Today we continued WWII discussion.
US Homefront: What U.S was doing back home to help win the war.
1. Selective Training and Service Act- first peacetime draft in U.S history. used until 1973 to fill military needs, after 1973 military depended on volunteers to fill needs
2. Women's role in WWII- Rosie the Riveter represented women workers in WWII. They took the work of men and worked in factories. they pushed for equal rights. Many women became nurses. farm workers, bus and taxi drivers, waitresses, etc. posters showed women were needed in war to win it. Women's Army Corps. did desk jobs and made things for the war. women saved food for men in Europe. WAVES- women's Navy-did desk work, answering phones, etc. WASP- Women's Army Service Pilots-transports planes to an area, test planes. Tokyo Rose- U.S citizen in Japan- forced to broadcast propaganda to the Allied troops for Japan, in radio station, taunted the troops and played music from home, convicted of treason.
3. African-American's role in WWII- weren't given the right to fight right away, just built things and in factories, but eventually got the right to fight, but segragated into only black units. Tuskegee Institute trained African Americans to fly planes and bomb especially in Battle of Africa/Italy.
4. Asian's role in WWII- faced segregation almost worse than blacks, worked in factories and fought in segregated units.
5. Hollywood's role in WWII- tried to get people to buy war bonds, tried to make people positive about the war, and show the Axis powers as bad. mainly to get the public to support the war and to get them to do their part in the war. made WWII movies during WWII like Wake Island and Casablanca. Actors like Bob Hope and John Wayne.
6. Office of Price Administration- set up in 1941 to administer price controls and rational food. food rationing included restrictions on sugar and meat; clothing rationing restricted silk and nylon, gasoline (4-5 gallons a week). A sticker most people(4gallons) B sticker(war workers) C sticker(vital occupation like doctors) B and C got more gas. Black market set up to get stickers illegally, many arrest for illegal activity and thousands of gas stations closed. put had to stand in lines to wait for food and they had to go sometimes without food.
7. War Production Board- gov't organization to encourage businesses to make as many productions as they could.
8. National War Labor Board- tried to bring workers and owners together to help businesses make as many products as possible by encouraging them to not go on strike and owners to pay workers decently.
9. Why the Homefront helped win the war- made all the supplies, women, minorites. keeping the war positve through movies, propaganda. rationing and not buying as much food.
10. How US/Allies fought back against U-boats- speed, built ships that were faster and could move better than a U-boat. intercepting messages about where U-boats are. travel in groups, power of numbers.* we could intercept and deciefer Axis messages. RADAR detected vessels and aircraft aboce surface, HF/DF used to detect submarines, etc. worked with Great Britain. Enigma was Germany used to send out their codes. by deciefering this, we were able to avoid u-boats.
11. Intelligence gathering--Ultra/Magic- Allied leaders shared code-breaking secrets known as "very special intelligence" and classified under cover-names like ULTRA and MAGIC *above
12. Operation Barborossa(USSR vs Germany)- Lebensraum, wanted Ukraine for farmland, despised the ehtnic Slavs ruled by their "Jewish Bolshevil" masters. use people in Soviet Union as slave labor. the defeat of USSR would further isolate the Allies, wanted oilfields in Caucasus mountains, didn't trust Stalin, German propaganda showed Stalin was planning to attack Germany, the Western Front fighting was over (except GB). greatest land war in recorded history. 3:30 a.m Summer 1941. main front would eventually expand to 1490 miles and extend to a depth of over 600 miles. In the Soviet Union marcher the best of the German Army(4.5 million), amounting to three quarters of its field strength. millions Soviet Union died and millions captive. at on etime the Germans occupied some 900,00 square miles of Soviet territories. Goal: take Leningrad, Stalingrad, and Moscow. In winter of 1942 Soviet Union fight back (operation winter storm) Battle of Stalingrad killed 100,000 Soviet Union people, Mascow Hitler only got 12 miles from it, never got there but did fight before they got there, killed a lot, HItlers main target b/c it was the capital; turning point. Hitler blamed commander in chief for not taking over Mascow and he takes over military decisions, German officers many go against him and he surrounds himself with younger/inexperienced officers. Siege at Leningrad, they bomb and blockaded it, cut of communication and transportation lines, 872 days, longest and most destructive sieges in history, one of the most costly in terms of casualities. reports of cannibalism appeared. animals eaten and wallpaper, police formed a special unit to combat cannibalism. the battle at Stalingrad helped Leningrad not get taken over, millions died and sick or wounded.
13. Battle in Africa and Italy- we attack Erwin Rommel(the desert fox), Germany head of African Corp. in Africa, weaker part of Nazi. Bernard Montgomery-Monty British general in Africa, George Patton, U.S General-U.S. won. Casablanca Conference-FDR and Churchill-January 1942-Unconditional Surrender- Battle of Africa was tank battles mainly. fighting in mountains was hard, many U.S fought in Italy to keep Germany from taking over Italy. U.S won (Operaton Torch)
14. US Generals-Marshall, Eisenhower- Supreme Aliied Commander of All Allied Forces in Europe planned D-Day, Patton-U.S. General in Africa Battle, MacArthur- returned to Philippines, Nimitz-head of U.S. Navy, Bradley- U.S. general in WWII; Marshall Chief of Staff of US military during WWII
15. D-Day-Operation Overlord- June 6, 1944- Allied invasion of Nazi controlled France, overtime took the beach and headed to Germany. a day or so earlier sent in troops on opposite side and move towards the beach to trap Germans, ships crossed English Channel to get to beach. we purposely sent out info. to have Hitler think we were attacking the Straight of Dover, Clay, France so that made it easier for us to cross the English Channel to get to Omaha Beach. largest invasion in world history over 160,000 troops. 10,000allied casualties (6,600 u.s). The Atlantic Wall-extensive system of coastal fortifications built by Nazi Germany between 1942 and 1944 along the western coast of Europe. Built as defense against an anticipated Allied invasion of the mainland continent from Great Britain. Omaha(U.S), Utah(Br), Juno(Canadian) beaches attacked.
16. Battle of the Bulge- Hitler's last major offensive of the war trying to push us towards the sea while we were pushing towards Germany,it worked for sometime and put a bulge in the attack, but we eventually got through and won. on Germany/Belgium border. winter battle. 500,000 Germans , 600,000 U.S, 55,000 British. 100,000 Germans casualties, killed, wounded, or captures. 81,000 casualties, thousands captured and killed. 86 American soldiers murdered in Malmedy Massacre when captured.worst battle in terms of losses to the American Forces in WWII. Hitler commited suicide by taking Cynine and then shooting himself.
17. FDR Dies-Truman takes over- died a month before WWII ended. Harry Truman sworn in when he dies.
18. VE Day- May 8, 1945 war end.
19. Battle in the Pacific-Island Hopping- hoping from major islands to other major islands; saves time, money, and lives the islands will have to surrender because their supply lines are cut off we dropped bombs on japan long before the atomic bomb was made. december 7, 1941 Philippines-we took over the philippiness until this date we were forced to leave because japan took over japan is on the road in january to take over manila we wanted to just surrender a certain island of the philippiness but japan was determined to get the whole island which they did(we lost) later Battle of Leyte Gulf back in Philippines and we won and destroyed the Japanese Navy. MacArthur returned to the Philippines., bataan death march- may 1942 thousands of philippiness people were pushed to other cities (walking 60 miles) many miles away and along the way many were beaten and killed about 20,000 men died. Coral Sea- May 4-8, 1942. major battle between the Japanese Navy and Allied naval airforces from the U.S. and Australia. aircraft battle, and naval battle. while Japan sank more ships than the Allies did, it was a strategic victory for the Allies as it was the first time we stopped the Japanese from advancing. , Midway- most important naval battle against Japn. fought june 4-7, 1942. Japanese aimed to eliminate the U.S. as a strategic power in the Pacific and believed a victory at Midway Island would do just that. U.S. Navy deisively defeated the Japanese Navy attack against Midway Island. Japan's Navy suffered lots of losses and never recovered from it. Magic played a vital role in the Allied victory., Guadalcanal- Guadalcanal campaign significant strategic victory by Allied forces over the Japanese in the Pacific theatre fough between AUg. 7, 1942 to Feb, 9, 1943 in Solomon Island Archipelago. Allies became offensive, help lead to surrender., Iwo Jima- 6,821 U.S deaths. famous raising of the flag. littler battles like d-day., Okinawa- right by Japan, Japan becomes desperate b/c we're getting closer to their country.
20. Navajo Code Talkers- big part in helping us win the war; spoke codes; tansmitted info through airwaves in their code made it so that germany and japan didn't know what we were doing
21. Doolittle's Raid- bombing in japan. purpose was to confuse the people in japan and make them question their leaders and we needed a morale boost
22. Manhattan Project- development of atomic bomb. General Eslie Grove commander of scientist. J Robert Oppenheimer head scientist. made in New Mexico and tested there called Trinity.
23. Hiroshima bombing- Enola Gay plane that dropped it, Paul Tibbits pilot. bomb called "Little Boy" target was bridge. city destoryed, lots killed.
24. Nagasaki bombing- "Fat Man"- wider bomb than first.
25. VJ Day- Japan surrenderd and war ends, FDR says over radio.
26. Yalta Conference- Stalin, Churchill, and FDR meet for last time. Germany broken into four zones, US, GB, France and USSR contorl those zones. Stalin promised free elections in Eastern Europe-lie. and promised to join the war against Japan after war wtih Germany was over. he did right after we dropped atomic bomb. have a conference in San Francisco to set up United Nations.
27. Nuremburg Trials- trail to see what was going to happen with German leaders.
28. Japanese Internment Camps in US- Japanese/Americans forced to move to camps like in western part of U.S. forced to sell everything. said it was to help them, but basically we didn't trust them. they still went to school and had teams like baseball, football for entertainment. given jobs to do.
29. Why did we win WWII- women, minorities, Henry Kaiser had the company who built ship and we had more ships than all the countries combined. War bonds-lend money to gov't to help with war.
GI Bill of Rights- helped them when they got back from war with educations, housing, aid, jobs.
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