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by Emery Pugh

The 1900s were a period of military technological revolution. The airplane changed the scope of warfare and was constantly improved upon since its invention. Radar and sonar were introduced during WWII. Battleships gained more and more firepower and had cannons that could launch projectiles farther and farther. Aircraft carriers were emerging as an extremely important asset in naval tactics. So how did the airplane and the warship impact World War II?

Air forces and navies were used as auxiliaries to enhance ground operations. If you had naval or air parity with another country, it meant that neither country was able to destroy enough air or naval assets of the enemy to gain an advantage. Superiority meant that you could attack enemy ground troops with little worry of opposition, and supremacy meant total control – you could do whatever you intended in that realm with almost no resistance because you had destroyed all or nearly all of the enemy’s assets (planes or ships) in that realm and their industrial capability to produce more. Air power was used to target the enemy’s industrial capacity by using strategic bombers, such as the Boeing B-29 Superfortress (see image below). Tactical and attack bombers could provide valuable support to land operations, and fighters patrolled the skies to attempt to shoot down enemy bombers and other fighters. Naval power could be used to bombard coastal military bases and industrial factories. Each type of ship was generally specialized for one or two purposes. The main types of ships are: aircraft carriers, which were used as mobile airbases, battleships to counter surface threats with their immense firepower, battlecruisers as a lighter and more mobile version of a battleship, destroyers for scouting and neutralizing enemy submarines, cruisers mainly for anti-air with some surface combat elements, submarines for stealth and surprise, and support ships for resupplying oil, food, and other resources.

How did each military of the six major powers in World War II – the United States, Great Britain, the Soviet Union, Germany, Italy, and Japan – use air and naval power? The Germans had huge initial successes against its neighbors with its army-focused military, though they did have an air force and a navy. The German Luftwaffe, the name for the German air force, was highly lethal at the beginning of the war. The German Kriegsmarine (the German navy) consisted primarily of U-Boats, also called submarines. Despite how effective the Germans were against its neighbors like France, though, they couldn’t seem to dominate Great Britain or any of the other Allied powers the same way. That’s because the German military could only fight efficiently against enemies a short distance away. The German air force did not have very many long-ranged bombers like the United States or Great Britain. In fact, they did not build a single four-engine bomber throughout the entire war. Once they realized the importance of aircraft carriers and how far behind they were in the production of aircraft carriers, the Germans started mass-producing hundreds of submarines to compensate for the lack of aircraft carriers. Not the right move.

Militarily, Italy usually took a back seat to Germany. For the Italians, the main battlefront was in North Africa against the British and later the Americans as well. Italy’s navy and air force didn’t play a major role, but the navy was mainly used to protect supply routes and maintain superiority in the Mediterranean. Both Italy’s navy and air force were outmatched by the British and Americans in technology and coordination. Italian officers were often overly cautious because of Italy’s limited resources available to produce military assets.

Japan’s naval strategy was aimed at one goal: to defeat the American Pacific Fleet as fast as possible. Japan knew that they would lose in a war of attrition against the United States, since the U.S. had far more industrial capacity. To begin with, Japan actually had a more powerful navy and air force, in terms of numbers. The Japanese not only had industrial shortcomings, but also the lack of the ability to train enough pilots. Japan used island bases as “unsinkable” yet immobile aircraft carriers. These islands created a ring of defense for the Home Islands. Yet they had a major problem: they could not supply their military with enough fuel and across such great distances between the Pacific islands and their sources of oil. However, American submarines intervened in Japanese shipping routes to disrupt their stratagem. Japan’s air strategy was built on surprise and quick yet sharp strikes, like at Pearl Harbor. Later in the war, Japan shifted to a more defensive stance and opted for kamikazes (suicide by crashing into enemy ships with planes). They hoped that enough people would be willing to sacrifice themselves for the survival of Japan and the kamikazes would be successful so as to sink a sufficient number of American ships to have a chance at winning the war.

The Soviet Union did not have a major air force or navy. About 80% of their military personnel were in the army. Russia did not have motivation to have a sizable navy or air force, since the only goal of their military was to stop Germany from taking Moscow. They were more likely to invest their resources into making an artillery unit or a tank than a strategic bomber or a battleship, for example.

Great Britain had the largest and most powerful navy going into World War II. The Royal Air Force (RAF) was also arguably superior to all other air forces. Britain’s approach to fighting the war was defensive for the first couple years. Its air force engaged the German Luftwaffe in the famous Battle of Britain, successfully preventing the Germans from launching an invasion of the British Isles. The RAF launched strategic bombing campaigns against the Axis Powers in Europe (primarily Germany) and provided intelligence on German troop movements. Elements of the RAF were stationed across the world (mostly in Europe), such as Norway and Greece, to help defend those countries from Germany and Italy. Their navy was critical in protecting transport ships from their colonies, such as Canada, Australia, and India. Near the end of the war, combined British and American naval forces gained naval supremacy (complete control over the seas) in relation to the European Axis powers, which allowed them to execute Operation Overlord, also known as the amphibious landing at Normandy or D-Day.

Last but certainly not least, we come to the United States of America. The United States entered World War II with a comparatively small constable force to the major European powers, since they had no reason to have a large military – it’s not like the U.S. was planning to invade Canada or Mexico, and we didn’t want to get involved in WWII, although we sympathized with the Allies. At the outset of the war, the United States had around 1.4 million active-duty troops. After WWII, that number increased to over 12 million, which was the largest mobilization ever performed in the history of warfare. America’s air force had only around fifteen hundred planes when they entered World War II in 1941. Four years later, they had a staggering 80,000 planes. Similarly, the American Navy also experienced rapid expansion in the extreme: in 1941, the United States had approximately 790 ships and 8 aircraft carriers. At the end of WWII, they had a mind-blowing 6,800 ships and over 100 aircraft carriers, an unimaginable industrial feat. The naval tonnage (how much the navy weighs) of the United States exceeded that of Great Britain, France, the Soviet Union, Germany, Italy, and Japan combined after 1945. Yet a highly productive economy was not the only reason why the United States was able to become such a great military power. While Japan’s admirals had vaunted reputations due to the empire Japan had established in the Pacific, they did not adapt to the new style of naval warfare that was taking hold. Admiral Yamamoto’s tactics were based on outdated and conventional teachings. He wished to engage the Americans in classic style with battleships. On the contrary, most American admirals, such as Chester A. Nimitz and later Arleigh Burke, recognized the importance of aircraft carriers and preferred more mobile ships such as destroyers over the clunky and slow battleship. In both the European and Pacific theaters, the United States supported ground operations (in the Pacific, U.S. Marines to take islands) and had strategic bombing campaigns to destroy the Axis Powers’ ability to produce enough naval and air assets to fight back.

So, going back to one of our original questions, was air and naval power worth it? For the United States alone, approximately 90,000 airmen and 62,000 naval crewmen died. Hundreds of thousands of airmen and naval crewmen died from all countries engaged in World War II. More than 20,000 ships and submarines were sunk, and over 100,000 aircraft were destroyed. Accounting for modern day inflation, the budget for WWII was over $4.1 trillion for all countries combined. Air and naval power accounted for a significant portion of that amount. Despite all that, in my opinion, air and naval power was worth it. Because without it, the Allies would likely not have won World War II. Many lives were lost, but at the same time, many lives were saved. If air and naval power were not as preeminent as they were, ground forces would have to fight many more fierce battles, resulting in far more casualties than what actually happened.

You might be thinking: if air and naval power reduced casualties, why does World War II have the most casualties of any war, including World War I? That’s a good question. To explain the immense amount of death and injuries, you can turn to Germany and Japan. The German and Japanese armies were not just conventional armies; they were slaughtering machines, instructed to kill anyone in sight whether in a military uniform or not. Approximately nineteen million Russian civilians were killed by the Germans (excluding the 8 million military deaths), and around 15-20 million Chinese civilians were killed by the Japanese (this estimate varies: some say around 7 million, others as high as 50 million). Russia and China weren’t the only places of mass killing, though. Japan committed war crimes all around the Pacific, killing millions from whatever territory they happened to conquer. Germany had thousands of infamous concentration camps, where millions of people were sentenced to death (primarily Jews). As you can see, a major part of deaths in World War II were not caused by battles. Air and naval power, in the end, saved lives.

I’ll wrap it up with one of the most debated subjects in World War II: the droppings of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Some think of it as an inhumane war crime. Others call it a show of power to scare the Soviet Union. Still others think it was used as a method to quickly end the war. Yet another viewpoint argues that it was a way of getting back at the Japanese for Pearl Harbor and the other atrocities the Japanese committed. There are countless different perspectives on this topic, but I don’t agree with any of those listed above. Japan had refused to surrender for months and stated that they would fight until the end. The United States had three options: execute a ground invasion of Japan, continue to fire-bomb the Home Islands, or drop nuclear weapons. A ground invasion of Japan could potentially cost tens of millions of lives (especially due to the suicidal nature of Japanese soldiers and civilians), and fire-bombing Japan would similarly cost millions of lives. The atomic bombs killed at most half a million people (accounting for deaths caused by aftereffects), which stands in sharp contrast when compared with the other two options. Nobody supports the use of nuclear weapons, and half a million lives is still a lot, but there was no other better option at the time. The U.S. dropped the second bomb only because Japan still refused to surrender. Based on this reasoning, I think the real motive of the United States dropping the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was simply to save lives.