Chapter 18America in

World War II

Section 1

Early Difficulties

Strengths and Weaknesses By the time the U.S. entered the war the Axis powers

already had a strong control over the areas they had invaded.

Also the Germans and the Japanese were strongly prepared for war. Both countries had been rearming and building military facilities for quite some time

But… the Axis troops were spread out all over the country stretching from France to the Soviet Union

They had not yet defeated the British or the Soviets. And the Allied powers hoped that the size of the

Soviet army and the production abilities of the U.S. would be enough to win the war

All the European Allied Powers had to do was hold long enough for reinforcements to arrive

French soldiers in

A Production Boom

The massive production of wartime materials created hundreds of thousands of jobs for Americans

{This massive increase of productivity and jobs caused the economy to skyrocket and brought the U.S. out of the Depression}

{American farmers also prospered because they provided food for not only the U.S., but for the Allied Powers overseas as most of their crops were destroyed because of the war}

Approximately 10% of all the food produced in the U.S. was sent overseas to the Soviet Union and Great Britain

Government Expansion In order to fight the Axis Powers, the U.S. needed to

focus all its efforts on war time production. In 1942, Roosevelt created the War Production Board

to increase military production and to oversee the conversion of existing factories to wartime factories

In 1943 the {Office of War Mobilization was created to coordinate all the newly created governmental agencies that were involved in the war effort

In addition, the OWM diverted the production of certain products into the production of war materials (ex. Making nylon for parachutes instead of stockings)

It also controlled the clothing styles in order to save fabric. Cuffs on men’s pants and pleats on women’s skirts were no longer made}

Directing the Economy

In order {to pay for the war, the government raised taxes.}

The new taxes mainly affected the middle and lower classes

{The government raised the rest of the money through borrowing, and through war bonds}

The Office of Price Administration was created to help avoid inflation by setting max. prices on goods and by rationing scarce items like gasoline, tires, coffee, sugar, meat and butter

The government also put a freeze on wages. The only way wages would go up is if there was an increase in the cost of living.

Raising an Army

In 1940 the U.S. called the National Guard to active duty and passed the {Selective Training and Service Act, which required all men ages 21 to 35 (later changed to 18 to 45) to register

The Act was the first time a peace time draft was ever conducted}

The existing American military forces made up only about 5% of the 12 million trained soldiers needed to win the war.

{About 2/3 of the Americans that fought in the war were draftees} and the rest were volunteers

This included almost 300,000 women that were a part of the Women’s Auxiliary Corps, the Women Airforce Service Pilots and select branches of the navy, coast guard and marines. They worked as nurses, drove vehicles and ferried planes

War in the Pacific

Japanese assaults continued in the Pacific On December 8, 1941, Japanese planes bombed Clark Air

Force Base in the Philippines and over the nest two weeks Japan attacked numerous cities all over the Pacific

More than 30,000 U.S. and 110,000 Filipino troops led by General Douglas MacArthur, defended the Philippines.

Out-gunned, out-numbered and not having enough food, MacArthur’s forces were forced to fall back to the Bataan Peninsula and then again to Australia.

{Those 70,000 soldiers that stayed on Bataan surrendered in April 1942 and had to travel through the jungle on their way to a prison camp

The journey became known as the Bataan Death March because the U.S. and Filipino soldiers were treated badly by the Japanese}

^ General Douglas MacArthur

The Bataan Death March >

Halting the Japanese Advance On May 7, 1942, the Japanese were on their way to attack New

Guinea Before they could reach their destination, a U.S./British naval

force intercepted them and stopped the advancement This was called the {Battle of the Coral Sea it was important

because it stopped Japanese advancement to Australia} In June 1942, in the Battle of Midway, the Japanese planned to

take the island of Midway northwest of Hawaii. The U.S. intercepted and cracked the Japanese code that gave

the orders for the attack and commander of the Pacific Fleet, Admiral Chester Nimitz, had an ambush waiting for the Japanese

After three days of intense battle the U.S. claimed victory After the battle of Midway the U.S. launched its first offensive at

Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands after 6 months of battle the U.S. prevailed.

On board the USS Yorktown after she was hit by dive bombers in the

Battle of Midway

Early Fighting in Europe and the Mediterranean

In Europe at the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania had joined the Axis Powers and had control of southern Europe

German U-boats patrolling the Atlantic nearly cut off all supplies to Britain by sinking more than 500 ships off the U.S. East Coast

In 1940, Italy launched an attack on north Africa When the British began beating back Italian forces, Hitler sent

in his German Afrika Korps led by commander Erwin Rommel (AKA the Desert Fox) who was able to advance all the way to El Alamein, Egypt

Rommel was an exceptional military mind but he was short on men and supplies

British general Bernard Montgomery was able to push Rommel’s forces out of Egypt and into Lybia

The Desert FoxThe Desert Fox

The Blue represents the Axis Powers The Red represents the Allied Powers

This map shows the Axis powers trying to advance eastward through Egypt. The Allied powers set up a blockade just west of El Alamein and forced them to retreat back westward to Lybia

Stalingrad After their initial attack on the Soviet Union in June

1941, the Germans advanced far into the country As they advanced they captured many industrial

canters and rich grain fields By that winter, German forces were closing in on

Moscow and were successful in capturing Leningrad In the summer of 1942 German troops approached the

city of Stalingrad and by that fall the troops were fighting over the city

The Soviets refused to surrender and eventually were able to surround the German soldiers

{Trapped in the ruined city of Stalingrad, the Germans, due to the freezing conditions, scarcity of food and dwindling supplies, surrendered in late January 1943}