U.S. in World War II Objectives

Describe challenges & successes mobilizing for war

Describe how war impacted Americans at home

Summarize how Allies win war in Europe

Describe Allied offensive against Japanese

Explain why Atomic bomb droppedDescribe how war affected

minorities

Dec. 7, 1941 “Day of Infamy”

President Roosevelt Addresses Congress Dec. 8, 1941Declare war on Japan; Join Allies

U.S. Enters the War Enlarged Military

5 million volunteered

Selective Service○10 million drafted○8 weeks training

Propaganda

Wartime Production 1942 - War Production Board

Industries changeover to war materials 1943 - Office of War Mobilization

Centralized resources-gov’t decidesFord Motor Co. – B-24 Liberator bombers

○Assembly line techniquesHenry Kaiser – mass production

○Liberty Ships – production time reduced 200 to 40 days

Ford’s Willow Run Factory B-24 Bombers

Liberty Ships Under Construction

Liberty Ships

Wartime Production Unemployment vanishes By 1945

Thousands planes, ships, rifles, tanks, armored cars, etc., being produced

Wages go up Cost of living goes up Union membership goes up Federal debt goes up

$43B

- $2

60B

War at Home Shortages & rationing

Food supply downInflation up – Office of Price AdministrationFair distribution of scarce items

ActivitiesReading, music, baseball, movies

○ Abbott & CostelloBirthrate increasesNight time blackout drillsTin collection drives

Rationing

War at Home

Victory Gardens supply produce for troops & familiesTomatoes, peas, radishesParking lots, playgrounds

Office of War Information - 1942PropagandaMaintain morale and support for war effort

○ Hire artists – strengthen patriotic feelings○ Norman Rockwell – Four Freedoms

Victory Gardens & Propaganda

Norman Rockwell, artist

Wartime Diversity Issues

1,000,000 African Americans1st supporting rolesLate 1942 – serve in

separate units 300,000 Mexican Americans 33,000 Japanese Americans 25,000 Native Americans 13,000 Chinese Americans

– “just carve on my tombstone, ‘here lies a black man killed fighting a yellow man for the protection of a white man.’”

Wartime Diversity Issues Tuskegee Airmen – 1st

AA flying unit Late 1944 – combat

units integrate

Philip RandolphThreatened March on

Washington for “right to work and fight for our country.”

• FDR issued executive order – Full & equitable participation of all workers in defense industry – “no discrimination of race, creed, color, or national origin.”

Navajo Code Talkers

Women in the WarWomen

WAVES - NavySPAR

○Coast GuardWAFS

○women’s auxiliary firing squadron

WASP ○air force service pilots

–WAAC (WAC)• Women’s Auxiliary Army Corp.

Women at Home By 1944

6 million workers were women

Myth – women were too slow, not strong enough

Paid 60% of what men make

“Rosie” encouraged women to work

“Rosie the Riveter”

Minorities and the War Despite discrimination

– minority groups get chance to show what they can do & see advancement in opportunities

WAR FOR EUROPE & N. AFRICA

Churchill & Roosevelt

Dec. 22, 1941 Whitehouse meeting• Over 3 weeks,

Churchill convinced FDR that Hitler was larger threat than Japan

• 1st military goal:○Defeat Germany &

Italy

War Strategy

Battle of the AtlanticGerman Wolf Packs – groups of subs Goal

Cutoff Allied supply lines-food, arms, oil, tanks, planes, etc.

87 ships sunk in 4 months 681 in 7 months Battle went on for years

If Allies didn’t win this “war,” WW2 would have been lost

US Ships, planes help Britain win

Fighting Back – War in Atlantic Fighting German U-boats, submarines

FDR says “Shoot on sight”

U.S. fights back against U-boats U.S. Convoys formed Equipped with radar, sonar Allows U.S. to find & destroy German

U-boats faster then can be built. 140 Liberty Ships/month

Hitler Attacks Soviets June 1941

Hitler attacks Soviet Union ○ Despite Nonaggression Pact

Invaded over 1,800 milesCaptured 2 million Russian

soldiers by Nov.Germany halted 25 miles outside

of Moscow○Russian winter set in○Fierce Russian resistance

Stalingrad & Leningrad Germans push towards

Stalingrad & Leningrad Deadliest battle in

human history Oil in Caucasus Bomb, burn Hand-to-hand combat Russians want to

surrender Germans hold 90% of

city by winter ’42

Soviets to Stalingrad

Winter – advance tanks over ice

Trap Germans in city Soldiers starve

Want to surrender Hitler – No!

Jan ’43 surrender Soviets move toward

Germany

NORTH AFRICAN CAMPAIGN• Not enough troops to invade France – yet!

• Help Britain in N. Africa• Fighting since 1940• Success in Egypt & Libya• “Soft underbelly of Axis Powers” British General

Bernard Montgomery

NORTH AFRICAN CAMPAIGN

U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower

German General Erwin Rommel

OPERATION TORCH

Fighting in N. Africa & Italy

Allies need to capture North Arica so they can get into Italy

Very difficult to fight in desert

Hitler sends 20,000 more troops

German General Rommel – called Desert Fox because he’s so good at fighting with tanks in the desert

Fighting in N. Africa & Italy US loses at Kasserine Pass“America losses her battle innocence”

British & US combine forces By May 1943 - Germans & Italians in North

Africa surrender to Allied troops

Fighting in N. Africa & Italy Allies capture Sicily Mussolini stripped of power, arrested

“Most hated man in Italy” - KilledHe & mistress hung upside down

Eventually, Allies drive Axis powers out of ItalyThousands of soldiers dieJune 1944, Allied forces won

Italian Campaign - Bloody Anzio

Planning for D-Day Stalin, Roosevelt, and Churchill meet Plan to invade France from Southern

Great Britain In preparation for it

Carpet bomb Germany

Planning for D-Day Carpet bombing of Germany

Dropped 2,697,473 bombsKilled 305,000 civiliansDamaged 5.5 million homesWiped out railroads, bridges, oil fields,

etc.Goal: Stop Germany’s ability to move

troops to Normandy beaches once attack starts

Hamburg

Operation Overlord Goal: Invade NW Europe to reach

Germans General Eisenhower – Supreme

CommanderOperation Neptune: Establish a

beachhead in Normandy, France -- “D-Day: June 6, 1944”

Troops: British, U.S., Canadian, Polish, Dutch, Belgian, French

Phantom Army Fake radio messages Double agents Phony military base – Dover, England

Buildings, Planes, tanks, jeeps, housing

Made of cardboard, wood, rubber, paper

Led Germans to believe attack would be at CalaisNarrowest point of English Channel

Operation Overlord

Operation Overlord23,000 paratroopers behind enemy

linesOver 150,000 troops land on beachesCharge enemy lines on open beachesMassive bombardment, but massive

devastationChaos – screaming, soldiers hit left &

right, bodies everywhere, nothing to hide behind

Results: Two week duration Allies held 80 mile strip of beachheads. Causalities were atrocious

Mulberry Harbor Artificial harbor built at the beaches

Towed huge concrete portsSunk 70 old ships as breakwaters

Beginning of End for Hitler >4,600 invasion craft and warships >1,000 bombers hit German defenses >14,000 aircraft sorties Took 60 miles of Normandy coast 12,000 casualties in prep for D-Day D-Day: 10,000 Allied casualties – 2,500 dead Total

>425,000 Allied and German troops killed, wounded or missing in Battle for Normandy

Major Victory and Turning Point• Beginning of end for Hitler– Within one year, Germany surrenders– 1 week after D-Day .5 million troops ashore– Late July – 2 million Allied troops in France

• French Resistance & Allied forces free Paris - Aug. 25, 1944

• Charles de Gaulle takes over French provisional government

Allies Take Back France Massive air and land strike against St. Lo.

General Omar Bradley Broke German line of defense Led way for . . .

Third Army to reach Seine River August 25, 1944 Under U.S. General George Patton &French resistance fighters French capital taken back by FrenchGeneral Charles de Gaulle

Battle of the Bulge October 1944

U.S. captured first German town, Aachen

Mid-December German counteroffensive To recapture Belgian Port of Antwerp Drive 60 miles into Allied territory Creates “bulge”

Battle of the Bulge Generals Patton & Bradley

1st & 3rd Armies push Germans back to Germany

Battle lasted 1 month Largest loss in life on the Western

front Germans: lost 120,000 troops, 600

tanks, and 1,600 planes 600,000 U.S. troops involved

○ 80,000 killed, wounded or captured

Germans: Knew couldn’t win the war

Liberation of Europe Allied troops march east towards heart

of Germany Soviets keep moving westward across

PolandFind Concentration campsMajdanek – thousands starving, gas

chambersTroops in the west find more camps,

horrors

Stalin, Roosevelt & Churchill

Yalta Conference - Feb. 1945Results• Divided Germany into four zones• Poland & Eastern Europe-free elections• S.U. declares

war against Japan• S.U. will join

United Nations

Goodbye Roosevelt April 12, 1945 Roosevelt passes

awayStrokePosing for a portrait

Harry Truman 33rd President V.P. to Roosevelt Former Senator of Missouri Weak relationship with

RooseveltNo idea of atomic

weaponForeign affairs new to

him

Germany’s Last Straw

April 25, 1945 U.S. and Soviet forces

meet at Torgau, Germany on Elbe River

Marking the Soviet Union's victory, a soldier raises the Soviet flag over the German Reichstag in Berlin.

•Soviet Army storms Berlin•Destroyed Berlin -- house-to-house

Hitler Meets His End

April 29, 1945 Hitler married Eva Braun Wrote last address to

German people Would not surrender;

rather die. April 30,1945

Commits suicide with wife and dog.

Has bodies burned

Germany Surrenders May 7,1945,

Germans Surrender

V-E day (Victory over Europe Day) May 8

DEFEAT OF GERMANYV-E Day - Victory in Europe 5/8/45

FINISHING WAR WITH JAPAN

Japanese Victories Japan captured:

Guam, Wake Island, Philippines, Hong Kong, Malaya, Burma

US had been in Philippines since late 1800s

Drove out General McArthur -commanded US & Filipino troops in Philippines

Japanese troops put Bataan under siege General MacArthur

Bataan Death March Japanese captured thousands of US

and Filipino troops

Made them march 65 miles to a prison camp

They were starving, no water

Civilians tried to give them food, but soldiers shot them, if they ate it

War with Japan 1942 – Tokyo Bombed Battle of Coral Sea – May

1942 Strategy – Island hopping

Battle of Midway -1942Guadalcanal

Leyte Gulf, Philippines - 1944

New defense tactic - Kamikaze “Divine Wind” - Suicide bombers 7,465 Kamikazes flew to their deaths

–120 US ships sunk, many more damaged

–3,048 Allied sailors killed, another 6,025 wounded

–-80,000 Japanese deaths

Iwo Jima 700 Miles from Japan – fighting grows fierce Took over a month

to secure island 110,000 Allied

soldiers invade25,000 casualties

>20,000 JapaneseOnly 200 left to

surrender

“. . . uncommon valor was a common virtue.”

Mount Suribachi

Okinawa 350 miles from

Japan Japanese soil 2,000 Kamikazes &

Banzai charges 180,000 Allied

troops50,000 U.S.

casualties Costliest battle in the

PacificU.S.: How will we win? How many more lost lives?

End of the War – Atomic Bomb 1939 – Albert Einstein letter to FDR Manhattan Project organized 1941

○ Robert Oppenheimer – director○ Los Alamos, New Mexico – 3,000 workers○ April 1945 – FDR dies – Truman’s decision○ July 16, 1945: 1st test in desert

Aug. 6 Enola Gay dropped “Little Boy” on Hiroshima

80,000 instantly dead Aug. 9 Bockscar dropped “Fat Man” on

Nagasaki74,000 instantly dead

HiroshimaAfter

Bombing of Nagasaki

Nagasaki Before/After

“My God, what have we done.” Robert Lewis, Co-pilot Enola Gay

Why Did U.S. Drop A-Bomb? Save American lives – Japanese would fight

to bitter end Invasion of Japan would have been worst

battle of entire war – millions would die Truman wants to end war quickly – wants

Japan to surrender Also, demonstrate U.S. military power to

Soviets – foreshadowing of Cold War to come

“Times Square Kiss”

• Aug. 14, 1945 Japan surrenders

• Aug. 15 - V-J day

• Sept. 2 – Official surrender aboard USS Missouri

• MacArthur leads Japan, writes Constitution

V-J Day – Victory Over Japan

Japanese Internment President Roosevelt signs Executive Order 9066 –

Feb. 1942Authorizes Secretary of War to remove “aliens” from

military zones on West CoastWar Relocation Authority moved 110,000 Japanese

citizens and non-citizens to camps○ Located in remote locations○ Lost homes, businesses, assets○ Surrounded by barbed wire○ Limited bathrooms, eating areas○ Korematsu v. U.S. – Supreme Court rules

necessary – “military imperative”○ Leave camps in 1945

Reparations Considered one of worst violations of

peoples’ civil liberties 1988

U.S. government apologizesPays $20,000 to surviving

internees Despite discrimination

17,000 Nisei volunteer for military

Nuremberg Trials International Military Tribunal Charge Nazi leaders – crimes against

peace and humanity, war crimes 12 of 24 receive death sentences Establish principle

People are responsible for their own actions

“Just following orders” doesn’t fly

Nuremberg Trials

Nuremberg Trials

Burchett was among the first to witness and describe radiation sickness.

                                                                        

                          

The patterns of clothes burnt by the heat rays.

on a chunk of rubble with his Baby Hermes typewriter.   His dispatch began:

"In Hiroshima, thirty days after the first atomic bomb destroyed the city and shook the world, people are still dying, mysteriously and horribly-people who were uninjured in the cataclysm from an unknown something which I can only describe as the atomic plague."

He continued, tapping out the words that still haunt to this day: "Hiroshima does not look like a bombed city.   It looks as if a monster steamroller has passed over it and squashed it out of existence.   I write these facts as dispassionately as I can in the hope that they will act as a warning to the world."