Figure 1.--World War II was fought around the World in many places that most people had never heard of before. President Roosevelt even delivered a Fire Side Chat in which he invited Americans to open up a map and follow along. Arguably the most important geographic feature of World War II was the English Channel--one of the most familar geographic features to to Americns and uropeans. It stopped the Panzers cold. Ironically it was a feature that both the Germans and British dared cross. The impetus came from the Americans. Here we see a World War I scene where the Channel continued to b a children's playground. World War II was very different, the Channel was no longer a playground, it became the most heavily fortified front of the War. First the British fortified their shore and the Germans firtified the French shore -- the formidable Atlantic Wall. The Germans did not have the industrial capacity to cross the Channel in 1940 nor the industrial capacity to sucessfully defend it in 1944. It proved to be a sink hole for Germany's limited military resources which Hitler devoted lavishly, just as the French had done with the Maginot Line. America in contrast did have the industrial capability to equip a cross-Channel invasion force. But unlike the Maginot Line, the Allies struck ino the teeth Hitler's Atlantic Wall. The Channel's importance lies not only in saving Britain, but in providing a route into the heart of Germany in time to prevent Soviet occuption of Western Europe.

Geogrphy since the dawn of civilization has affected humanity and war. Most wars were generally localized conflicts. Even World War I was basically a Europen War. Most wars were much more localized and thus only a few geographic features were involved. And even in major wars, often only major geographic features rose above tactical consideration. In the Civil War it was the Mississippi River. World War II was very different in that it involved virtually the entire globe. Thus never before had geopgraphy played such a key role in warfare. Much of this came down to logistics accross the vast distances that had to be covered, both land and sea areas. Here Allied control and sucessful defense of Panama and Suez was very important. Ultimately victory in the war lay with the countries which had the industrial power to overcome the challenge of distance and logistics. Here only one country had that capacity on a wold-wide basis --the United States. There were geographic features that played major roles in the War. Some of the most important that come to mind are: the Alps, Apennines, Ardennes, the English Channel, Gibraltar, Malta, and the Quantra Depression. Interesingly, the one geographic feature which the Germans most valued (the Rhine) proved to be a non-issue. Geographic features in the East other than the immense distances of the European Steppe seem less important than in the West. Climatic matters seem more important, but we have just begin our assessment. In the Pacific, other than the vast Pacific distances the major geographic issue was American possession of the Philippine Islands. Unlike the Germans where war was based on the intuitions of one man, the Japanese exhaustively studied waging a Pacific War. What resource-poor Japan wanted was the resources of what they called the Southern Resource Zone (SRZ--Dutch East Indies--DEI, Borneo, and Southeast Asia). The problem for the Japanese was tht the American Philipines Islands was located between Japan and the SRZ. And the Japanse decided that it would be imprudent to strike the SRZ while the Americans in the Philippines lay accross their sea lanes, especially with the United States Pacific Fleet located just to the east at Pearl Harbor. They did consider the advisability of a naval war with an industrial giant, but their assesment was basd on the naval ballance in 1941, not what it would be once America geared for war. The Japanese decision may seem to border on insanity today. But it must be realized that when the Japanese militarists made their final decision (November 1941), it looked like the Germans had defeated the Red Army. If they had, Pearl Harbor would have made much more sence. Other important geographic features in Asia/Pacific were the Alleutians, Australia, Chinese interior, Indo China (jutting out toward th DEI), Iwo Jima, the Hawaiin Islands, the Himalayas, the Marianas, and Midway. Every island in the Pacific was a geographic feature of course just as every Eutopean river, but we have just lised the critically important feature.

Created: 6:42 AM 2/17/2018
Last updated: 6:42 AM 2/17/2018