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
*FDR had multiple heart problems- died from a stroke-occured right after the start of his 4th term
*Truman took over-was not a very popular president-authorizes the dropping of the A-bombs
18. VE Day
*Victory in Europe day- May 8, 1945
19. Battle in the Pacific-Island Hopping, Philippines, Coral Sea, Midway, Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima, Okinawa,
*Island hopping- going from island to island and capturing them and getting naval bases and air force bases on the way to Japan
*Philippines- Bataan Death March- 75,000 Americans and Filipino POWs were forced to march 60 miles in terrible heat- around 6-20,000 Americans died-this resulted in Japan having a war crime trial after war
*General MacArthur returned later in the war to take back the Philippines
*Battle of Coral Sea- major naval battle-first aircraft carrier vs. aircraft carrier battle
*first battle that neither ship saw the other and directly fired on them
*First naval battle that Japan didn't win, considered a victory by us
*Battle of Midway- most important naval battle against Japan-first battle we decisively won
*The Japanese believed that this battle would put us out of commission
*Guadalcanal- significant victory over Japan
*This was the first US offensive against Japan (invasion)
20. Navajo Code Talkers
*29 people who were fluent in the Navajo language took the Navajo language and made it into a code that they used to communicate within the military-Japanese never cracked it
21. Doolittle's Raid
*a bombing run on Japan-they were to fly over Japan and bomb it, land in China, refuel, and fly back
*This raid was intended to raise US morale- "We can fight back"
*the fighters crash landed in China, eventually most of them made it home
22. Manhattan Project
*the project name for making the atomic bomb
*named after where it started- Manhattan, NY
*General Leslie Groves was in charge of this project
*The lead scientist was J. Robert Oppenheimer
*the first test bomb site was called Trinity
23. Hiroshima bombing
*August 6, 1945
*The Hiroshima bomb killed about 80,000 people
*The bomb was called "Little Boy"
24. Nagasaki bombing
*The bomb was called "Fat Man"
*Nagasaki was actually 3rd on the list for bombing
*made of plutonium-imploded on impact
*This mission had a lot of problems
25. VJ Day
*August 14, 1945
26. Yalta Conference
*Stalin, Churchill, Roosevelt met in Yalta, Russia
*The compromise's terms were:
*Germany was to be split into four occupation zones
*Stalin promised free elections in Eastern Europe
*Stalin promised to join the war against Japan after war with Germany was over
*A conference was to be held in San Francisco to set up the United Nations
27. Nuremburg Trials
*The war crimes trial that Germany went to in Nuremburg, Germany
28. GI Bill of Rights
*this was set up to help members of the armed forces adjust to civilian life after separation from service
*gave them education opportunities, vocational readjustment
29. Japanese Internment Camps in US
*the camps were basic communities set up in desert areas to isolate Japanese
*there was education, entertainment and job opportunities
30. Why did the Allies win WWII?
*Breaking the codes of Germany and Japan--we had Navajo Code Talkers
*The atomic bombs
*We had plentiful natural resources and superior military strength (in numbers)
*Our war production was extremely high
*Hitler's mistakes-invading Soviet Union, overextending troops, spreading supply lines thin
We also talked about the Cold War Project today. I have:
15. Ronald Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative (Missile Defense System today)
The Cold War was a political, strategic, and idealogical struggle between the US and the Soviet Union from 1945-1991
Comments