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 u0026 the Tsushima Mistake
9:22 Battleships vs. Aircraft Carriers: The Central Question of WWII
11:08 Carrier Fleets at the Start: Japan, the US u0026 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 u0026 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 u0026 the Challenge of the Pacific
33:23 How the Allies Achieved Naval Superiority in the Pacific
36:30 The Technological Revolution: Essex Carriers u0026 the Hellcat Fighter
40:54 Coral Sea u0026 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