Northern Africa during the years 1942 and 1943, was the place where America began acting as a great power in the military, strategic, tactical and diplomat, with the battle of Hill 609, where the U.S. Army came of age. It was the first joint Anglo-American season, excelling in its complexity, risks and daring to achieve strategic surprise and with the battles of Midway in the Pacific and Stalingrad in Russia, got the Axis forces lost the lead for good in the GM-II. They started to show the importance of leadership and boldness, of speed, cunning and tenacity, appear the names of the great generals in this war: Eisenhower, Patton, Bradley, Montgomery, Rommel, Kesselring ... There came the reality of the principle of command. "No general can perform the tasks of his army, if it dominates the soul of his men." On 1 September 1939 GM-II began that lasted díaas 2174.
A great event altered the provisions of this war. On December 7 the Japanese carriers launched 366 fighters in a spectacular attack on the American Pacific Fleet based at Pearl Harbor, sinking or dañande 20 24oo battleships and killing Americans. In solidarity with its Japanese ally, Hitler and Mussolini declared war on the U.S. .. I think that was the biggest miscalculation of Hitler. "I learned that the U.S. was engaged in the war to the neck," Churchill wrote later. "I went to bed and slept the sleep of the saved and thankful." In September 1939, the U.S. Army was, after Romania, in seventh place global in size and combat capability.
construction of its armed forces was compared with the reconstruction of a Diplodocus from a femur and four vertebrae, and began with the enlistment of sixteen million men in the fall of 1940. Soon the new recruits said that the army would not examined, was limited to pass list. A recruit must have a minimum height of five feet and weighing not less than fifty kilos, must have at least twelve of his thirty-two teeth, do not have flat feet, hernias or venereal diseases. Of every hundred men were rejected forty. Was completed to incorporate parents, offenders and under eighteen años.Se had rejected nearly two million men for psychiatric reasons, although the choice tests sometimes were no more questions like "Did you like girls?".
American youth, according to Gallup poll was "peaceful, tender, cynical, leftist and cowardly."
hatred was not yet in the spirit of American troops or urgency to engage in battle with an enemy that before December 7, 1941 (Pearl Harbour) seemed Abstact and distant.
The personal equipment and weaponry were pathetic. The soldiers were training with broomsticks instead of rifles and drain pipes instead of anti-tank guns. In 1939 only six cars were built mid-sized fighter. Reasoning that the gasoline and tires can not be achieved as easily as fodder, maintained an abiding loyalty to the horse.
potential to lead more than eight million soldiers, were available only
14000 officers to begin mobilization in 1940. Committees of the War Department began a purge of hundreds of officers who were too inept, too old or too tired, the average age was 48 years commanders ..
Nevertheless, the giant slowly began to move. The fabulous array of democracy began to gain strength. A picture began to emerge
promising remarkable career officers .. Sounded the hour of battle. But where?. Since the twenties, American strategists believed that Tokyo was the most likely enemy to beat, since the U.S. and Japan competed for dominance in the Pacific. But in 1938, informal talks with the British, marked the beginning of a growing and progressive Anglo-American fraternity, as Germany was lethally dangerous and Atlantic sea lanes should be always controlled by friendly forces.
RAINBOW 5 The strategic plan of joint action: U.S., Great Britain and France for the defeat of Germany and Italy marked Pacific forces would remain in strategic defense to the European enemies had been defeated. Not even the disaster of Pearl Harbour could change the decision of Roosevelt: "Germany first."
Under these conditions, the American idea to defeat the Third Reich was simple: Moving around as soon as possible through France as a shorter route to invade Alemania.Berlín was at only 885 kms. the northwest coast of France. However
British proposal indicated that the North Africa seemed the most appropriate place for empezar.La occupation of Morocco Algeria and Tunisia would leave the Africa Korps between the new Anglo-American force and the Eighth U.S. Army who fought against Rommel in Egypt Allied possessions in North Africa and Mediterranean routes reopened across the Suez Canal, cutting thousands of miles of current crossing the Cape of Good Hope, the rookie American soldiers would have a baptism of fire in less difficult conditions than in a frontal attack on France and the operation would require less landing craft and military resources.
Thus was born the TORCH operation or invasion of North Africa. The allies have not yet won, but they were about to begin to do so. The night would end, change the current and the new tide
an army ashore on the beaches of Africa, ready to correct a wrong world.
An army at dawn .- Rick Atkinson.
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