3. ALLIED OPERATIONAL CAPACITY
Historians tend to view the Second World War predominantly through the prism of strategic decisions and fighting at the coalface, when an arguably more important consideration is how combatant nations marshal their resources. I’ve recently been looking at a photograph of tanks being loaded onto landing ships before the Allied invasion of Sicily in July 1943 (above). It suggests exactly what it is: a demonstration of immense materiel power and wealth. What is so astonishing is that, at the start of the war, neither Britain nor the United States had much of an army and both had comparatively small air forces – very small in the case of the US. Yet in four years, they had grown exponentially and were fighting equally in the air, on land and at sea, on a truly global scale. They were also providing materiel support to the Soviet Union.
That the United States became the arsenal of democracy is reasonably well known, but the speed with which it achieved this is less understood. Nor is it much known that Britain’s military growth was also extremely impressive – to the tune of 132,500 aircraft, for example, and providing 31 per cent of all supplies to the US in the European theatre of operations. Lend-Lease cut both ways.
Key to this was prioritisation, which was dictated by a very clear goal or endgame, and brought research, development and production into very sharp focus. In contrast, both Germany and Japan were, after initial gains, caught in a production spiral from which they simply could not recover. Food and fuel were their biggest shortages, but materiel failure ran across the board. Japan didn’t sink the aircraft carriers at Pearl Harbor, and Germany didn’t win the Battle of Britain; while Britain and the US were still fighting, their materiel power – their ‘big war’ strategy – meant victory was assured.
James Holland is a historian and author. He is currently working on a new book about the 1943 Sicily campaign
Food, materiel and fuel shortages for the Axis powers ran across the board