Week of March 14 - 18 - Blogs

Monday, March 14

Soviet Union

USSR Prior to WWII
- Russia drops out of WWI to fight Bolshevik Revolution
- Russia became communist and changed name to USSR in 1922
- Purges and deportations to slave labor camps in Siberia
- Strengthened the intelligence and secret service
- Created a "Cult of Personality"
- Nationalization and collectivization of the Soviet economy
- Industrialization of the Soviet economy
- Five Year Plans
- Policies led to famine in Ukraine (5-10 million died and is considered a genocide by some)
- Banned Religion
USSR In WWII
- signed German-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact in 1939 leading to the invasion of Poland
- Also invaded Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Finland in 1939
- signed Neutrality Pact with Japan in 1941
- Invaded by Germany in June, 1941
- Stalin instituted his retreat and scorched earth policies
- the Russian winter of 1941-42 changed the tide of the war

United States

Pearl Harbor
- attacks included Philippines
  - Bataan Death March
    - Filipinos and American POWs died during the march
- Doolittle's Raid
  - five months after Pearl Harbor
  - seen as a suicide mission
  - not about a military victory - rather a moral victory
  - aircraft carriers came off boats and landed in China
  - challenges
    - bombers not meant to take off from aircraft carriers
    - too heavy - they'd go straight into the ocean
    - had to strip the bombers to make it work
- Battle of Coral Sea
  - first turning point in the Pacific
  - May 7, 1942
  - nobody won - stalemate
  - stopped Japan's advance towards Australia
- Battle of Midway
  - major turning point of the war
  - had an airstrip on it for planes to take off/land
  - decisive United States win
  - we won because we had their military codes

Tuesday, March 15

United States

Battle Strategies
- Island Hopping
  - instead of invading every island, we would invade one and take it over
  - then you would hop over islands until the next island you decided to invade
  - eventually, islands not invaded would be cut off from supplies
Battles
- Battle of Guadalcanal
  - This was our first major offensive move
  - We win
- Battle of Leyte Gulf
  - 2.5 years after losing Philippines
- Iwo Jima
  - March 1945
  - raising of the flag
  - no resistance to the invasion
- Okinawa
  - First island of mainland Japan that we attacked
- Operation Downfall
  - Summer 1945
  - Island Hopping is over
  - Planned for October of 1945
  - Truman had just taken over presidency
  - Didn't want Soviets to take our idea
  - Idea kept very secret
  - We estimated to lose 267,000 soldiers
  - Invasion never took place because of the atomic bomb
- The Manhattan Project
  - 1939-45
  - Enola Gay - plane that dropped the bomb
  - Paul Tibbitts - pilot
  - Hiroshima Bomb
    - U-235
    - "Little Boy"
  - people not only died on impact, but from radiation sickness
  - over 200,000 people died (including both cities)
  - "The Atomic Shadow"
    - people's bodies that were burned onto the ground
  - Trinity Test
    - tested the atomic bomb
    - in a rural part of New Mexico
End of War
- VJ Day
  - celebrates Victory against Japan
  - US officially celebrated on September 2
    - this is when Japan officially signed on USS Missouri

Japan

Battle Strategies
- Kamikazes
  - dive bombing into ships
  - not something we did
  - used when Japan started losing
  - Japan had a hard time re-creating the things we destroyed

Wednesday, March 16

Plan on testing over Allies on Monday.

United States

War With Japan
- Potsdam Conference
  - July 1945
  - Issued by the US, Great Britain, and China
  - Announced the terms for Japan's surrender
  - "We will not deviate from them. There are no alternatives."
  - this was a month before the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings
  - everyone expected invasion
  - terms of Potsdam Conference
    - dismantle the current government of Japan (excluding Hirohito)
    - the Allies (US) to occupy Japan
    - Japan will consist only of the major islands (Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu, Shikoku) and lose all territory gained in WWII and years leading up to it
    - Japanese military forces will be disarmed and allowed to return home
    - There will be war crimes trials for the atrocities committed by Japan throughout WWII
    - Democracy will be promoted as well as Freedom of Speech. religion, and thought, as well as respect for fundamental human rights (Universal Declaration of Human Rights - 1948)
    - Japan will be allowed to have industry so they can make money to pay for reparations. World trade will also be enabled at some point
    - Allied (US) occupation of Japan (1945-1952) will end once Japan accomplishes all the above points
    - "if Japan doesn't agree, they will face prompt and utter destruction." - Harry Truman
    - Japan doesn't listen, and two weeks later we bomb them
War With Germany
- Timeline
  - Battle of the Atlantic - 1941-45
  - Operation Torch (Invasion of Morocco) 1942
    - year after Pearl Harbor
    - this is where we fought Italy and Germany first
    - 10 month campaign
    - we move into Sicily next
    - then into France - 1944
    - Italy was a challenge, even though they surrendered quickly, because Germany had control of them
  - Siegfried Line
    - built by Germany to prevent an attack from the Allies
  - U-Boats
    - German submarines
    - After repeated attacks by German U-Boats on US ships in the Fall of 1941, FDR announced that he had ordered the US Navy to attack U Boats in our waters
    - Convoy System
      - ships would go in large groups across the ocean
      - made it hard for submarines to get all of our ships
      - German adapts by using Wolf Pack method
    - Allied Intelligence
      - Churchill and Roosevelt knew the importance of intelligence in safeguarding Allied commerce to defeat the Axis powers
      - The Allies shared information from RADAR and High Frequency Radio Direction Finding (HF/DF or Huff Duff)
      - RADAR provided a means pf detecting vessels and aircraft above the surface
      - HF/DF was used to locate the sources of enemy radio transmissions such as submarines
      - Allied intelligence leaders began sharing code-breaking secrets, known as "very special intelligence" and classified under code names such as ULTRA and MAGIC
    - Hunter-Killers
      - ships/airplanes that were meant to sink U-Boats
      - Depth Charges
        used to sink U-Boats from submarines
  - D-Day
    - Dwight Eisenhower
    - General during WWII
    - became president for 8 years later
    - in charge of all the Allied forced in the D-Day attack
    - D-Day June 6, 1944
    - Operation Overlord
    - Cross the English channel invasion of the Allies against France
    - Omaha Beach - famous location, site of most Allied casualties
    - We invaded France because it was controlled by Germany
    - 3 major generals
      - Omar Bradley, Dwight (Ike) Eisenhower, George Patton
    - 165,000 Allied troops involved
    - 1,465 Americans killed
    - 5 days later (June 11) beachheads were firmly secured
    - Paris was liberated on August 25
    - Germany surrendered on May 8, 1945
    - But not before...

Thursday, March 17

War With Germany

D-Day
- "Beginning of the end for Germany"
- But not before...
Battle of the Bulge
- December 1944
- Called this because of the "bulge" in German front lines
- Hitler's last-ditch offensive
- Bloodiest battle of WWII for US
  - the coldest, snowiest weather of the German/Belgium border
  - 81,000 US Casualties
  - 100,000 German casualties
  - Malmedy Massacre
    - worst atrocity Germany did to us in WWII
    - German soldiers capture and kill 86 US soldiers
Yalta Conference
- Before the end of WWII, Stalin, Churchill, and Roosevelt met at Yalta, USSR to plan on what should happen when the war ended
- they agreed on...
  - the establishment of the United Nations
  - Germany to be divided into four zones
  - Free elections allowed in the states of eastern Europe
  - USSR promised to join the war against Japan
V-E Day
- Victory in Europe Day
- May 8, 1945
- War not over yet because of Japan
FDR
- FDR had just been elected on his fourth term
- FDR dies
- Truman sworn in
Homefront
- Women
  - Rosie the Riveter
  - represented women in factories
  - nurses very important
  - women also did
    - farm work
    - sales people
    - typists
    - drivers
    - timekeepers
    - teachers
    - etc
  - Women's Army Corps
    - women didn't fight
    - did photography, cartography, etc
  - WAVES
    - Women's Navy
    - telephone operators
    - secretaries
  - Women's Army Service Pilots
    - test planes
    - transport planes
- Navajo Code Talkers
  - we sent codes in Navajo language
  - Navajo language was not written down and couldn't be studied
  - the only people who could interpret the codes were Navajos
- African-Americans
  - segregation still in existence, esp. in military forces
  - Tuskegee Airmen - most famous
    - eventually allowed to fly
    - did bombing campaigns in Europe
- Hollywood
  - Media
  - Propaganda movies
  - meant to entertain
  - showed Japan and Germany as unintelligent
- Office and Price Administration
  - administered rationing and price control
  - rationed things such as food, sugar, gasoline, clothing, etc
  - led to a lot of black markets
  - horse meat is not rationed

Friday, March 18

United States

Homefront
- War Production Board
  - encourages people to work hard who worked at home
  - propaganda
- War Finance Committee and War Bonds
  - 85 million Americans bought War Bonds
  - mostly how we paid for the war
  - it was an investment for US citizens
  - were as lost as $18.75
  - ten years later, government paid out $25 per bond
- Japanese Internment Camps
  - Japanese-Americans put into interment camps
  - Japanese forced to sell homes and relocate to camps
  - were not killed and did not do slave labor
  - many women put to work packing food
  - men picked crops
  - they were paid for work
  - kids went to school
  - Bill Clinton apologizes later for interment and gives money to affected families

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