Thursday, March 31

[3Kara]

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

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

13. Battle in Africa and Italy:

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

■George C. Marshall:
■Chief of Staff (head honcho) of the U.S. Military during WWII

15. D-Day: Operation Overlord:

16. Battle of the Bulge:

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:

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