ABSTRACT

The Allied landing in France in June and the capture of Saipan in July 1944 breached the inner defenses of both Axis empires. Military disasters and their domestic repercussions—the attempt on Hitler's life and Tojo's resignation—had brought the Axis powers to bay by mid-1944. The Japanese appeared ready in early 1943 to revise their ideas about the role of the war against merchant shipping in the total Axis effort. The dismal failure of the Germans and Japanese to press a coordinated attack against enemy shipping illustrates the difficulties they faced in implementing joint plans, even when a rare consensus on objectives had been reached. The military balance had tipped too far against the Germans to give hope of a separate German-Russian agreement. The suggestion of the Japanese foreign minister in January 1944 that Germany negotiate with Russia came to nothing.