Chapter 8 2.2 US Strategy

2.2.1 From Project Orange to Project Rainbow Project Orange after World War I As mentioned earlier, shortly after the Russo-Japanese war broke out in 1904, the United States began to formulate a war plan known as the "Color Plan" (orange for Japan, red for Britain, black for Germany, and green for Mexico). .This plan only outlines the principles in case of war.However, in 1914, when the Panama Canal was opened, a thorough study of the principles of the plan was underway.After World War I, major changes in the world situation made this research even more urgent. As a result of World War I (1914-1919), black (Germany) was defeated.Red (Britain) was exhausted by the war and economically, financially unable to compete with the US.Green (Mexico) is increasingly dependent on the United States and is unlikely to threaten the security of the United States.Only the national strength of orange (Japan) has increased relatively, and its status has been strengthened.In particular, the former German Marshall, Mariana, and Caroline islands, which were the Japanese trusteeships, have become a major obstacle to the US fleet's westward advance, and this is bound to arouse the serious concern of the United States.

Regarding this change in the situation, the U.S. Army’s publicly released war history makes the following discussion: The Panama Canal was dug in 1902 and opened to navigation in 1914.As a result, the US fleet in the Atlantic Ocean can enter the Pacific Ocean about 10,000 miles shorter than the South American continent, and the distance to the Philippines is less than half of the previous distance. This has an epoch-making impact on the US Pacific strategy.In this year, World War I broke out. Japan declared war on Germany according to the Japan-British Alliance and occupied the Marshall, Caroline and Mariana Islands.In this way, Japan's sphere of influence was extended by about three thousand miles.At the Versailles Peace Conference in 1919, the President of the United States raised objections, saying that Japan's domination of the Nanyang Islands actually made the defense of the Philippines impossible.However, according to the peace treaty, the trustee rights of the islands occupied by Japan, Britain and Australia have all been recognized.Due to the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, Japan became the ruling country in the western Pacific north of the equator. The United States just ruled Hawaii and the Aleutian Northeast Pacific, and retained isolated outposts such as Guam and the Philippines to the west of the Japanese ruling territory.

Thus, from 1919 to 1938, the strategic vision of the United States was mainly directed to the Pacific Ocean.For example, in December 1921, the report of the Joint War Planning Committee pointed out that Japan was the most likely enemy.That is to say, due to factors such as the defeat of Germany and the expansion of Japan's territory, the fall of Imperial Russia due to the revolution, the disarmament of Britain, and the disintegration of close relations among European powers, the United States has become more and more concerned about its strategy against Japan. This increased concern is also evident in the deployment of the US fleet.In the book "Pacific War" co-authored by American critic Dan Linger and Lieutenant Commander Gary of the Navy, he wrote:

In the latter part of World War I, the results of the United States' research on the domestic and international situation showed that Japan had become a major power in the Pacific Ocean, and its naval and political ambitions were no less than those of European countries.Therefore, the facts before us are of course the result of calm analysis, but they also contain imagination: although Britain is the only country that can threaten us in the Atlantic Ocean, it is also very doubtful whether it has the power to threaten us. Besides, it clearly has no intention of threatening us.If there is danger, it is from the Pacific side, not the Atlantic side.On this basis, the idea of ​​concentrating our fleet in the Atlantic, which we have pursued for a century and a half, comes to an end.Our Metz returned to the East and most of the fleet was moved to the Pacific in 1919

Although this transfer of the fleet center violated strategic principles, it was justified that after the opening of the Panama Canal, the fleet could be quickly concentrated in the eastern and western oceans.This deployment has lasted for ten years, and the possibility of war between Britain and the United States is getting smaller and smaller, and the belief that the Pacific Ocean will become the battlefield for the next battle for supremacy is getting stronger and stronger. In 1931, Japan launched the Manchuria Incident, and all doubts disappeared.The reconnaissance fleet on the Atlantic side moved to the Pacific Ocean, and the two fleets merged to become the United States Fleet today.Today, in the Atlantic, the cradle of our navy, there are only a few decommissioned ships, a few practice ships, and warships under construction.Moreover, once the warships under construction are built, they will also head west.

In September 1924, the United States formulated the "Orange War Plan Against Japan", which for the first time comprehensively formulated various combat plans and expected goals in the war against Japan.However, the plan can only be said to raise a series of hopes, which, according to the capabilities of the army and navy at the time, were far from being realized in time of war. Plan Orange was revised in 1928, and the United States continued to concentrate on Japanese operations.Japan parted ways with the League of Nations after the Manchuria Incident in 1931, and in turn said it would withdraw from the Washington and London disarmament pacts.

In this situation, in April 1935, the Joint Planning Committee proposed to the Joint Conference the following amendments to the Orange Plan: Probably only a protracted war of attrition can defeat Japan.The Philippines will be lost early, and the U.S. offensive will take the form of gradual operations: starting from the Marshall and Caroline Islands, it will successively capture Japan's trusteeships and ensure the line of communication leading to the Pacific Ocean. It turned out that the U.S. Navy's strategy toward Japan was divided into two factions: the radical strategy and the gradual strategy.The former expected a decisive battle across the ocean, while the latter advocated that the main fleet in Hawaii first prepare to attack the Japanese base in the Marshall Islands, weakening Japan's pressure on Singapore and the Dutch Indochina, and then occupy the Marshall Islands to attack Japan's flank.

The main points of Project Orange are as follows: Japan will begin the war by attacking the Philippines and Guam.The US garrison and the Philippine army defend the Philippines. If they cannot repel the enemy, they can retreat to the Bataan Peninsula to prevent the Japanese army from continuing to attack.At all costs, Manila Bay must be secured until reinforcements from the continental United States arrive.The Asian fleet will assist in this operation, but with the exception of submarines and air forces, the rest will retreat to the Indian Ocean. The U.S. Pacific Fleet would secure sea lines of communication for reinforcements and attack across the ocean to recapture the Philippines.Under our control of the air, our fleet fought a decisive battle with the Japanese fleet and concentrated superior forces to defeat it.

On the other hand, since the Philippines had just become independent in 1934, the Army has raised more and more criticisms about its defense, support and recovery operations against the Philippines.But the whole idea of ​​the U.S. Navy's plan is: once a war breaks out, it can immediately provide an offensive fleet in the Pacific Ocean, so the Navy disagrees with the Army's opinion. Shortly after the Japan-China Incident (July 1937) and Italy's entry into the Japan-Germany Anti-Communist Agreement (November 1937), the joint meeting decided to revise the Orange Plan of 1928, the new Orange Plan In February 1938, it was approved by the Minister of the Army and the Navy.

In formulating this plan, the Army and Navy reached a compromise on the condition that the Army's withdrawal of operations west of Midway be subject to presidential approval;In this way, the plan was in vain. It neither clearly stipulated the date of the US Navy's attack on the Pacific, nor did it send additional troops to the Philippines to protect the mouth of Manila Bay from being used by the Japanese navy. The Rainbow Project on the Eve of the Second World War In November 1938, the joint meeting ordered the planning committee to study and estimate what should be done in the event that the Monroe Doctrine was destroyed and Japan attacked the Philippines on the premise that Japan, Germany and Italy would form an alliance and other European countries would maintain a neutral attitude. Strategy.

The report of the Planning Commission in February 1939 was the first proposal of the Rainbow Project on how to deal with the following five situations.Regarding the vision of the world strategy, the main points are as follows: (1) Western Hemisphere Defense; (2) All-out attack in the Pacific; (3) limited attack in the Pacific; (4) Atlantic limited attack; (5) All-out Atlantic attack. This program has been further studied and specific amendments have been formulated.This is to prepare for the possibility of facing a more complicated situation than fighting a country on a battlefield, that is, fighting a more complicated enemy on a more complicated battlefield, and it is formulated under the assumption of cooperation with Britain and France.As a result, the strategic thinking of the United States has developed from a colored plan (orange plan) to a rainbow plan. This means a complete transformation of the strategic thinking system, from the past centered on the Pacific strategy to the Pacific strategy only as a part of the world strategy. The Army's opinion is: the United States cannot defend both oceans at the same time, and the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea have greater interests for the United States; the loss of the Philippines and Guam will not harm the fundamental interests of the United States, so it should take a defensive position in the Eastern Pacific.The Navy believed that, with European countries concentrating on the war, only Japan's southward advance could bring the United States into the war. Therefore, it formulated a specific plan for the Pacific strategy (Rainbow II). In this plan, the U.S. Navy envisions the following three scenarios: 1. Japan does not expand to the south of Taiwan; 2. Japan occupied Hong Kong, Cam Ranh Bay, and the coastal areas of French Indochina, and began to attack Dutch Indochina and British Borneo. If the actions of the US fleet in the Western Pacific were determined, they would immediately attack the Philippines and Guam. 3. Japan has controlled the Dutch Indochina, isolated Singapore, and captured the Philippines.The most likely of these is the second case.In response, the American fleet should act in Singapore and the East Indies. 2.2.2 Strategic plan after the surrender of France New Rainbow Four The German army occupied Northern Europe in April 1940, swept through Western Europe in May, and finally approached the British-French Channel in late May.As a result, the U.S. Army War Planning Department submitted a memorandum to the Chief of Staff, the main contents of which are: At present, the maximum that the United States can do is to take offensive and defensive operations in South America in order to protect the absolutely necessary rights and interests of the Western Hemisphere and the United States itself; it can carry out protective occupation of the territories of European countries in the Western Hemisphere; Eastern Pacific Overseas Territory. The President, the Chief of Naval Operations, and the Acting Secretary of State basically agreed with the memorandum, and in particular they agreed not to cross the 180th parallel to avoid war with Japan. Therefore, the Joint Planning Committee postponed the formulation of Rainbow II, III (Pacific Offensive Operation) and No. 5 (Atlantic Offensive Operation) plans; in order to adapt to the development of the new situation, the following strategies were studied and formulated: Germany and Italy are challenging the Monroe Doctrine in South America, and Japan is infringing on the rights and interests of the United States in the Far East. aggression. The plan, called New Rainbow IV, was approved by a joint meeting on June 7, and subsequently approved by the Secretary of the Army and Navy and the President. Pacific Fleet permanently stationed at Pearl Harbor The U.S. Pacific Fleet, which was transferred to Hawaii for annual exercises in April 1940, received an order on May 7 to stop at Pearl Harbor for a long time without returning to the west coast of the United States.Chief of Naval Operations Stark informed Commander Richardson that the purpose of stationing in Hawaii was to force Japan to give up its plan to take advantage of the failure of the Netherlands and the difficulties of Britain and France to move south.In other words, President Roosevelt's strategy was to show off the power of the Pacific Fleet in order to restrain Japan's actions. 2.2.3 World Strategy hound project On November 12, 1940, Chief of Naval Operations Stark presented a memorandum to the President.This memorandum comprehensively studies and analyzes issues that are closely related to the world political situation, military situation, and the United States from the current and long-term perspective.Among them, Stark proposed four routes for the United States to choose: 1. Whether our main military power should be used for the defense of the Western Hemisphere and the security of the two oceans; 2. On the premise of assisting the British and Dutch forces in the Far East, we should prepare to launch a full-scale offensive against Japan and adopt a purely defensive position in the Atlantic Ocean; 3. Should we plan to give maximum military assistance to the UK in Europe, the UK in the Far East, the Netherlands and China; 4. Should we endeavor to take Great Britain as an ally and take a strong offensive in the Atlantic and a defensive in the Pacific. The first is the same as the first and fourth points of the original Rainbow plan; the second is the same as the second and third points of the Rainbow plan and the Orange plan with the participation of the Allies; Put equal effort head-on; the fourth point is the same as the fifth point of the Rainbow Project.Chief of Naval Operations Stark and Army Chief of Staff Marshall recommended a fourth route (later known as Project Hound) to the Secretary of the Army and the Navy and the President. This suggestion suggested that since Hitler was the greatest and most dangerous enemy of the United States, the best policy for the United States was to take the offensive in the Atlantic and the defensive in the Pacific, trying to avoid war with Japan until the situation in Europe was resolved. The Joint Planning Committee commissioned to study the Hound Project made the following recommendations to the joint meeting in December 1940: 1. Rapidly increase the strength of the army and navy; 2. Resolve not to initiate war with Japan under any circumstances; 3. Even if it is necessary to go to war with Japan, there should be a limit to the strength of the Pacific Ocean, that is, it can guarantee the troops needed for the main battle in the Atlantic. The President hesitated to approve Hound, but Stark's memo was endorsed and approved by the Secretary of the Army and Navy and the Joint Council.This became the basis for the approval of the strategic plan (Rainbow Five) drawn up in the spring of 1941. President's Directive on Strategic Directions On January 16, 1941, the President convened a meeting of the Secretary of State, the Secretary of the Army, the Secretary of the Navy, the Chief of the Army Staff, and the Chief of Naval Operations to discuss the possibility of sudden joint German and Japanese action against the United States. After criticizing the strategic plan to date, the president added: We first need to prepare ourselves for immediate action.What the President is most concerned about is the attitude towards Japan and the issue of aid to Britain.He said that even if Germany and Japan took hostile actions against the United States, the United States would have eight months to prepare for war.He also gave the following instructions: 1. The fleet based in Hawaii must take a defensive position in the Pacific Ocean; 2. The commander of the Asian Fleet has the right to decide on its own the use period of the Philippine base and order the withdrawal of the fleet; 3. The Navy will not reinforce the Philippines; 4. The navy should take into account the possibility of bombing Japanese cities; 5. The Navy should be prepared to continue to escort ships in the Atlantic Ocean (from the United States to the British mainland) and continue to patrol the coast from Maine to Cape Virginia; 6. The Army shall not take the offensive until it is fully prepared; 7. Continue to supply supplies to the UK, and maintain this basic spirit at all costs. The above is the world strategic policy of the United States concerning the Second World War. ABC | A US-British Staff Agreement The US-British Staff Conference held in Washington began at the end of 1941. After repeated discussions in March, the representatives of the two countries submitted a report (called ABC | 1).This report stipulated the basic method of Allied cooperation in World War II, and its main strategic goals were as follows: 1. Defeat Germany, the most powerful of the Axis powers, as soon as possible.Therefore, the greatest military power of the United States will be devoted to the Atlantic and European fronts of the decisive battle. 2. To safeguard the territories of Britain and its allies in the Mediterranean. 3. Weaken Japan's economic power and keep the Japanese army away from Malaya to support the Malaya defense line. Use the most scientific method to use the US fleet in the attack; the Far East side adopts a strategic defense. ABC | One Agreement and Pacific Strategy The maintenance of the Singapore naval base is fundamental to British Far East policy.The American delegation agreed to maintain Singapore, but from a broad point of view, even the reserves of the Allies were engaged in non-conclusive battles, which meant that most of the security of the British Empire rested with the United States, and the United States was therefore embarrassed.To this end, the United States has made the following supplementary provisions on its strategy and obligations in the Pacific: 1. The United States conducts military efforts mainly in the Atlantic Ocean and Europe; 2. When the United States may use the necessary forces to defend the British territory in the Far East, it will increase its troops to the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea; 3. The tasks shared by the US Pacific Fleet are mainly defense, that is, protecting Hawaii, the Philippines, Guam and Wake Island.However, in order to eliminate the pressure of the Malay defense line and attack Japan's sea line of communication (mainly using submarines), pinching actions can be taken near Marshall and the Caroline Islands. 2.2.4 Victory Project Estimation of the Integrated Basic Strategy for World War On June 22, 1941, Hitler attacked the Soviet Union, which changed the nature and direction of the entire war.The pressure on Britain was greatly eased.On the other hand, the United States has also been given sufficient time to complete the construction of the two-ocean fleet approved by Congress in 1940, the mobilization, equipment and training of additional troops.The implementation of the Rainbow Plan requires a certain amount of troops. On the issue of raising troops, the U.S. Department of the Army and Navy has steadily and carefully planned. After Hitler attacked the Soviet Union, the president urged to speed up the production of military supplies.The President ordered the Department of the Army and Navy twice, on July 9 and August 9, that in order to ensure the defeat of potential enemies of the United States, the victory plan for mobilizing industry must be further implemented to ensure the production of sufficient quantities of weapons and ammunition.The United States has finally officially created the arsenal of democracy.At the same time, the President also ordered the development of strategic scenarios concerning operations and forces, which are necessary to estimate the required weapons and military supplies. Thus, at last, the fruits borne: Army and Navy unanimity in Project Hound in December 1940, ABC|A Staff Agreement in March 1941, and the joint war plan Rainbow Five in May The strategic objectives, strategic guidelines and assumptions of the Communist Party of China were comprehensively written into the "Comprehensive Basic Strategic Estimation of World Wars" signed by General Marshall and Secretary Stark on September 11, 1940. The estimate is said to be one of the most important documents on the eve of Pearl Harbor and one of the most noteworthy sources in American history.The first part of the document lists the reasons for writing the estimate, the second part discusses the main military policies, the third part conjectures about the important strategic features of the Axis powers (<A> the strategy of Germany, <B> the strategy of Japan), and the third part The four parts discuss the important strategies of the United States and its allies. This source so clearly records the policy that the United States was supposed to follow in the final years of the world war. Pacific strategy Here is an excerpt of the Pacific from the fourth part of the estimate, "U.S. Key Strategies," as follows: 21. The Joint Conference is convinced that the primary goal of the United States and the Allies is the complete military defeat of Germany.If Germany fails, its entire European system will collapse.At that time, unless Japan has fully established its own power, and the United States and its allies cannot devote enough forces to continue fighting Japan, Japan will have to give up many territorial interests. 22. The main strategic method that the United States should adopt in the near future is: it must provide material support for the current war against Germany. Before a new situation occurs, the United States will contain Japan while actively participating in the war, so as to strengthen the current military operations. twenty-three, 24. The strategic approach to Japan (if Japan has already joined the war) is as follows: a strong defense against Siberia and the Malay Peninsula; an economic offensive by means of a blockade; weakening of Japan's military power by air strikes; The Japanese occupying forces went on the offensive. 25. The important strategies and means that the United States and its allies should adopt are as follows: a. Alaska, Hawaii and the islands in the South Pacific are of great importance to the security of the Eastern Pacific.If Germany and Japan are to succeed, naval combat capabilities must be much more enhanced than currently approved naval plans. d. Strengthening the economic blockade appears to be the most effective attack method currently possible against Japan and Germany. h. The control of the Philippine Islands, the Malay Peninsula, Australia, Burma and China by Britain and its allies will have far-reaching effects.It is impossible for the U.S. Army to add much force in the Far East if it has to fulfill important tasks in other regions.However, the operations of the Pacific Fleet will seriously affect the development of the situation.