U.S. Homefront: What people do at home to help with the war.
1. 1940 Selective Training and Service Act:
■First peacetime draft in U.S. History
■Passed by FDR who really wanted the U.S. to get into the war
■Even though we were officially a neutral country, FDR knew that we would eventually get into the war
■Congress passed this act so that we would fill our military needs
■When a draft comes around and your name is called, you would have to go and serve in the war
■This was used until 1973
■After 1973, the U.S. military used volunteers instead
2. Women's Role in WWII
■Rosie the Riveter represented women workers in WWII
■She was the poster child for women--"We Can Do It!"
■This encouraged them to keep working in the factories because they were afraid that they would lose their feminine side
■Women were very much needed so working in the factories helped them to get more rights
■Another popular job for women was being a nurse
■This was also a very important role for them and many of them met their future husbands in this way
■Women were also needed as waitresses, elevator operators, messengers, teachers, conductors and many other jobs that men would typically do
■Propaganda posters told the women that we would win sooner if they got involved
■WAC: the Women's Army Corps worked with testing things, typing, and desk jobs such as making maps and producing photography
■WAVES was the women's navy, they would become secretaries and answer phones
■WASP was the women's equivelant of the airforce
■They would test out new airplanes and transport them from place to place
■Every branch of the military had their own form for women
3. African-American's Role in WWII:
■African Americans were segregated from Whites in WWII
■All other races were seen as inferior to the whites
■Many African Americans joined the war and became pilots and fought on the front lines against the enemy
■The Tuskegee Airmen were black pilots that were trained by the Tuskegee Institute to fight and bomb. They were very successful and good at their jobs.
4. Asian's Role in WWII:
5. Hollywood's Role in WWII:
■Hollywood made films for propaganda and also for entertaining troops
■This encouraged people to buy war bonds and do their part in the war
■Bob Hope and the USO Tour:
■Entertained troops with movies, dancing, singing, etc. and to give them something to enjoy while they had some time off
6. Office of Price Administration:
■Was set up in 1941 to administer price controls and rations
■8000 rationing boards were created with 200,000 volunteers to assist the 60,000 employees of teh agency
■Food rationing included restrictions on sugar and meat and clothing rationing restricted silk and nylon
■These items had to be rationed so there would be enough for the troops
■Gasoline rationing began in May of 1942 and limited the use of gas to five gallons a week
■By the end of 1942, half of the nation's automobiles were issued an A sticker, meaning they were allowed only four gallons a week
■The other half of automobiles had either a B sticker (for war workers) or a C sticker (vital occupation such as doctor) These stickers allowed more gas
■Truckers had T stickers for unlimited amounts of gas
■A black market developed in stolen or counterfeit stickers that were used in 5 to 30% of gasoline sales
■By 1945, thousands of motorists were arrested for using false stickers and 4000 gas stations closed
■People would get stamps for food and once your stamps were used up, you were done for the week
■People also had to wait in line a lot to get their supplies
7. War Production Board:
■Tried to make sure that factories made as much as they could and as quickly and efficiently as possible
■Did a great job because we were able to produce everything we needed
8. National War Labor Board:
■Didn't want workers to go on strike
■Encouraged workers to stay at work and encouraged business owners to pay their workers enough so they would not quit
■If workers and owners did not come together, it would hurt the war effort
9. Why The Homefront Helped Win The War:
10. How U.S./Allies Fought Back Against U-Boats:
■The Battle of the Atlantic was Germany's attempt at trying to control the seas while making sure supplies couldn't get to Great Britain
■To fight back against U-boats (submarines), we tried to use speed to out run them
■Above water, the U-boats were like sitting ducks because they couldn't do much
■Below the water, the U-boats had torpedos and were very powerful
■We tried to figure out where the German's U-boats were located by intercepting their radio code
■Convoy System was power in numbers. Instead of using one boat, you would go out in a group
■Merchant ships would be surrounded by battle ships to keep them safe and make sure they get through to give supplies to Great Britain
11. Allied Intelligence Gathering--Ultra/Magic:
■The U.S. and Great Britain understood how important communication and intelligence was in order to defeat the Axis powers
■The U.S. and Britain shared information using newly developed technologies like RADAR and huff
■Ultra was the code name for the intercepting and decifering German codes
■Ultra was Great Britian's while Magic was the U.S. for decifering Japanese codes
■This gave us the power to find out what the enemy was doing but they had no idea what we were doing
■Also helped us to figure out where their U-boats would be so we could find a different route and avoid them
■The Battle of Midway was the first official battle that we won against Japan
■Using Magic we knew what was coming so we could counteract the attack
■Enigma was the machine/system that Germany would use to transfer their information through codes
■Solving the Enigma system remains one of the greatest Allied triumphs of WWII and helped us to win the war
■Hunter-Killers were airplanes that were specifically designed to hunt down German U-Boats and attack them
12. Operation Barborossa (USSR vs Germany):
■Why did Hitler invade the Soviet Union?
■Lebensraum
■Despised the ethnic Slavs ruled by their "Jewish Bolshevik" masters
■Wanted Ukraine for their farmland
■Could use the people as slave labor
■The defeat of the USSR would further isolate the Allies
■Wanted the oilfields in the Caucasus mountains
■Didn't trust Stalin--German propaganda tried to show that Stalin was planning to attack Germany so the people started to buy into it
■The Western Front fighting was over (except for Great Britain)
■Hitler wanted Russia more than anything
■Operation Barbossa:
■This was the greatest land war in recorded history in terms of manpower and casualties
■This began at 3:30 a.m. on June 22, 1941
■The main front would eventually stretch over 1490 miles
■By the end of the year, 3,500,000 Red Army soldiers and 4,000,000 Russians died
■German Wehrmacht (Army):
■German Army in USSR was split and went after the following Russian cities:
■1. Leningrad
■2. Moscow
■3. Stalingrad
■Battle of Moscow:
■280,000-400,000 German casualties and up to 1.2 million Soviet casualties
■Hitler believed that Moscow was the major military and political target in the USSR as it would lead to the collapse of the country
■If you capture the capital, you can control their government
■Germany got within 12 miles of Moscow before Soviet troops stopped the advance
■This battle marked a major turning point on the western front
■Furious that his army had been unable to take Moscow, Hitler dismissed his commander-in-chief in December of 1941, and took personal charge of the Wehrmacht (German Army)
■Hitler took control and made all military decisions from that point on
■This led to many experienced German officers to go against Hitler
■Hitler surrounded himself with staff officers with little or no recent combat experience because they would be easier to manipulate
■The Siege of Leningrad:
■Started on September 8, 1941 when the last land connection to the city was cut off by Germany (they were surrounded)
■Lifting of the siege took place on January 27, 1944, 872 days after it began
■Many of the city's people died because they starved to death
■It was one of the longest and most destructive sieges in history and one of the most costly in terms of casualties
■Reports of cannibalism appeared in the winter of 1941-1942 after all birds, rats, and pets were eaten by survivors
■Hungry gangs attacked and ate defenseless people
■The Leningrad police formce even formed a special unit to combat cannibalism
■Finally, a successful Russian coutner-offensive at Stalingrad, drained necessary resources the Germans needed to continue the blockade and it eventually failed
■The Germans never took Leningrad, but it ws one of the most costly conflicts Russia had ever faced
13. Battle in Africa and Italy:
■Erwin Rommel-The Desert Fox:
■Was the leader of the Afrika corps. which is the name of the German troops in Africa
■He was the best German general of the war and eventually was put to death because he tried to assassinate Hitler
■Operation Torch:
■The British-American invasion of French North Africa started on November 8, 1942
■This was faught in Morocco and was the first battle in which the U.S. was actually fighting against Germany, almost a year after the attack on Pearl Harbor
■By mid 1943, we had defeated the Germans, Italians, and the Vichy France
■ Casablanca Conference: "Unconditional Surrender":
■We will not make peace and they will surrender whether like it or not
■Germany will have to accept any terms we give them which includes no more Nazis
14. US Generals-Marshall, Eisenhower, Patton, MacArthur, Nimitz, Bradley:
■George C. Marshall:
■Chief of Staff (head honcho) of the U.S. Military during WWII
■General George Patton:
■Defeated Rommel and goes down as one of the greatest war generals of all time
- Chester Nimitz:
- Was the admiral of the U.S. Navy against Japan
15. D-Day: Operation Overlord:
■Took place on June 6, 1944
■Known as Operation Overlord
■Was the allied invasion of Nazi controlled France
■The assault was conducted in two phases
■Phase 1: An airborne assault landing of 24,000 British, American, Canadian, and Free French airborne troops shortly after midnight
■Phase 2: An amphibious landing of Allied infantry and armored divisions on the coast of France starting at 6:30 AM (Land and water)
■There were also decoy operations to distract the German forces from the real landing areas
■The operation was the largest amphibious invasion in world history with over 160,000 troops
■Roughly 10,000 Allied casualties
■Led by Dwight Eisenhower
■The Atlantic Wall:
■An extensive system of coastal fortifications built by Nazi Germany between 1942 and 1944 along the western coast of Europe
■Built as a defense against an anticipated Allied invasion of the mainland continent to Great Britain
16. Battle of the Bulge:
■Was the coldest, snowiest weather "in memory" in the Ardennes Forest on the German/Belgium border
■Hitler's goal was to make it to the sea so he could split up the American and French forces and make his way down to France
■Hitler put up a good offensive at first but ultimately it didn't work
■The Malmedy Massacre, where 88 American soldiers were murdered, was the worst atrocity committed against American troops during the course of the war in Europe
■Was the worst battle in terms of casualties
17. FDR Dies-Truman Takes Over:
■FDR dies on April 8, 1945, just a month before the war was brought to a close
■Harry Truman is swrorn in and took over afterwards
18. VE Day:
■May 8, 1945
■Stands for Victory in Europe day
■Although the war was still going on in Japan, the war in Europe is over
19. Battle in the Pacific-Island Hopping, Philippines, Coral Sea, Midway, Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima, Okinawa:
■Island Hopping:
■Military strategy in the South Pacific
■Hit bigger, more strategically important islands, and going over smaller ones
■Hit one, go for another, and another until you hop to Japan
■This saves time, money, and lives and was a smart military strategy
■Eventually the Japanese would have to surrender because their supplie lines would be cut off
■Philippines:
■December 7, 1941 was Japan's big offensive in the war
■Tried to get the U.S. out of the war
■Philippines was an American controlled island
■We surrendered about six months later and Japan took over
■This was before the attack on Pearl Harbor
■Bataan Death March:
■Took place on the Filipino island of Bataan
■Americans and Filipinos were forced to walk 60 miles from one POW camp to another
■There was a lot of physical abuse and murder
■6,000 to 20,000 men died
■Due to this (and other cases) Japanese officials faced war crime trials after the war
■On May 30, 2009, the Japanese ambassador officially apologized to the Americans
- Coral Sea:
- The Battle of the Coral Sea was fought from May 4-8, 1942
- It was a major naval battle between the Japanese Navy and Allied naval and air forces from the United States and Australia
- 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
- Battle of Midway:
- Widely regarded as the most important naval battle against Japan
- Fought between June 4-7, 1942
- The Japanese aimed to eliminate the United States as the strategic power in the Pacific and believed a victory at Midway Island would do just that (thought we would get out of the war if they beat us)
- United States Navy decisively defeated the Japanese Navy attack against Midway Island
- Japan's Navy suffered heavy losses and never recovered from this battle
- We were able to destroy more ships after this battle than Japan was able to make
- Japan was never the same afterwards
- Was the major turning point in the war
- We knew this attack was coming because of Magic, which played a vital role in the Allied victory
- Guadalcanal:
- After Midway, we switched our tactics from Defensive to Offensive
- The Guadalcanal Campaign, was fought between August 1942 and February 1943 in the Solomon Island Archipelago
- The Guadalcanal campaign was a significant strategic victory by Allied forces over the Japanese in the Pacific theatre
- Guadalcanal marked the transition by the Allies from defensive operations to offensive operations and eventually led to the start of the Japanese losing the war
- Battle of Leyte Gulf:
- Gulf within the Philippines
- This was when we took back the Philippines after losing them two years earlier
- This occurred just ten months before the Japanese surrendered
- MacArthur returned just like he said-"I shall return" in September of 1944
- Iwo Jima:
- Was the next step that brought us closer to Japan
- Over 6,000 U.S. soldiers died
- Okinawa:
- Now the U.S. was extremely close to Japan as a result of island hopping
20. Navajo Code Talkers:
■The Navajo language was never written down so very few people spoke it
■Navajo indians would relay coded military messages back and forth
■This was very important because the Japanese never knew what we were doing/saying
■The code talkers received no recognition until the declassification of the operation in 1968
■In the last ten years, they and their families have received Certificates of Recognition for their work
21. Doolittle's Raid:
- Was a bombing on Japan
- Militarily, it didn't do much except for make Japan push harder, which eventually led to their downfall
- Was mainly a moralle boast for the American soldiers
22. Manhattan Project:
23. Hiroshima Bombing:
24. Nagasaki Bombing:
25. VJ Day;
26. Yalta Conference:
27. Nuremburg Trials:
28. Japanese Internment Camps in US:
29. Why did the Allies Win WWII?
■With women working in the factories, we had more supplies than the other countries did
■Henry Kaiser owned a shipping company that hired a lot of women and other minorities
■He produced a lot of ships for the war
■The U.S. was the biggest power in the war because of our industrialization
■We were able to make the supplies we needed
30. Hitler's Sucicide:
■Hitler marries Eva Braun and they both kill themselves in his bunker
■Joseph Gubbels, his wife, and his children all were killed as well
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