Today we started off with Mr. Bruns presentation. Hes going to be talking about the US Home Front. In 1940 we were still neutral and the Selective Training and Service Act was made, it was to draft people to the war and to get men ready for war. George C. Marshall was the Chief of Staff of the US Military during WWII. He was basically the head of everyone. He worked behind a desk in D.C. During WWII women had a lot of jobs. They had to work in the factories, typists, and nurses. There was a womens army core, where they did different types of jobs that were needed, radio operators, testing planes and trucks. There was a women’s navy called the WAVES. WASP(Women’s Army service pilots). African Americans fought in WWII, but they were not mixed with whites yet. Henry Kaiser was a ship builder. He owned the largest ship builder in the US, and because of him we won the war. Hollywood played a big role in making the enemy looking terrible and making the US look good. Bob Hope would go over and entertain the troops. Bing Crosby was a singer who would go over too. Rationing on food and gas happened to everyone. For gas you would get a sticker saying how much gas you as a person would need. A sticker was the average person who got 4 gallons a week. B stickers were for war workers, C stickers were for vital people like doctors, and T stickers were unlimited for truck drivers. Horse meat was not rationed so that became more popular to eat. War Production Board just tried to make sure everything was as efficient as possible. The National War Labor Board tried to get people to not go on strike and things and if we stick together and work together they would get things done and we would win the war.
Nick had the European front. The Battle of the Bulge was on Oct. 1944 when the Allies captured the German town of Aachen. It was Germanys last big chance to win the war, they were trying to get to the Belgian Port of Antwerp. The Germans lost 120,000 troops, 600 tanks, and 1,600 planes. It basically caused a lot of needless deaths. At this time most Germans knew that Hitler was crazy and really had a mental problem. The Allies found the death camps and found all the dead bodies. The SS Guards from Germany tried to burn and bury the dead bodies to hide the evidence. They couldn’t hide that many bodies and the Allies found them. On April 25, 1945 the soviets invaded Berlin. Hitler prepared for the end, he wrote his last letter to the German people before committing suicide. He married Eva Braun April 29th. Hitler shot himself in the head and his wife drank poison, they didn’t want to be in the enemies arms and killed by them. Admiral Karl Donitz took over after Hitler.
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