Download World War II December 7, 1941

World War II
December 7, 1941
“Beginnings”
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When America declared war on Japan (Dec.
8, 1941), we were ill-prepared to fight
Germany declared war on us (Dec. 11, 1941)
compounding our problems
The damage to our Pacific Fleet was only
one of the many problems we faced
Prior to December 7, 1941:
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Isolationism
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FDR – called a war monger
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A Selective Service Act - passed in 1940
but few men were drafted and trained
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The Lend-Lease Act of 1941 – aid to
Allies with supplies and equipment only
Europe - 1941
Germany had conquered all of
Western Europe except for Great
Britain
They operated from the
conquered nations to bomb Great
Britain daily, inflicting casualties
and destroying factories
Europe - 1941
 Operation
Barbarossa took the
Soviets by surprise (June)
 Within
a few weeks, the Germans
were within a few miles of Moscow
North Africa - 1941
The Axis Powers conquered most of
North Africa, from Morocco to Egypt
The British were precariously holding
on in Egypt
If the British lost Egypt, they would
lose oil supplies and the Suez Canal
The Pacific - 1941

Within 24 hours of Pearl
Harbor, the Japanese
attacked:
The Philippines
 Wake
 Guam
 Thailand
 Hong Kong
 Malaya
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The Pacific / Asia
Japan had conquered all of the industrial
north and east of China
 Resistance fighters were hanging on,
mostly in the far interior of China
 They depended on the USA and Allied
Forces for supplies and equipment

American/Allied Advantages
1.
American/ Allied Disadvantages
1.
German / Japanese Advantages
1.
German / Japanese Disadvantages
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1.
Mobilization
Mobilizing the Armed Forces
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Selective Training & Service Act
(September, 1940)
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required all males age 21 to 36 to register
(later revised to 18 to 45)
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Between 12 and 16 million people served
in World War II, 3/4 of them were drafted
Mobilizing the Armed Forces
People from all groups served,
including
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300,000 Mexican-Americans
25,000 Native Americans
(400 Navajo code-talkers)
1,000,000 African Americans
(Tuskegee Airmen)
350,000 Women
Production

America needed to quickly convert to
wartime production and needed to find and
conserve scarce resources
 (January, 1942) War Production Board was
created
 allocated raw materials
 converted factories to wartime production
 hired and assigned employees
 provided daycare to children of workers
Production

**Armed forces awarded military contracts
to businesses but WBP set priorities and
allocated resources

(May, 1943) Office of War Mobilization coordinated all government agencies and
oversaw production of consumer goods
By the end of the war, produced: 300,000
aircraft
 100,000 tanks and armored cars
 88,000 LST
 215 submarines
 952 warships
 5200 merchant (liberty) ships
 47 aircraft carriers
Labor
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Average salaries increased by 50%
Rosie the Riveter (6 million women) entered
the workforce
Labor and business agreed to work together
but by 1943 there was an increase in strikes
1943 Coal Mines Strikes called by John L.
Lewis
Sec. of Interior negotiated a settlement
Smith-Connally Act passed to limit future
strikes
Financing the War
(1941-1945)

Government spent $321,000,000,000
(321 billion dollars)

Taxes were raised - paid about 41% of costs of
war

War bonds and other loans - paid about 58% of
the cost
Life on the Home Front
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Millions of families had to relocate
Population increased by 7.5 million, nearly
double the growth of the 1930s
Office of Price Administration - set limits on
goods and rents
Inflation was limited due to money invested
in war bonds; rationing
Life on the Home Front

Shortages were a result of wartime
production, loss of imports, diversion of
resources to our troops, and diverting
resources to our allies
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Scarce items included:
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metals, imported foods, nylon & silk
Rationed items included:
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gas, rubber, meat, sugar, coffee, butter, shoes
Life on the home front
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People spent their money on magazines,
movies, and records like "White Christmas"
People planted victory gardens and
accounted for 1/3 of all vegetables grown
Older men joined the Civilian Defense effort
Wartime propaganda included posters, ads,
movies, and news clips
Propaganda necessary to keep moral high
when we were initially 'not winning' the war
World War II
North Africa and Europe
North Africa (1940)
 Italy controlled major areas of Africa, from
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Morocco to Somalia
Great Britain controlled Egypt, Palestine, and
Trans-Jordan
Italians invaded Egypt
British began an offensive against the Italians
in East and North Africa
British were gaining ground – Italians doing
poorly
North Africa (1941)
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Germany sent Erwin Rommel and the Afrika
Korps to assist the Italians
The “Desert Fox” attacked the British lines
The British counter-attacked and drove
Rommel back
North Africa (1942)
By June, Rommel reached El Alamein near
Cairo, Egypt
Battle of El Alamein lasted over a month
British sent Bernard Montgomery to lead the
troops
“Monty” pushed the German troops back
from El Alamein
Rommel and Montgomery push each other
back and forth across the desert
Operation Torch
 November
8, 1942 – American
forces landed in Northwest Africa
 General
Patton led the Americans
to hard-fought victories against the
German Panzer divisions
Operation Torch
 Patton
& Montgomery met on
April 6, 1943
 By
May 13 the German and
Italian troops surrendered in
North Africa
Operation Barbarossa
June 22, 1941
Germany’s attack surprised the Soviets
 They advanced hundreds of miles into the
Soviet Union
 The Soviets had a “scorched earth” policy
 Soviet civilians fought behind the German
lines in acts of resistance
 The Germans were stopped within sight
of Moscow by the Soviet winter

Leningrad
(St. Petersburg)
German troops laid siege to Leningrad
from September 1941 to January 1944.
The Germans, with help from the Finns,
blocked supplies of food and fuel to the city.
More than 1 million people died in the
fighting or from starvation, but the Soviet
troops at Leningrad never surrendered the
city.
Phase 3 – March to the Caucuses
Plan was to march S.E. toward the
Soviet’s oilfields in the Caucuses
 Along the way, they stopped in Kiev
and murdered 33,000 Jews in one night
 They brutalized the countryside as they
relentlessly pushed forward

The Battle of Stalingrad
 One
of the most vicious battles
of the war
 August 1942 – February 1943
 City lies along the path to the
oil-rich caucuses
 The Germans quickly
surrounded the city
The Battle of Stalingrad
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Stalin issued the order “No Retreat”
This included civilians
Despite staggering losses, the Soviets
clung to the heart of the city
The German Army weakened from lack of
supplies
The Red Army was reinforced during the
winter
The Soviets took back what was
left of the city.
Both sides suffered staggering
losses: over 1 million Soviets and
over 600,000 Germans.
The Soviet Union recovered from their
initial losses by calling all available men,
women, and children into action
 They were able to industrialize quickly
with the help of the USA
 The Ural Mountains were a natural
protection from Nazi bombers
 Even so, by wars end, the Soviets lost over
20 million people.
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Italy
The Soft Underbelly
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British and American forces landed on Sicily
and then the mainland
They worked their way north toward Rome
The Italian government fell apart and
Mussolini lost power
The new Italian government declared war on
Germany
Mussolini fled north, where the Germans
reinstated his authority
Italy
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The Americans made an ill-fated invasion at
Anzio and suffered thousands of casualties
It would take until April of 1945 to fully
remove the Germans from Northern Italy
Mussolini and his mistress, Clara Petacci,
were executed by their fellow Italians and
their bodies were put on public display
Navies
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British fleet was the strongest in the world
but was spread around the globe
Germany depends primarily on U-boats
Early in the war the “wolf-packs” inflicted
serious damage to our convoys
By 1943 the Americans had decreased the
German U-boat threat
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The Germans had almost four years to build defensive
positions in Western Europe
The Atlantic Wall was their main defense on the coast
of France
Built of reinforced concrete, it stretched
hundreds of miles along the French Coast.
It could lay out a cross-fire of machine gun fire
across the beaches of France
German Defenses
 Atlantic
Wall
 Land mines
 Mobile armored units
 Hedge-hogs & iron crosses
 Supply lines by road and rail
 Intelligence (spies)
Operation Overlord
1. Aerial
bombardment
2. Paratroopers
3. French
resistance
4. Invasion force:
a.
b.
c.
Mine sweepers
Armored units
Infantry
5. Mulberries
Operation Overlord
Intelligence
British broke the German code before
D-day
 Sent false messages to the Germans
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Before D-Day:
 Allied Bombers pummeled the
Atlantic Wall but had little effect on it
 Paratroopers - blown off course
 Landed in water or near Germans
 Casualties – heavy
 Effectiveness - limited
 Failed to take out radar /other targets
Liberation of Europe
 After
June 6, 1944 Allied Forces
advanced East toward Germany
 By August, 1944 they had liberated
Paris from the Germans
 French Collaborators were mistreated
after the liberation
Liberation of Europe
Battle of the Bulge
 December, 1944
 Last German offensive
 Over 600,000 Americans
fought this month-long battle
Liberation of Europe
Allied forces liberated Western Europe
 Soviet Forces liberated Eastern Europe
 The two sides met in Germany in April,
1945

VE Day!!
Germany Surrenders - 5/8/45
To be continued: