The Most Expensive Mistake of WWII

Begin the full course now at https://bit.ly/2QNweOV to watch the other free lectures, including an introduction from Larry P. Arnn.

This is the third lecture in our free online course on World War II featuring military historian Victor Davis Hanson.

World War II, the greatest armed conflict in human history, encompassed global fighting in unprecedented ways. This course analyzes Allied and Axis investments and strategies that led one side to win and the other to lose. It also considers how the war’s diverse theaters, belligerents, and ways of fighting came eventually to define a single war.

Hillsdale College is an independent institution of higher learning founded in 1844 by men and women “grateful to God for the inestimable blessings” resulting from civil and religious liberty and “believing that the diffusion of learning is essential to the perpetuity of these blessings.” It pursues the stated object of the founders: “to furnish all persons who wish, irrespective of nation, color, or sex, a literary, scientific, [and] theological education” outstanding among American colleges “and to combine with this such moral and social instruction as will best develop the minds and improve the hearts of its pupils.” As a nonsectarian Christian institution, Hillsdale College maintains “by precept and example” the immemorial teachings and practices of the Christian faith.

The College also considers itself a trustee of our Western philosophical and theological inheritance tracing to Athens and Jerusalem, a heritage finding its clearest expression in the American experiment of self-government under law.

By training the young in the liberal arts, Hillsdale College prepares students to become leaders worthy of that legacy. By encouraging the scholarship of its faculty, it contributes to the preservation of that legacy for future generations. By publicly defending that legacy, it enlists the aid of other friends of free civilization and thus secures the conditions of its own survival and independence.

Timecodes 00:00 Introduction: How Naval Power Shapes the War on Land 2:33 The Axis Naval Disadvantage: No Aircraft Carriers Built 5:01 The Battleship Trap: Mahan's Theory & the Tsushima Mistake 9:22 Battleships vs. Aircraft Carriers: The Central Question of WWII 11:08 Carrier Fleets at the Start: Japan, the US & the Balance of Power 13:16 Germany's U-Boat Gamble: Can Submarines Starve Britain? 15:08 The Second Happy Time: Germany's Brief Naval Advantage 16:43 How the Allies Broke the U-Boat Threat 20:52 Germany's Failed Naval Strategy: Blockade & the Mediterranean 24:04 Italy's Moment: Could the Mediterranean Become an Axis Lake? 25:58 Allied Naval Supremacy in Europe Is Achieved 27:19 Japan's Naval Strengths & the Challenge of the Pacific 33:23 How the Allies Achieved Naval Superiority in the Pacific 36:30 The Technological Revolution: Essex Carriers & the Hellcat Fighter 40:54 Coral Sea & Midway: The Pacific War Turns 45:03 Guadalcanal to Leyte Gulf: The Destruction of the Imperial Fleet 49:23 Naval Supremacy Achieved: Setting Up the Final Push on Japan