The Radar and World War II

Antiaircraft in the early twentieth century comes out of a rich pedigree of coastal defense and to a lesser degree field artillery. To trace air defense artillery’s

On December 7, 1941, it was just a typical Sunday morning for the citizens of the Hawaiian island, Oahu. Most of the island was still asleep. There were, however, only a few navy men at their base, Pearl Harbor, and likewise, just a few air force men at the air corps base at Hickam field. Both bases were aware of a large group of B-17s coming towards the island. However, neither base took many actions to defend against the incoming plane because they mistook them as another false alarm of which there had lately been many.1 Unfortunately, this was not going to turn out to be a false alarm. In fact, it was going to turn out to be what was known as the “turning point of the twentieth century” in America 2 and would lead the U.S. into joining the second world war.

The Battle at Midway was a critical turning point of the war in the Pacific during World War II. Attribution to American success is in direct relation to their ability to conduct signal collection and crypto-analysis leading to the battle. The elimination of this capability from consideration during the preparation for this battle will drastically influence the outcome. Through critical reasoning and battle analysis, this paper will determine the level of effect of the capability. The analysis will also seek to understand the change in outcome as a result of this change to history. The product of this analysis will be a thorough understanding of the importance of intelligence capability to United States success during World War II.

Initially, most enemy threats came from the sea, where the Coast Artillery protected our beach fronts since the 1907. It wasn’t until the invention of the first air plane where the United States no longer had any safe sea fronts. It is there where the Triple-A came about, by dividing the Coast Artillery into two different entities. One remained on the major dock fronts, while the other mobile units would play a tremendous turning point in World War II and set an outline for the future of Air Defense Artillery.

Introduction On December 7th of 1941 one of the most critical events on America’s history occurred, the surprise attack by the Japanese on Pearl Harbor, which brought the United States into the Second World War and changed the course of history (Gordon). This occurrence marked history due to the lack of explanation given by the Japanese at the time. To this day the reasoning behind their attack is still unknown. 1939 is a fundamental year, which marks the start of World War II.

Over the course of World War II’s extensive history, one of the key events that shaped the United States’ future was the catastrophic bombing of Pearl Harbor. The following investigation being conducted shall determine to what extent was Pearl Harbor responsible for the United States’ further involvement in World War II. To determine the degree of Pearl Harbor’s significance, this evaluation will analyze key aspects in the United States’ path to war; particularly, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Washington D.C.’s ideas on the expanding war overseas, Japan’s own internal conflicts and views of power, and ultimately the conflicting American-Japanese relations. Pursuing the investigation further, the main sources that will be used Roberta Wohlstetter’s Pearl Harbor: Warning and Decision and Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Pearl Harbor Address to the Nation. In addition, other various sources will also be used to provide context and support to expand on Pearl Harbor’s degree of responsibility on the United States and World War II.

After World War II, America continued to increase their defense to avoid more losses like the Pearl Harbor incident that killed 2,300 Americans and destroyed ships and aircraft. Furthermore, the Cold War raised the demand to increase the American defense system. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, the supreme commander of the Allied Forces during WWII and two-term President, was concerned about the sudden growth and cost of the American defense system. During his “Farewell Address,” Eisenhower addressed his concerns about keeping the peace, the creation of numerous weapons for the national defense, and how scientific and technologic development becomes a powerful and unregulated tool.

World War II was and most likely will be the largest and most great war to ever appear on this earth. Although it brought so much death and destruction with a striking total of over 60 million deaths, it is also the deadliest conflict to ever have happened as well. Out of all the horror that was WWII it did create a lot of advancements like the boost in advancements in technology. As well there were great social changes in the United States. Also there were significant boosts in medical sciences. There were economical advancements in the United States. Finally there were advancements in world peace never seen before. Though war should never be defined as good, World War II created many beneficial advancements for the United States and the world.

A 1998 abstract review for military training by Paul J. Jaeger reflects to the importance of “the application of operational intelligence as a function of operational art” and how the “Planning and execution for the Midway operation required fusion of strategic operational and tactical intelligence by the commanders involved; most notably Admiral Chester Nimitz” (Jaeger, pg 22). The strategy employed was to act immediately and tactically to the intelligence the commanders received from the code breakers. David J. Jerabek also “analyzes Admiral Nimitz strategic leader competencies and evaluates his contributions in achieving a total victory in the Pacific for the Allied powers” (Jerabek)

Change is often something that everyone in this universe experiences at one time or another. Change can include and new technical, social, or organizational changes and or revisions. For the purpose of this paper, the technical, social, and organizational changes that occurred in the United States from 1865-1945 will be discussed to a great extent. Usually with change comes a new type of power. For the paper, the reasons for these drastic changes will be used to explain why the American government got so powerful. The first part of the essay will focus on three distinct advances in American way of life. The three items that will be discussed will be the battery developed by Edison for Submarines, The new sights for bombers, and the birth of IBM. After the conclusion of the first part of the paper, the paper will shift gears into explaining why the American government got to be a massive power. By the end of the paper, a thorough understanding of this subject matter will be established.

On 7 December 1941, the Japan Naval fleet launched a precise and devastating bombing of Pearl Harbor, which stunned the United States. The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor to neutralize the U.S. Pacific Naval Fleet, so they could advance into Malaya and the Dutch East Indies to access natural resources to further their war effort. However, the Pearl Harbor bombing became an everlasting memory to Americans. Two little known contributors to this event had a profound effect on the planning and execution of the attack. This paper will explore the actions of Bernard Julius Otto Kuehn and Takeo Yoshikawa, two spies who initially went undetected to collect intelligence on the U.S. Naval fleet, and how their actions affected the U.S.

The technology of World War II, which lasted from 1939 to 1945, was a big part of the determination of the outcome of the war. Much of the technology was developed during the interwar years. Some of it was developed because of failure and hindrance in war progression, obviously because of inefficient technology. Still some was in the beginning stages of development as the war ended. Though earlier war greatly utilized science, mathematics, and innovation, World War II had the largest impact on the innovation in technology of the current lives of Americans. Furthermore, no war, preceeding or succeeding, was as profoundly affected by science, mathematics, and technology as World War II. Science and technology have always made

A paper submitted to the faculty of the Naval War College in partial satisfaction of the requirements of the Department of Joint Military Operations

William Pollard once said, "Learning and innovation go hand in hand. The arrogance of success is to think that what you did yesterday will be sufficient tomorrow." Maybe the generals of World War 1 (WW1) should have been told this when they used cavalry when they were outdated and rifles and machine guns were the weapons of this war. They found this out the hard way which sparked the time of technological innovations and changes that was WW1. The three technological innovations I will write about are machine guns, planes and tanks.

The necessities of World War II placed significant demands on Allied and Axis powers to increase war production and make advances in technology. Successes in these advances resulted in the conquest of other territories at various times throughout the war. For example, the investment placed by the Nazis on a mechanized infantry enabled the success of their “blitzkrieg” strategy and allowed German forces to quickly capture much of Western Europe. Nazi investments were also placed on the production of u-boats, advances in aircraft, and the encoding of wartime communications. On the Pacific front, the Japanese occupied many strategic islands with their powerful navy and determined troops, making it difficult for the Allied powers to advance.