Figure 1.--At the time that Hitler and Stalin launched World War II by invading Poland (September 1939), the Ameriucan economy was finally recovering from the Deporession. Most of its resources were being used to build cars, washing machines, refigerators. and other consumer products. This is a Lincoln-Zephyr. After Pearl Harbor, the U.S. Government began ordering a halt the production of all non-military vehicles (January 1, 1942). All of America's resources and industrial power was thrust into the production of military weapons and supplies. It took only a few weeks to stop the production of cars, it would take longer to mobilize the Arsenal of democracy.

The totalitarian Axis and democratic Allied countries differeed in important ways. The primary difference is that the Axis actually wanted war and the Allies did not want to fight another world war. This proved to be a great advantage to the Axis. Economically there were also sharp differences. Among the Axis, only Germany was a major industrial and technolical power house, but Germany like the other Axis countries was not self suffucent in food production or have the raw materials needed to fight a modern war. The Allies in contrast not only had a larger industrial plant, but access to both the food and raw materials to produce the needed implements of war. Britain like Germany was not self sufficent in food production and had few natural resources other than coal, but it had the Royal Navy which could blockade Germany as it had done in World War I. The Royal Navy would be assisted by the expanding American and Canadian Navies to safeguard Britain's sea life lines. The other two major Axis powers (Italy and Japan) had much smaller economies and without Germany would not have dared launch the War. Like Germany, they were not self-sufficent in food productio and lacked needed raw materials. The totalitarian Soviet Uniion fought on both sides. They chose NAZI Germany as an ally because the Germans were willing to partition Eastern Europe with them (1939). Stalin wanted to join the Axis. Hitler was set against that because he was derermined to invade the Soviet Union and seize the resources (but not the people) of the East. The Soviets only switched side when the Germans invaded (1941). The Soviets before the War had an economy about the sane size as the Germans, although with more limited heavy industry (steel poroduction). It also had all the resources that Gernany lacked and which Hitler had made in clear in Mein Kampf that he coveted (1924). Of all the beligerants, the United States was the country most set against participating in another war, especially another European war. Few Amnericans fully recognized the threat not only to their own security, but Western Civiliaztion, posed by the totalitarian powers. Yet only American has the resources and industrial base capable of waging war on a world wide basis and prevent the victory of the totalitarian powers.

America

America was not militarily prepared when Hitler and Stalin launched World War II in Europe. The U.S. Army was a very small force, smaller than the armies of even some of the smaller European countries. It was better prepared, however, than when America entered World War I. Even so, only one country at the outbreak of World War II had the industrial and agricultural capacity as well as the raw material resource base to wage world war on an extended basis. And as would prove to be the case, wage world war on a global basis on two widely separated distant fronts. The United States, unlike the Axis nations and the Soviet Union, howeever, had no desire to wage another world war. The Soviet Union had substantial deposits of natural resources and had significantly expanded the country's industrial base, but significantly weakened the country's agricultural base by cusing the Ukranian famine as aay to destroy the Ukranian peasantry and collectizing agriculture. The United States' peace time economy was self sufficent or largely self sufficent it just about all categories of raw material production. And unlike the industry and mines of the other major World War II belgerants, America was beyond the reach of its enemies. They could not be bombed while the industry and mines as well as the transport net work of the Axis could be bombed and interdicted. And unlike the Soviet policy of murdering the peasantry, the New Deal before the War had focused on saving and revitalizing the American farmer. As a result, agricultural production could be significntly increased. As industril war production ramped up, however, America would need to import raw materials in vast quantities. The one major weakness was rubber, although uranium would also prove to be a problem. What America lacked, it had the ability to import as long as it could keep the sea lanes threatened by Germn U-boats open. The immediate problem for America once the Lend Lease commitment was made was to get raw materials and equipment to Britain and its other allies like the Soviet Union. The rubber problem was solved by launching a new synthetic rubber industry. The delivery problemn was solved by a massuive naval expansion program and the venerable Liberty Ships. Not only did the United States have the resource base to supply its own war industry, but it also was able to supply or help supply its allies as well.

Britain

Britain was one of the major World War II beigerants and had to fight the Germans on their own for more than a year. It has a much larger fleet than the Gerams and an airforce that could take on the Luftwaffe. And they had a major industrial base as well as an important technilogical infrastructure. Abd they had the Channel which stopped the Panzers cold. In terms of food and raw materials, they like the Germans were less well situated. Like Germamy except for coal, Britain had limited domestic resources. And like Germany, Britain had to import large quantities of food. These resources, however, existed in the Empire and overseas partners. And thanks to President Roosevelt, America's vast resources were available. The Royal Navy existed to ensure access to those resources in time of War, but budget cuts during the inter-War era sibstantially reduced the ability to safeguard maritime commerce. Many Brits believed that it was war that was the greatest danger and that military sprending was not only weasteful, but actually dangerous. The leadership of the Labour Party advocated inilateral disarmamment. This did not change until 1935 as Labour becane more aware of NAZI suprrssion of the free labor movement in Germany. Prime Minister Baldwin and Chamberlain, however, were intent on appeasing Hitler and did not see the need to match German rearmanent. The Royal Navy thus was allowed to decline in strength during the inter-War period. The situation was created by the Admiraltly's assessment that Asdic (SONAR) meant that U-boats were not a threat. Adm. Dönitz realised that Asdic would not be as effective as the British had concluded. As a result, the Battke of the vAtlantic became one of thhe central conflicts of the War. And here oil was the most vital of all the raw materials. Before the War, Briatain was imoorting oil from the Middle East, Caribbean, and the United States. When Italy entered the War (June 1940), the Middle Eastern deliveries through the Mediterranean were cut, although Middle Eastern oil supplied the Meditterranean Fleet and British Desert Army. For the rest of the War Carribean sources (Venezuela and Mexico) and the United States supplied Briutain;s oil with thevUnited states becoming increasinglky bimoortantbas the War progressed--all delovered by the perilous North Atlantic convoys and paid for by Lend Lease.

Canada

The Dominions were very important to the British war effort. Individually they had small populatiins anf economies. Combined, they were an imprtant British ally. The most important was Cnaada with a poulation of about 11 million people, somewhat larger than Australia. Canad's major assett was that it was close to Britain, just across the North Atlantic. The most serious constraint on the Allied war effort was shipping. And it took far less shipping to get supllies to Britain from Canada than any of the other dominions. The Canadian economy supported the British war effort in many ways. Canada unlike the other dominiond had a substantial indutrial base. They produced armns for Britain. Canada was tied into the huge American automobile industry and thus was able to produce some 0.8 million military. That wsas more than the Germans which essentially invaded the Soviet Union on foot. (The Panzers were a small part of the Ostheer. The German infantry went east with horse-drawn carts.) Canada also produced tanks and artillery. The most importnt industrial conttribution was corvetts (small escort vessels) to protect the all-important North Atlantic convoys. Some 57,000 individuals were employed in merchant shipbuilding and a further 27,000 worked in naval shipbuilding, which included building vessels like destroyers, frigates, corvettes, and minesweepers. Corvettes were especially important because they were small enough that an elaborate shipyard was not needed. These convoys were primarily protected by the Royal Navy and Royal Canadian Navy (RCN). Canada vurtually from scratch created one of the largest navies in the world. Canada's large agricultural sectorincluded the vast Northern Plains. Wheat was Canada's largest agriculturak commidity. This provided huge quantities of grain to feed Britain. Another important support was critical raw materials. Canada provided important quantities of metals to the Allied war effort: aluminum (50 percent) and nickle (90 pervent). The Canadian company Eldorado Gold Mines Ltd. produced uranium as a byproduct of their gold and radium production using ore from its mine at Port Radium in the Northwest Territories.

China

The Chinese Nationalists-- Kuomintang (KKMT was making progress in uniting the country and developing the economy (1920s). Chaing decided not to challenge Japan's seizure of Manchuria (1931). He decided that China just did not have the industrial to support a modern army that could take on the Japanese. Here as would be shown by events, he was absolutely correct. The KMT was sponsoring industrial projects, but the Jpanaese struck before thery had approached ythe level of Japanese industrialization. China was the first country that Japan attacked in the First Sino-Jaoanese War (1894-95) and Japan had made in clear in the Twenty-One Demands issued duriung World War I (1915) that they had much larger objectives in China. Their goal was to to explot China for their advantage. Given that many Chinese were living on the edge, the consquences were potentially devestating And this was before the military had seized control of the Japanese Government. The resporce-poor Japanese were attracted by China's vast resources and potential mmarkrt for their manufactured goods. China at the time was divided by warring feuding loads and had verey little modern industry. Japan could see that the faced an increasingly united and stronger country. They struck again north of Beijing at the Marco Polo Bridge (1937). The Japanese action was taken by local commanders, but the Government in Tokyo supported their actions and commited major forces when the KMT resisted which resulted in the Second Sino-Japanese War. The Japanese rapidly seized China's prosperous coastal cities where most of the still-limited industry was located. They expected Chainag to sue for peace. He did not but instread retreated ibto the interior. The Japanese attempted to pursue the KMT fiorces, but the Japanese Army was still largely unmotorized. China is a huge country. And while Japan had an industrial economy, it was not large enough to equio the motirized arny rgat was needed to move into the unbterior. As a result, the Japanese were unable to defeat the KMT armies in their remote interior locations. THe Japanese pursued the war with unimaginable brutality. The best known atroicity was the Rape of Nanking (1937), but there were many such, albeit on asmaller scale. Whole villages weeew masacered. The Japanese used their air firce to m=bimb undefended Chinese citiies. They also use poison gas and bilogical weapons. The Nationalidsts for their part to an extenbt pursued a scorced earth policy as they retreated. As a result, large areas of China was devestated. The Japanese expected to reap great rewards from seizing China. As it turned out, it prived verety costly to wage war and garuson the occupied areas. The war dragged on nearly 5 years before the Japanese militarists decided that they could finally end the War by attacking the United States (1941). Japanese anti-partisan operations were brutal killing oprtations The Japanese killed some .25 million people after the Doolittke raids. The distruction, misamanagement, and the seizure of food devestated China and food became an increasing pronlem. Some 2–3 million people died in a famine in Henan (1942-43). The economy was virtually destroyed. One study estimates that Chinese industrial output was only 20 percent of the output before the War. of pre-war China. [Sun, p. 1319.] The human cist was incaluable. There is no precise account, but Chunese eastumates are sone 20-25 mnillion people and are not unreasinable.

France

France was better situated in terms of Britain as to food production and as a result of its navy and alliance with Britain was guaranteed access to needed raw materials in its colonies and trading partners. France was defeated and occupied by the Germans in the firsrt year of the War (May-June 1940). This gave the Germans access to French resources, but not the resources of the French Empire which were left under Vichy control. France had some mineral resources, but like Germany had no oil fields. What France did have in the way of natural resources was a highly productive agricultural sector. French agriculture had sustained the country during World war I when German civilisns experiemnces severe food shortages. Germahny as part of its occupation exploited French agriculture. Large quantities of food were shippedd to the Reich and severe rationing forced upon the French. Ironically, Hitler had sdeen the East and ine invasion of the Soviet Union as the answer to Germany's food needs. The opposite proved to be the case. While large quantities of food were obtained in France and the other occupied countries in the West, substantial grain deliveries from the Soviet Unuin ebnded with Barbarossa (June 1941). The food obtained by the Germans in the East, was barely sufficent to feed the Whermacht waging the campaign. Very little food from the East reaching civilians in the Reich in contrast to the large deliveriers from France.

Germany

Germany was an important industrial and scientific power, but could neither feed itself nor possessed the strategic resources needed for industrial world war. The one critical resource Germany possessed in abundance was coal. Other important strategic materials would have to be imported. This made Germany vulnerable to blockade and as in World War I, Germany did not have the naval power to contest a Royal Navy blockade. Germany was particularly defecient in access to petroleum, a necesity for the modern mechnized war in planned to wage. Germany's answer to this was a sunthetic petroleum industry, but this did not even meet the country's need in peace time. Another serious deficency was rubber which was also filled through synthetic production. Germany also needed to import irone ore for steel production. This could, however, could be done through the Baltic and Norwegian coastal waters, the only sea areas Germany controlled during the War. The limited resource base was why Hitler in his strategic thinking from a very early stage looked east to the copious resources of the Soviet Union--resources that were not subject to a Royal Navy blockade. But going to war with such a limited resource base meant that war ws a gamble. Unless Germany won the war in a series of short, quick campaigns, it was doomed to failure. Failure to defeat the British (1940) and the filure to defeat the Sovet Union mean that the Hitler amnd Germany had lost their ganble and lost big. After the Whermacht was sti\pped before Moscow they would face enemy armies with vastly supperior resources, a material superiority that woukd increase every year of the remaining years of the War. The Allies were aware of Germany's limited petroleum resources, but it would taken some time for the strategic bombing campaign tyo hone in Germany's sources of petroleum.

Italy

Italy was the least prepared aggressor country of all the major beligerants. Italy had neither the industrial base nor the raw materials to wage a protracted war. Before the War, Italy got bits coal and oil mostly from British companies--the coal from Bitain, the oil from British overseas comoanies. Britain could have prevented Benito Mussolini's Ethipoian ad venture by enfing these deliveries or closing the Suez Canal to Italian shipping, but refusedvto do so so as not to anger the Duce. Mussolini was intent on creating a New Roman Empire in the Mediterranean, in part to gain access to needed raw materials. But this meant war. Invading Ethiopia and Albania was one thing, fighting a modern war with Britain and America was a very different matter. Italy at the onset of the War was almost totally dependent on importing strategic materils (1940). The Italians produced only 4.4 metric tons (MT) of coal, negiligbe quantities of oil, 1.2 MT of iron ore, and 2.1 MT of steel. Of particular importance was oil. Like Germany, Italy had no substantial petroleum resources, but unlike Germany, Italy was not a heavily industrialized nation able to produce modern weaponry in quantitity. Here the Italian problem was not just raw material shortages, but the industrial base as well. And unlike Germany, Italy's success in the War would depend on the outcome of an inevitable naval campaign in the Mediterranean. Not only was control of the Mediterranean needed to import raw materials, but as a peninsular country, Italy was highly vulnerable to naval attack. And much of the imports were came by sea. The decisuion for war was an impulsive one on Mussolini's part. Thus the various ministries had not chance to prepare. Unlike Germany, there was no effort made to stockpile key materials before declaring war. Nor did Italy get a share of Soviet raw materials as part of the further compounding the Italian woes, something like a quarter of Italy's merchant fleet were in foreign ports when the country declared war. They were immediately impounded and thus most were lost to the war effort. .

Japan

Japan was the most industrialized country in Asia, but its industrial base was small in comparison to America. And the Home Islands had almost no natural resources. One rare resource that Japan had was hyro-electric power. Japan obtained the bulk of its electrical power from a network of small hydroelectric dams. [Griffith, p. 23.] Japan had acquired some in resources in Foromsa (Taiwan), Korea, and Manchuria as it began to build an empire. But of all the Axis countries, Japan was the most dependent on imported resources to support its war industries. It also was dependent on imported food. Like Germany, Japan had virtually no petroleum, but unlike Germany, made no effort to develop an inportant synthtic fuel industry. And of all places, Japan imported most of its needs from the United States--especially oil. And America was not only the principal country opposing Japanese imperial ambitions in China, but the one country after Hitler launched World War II with the military capability to resist Japanese military adventures. This made the Japanese war economy especially vulnerable, much more vulnerable than Germany. Of all the World War II combatants, Japan was in the worst position to wage a protracted war. The Home Islands have few natural resources and virtually no oil. Part of the reason for invading China was to obtain raw materials, but even in China there was little petroleum. The lure of the raw materials in the Southern Resource Zone was the greater lure that drove Japan to war. A Japan in only 6 moths through a whirlwind military offensive carved out a huge empire in the SRZ. It gained Japan almost all of the mahjor resources, both food and raw naterials they needed to wage war and complete the conquest of China. Japan also acquired a major problem. They seized SRZ, but unlike Germany which could use relatively secure rail transport to pillage its empire, the Japanese woukd have to use its inadequate and vulnerable merchant marine (Marus) to get the resources of the SRZ back to the Homne Islands. And Japan's maru fkeet was badically sufficent in peace time, in time if war it was totally inadequaute. Nor did Joanese shipyards havung to ficus on baval construction and repair able to build the marus needed. And this was not Japan's major orobelm. The Imperial Navy had failed to defeat the American Pacific Fleet when it held a significant advange (1942). Then the vast American Arsenal of Democracy kicked in. Naval shios and aircraft began to raech the Pacific Fleet in quantities that Japan could not begin to match (1943). The balance of power sung to the Americans. And a part of its war stategy, the Ameicans targeted the voknerable Japanese marus. The American submarine in particular once the torpedo probklem was resolved began to wreak havoc on the maru fleet. Japan began to have increasing difficulty getting the resources of the SRZ to the factories on the Home Island. Military operations were also affected. Major units of the Imperial Fleet had to operate from Singapore becuse oil shipments to Japan were falling below critical levels.

Soviet Union

The Soviets like the United States posessed enormous natural resources, but umlike the United States, they had designs on neigboring countries. As a result, Stalin agreeded to the NAZI-Soviet Non-Agression Pact, joining Hitler in launching the War. For the Soviets, the problem was not natural resources. It was the German military capability and mastery of Blitzkrieg. The Germnans with Barbarossa attempoted to desrtoy the Red Army (1941). When tha failed, Hitler chose to go for resources--especially the oil that the Wehrmacht critically needed (1942). For that the Germans has to seize the Cauasess which setr in motion the Stalingrad disaster. The only major resource they lacked was rubber. After the German invasion (June 1941), it would be supplied by the United States through Lend Lease. There were, however, many other problems. The Soviets had oil, but dis nit have the refining vapavility to produce any where near the quantity of aviation fuel that they needed. A major problem became food because much of the Ukraine was occupied by the Germans (1941-43). Here American Lend Lease became an important source. One of the few English words almost all Russians learned during the War was of all things--Spam. The Germans seized important mines, but often were not able to bring them to full production. And the Soviet Union was so large and its natural resources so extensive that German advances did not criple the war economy. A factor here was while the Germans did seize the Ukraine, much of the German conquests in the north were in tthe Baltics or eastern Poland. The great bulk of the Russian ethnic heartland after the Red Army offensive before Moscow (December 1941) remained in Soviet hands.

Sources

Dumett, Raymond. "Africa's strategic minerals during the Second World War," The Journal of African History Vol. 26, No. 4, World War II and Africa (1985), pp. 381-408.

Griffith, Thomas E. Jr. Strategic Attack of Nationjal Electrical Systems, (Air University Press: Maxwell Air Force Base Alabama: October 1994), 64p.

Sun, Jian, 中国经济通史 Economic History of China Vol 2 1840–1949 (China People's University Press: 2000.).

Created: 2:03 AM 12/17/2020
Last updated: 3:14 AM 1/20/20210