US Homefront:
1. Selective Training and Service Act (1940)
*people who were 18 years of age or older had to go to war
*first peacetime draft in US history
*after 1973 we went back to volunteer
2. Women's role in WWII
*women started doing "men's work" during the war-worked in factories and produced goods for the war
*no women were in combat-nursing was as close as you could get
*women had a huge impact on the outcome of the war
3. African-American's role in WWII
*segregated during the war-had their own companies/units
*not front line fighting at first-cooks, janitors-many jobs similar to women jobs at home
4. Asian's role in WWII
*Americans were suspicious of them-often relocated and sent to camps
*some were drafted and proved their loyalty-had to wear special tags to distinguish them
*had same jobs as women/blacks on the homefront
5. Hollywood's role in WWII
*USO was established
*newsreels were played before the feature film-had actual footage of war
*Bob Hope was a comedian that went overseas to entertain the troops in Europe and the Pacific
*Looney Tunes had many propaganda elements worked into their episodes
6. Office of Price Administration
*established price controls
*set up the ration coupon system
*had propaganda pieces for the war
7. War Production Board
*established in 1942 by FDR-made sure that production was up during wartime-helped transition between peacetime goods and wartime goods
8. National War Labor Board
*established to help improve owner-worker relations so that there weren't any strikes
9. Why the Homefront helped win the war
*women took up factory jobs and produced war goods
*Hollywood helped with propaganda-kept positive outlook and encouraged people to help
*rationing made sure that there was food and supplies for the troops
10. How US/Allies fought back against U-boats
*we kept updating our weapons
*we produced ships at a very high rate
*we kept changing our code, while deciphering their code
*advantages: speed, deciphered Ultra code, convoy system, radar (above ground), HF/DF (located subs)
11. Intelligence gathering--Ultra/Magic
*used 0s and 1s to send messages
*we used the Bombe supercomputer to help decipher the Ultra code
*Germany used Ultra="ultra-secret code"-deciphered by British
*The war could've turned out very differently had we not deciphered their code
*Magic=Japanese-deciphered by US
12. Operation Barborossa(USSR vs Germany)
*largest military operation in world history
*German invasion of USSR
*They invaded because...
*they wanted to carry out Lebensraum
*Hitler despised Slavs
*Wanted Ukraine farmland
*defeating the USSR would weaken the Allies
*Wanted oil fields of the Caucasus mountains
*Didn't trust Stalin-German propaganda showed that Stalin wanted to invade Germany
*The Western Front fighting was over except for GB
*Stalingrad-gigantic battle, 90% was taken before the Germans were pushed back
*Moscow-another large battle, Germany got within 12 miles and then pushed back
*Leningrad was under siege, civilians got cut off from supplies-- reports of cannibalism
13. Battle in Africa and Italy
*May 1942-US got involved in North Africa-fighting against Germany, Italy, and Vichy France
*attacked because it was a weak point in Germany's army
*Italy was the "weak underbelly of Europe"-we struck there next
14. US Generals-Marshall, Eisenhower, Patton, MacArthur, Nimitz, Bradley
*George C. Marshall-Chief of Staff
*Dwight D. Eisenhower-Supreme Commander of Allied Troops
*General Patton- fought in Africa and in Europe after D-Day
*General MacArthur- in charge of the army forces fighting Japan
*Admiral Nimitz- in charge of the naval forces fighting Japan
*Bradley- Eisenhower's go-to guy for Africa and Europe operations
15. D-Day-Operation Overlord
*June 6, 1944
*two phases to the invasion:
1. huge amphibious assault by US into France
2. an airborne assault landed 24,000 British, American, Canadian, and Freee French paratroopers behind enemy lines
*there were decoy operations to distract the German forces from the real landing areas
*about 10,000 Allied casualties (6,600 American)
*The main part of the US force landed on Omaha Beach
16. Battle of the Bulge
*the largest and costliest battle for the US
*Germany's last offensive of the Western Front
*took place in Belgium
17. FDR Dies-Truman takes over
18. VE Day
19. Battle in the Pacific-Island Hopping, Philippines, Coral Sea, Midway, Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima, Okinawa,
20. Navajo Code Talkers
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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