Friday April 8th

US Homefront:

Doing what you can at home to help the war.

1. Selective Training and Service Act

First peacetime draft in US history

2. Women's role in WWII

Women can do jobs that men can't do because they're gone. Rosie the Riveter ("we can do it", represented women working in facories), nurses, stenographers, farm workers, salespeople, waitresses, bus drivers, taxi drivers, time keepers, elevator operators, messengers, laundresses, teachers, conductors, army WAC, WAVES (women's navy), WASP, Tokyo Rose

3. African-American's role in WWII

Worked in factories, joined military, segregation, discrimination

4. Asian's role in WWII

"

5. Hollywood's role in WWII

Entertained troops, put out propaganda films. USO tour sent actors overseas. Kilroy was here.

6. Office of Price Administration

Established to administer price controls, food rationing on sugar and meat, clothing on silk and nylon. Gasoline rationing, 5 gallons per week, automobiles issued stickers for importance and therefore more gas. Black market developed. Ration book.

7. War Production Board

Production wins war.

8. National War Labor Board

Make sure owners and workers get along.

9. Why the Homefront helped win the war

Women in factories. Henry Kaiser and people who had facories. Victory gardens.

10. How US/Allies fought back against U-boats

Speed. Intelligence gathering, detecting them. Convoy system, ships travel in large numbers. Hunter-Killers. Depth charges.

11. Intelligence gathering--Ultra/Magic

Intercepting and deciphering the enemies' messages. HF/DF was used to locate the sources of enemy radio transmissions such as subs. Ultra and Magic we were code names given to intercepting and deciphering codes from Germany (Ultra) and Japan (Magic). Enigma, system that Germany transferred their info through codes. 

12. Operation Barborossa (USSR vs Germany)

Hitler despised the ethnic Slavs ruled by their "Jewish Bolshevik" masters. Wanted Ukraine for farmland. Use people as slaves. Defeat USSR to further isolate Allies. Wanted oilfields in Caucasus Mountains. Lebensraum. Didn't trust Stalin-German propaganda showed that Stalin was planning to attack Germany. The Western Front fighting was over except GB. Hitler realllly wanted the Soviet Union.

Greatest land war in recorded in history, June 22, 1941. 4.5 million troops. 4 million died. Germans occupied 900,000 sq miles. Leningrad, Moscow, Stalingrad. Turning point was the winter. Hitler fired his commander-in-chief and took over the German Wehrmacht himself. Surrounded himself with inexperienced officers so they wouldn't question him. The Siege of Leningrad. Cannibalism.

13. Battle in Africa and Italy

Erwin Rommel (Germany), the Desert Fox. Bernard Montgomery (GB). George Patton. Operation Torch, British-American invasion of French North Africa. Casablanca Conference, no deals w/Germany="unconditional surrender". Italy's Appenine Mts. Tuskegee Institute, bombing raids in Italy and Germany.

14. US Generals-Marshall, Eisenhower, Patton, MacArthur, Nimitz, Bradley

Marshall (chief of staff of the US military during WWII). General George Patton (treated soldiers rough). Ike, Patton, and Bradley. MacArthur, Japanese in Philippines, large ego, went to Australia "I shall return". Nimitz, US navy against Japan.

15. D-Day-Operation Overlord

June 6, 1944. Allied invasion of Nazi controlled France. Two phases: airborne assault after midnight, amphibious landing on coast of France around dawn. Decoy ops to distract Germans. Largest amphibious invasion in world history. Scheduled for June 5th, needed full moon. 10,000 allied casualties. The Atlantic Wall, coastal fortifications built by Nazi Germany on western coast of Europe.

16. Battle of the Bulge

Winter of 1944-45. German/Belgium border. Coldest/snowiest weather. Malmedy Massacre. Worst battle to American Forces in WWII.

17. FDR Dies-Truman takes over

18. VE Day

May 8th, 1945. Victory in Europe day. End of the war.

19. Battle in the Pacific-Island Hopping, Philippines, Coral Sea, Midway, Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima, Okinawa,

Island hopping, hop over smaller islands to the bigger ones, save time/money/lives, take over the important islands, cut supply lines to smaller islands. Philippines, Dec 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor & Philippines, Bataan Death March (Japs forced American/Philippinos to march to new POW camps, May '42, 75,000 ppl, abuse/murder, war crime trials). Coral Sea, early May 1942, major naval battle between us and Japan, first action where aircraft carriers engaged each other/neither's ships fired at each other, strategic victory for allies. Midway, most important naval battle against Japan, early June 1942, Japan never recovered, Magic played a vital role. Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands Archipelago, marked transition by allies from defensive to offensive. Leyte Gulf, October 1944, Philippines, we destroyed Janpanese navy. Iwo Jima, flag raises, atomic bomb, flag at Mt. Suribachi. Okinawa, island off Japan, terrain, flag raise.

20. Navajo Code

A reason why we won the war. Code we used to transmit messages. Early 2000s, Navajo code talkers awarded Congressional Gold Medal.

21. Doolittle's Raid

US mission to bomb Tokyo. Used aircraft carrier to lift off in the ocean. Had to strip ships to make lighter so they could take off. Landed in China. Americans needed a morale boost.

22. Manhattan Project

Making of atomic bomb. Leslie Groves, in charge of project. J Robert Oppenheimer, head scientist, communist. Los Alamos, developed. Dropped in Alamogordo, NM, named Trinity. Enola Gay, developed plane strong enough to drop the bomb which was 10,000-12,000 lbs. Paul Tibbits, the pilot. B-29 Super Fortress.

23. Hiroshima bombing

Bomb nicknamed "Little Boy". Main target was a t-shaped bridge. the atomic shadow, shadows are burned into the ground. Radiation.

24. Nagasaki bombing

Bomb nicknamed "Fat Man". Planed named the Bockscar.

25. VJ Day

Victory in Japan day. August 14, 1945.

26. Yalta Conference

The big three. FDR, Chuchill, and Stalin. February 1945 in Ukraine. Split Germany in four occupation zones (US, GB, France, USSR). Stalin promised free elections in eastern Europe. Also promised to join the war against Japan after war with Germany was over. Have a conference at San Fransisco to set up the UN.

27. Nuremburg Trials

War crime trials for Nazis and such. Hermann Goering, took over after Hitler killed himself, (killed himself during trials).

28. Japanese Internment Camps in US

Forced Jap-Americans to move to camps in western US, desolate, like army barracks. "For their safety". School, jobs. Just in isolation.

29. Why We Won WWII

Intelligence gathering.

 

GI Bill of Rights. Help soldiers come back to everyday life. Education, jobs.

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