over the course of the conflict. General John Pershing was appointed head of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) and led the first troops to France during the summer. Initially, the nation was woefully unprepared to fight so large a war so far from American soil. The task of reorganizing government and industry to coordinate a war and then of recruiting, training, equipping, and shipping out massive numbers of soldiers was daunting and would proceed slowly. The first serious U.S. military action would not come until April 1918, one year after declaration of war. It would take a gargantuan national effort, one that would forever change the government and its relationship to the citizenry, to get those troops into combat.

The Women’s Division in World War I

Above: The Women’s Division in World War I

Although there is strong evidence that the war was broadly supported-and certainly Americans volunteered and bought Liberty Bonds in droves-the epic scale of the undertaking and the pressure of time led the government, in an unprecedented campaign, to sell the war effort through a massive propaganda blitz. Wilson picked George Creel, a western newspaper editor, to form the COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC INFORMATION (CPI). This organization was charged with providing the press with carefully selected information on the progress of the war. It also worked with the advertising industry to produce eyecatching and emotional propaganda for various agencies involved in the war effort in order to win maximum cooperative enthusiasm form the public. Its largest enterprise was the Four Minute Men program, which sent more than 75,000 speakers to over 750,000 public events to rouse the patriotism of as many as 314 million spectators over the course of the war. The CPI recruited mainly prominent white businessmen and community leaders; however, it did set up a Women’s Division and also courted locally prominent African Americans to speak at black gatherings.

Shipbuilding Industry in Noank, Connecticut (1917)

Above: Shipbuilding Industry in Noank, Connecticut (1917)

Gearing Up for War: the Economy and Labor

The government needed patriotic cooperation, for it was completely unequipped to enforce many of the new regulations it adopted. It also had to maximize the productive resources of the nation to launch the U.S. war effort and prop up flagging allies. The WAR INDUSTRIES BOARD was charged with gearing up the economy to war production, but it lacked coercive authority. Even the Overman Act of May 1918, which gave the president broad powers to commandeer industries if necessary, failed to convince capitalists to retool completely toward the war effort. The government only took control of one industry, the railroads, in December 1917, and made it quite clear that the measure was only a temporary necessity. In all other industries, it was federal investment-not control-that achieved results. The EMERGENCY FLEET CORPORATION pumped over $3 billion into the nation’s dormant shipbuilding industry during the war era. Overall, the effort to raise production was too little and too late for maximizing the nation’s military clout. American production was just hitting stride as the war ended, but the threat that it represented did help convince an exhausted Germany to surrender.

Members and Employees of AFL in Labor Strike

Above: Members and Employees of AFL initiates Labor Strike

The government also sought the cooperation of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and involved its top officials in the war production effort, but very low unemployment emboldened union workers and it became difficult for the leadership to control the rank and file. Many workers connected Wilson’s war goals-democracy and self-determination for nations-to struggles for a voice in their workplaces through union representation. However, the number of striking workers was lower in 1917 and 1918 than in 1916. The government hastily created labor arbitration boards and eventually formed a NATIONAL WAR LABOR BOARD (NWLB) in April 1918. The government had considerable success in resolving disputes and convincing employers to at least temporarily give some ground to the unions. When this novel arbitration framework disappeared along with government contracts in 1919, workers participated in the largest strike wave in the nation’s history-over four million participated in walkouts during that year.

Women employed as a factory worker

Above: Women forcedly employed as a factory worker

Women and African Americans in the War

For women workers the war also raised hopes, but as with labor as a whole, they were dashed after the conflict. The number of women working as domestic servants and in laundering or garment making declined sharply during the war, while opportunities grew just as dramatically in office, industrial, commercial, and transportation work. The very limited place of women in the economy had opened up and government propaganda begged women to take jobs. However, few of these new opportunities, and even then only the least attractive of them, went to nonwhite women. Mainly confined to low-skilled work, many women were let go when the postwar economy dipped or were replaced by returning soldiers. Although women did gain, and hold on to, a more prominent place in the AFL, they were still only 10 percent of the membership in 1920. The government made some attempts through the NWLB to protect the rights of working women, although it backed off after the war. But women fought on their own behalf on the suffrage front and finally achieved the right to vote in 1920.

Victim of Race Riot in East St. Louis, Illinois (1917)

Above: Victim of Race Riot in East St. Louis, Illinois (1917)

African Americans also made some gains but suffered a terrible backlash for them. There were ninety-six LYNCHINGs of blacks during 1917 and 1918 and seventy in 1919 alone. Blacks were moving out of the South in massive numbers during the war years, confronting many white communities in the North with a substantial nonwhite presence for the first time. Northward migration by blacks averaged only 67,000 per decade from 1870 through 1910 and then exploded to 478,000 during the 1910s. This GREAT MIGRATION gave blacks access to wartime factory jobs that paid far better than agricultural work in the South, but like white women, they primarily did lowskilled work and were generally rejected by the union movement. The hatred that many of these migrants faced in the North forced them into appalling ghettos and sometimes led to bloodshed. In July 1917, a race riot in East St. Louis, Illinois, left thirty-nine African Americans dead. The recently formed NAACP championed justice and democratic rights for African Americans at a time when black soldiers were helping to guarantee them for the peoples of Europe. Although job opportunities would recede after the war, the new racial diversity outside the South would not-and neither would the fight for equal rights.

National Woman’s Party protesting against Espionage Act

Above: National Woman’s Party protesting against Espionage Act

Repression and the War

The fragility of a war effort that relied on a workforce of unprecedented diversity and on cooperation from emboldened unions led the federal government to develop for the first time a substantial intelligence-gathering capability for the purpose of suppressing elements it thought might destabilize the system. The primary targets were anti-capitalist radicals and enemy aliens (German and Austro-Hungarian immigrants). The former group was targeted through the ESPIONAGE ACT of June 1917, which was amended by the Sedition Act in May 1918 after the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia convinced the government to seek even wider powers to control public speech. The Department of Justice, through its U.S. attorneys and Bureau of Investigation field agents, cooperated with local and state authorities to suppress radical organizers. Many government agencies developed at least some intelligence capacity and the private, but government sanctioned, American Protective League recruited perhaps 300,000 citizen-spies to keep tabs on their fellow Americans. In this climate of suspicion, German-speaking aliens had the most cause to be afraid. War propaganda dehumanized Germans and blasted their culture and language. Well over a half-million enemy aliens were screened by the Department of Justice and were restricted in their mobility and access to military and war production sites. Several thousand enemy aliens deemed disloyal were interned until the conflict was over.

US Infantry marching towards Verdun

Above: US Infantry marching towards Verdun

American Soldiers in Battle

The end of the war was nowhere in sight when U.S. troops first saw significant fighting in the spring of 1918, after the new Bolshevik government in Russia pulled out of the war in March and Germany switched its efforts to the western front. Under British and French pressure, General Pershing allowed his troops to be blended with those of the Allies-ending his dream of the AEF as an independent fighting force. Now under foreign command, American troops helped stop the renewed German offensive in May and June. The First U.S. Army was given its own mission in August: to push the Germans back to the southeast and northwest of Verdun and then seize the important railroad facilities at Sedan. The campaign got under way in September and American troops succeeded in removing the Germans from the southeast of Verdun, although the latter were already evacuating that area. The MEUSE-ARGONNE OFFENSIVE to the northwest of Verdun was launched in late September and proved to be much more bloody. Although the German position was heavily fortified, well over a million American soldiers simply overwhelmed all resistance. This massive and relentless operation convinced the German command that its opportunity to defeat the Allies before American troops and industry were fully ready to enter the fray had been lost. As exhausted as the United States was fresh, the Central Powers surrendered on 11 November 1918.

Massacre at Vernun during the first world war

Abvoe: French troops died in the battle of Vernun during the first world war

In the end, two million American troops went to France and three-quarters of them saw combat. Some 60,000 died in battle and over 200,000 were wounded. An additional 60,000 died of disease, many from the influenza pandemic that killed over twenty million across the globe in 1918 and 1919. Many surviving combatants suffered psychological damage, known as shell shock, from the horrors of trench warfare. The casualties would have been far greater had America entered the war earlier or been prepared to deploy a large army more quickly.

Picture of the 28th US President Thomas Woodrow Wilson

Above: Picture of the 28th US President Thomas Woodrow Wilson

Wilson hoped that after the war the United States would become part of the League of Nations that was forming in Europe to ensure that collective responsibility replaced competitive alliances. But America was retreating inward, away from the postwar ruin and revolutionary chaos of Europe. The government was suppressing radicals at home with unprecedented furor in 1919 and 1920 in what is known as the Red Scare. Progressive wartime initiatives that further involved the government in the lives of its citizens withered against this reactionary onslaught. But the notion of government coordination of a national effort to overcome crisis had been born, and the Great Depression and World War II would see this new commitment reemerge, strengthened.

Vietnam War

Posted on December 5, 2007 by admin

Vietnam War Map

Vietnam War, fought from 1957 until spring 1975, began as a struggle between the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) supported by the United States and a Communist-led insurgency assisted by the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam). Eventually, both the United States and North Vietnam committed their regular military forces to the struggle. North Vietnam received economic and military assistance from the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China.

Vietnamese Monk

The Republic of Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, and the Philippines furnished troops to the U.S.-South Vietnamese side. With 45,943 U.S. battle deaths, Vietnam was the fourth costliest war the country fought in terms of loss of life.

The Vietnam War was a continuation of the Indochina War of 1946-1954, in which the Communist dominated Vietnamese nationalists (Viet Minh) defeated France’s attempt to reestablish colonial rule. American involvement began in 1950 when President Harry S. Truman invoked the Mutual Defense Assistance Act of 1949 to provide aid to French forces in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. Early U.S. aims were to halt the spread of Communism and to encourage French participation in the international defense of Europe.

Even with U.S. aid in the form of materiel and a Military Assistance Advisory Group (MAAG), the French could not defeat the Viet Minh use of both guerrilla warfare and conventional attacks. Ending the Indochina War, the GENEVA ACCORDS OF 1954 divided Vietnam at the seventeenth parallel with a three-mile Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). The partition in effect created two nations: the Democratic Republic of Vietnam in the north with its capital at Hanoi, and the Republic of Vietnam in the south with its capital at Saigon. Vietnam’s neighbors, Laos and

Cambodia, became independent nations under nominally neutralist governments.

The administration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower (picture below) provided aid and support to the government of Ngo Dinh Diem. The MAAG, which grew in strength from 342 personnel to nearly 700, helped Diem to build up his armed forces. In 1956, with Eisenhower’s concurrence, Diem refused to participate in the national elections called for in the Geneva Accords, asserting that South Vietnam had not acceded to the agreement and that free elections were impossible in the north, and declared himself president of the Republic of Vietnam.

Dwight_Vietman

During the first years of his rule, Diem, assisted by the MAAG, American civilian advisers, and by $190 million a year in U.S. financial aid, established effective armed forces and a seemingly stable government. He defeated or co-opted South Vietnamese rivals, resettled some 800,000 Catholic refugees from North Vietnam, initiated land reform, and conducted a campaign to wipe out the Viet Minh organization that remained in the south. Although strong on the surface, however, Diem’s regime was inefficient and riddled with corruption. Its land reform brought little benefit to the rural poor. Commanded by generals selected for loyalty to Diem rather than ability, the armed forces were poorly trained and low in morale. The anti-Viet Minh campaign alienated many peasants, and Diem’s increasingly autocratic rule turned much of the urban anticommunist elite against him.

Anticipating control of South Vietnam through elections and preoccupied with internal problems, North Vietnam’s charismatic leader, Ho Chi Minh, at first did little to exploit the vulnerabilities of the southern regime. Nevertheless, Ho and his colleagues were committed to the liberation of all of Vietnam and had accepted the Geneva Accords only with reluctance, under pressure from the Russians and Chinese, who hoped to avoid another Korea-type confrontation with the United States. In deference to his allies’ caution and to American power, Ho moved slowly at the outset against South Vietnam.

Beginning in 1957, the southern Viet Minh, with authorization from Hanoi, launched a campaign of political subversion and terrorism, and gradually escalated a guerrilla war against Diem’s government. Diem quickly gave the insurgents the label Viet Cong (VC), which they retained throughout the ensuing struggle. North Vietnam created a political organization in the south, the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam (NLF), ostensibly a broad coalition of elements opposed to Diem but controlled from the north by a Communist inner core. To reinforce the revived insurgency, Hanoi began sending southward soldiers and political cadres who had regrouped to North Vietnam after the armistice in 1954. These men, and growing quantities of weapons and equipment, traveled to South Vietnam via a network of routes through eastern Laos called the Ho Chi Minh Trail and by sea in junks and trawlers. At this stage, however, the vast majority of Viet Cong were native southerners, and they secured most of their weapons and supplies by capture from government forces.

Building on the organizational base left from the French war and exploiting popular grievances against Diem, the Viet Cong rapidly extended their political control of the countryside. Besides conducting small guerrilla operations, they gradually began to mount larger assaults with battalion and then regimental size light infantry units. As the fighting intensified, the first American deaths occurred in July 1959, when two soldiers of the MAAG were killed during a Viet Cong attack on Bien Hoa, north of Saigon. By the time President John F. Kennedy took office in 1961, it was clear that America’s ally needed additional help.

Kennedy viewed the conflict in South Vietnam as a test case of Communist expansion by means of local “wars of national liberation.” For that reason, as well as a continuing commitment to the general policy of “containment,” Kennedy enlarged the U.S. effort in South Vietnam. He sent in more advisers to strengthen Diem’s armed forces, provided additional funds and equipment, and deployed American helicopter companies and other specialized units. To carry out the enlarged program, Kennedy created a new joint (army, navy, air force) headquarters in Saigon, the Military Assistance Command,

Vietnam (MACV). The number of Americans in South Vietnam increased to more than 16,000 and they began engaging in combat with the Viet Cong.

After a promising start, the Kennedy program faltered. Diem’s dictatorial rule undermined South Vietnamese military effectiveness and fed popular discontent, especially among the country’s numerous Buddhists. An effort to relocate the rural population in supposedly secure “strategic hamlets” collapsed due to poor planning and ineffective execution. With support from the Kennedy administration, Diem’s generals overthrew and assassinated him in a coup d’etat on 1 November 1963.

Diem’s death, followed by the assassination of President Kennedy on 22 November 1963, did nothing to improve allied fortunes. As a succession of unstable Saigon governments floundered, the Viet Cong began advancing from guerrilla warfare to larger attacks aimed at destroying the South Vietnamese Army (ARVN). To reinforce the campaign, Hanoi infiltrated quantities of modern Communist-bloc infantry weapons, and in late 1964, began sending units of its regular army into South Vietnam. Kennedy’s successor, Lyndon B. Johnson, during 1964 increased American military manpower in South Vietnam to 23,300 and tried to revive the counterinsurgency campaign. However, political chaos in Saigon and growing Viet Cong strength in the countryside frustrated his efforts and those of the MACV commander, General William C. Westmoreland.

Viet Cong Shot

Johnson and his advisers turned to direct pressure on North Vietnam. Early in 1964, they initiated a program of small-scale covert raids on the north and began planning for air strikes. In August 1964, American planes raided North Vietnam in retaliation for two torpedo boat attacks (the second of which probably did not occur) on U.S. destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin. Johnson used this incident to secure authorization from Congress (the TONKIN GULF RESOLUTION) to use armed force to “repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to repel further aggression.” That resolution served as a legal basis for subsequent increases in the U.S. commitment, but in 1970 after questions arose as to whether the administration had misrepresented the incidents, Congress repealed it.

Committed like his predecessors to containment and to countering Communist “wars of national liberation,” Johnson also wanted to maintain U.S. credibility as an ally and feared the domestic political repercussions of losing South Vietnam. Accordingly, he and his advisers moved toward further escalation.

During 1964, Johnson authorized limited U.S. bombing of the Ho Chi Minh Trail. In February 1965, after the Viet Cong killed thirty-one Americans at Pleiku and Qui Nhon, the President sanctioned retaliatory strikes against North Vietnam. In March, retaliation gave way to a steadily intensified but carefully controlled aerial offensive against the north (Operation Rolling Thunder), aimed at reducing Hanoi’s ability to support the Viet Cong and compelling its leaders to negotiate an end to the conflict on U.S. terms.

At the same time, Johnson committed American combat forces to the fight. Seven U.S. Marine battalions and an Army airborne brigade entered South Vietnam between March and May 1965. Their initial mission was to defend air bases used in Operation Rolling Thunder, but in April, Johnson expanded their role to active operations against the Viet Cong. During the same period, Johnson authorized General Westmoreland to employ U.S. jets in combat in the south, and in June, B-52 strategic bombers began raiding Viet Cong bases. As enemy pressure on the ARVN continued and evidence accumulated that North Vietnamese regular divisions were entering the battle, Westmoreland called for a major expansion of the ground troop commitment. On 28 July, Johnson announced deployments that would bring U.S. strength to 180,000 by the end of 1965. Westmoreland threw these troops into action against the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese’s large military units. Taking advantage of their helicopter-borne mobility, U.S. forces won early tactical victories, but the cost in American dead and wounded also began to mount and the enemy showed no signs of backing off.

Additional deployments increased American troop strength to a peak of 543,400 by 1969. To support them, MACV, using troops and civilian engineering firms, constructed or expanded ports, erected fortified camps, built vast depots, paved thousands of miles of roads, and created a network of airfields.

Desiring to keep the war limited to Vietnam, President Johnson authorized only small-scale raids into the enemy bases in Laos and Cambodia. As a result, in South Vietnam, General Westmoreland perforce fought a war of attrition. He used his American troops to battle the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong regular units while the ARVN and South Vietnam’s territorial forces carried on the pacification campaign against the Viet Cong guerrillas and political infrastructure. As the fighting went on, a stable government emerged in Saigon under Nguyen Van Thieu. These efforts, however, brought only stalemate. Aided by Russia and China, the North Vietnamese countered Operation Rolling Thunder with an air defense system of increasing sophistication and effectiveness. In South Vietnam, they fed in troops to match the American buildup and engaged in their own campaign of attrition. While suffering heavier losses than the U.S. in most engagements, they inflicted a steady and rising toll of American dead. Pacification in South Vietnam made little progress. The fighting produced South Vietnamese civilian casualties, the result of enemy terrorism, American bombing and shelling, and in a few instances-notably the MY LAI MASSACRE of March 1968-of atrocities by U.S. troops.

In the U.S., opposition to the war grew to encompass a broad spectrum of the public even as doubts about America’s course emerged within the administration. By the end of 1967, President Johnson had decided to level off the bombing in the north and American troop strength in the south and to seek a way out of the war, possibly by turning more of the fighting over to the South Vietnamese.

Late in 1967, North Vietnam’s leaders decided to break what they also saw as a stalemate by conducting a “General Offensive/General Uprising,” a combination of heavy military attacks with urban revolts. After preliminary battles, the North Vietnamese early in 1968 besieged a Marine base at Khe Sanh in far northwestern South Vietnam. On the night of 31 January, during the Tet (Lunar New Year) holidays, 84,000 enemy troops attacked seventy-four towns and cities including Saigon. Although U.S. intelligence had gleaned something of the plan, the extent of the attacks on the cities came as a surprise.

Viet Cong units initially captured portions of many towns, but they failed to spark a popular uprising. Controlling Hué for almost a month, they executed 3,000 civilians as “enemies of the people.” ARVN and U.S. troops quickly cleared most localities, and the besiegers of Khe Sanh withdrew after merciless pounding by American air power and artillery. At the cost of 32,000 dead (by MACV estimate), the TET OFFENSIVE produced no lasting enemy military advantage.

In the United States, however, the Tet Offensive confirmed President Johnson’s determination to wind down the war. Confronting bitter antiwar dissent within the Democratic Party and a challenge to his renomination from Senator Eugene McCarthy, Johnson rejected a military request for additional U.S. troops and halted most bombing of the north. He also withdrew from the presidential race to devote the rest of his term to the search for peace in Vietnam. In return for the partial bombing halt, North Vietnam agreed to open negotiations. Starting in Paris in May 1968, the talks were unproductive for a long time.

Taking office in 1969, President Richard M. Nixon continued the Paris talks. He also began withdrawing U.S. troops from South Vietnam while simultaneously building up Saigon’s forces so that they could fight on with only American advice and materiel assistance. This program was labeled “Vietnamization.”

Because the Viet Cong had been much weakened by its heavy losses in the Tet Offensive and in two subsequent general offensives in May and August 1968, the years 1969-1971 witnessed apparent allied progress in South Vietnam. The ARVN gradually took on the main burden of the ground fighting, which declined in intensity. American troop strength diminished from its 1969 peak of 543,400 to 156,800 at the end of 1971. The allies also made progress in pacification. American and South Vietnamese offensives against the enemy sanctuaries in Cambodia in April and May 1970 and an ARVN raid against the Ho Chi Minh Trail in February 1971 helped to buy time for Vietnamization. On the negative side, as a result of trends in American society, of disillusionment with the war among short-term draftee soldiers, and of organizational turbulence caused by the troop withdrawals, U.S. forces suffered from growing indiscipline, drug abuse, and racial conflict.

In spring 1972, North Vietnam, in order to revive its fortunes in the south, launched the so-called Easter Offensive with twelve divisions, employing tanks and artillery on a scale not previously seen in the war. In response, President Nixon, while he continued to withdraw America’s remaining ground troops, increased U.S. air support to the ARVN. The North Vietnamese made initial territorial gains, but the ARVN rallied, assisted materially by U.S. Air Force and Navy planes and American advisers on the ground. Meanwhile, Nixon resumed full-scale bombing of North Vietnam and mined its harbors. Beyond defeating the Easter Offensive, Nixon intended these attacks, which employed B-52s and technologically advanced guided bombs, to batter Hanoi toward a negotiated settlement of the war. By late 1972, the North Vietnamese, had lost an estimated 100,000 dead and large amounts of equipment and had failed to capture any major towns or populated areas. Nevertheless, their military position in the south was better than it had been in 1971, and the offensive had facilitated a limited revival of the Viet Cong.

Both sides were ready for a negotiated settlement. During the autumn of 1972, Nixon’s special adviser, Henry A. Kissinger, and North Vietnamese representative Le Duc Tho, who had been negotiating in secret since 1969, reached the outlines of an agreement. Each side made a key concession. The U.S. dropped its demand for complete withdrawal of North Vietnamese troops from South Vietnam. Hanoi abandoned its insistence that the Thieu government be replaced by a presumably Communist-dominated coalition. After additional diplomatic maneuvering between Washington and Hanoi and Washington and Saigon, which balked at the terms, and after a final U.S. air campaign against Hanoi in December, the ceasefire agreement went into effect on 28 January 1973.

Under it, military prisoners were returned, all American troops withdrew, and a four-nation commission supervised the truce. In fact, the fighting in South Vietnam continued, and the elections called for in the agreement never took place. During 1973 and 1974, the North Vietnamese, in violation of the ceasefire, massed additional men and supplies inside South Vietnam. Meanwhile, the Nixon administration, distracted by the WATERGATE scandal, had to accept a congressional cutoff of all funds for American combat operations in Southeast Asia after 15 August 1973.

Early in 1975, the North Vietnamese, again employing regular divisions with armor and artillery, launched their final offensive against South Vietnam. That nation, exhausted by years of fighting, demoralized by a steady reduction in the flow of American aid, and lacking capable leadership at the top, rapidly collapsed. A misguided effort by President Thieu to regroup his forces in northern South Vietnam set off a rout that continued almost unbroken until the North Vietnamese closed in on Saigon late in April. On 21 April, President Thieu resigned. His successor, General Duong Van Minh, surrendered the country on 30 April. North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops entered Saigon only hours after the U.S. completed an emergency airlift of embassy personnel and thousands of South Vietnamese who feared for their lives under the Communists. Hanoi gained control of South Vietnam, and its allies won in Cambodia, where the government surrendered to insurgent forces on 17 April 1975, and Laos, where the Communists gradually assumed control.

The costs of the war were high for every participant. Besides combat deaths, the U.S. lost 1,333 men missing and 10,298 dead of non-battle causes. In terms of money ($138.9 billion), only World War II was more expensive. Costs less tangible but equally real were the loss of trust by American citizens in their government and the demoralization of the U.S. armed forces, which would take years to recover their discipline and self-confidence. South Vietnam suffered more than 166,000 military dead and possibly as many as 415,000 civilians. North Vietnamese and Viet Cong deaths amounted to at least 937,000. To show for the effort, the U.S. could claim only that it had delayed South Vietnam’s fall long enough for other Southeast Asian countries to stabilize their noncommunist governments.

INDO-PAKISTANI WAR OF 1947

Posted on December 5, 2007 by admin

Map of Kashmir

Above: Map of Kadish Region

The Indo-Pakistani War of 1947, also known as the first Kashmir War was fought from 1947 to 1948. The dispute was over a certain part of Kashmir.

First Kadish War Action

Above: Scene of the First Kadish War Action (1947)

Jammu and Kashmir was one of the many Indian states recognized by the British. Both India and Pakistan laid claims to the state. The Maharaja of Kashmir, Hari Singh wanted to remain independent by deploying dilatory tactics.

State of Indian subcontinent after British haste exit

Above: State of Indian subcontinent after British haste exit

At the time of British withdrawal the state was occupied by the pro-Pakistani tribals from the North West Frontier Province as well as by Pakistani troops. This forced the Maharaja to opt for India and the latter rushed troops into the region. Thus the war began. Till date Pakistan claims that since the majority are Muslims Pakistan has a better claim to it. But India says that 48% belong to other communities like Sikhs, Buddhists and Hindus etc.

Dogra officers slaughtered during the war

Above: Dogra officers slaughtered during the war

The advantage was apparently with the Pakistani supported local paramilitary known as the Azad Kashmir force. Azad means ‘free’. Pakistan was of the view that with the increase in hostilities the ratio in favour of Pakistan would increase. Before the war the forces of Jammu and Kashmir were spread around the border as a response to militant activity. The British were suspected of having a hand in the arrest and murder of a Dogra Officer in the Gilgit region for supporting the tribal Islamic factions.

Animation of Middle-East cease-fire definition

Above: Animation of Middle-East cease-fire definition

By 1948 the fronts of both India and Pakistan had solidified with neither side having got much of an advantage. Support for Azad Kashmir became gradually more overt. Cease-fire was declared on 31st December 1948. By the end of the war India had been able to take possession of two thirds of Kashmir.

Below: The flag of Azad Kashmir

The flag of Azad Kashmir

Warchat Online Forum

Just another WordPress site

Tag Archives: War History

ARAB ISRAEL WAR – 1948-1949

The American Civil War

GULF WAR

The Spanish – American War

World War II

INDO-PAKISTANI WAR OF 1971

INDO-PAKISTANI WAR OF 1965

World War I

Vietnam War

INDO-PAKISTANI WAR OF 1947