Download Chapter 25: The United States in World War II

Chapter 25: The United States in
World War II
Common Finals
Common Essay
Mobilizing for Defense 25.1
• Americans Join the War Effort
– Selective Service and the GI
• 5 million volunteered
• 10 million drafted through Selective Service System
• Basic training only 8 weeks long
– Expanding the Military
• George Marshall pushed for WAAC or Women’s
Auxiliary Army Corps: became law 5/15/1942
– Volunteers working non combat positions: nurses, ambulance
drivers, radio operators, electricians, and pilots.
– At first only had a salary with little benefits but eventual
granted full army benefits in July 1943.
Mobilizing for Defense 25.1
• Americans Join the War Effort (cont’d)
– Recruiting and Discrimination
• Many minorities wondered “Why die for democracy for
some foreign country when we don’t have it here?”
– Dramatic Contributions: Despite discrimination
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300,000 Mex. Am.
1,000,000 Afr. Am.
13,000 Chinese Am.
33,000 Japanese Am.
25,000 Native Am.
– Including 800 women joined the fight.
Mobilizing for Defense 25.1
• A production Miracle
– The Industrial Response
• Automobile plants now make tanks, planes, boats, and command
cars
• Factories quickly convereted to war production
• Mechanical Pencils now makes bomb parts
• Bedspread manufacturer now makes mosquito netting
• Soft-drink co. now makes shells with explosives.
– Labor’s contribution
• 18 million workers in industries, 6 or more million are women
– Women make 60% less than a man
• 2 million minorities (defense plants)
– 75% of defense contractors refused to hire Afr. Am.
– 15% employed them in menial jobs (Janitors) only.
Mobilizing for Defense 25.1
• A production Miracle (cont’d)
– Labor’s contribution (cont’d)
• A. Philip Randolph president and founder of the
Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters organizes march
on Washington (100,000 to attend). President
Roosevelt asked him to cancel the march. In the end
the president backs down and issues an executive order
calling on employers and labor unions “to provide for
full and equitable participation of ALL workers w/o
discrimination on the basis of race, creed, color, or
national origin.
Mobilizing for Defense 25.1
• A production Miracle (cont’d)
– Mobilization of Scientists
• Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD)
spurred improvements in radar and sonar, chemicals like
DDT to fight insects, drugs like penicillin, and weapons.
• Manhattan Project – 1st Atomic bomb, German Immigrant
and Physicist Albert Einstein wrote a letter to Roosevelt
warning that Germans ability to split uranium atoms could
lead to construct of a enormous destructive weapon.
Roosevelt creates Advisory committee on Uranium to study
the new German discovery, Scientists report it would take 35 years but they would build an atomic bomb. (Columbia
University in Manhattan)
Mobilizing for Defense 25.1
• The Federal Government Takes Control
– Economic Controls
• Office of Price Administration (OPA) fights inflation by freezing
prices on most goods.
– Congress raises and expands taxes to those who never paid b/4
• War Production Board (WPB) decided which companies would
convert from peacetime to wartime production and allocated
raw materials to key industries
– Also organized drives to collect scrap iron, tin cans, paper, rags, etc.
– Rationing or establishing fixed allotment of goods
deemed essential for the military
• Homes given rationing coupon books for meat, shoes, sugar,
coffee, and gasoline.
The war for Europe and North Africa 25.2
• The United States and Britain Join Forces
– 2 days after Pearl Harbor attack Prime Minister
Winston Churchill wires President Roosevelt “would it
not be wise for us to have another conference . . .”
– War Plans: the two meet and Churchill convinces
Roosevelt to strike against Hitler first then the Pacific
(Japan).
– The Battle of the Atlantic: German Wolf Packs destroy
a total of 681 allied ships in the Atlantic. 87 ships in
the first 4 months of 1942. Allied force join in
convoys, which are escorted by destroyer ships with
air craft and sonar. By mid 1943 the battle in the
Atlantic had turned toward the Allies.
The war for Europe and North Africa 25.2
• The Eastern Front and the Mediterranean
– The Battle of Stalingrad: Germans take Stalingrad
but winter sets in. Soviets surround Germans and
cut off their supplies. Hitler tells soldiers to stay
and fight. In the end the Soviets win marking a
turning point in the war.
– The North African Front:
• Operation torch an invasion of Axis-controlled North
Africa commanded by General Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Launched in Nov. 1942 won in May 1943.
The war for Europe and North Africa 25.2
• The Eastern Front and the Mediterranean
– The Italian campaign: Churchill urges other Allies to attack
Italy. Benito Mussolini is forced to resign and is stripped of
his powers by King Victor Emmanuel III on July 25, 1943.
But Hitler comes in to fight. Italy is not free until 1945.
– Heroes in combat:
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99th Pursuit Squadron – Tuskegee Airmen (All Afr. Am.)
92nd Infantry Division – Buffaloes
17 Mex. Am. Awarded the congressional Medal of Honor
Company E of the 141st Regiment, 36th Division All Mex. Am. One
of the most decorated of the war.
• 100th Battalion (Japanese/Hawiian Am.) – Purple hearted
Battalion.
• 442nd Regimental Combat Team (Jap./Haw. Am.) – Most decorated
unit in US History!
The war for Europe and North Africa 25.2
• The Allies Liberate Europe
– D-Day: June 6, 1944 – Operation Overlord invasion of
Europe on the beaches of Normandy, France. In 7
days Allies hold 80 mile beach strip of France.
– The Allies Gain Ground: General Omar Bradley
unleashes massive air and land strike against Germans
and creates a gap in the German line of defense. This
allows General George Patton and his Third Army to
advance through. By Sept 1944 Allies freed France,
Belgium, and Luxembourg.
– The Battle of the Bulge: Hitler orders troops to
recapture Belgian Port of Antwerp. This creates Bulge
in the Allies line of defense. It was unsuccessful.
The war for Europe and North Africa 25.2
• The Allies Liberate Europe
– Liberation of the Death Camps: Soviet’s Liberate the
first camp Majdanek in Poland finding the world’s
largest crematorium, 1,000 barely alive starving
prisoners, and a storehouse containing 800,000 shoes.
They were horrified reporting it as a “murder plant.”
– Unconditional Surrender: May 8th 1945 V-E Day
(Victory in Europe Day). War in Europe is over.
– Roosevelt’s Death: April 12, 1945 Roosevelt has a
stroke and dies. Vice President Harry S. Truman
became 33rd President.