BLOG DISCUSSION:
US Homefront:
1. Selective Training and Service Act
- First peacetime draft in US history
- Used until 1973 to fill military needs
- After 1973, US military depended on volunteers to fill needs.
2. Women's role in WWII
- Rosie the Riveter was the iconic woman.
- The US produced a TON during WWII
- They worked in factories
- They were nurses
- Secretaries for the military. Typists.
- famers
- waitresses
- drivers
- laundresses
- teachers
-every branch of the the military had a woman's place WAC- Women's Army Corp
- WAVES, women's Navy
- WASP- Women's Army Service Pilots
3. African-American's role in WWII
- fought in the military
-Had segregated units
-worked as cargo handlers and cooks.
- watched over and controlled by white men
-Black women worked as nurses, factories
-More black man volunteered to fight than white men, but a ton of them were turned down because of their skin color.
- Made up 10% of US forces in Southeast Asia.
- Tuskegee Airmen- all black male pilots.
4. Asian's role in WWII
-Had to deal with discrimination
- They fought valiantly
5. Hollywood's role in WWII
- Provided a lot of commercials and cartoons that supported the war/ military.
- Got people to buy war bonds for the troops
- Casa Blanca is one of the most famous WWII movies
- USO is United Service Organizations Inc.Its a private non-profit organization to entertain the troops.
6. Office of Price Administration
- First to discover the idea of ration books
- There were red points and blue points
- They were only given enough to buy supplies for their family.
- They couldn't buy more than what the ration books allowed
- They can only be used by or for the name on it.
- EVEN kids were given ration books.
- You have to report it if you lose our ration book.
- Was no rationing of horse meat.
7. War Production Board
- Produced materials for the war. It stabilized our economy
8. National War Labor Board
-Kept peace between workers and employers.
9. Why the Homefront helped win the war
-mass production of goods
10. How US/Allies fought back against U-boats
- Planes were mostly used to fight back
- Navy used depth charges to take out the boats
- Speed was a big deal
- We tried to avoid them, and proved where they were
- Travel in large numbers
- We went after U boats with lots of weapons and had aggressive attacks too.
- Depth Charges were forced under water and then exploded
- Hunter Killer airplanes went after the U boats also
11. Intelligence gathering--Ultra/Magic
- mostly spies
- most of them were British
- they got together to fight off the Axis Powers
- Ultra is intercepting and deciphering German code
- Magic was an intercepting and deciphering of Japanese codes
- We worked with Great Britain to come up with safe ways of defeating the Axis Powers
-Enigma: system in which Germany transferred their information though codes
- Solving the Enigma system remains one of the great allied triumphs of WWII
- Looked like a typewriter
- Bombe, is what helped decipher and break codes.
- It was like the super computer of the day.
12. Operation Barborossa(USSR vs Germany)
- Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union
- They sent thousands of people to invade
- They were going to take over 3 major cities
- Stalingrad, Moscow, Leningrad
- Failed because Soviet Union pushed on
- US lost around 400,000
- He thought Russians were inferior
- They had a TON of resources in Russia
- Wanted space for the Arean race.
- Wanted Ukraine for the farmland
- He thought he would have it taken over by December... but he didn't so the winter kicked in.
- Hitler believed US would remain neutral in the war.
- All the Western fighting was over, except for GB.
- Largest military operation in Wold History
- Used 4.5 million German Soldiers fought
- SU lost more people in one year than we did in ALL of the war.
- Hitler never made it to Moscow.
- They got within 12 miles of Moscow.
- They didnt TAKE OVER Leningrad, they SIEGE it.
- This is where they surrounded the city.
- It was SO bad that people resorted to cannibalism
- Leningrad never surrendered
- Overall Germany FAILED
13. Battle in Africa and Italy
14. US Generals-Marshall, Eisenhower, Patton, MacArthur, Nimitz, Bradley
- George Patton was a great US general during WWII, but he unfortunately died in an automobile accident.
- Eisenhower was known as the Supreme Allied Commander, and he was the next one in charge in Europe.
- Marshall was the chief of staff, and that was the guy that was in charge of the military, right under the president in ranking.
- MacArthur was the leader of the US army against Japan.
- Nimitz was the leader of the US navy against Japan. Bradley was a famous general in Africa in WWII.
15. D-Day-Operation Overlord
-June 6th, 1944.
- It was the invasion of France (occupied by Germany).
- The Allied powers invaded Omaha Beach, which caught the Germans off guard.
- We knew what they were doing, but they didn't know what the Allied powers were doing.
- The Allied powers fed false information to the Germans, making them think that we might attack a different place then we really were.
- Hitler moved most of his forces to where he thought the Allied powers were going to attack, but didn't.
- There were over 6,000 ships were sent to Omaha Beach, yet 2,000 were sunk.
- There were roughly about 10,000 Allied casualties, with 6,600 from the US.
- Operation Overlord was the largest amphibious invasion in world history with over 160,000, and it was the beginning of the end for Germany.
- The British, Americans, Canadians, and Free French were all involved in the parachuting down into France shortly after midnight.
- The Amphibious landing of the Allied infantry and armored divisions on the coast of France started around 6:30 a.m.
16. Battle of the Bulge
-Took place near the end of the war in Belium in the mountains.
- it was the bloodiest battle of WWII for the US.
- It occured 5 months after D-day.
- The Germans attacked the Allied powers, and it was one of Hitler's last offensive.
- Roughly 19,000 US soldiers.
- Lasted from December of 1944 to January of 1945.
17. FDR Dies-Truman takes over
- FDR was a smoker and had a heart condition.
- He died on April 2nd, 1945.
-Truman was from Missouri
- He swore a lot
- He said "the buck stops here"
- He fired MacArthur for wanting to have an atomic war with China
- He was seen as one of the worst presidents...
18. VE Day
- May 8, 1945
- There were celebrations on the streets and America was really happy
19. Battle in the Pacific-Island Hopping
Island Hopping:
- Our strategy against Japan in the South Pacific
- It cut off the key islands with bases
- It saved tie, money, and lives.
- Supply lines to other islands would be cut off.
- February 1945
20. Navajo Code Talkers
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21. Doolittle's Raid
22. Manhattan Project
23. Hiroshima bombing
24. Nagasaki bombing
25. VJ Day
26. Yalta Conference
27. Nuremburg Trials
28. Japanese Internment Camps in US
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