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WW II
1940 - 1945
U.S. Enters the War
December
8, 1941: FDR
appears before joint
session of Congress
declaring Dec. 7 "a day
that will live in infamy"
Congress votes to declare
war on Japan
December
10: Japanese
forces invade the
Philippines
December 11: Germany &
Italy declare war on US
December
17: Admiral
Charles Nimitz given
command of Pacific Fleet
–Admiral Husband Kimmel
(commander at Pearl
Harbor) relieved of duty
December
20: FDR signs
Draft Act
December 22: Churchill
comes to Washington to
confer with FDR
Japanese Aggression
Continues
Dec.
1941: Guam, Wake,
Gilbert Islands fall
Spring 1942: Singapore,
Hong Kong, Burma,
Malay, Dutch E. Indies fall
Japan
dominates 450
million people in their
“Greater East Asia CoProsperity Sphere”
The
Home Front
Military Mobilization
Dec.
15: Congress passes
3rd Supplemental Defense
Appropriations Act
totaling $10,000,000,000
258,000
women enlist
–WAACS (Women's
Auxiliary Army Corps)
–WAVES (Women
Appointed for Voluntary
Emergency Service)
16
million people served
by end of war
Economic Mobilization
1942:
War Production
Board
–Regulates all non-essential
production
–Regulates use of raw
materials
War Production
Emergency
Price Control
Act
–Office of Price
Administration (OPA) set
prices & rationing (coupon
books)
–FDR freezes wages &
prices to halt inflation
War
Labor Board
–Sought to keep wages on
pace with cost of living rise
5
million women join labor
force
Population shifted from
NE to South & SW regions
Rosie the Riveter
US
clocks set ahead 1
hour for Daylight Savings
Time & stays throughout
the war
Rationing
begins:
–Gasoline, tires, meat,
coffee, sugar, etc.
–Shoe rationing begins: 3
pairs per person per year
–Point (coupon) rationing
system for food
Smith-Connolly
Labor
Dispute Act (1943)
–Required unions to give 30
day notice before strike in
war plants & outlaws
strikes in governmentoperated plants
May
1943: John L. Lewis
calls for soft coal miners
strike
–FDR orders mines to be
seized & strike called off
Federal
Government
seizes the railroads when
strikes are threatened
Office
of War Mobilization
created to coordinate war
efforts
Withholding of income for
taxes expanded to pay for
war
Wartime Discrimination
Dec.
1941: Alien
registration begins
focusing on Japanese &
plans begin for internment
June
1943: Detroit Race
Riot
–Anti-Black labor riots put
down by federal troops
A.
Philip Randolph,
“Father of Civil Rights
Movement,” emerges
Feb.
1942: Japanese
relocation begins
–Executive Order 9066
–100,000 Nisei lose property
& forced into camps
–Korematsu v. US
Bracero
Program
Internment Camps
Manhattan Project
1939:
Einstein & Fermi
warn FDR about German
A-bomb research
1942: US research begins
on building A-bomb
1942:
The Critical Year
The Grand Alliance
Coalition
of nations at war
with Axis Powers
January 1942: FDR &
Churchill agree to a
“Hitler first” policy
Fighting in the Pacific
Feb.
1942: Battle of the
Java Sea
–Allied naval forces virtually
wiped out
Philippines Fall
March
1942: General
MacArthur forced to flee
–Vows “I shall return!”
–Assumes command of
Allies in Australia
Bataan Death March
Bataan Death March
 April
1942: 75,000 Filipino &
Americans surrender in the
Philippines
 Marched 100 miles
to concentration
camp while
thousands die
Doolittle Raid
April:
16 US bombers
under Maj. General
Doolittle bomb Tokyo
–Survivors land in China
–Major moral
booster
Battle of the Coral Sea
May:
First major carrier
battle
–US inflict heavy losses on
Japan saving Australia
Battle of Midway
June:
Pacific
naval battle
Japanese lose
naval superiority
Major turning
point in Pacific
Japanese
take Kiska &
Attu islands in the
Aleutians
US begins ALCAN
highway to connect
Alaska to contiguous
states
Guadalcanal
August:
US forces land &
begin first battle in
grueling "island-hopping"
plan to reach Japanese
Islands
Guadalcanal
Naval
Battle: US defeats
major Japanese fleet
–Forces Japan to abandon
plans to support its forces
on Guadalcanal
European Strategy
May:
German U-Boats
drop German saboteurs
on Atlantic coast
–Rounded up & executed
June:
Office of War
Information established
for propaganda
June: Office of Strategic
Services (OSS) created
–Headed by William “Wild
Bill” Donovan
–Becomes CIA after war
Churchill
meets FDR in
Washington to plan
invasion of North Africa
June: Eisenhower
becomes commander of
Allied forces
July:
Allied bombing of
Germany begins
A. Averell Harriman
represents US in Moscow
to negotiate coordination
with Stalin
August:
US begins fullscale bombing of German
forces in France
September: U-Boat
devastation reaches peak
Battle of Stalingrad (1942)
August:
Germans begin
siege
September: Battle ends
with major German defeat
& surrender
El Alamein (1942)
October:
British forces
under Montgomery defeat
Germany's "Desert Fox,"
Marshal Irwin Rommel
Turning Point in North
Africa
Operation “Torch”
November:
Allied forces
begin North African
campaign by landing in
Morocco & Algeria
Attack Hitler’s
“soft
underbelly”
1943
European Theater
February:
US forces
defeated by Rommel's
Afrika Korps at Kasserine
Pass
–General George Patton
takes command
May:
German forces in
North Africa defeated in
Tunisia
–250,000 surrender
May:
Uprising in Warsaw
Jewish Ghetto ends
–Jews sent to concentration
camps & ghetto leveled
"SS thugs set ablaze entire
blocks of flats in order to
force the population to
come out of hiding..."
--Voice of Warsaw
July:
Kursk Salient
–German forces begin last
ditch offensive in Russia
–It fails as the last initiative
in the east
July-August:
Allies begin
invasion of Sicily
–“Soft Underbelly”
–Frustrated Stalin
–Leaflets dropped over Italy
asking Italians to surrender
Stalin’s 2nd
front
US
bombers selectively
bomb Rome
Mussolini forced to
abdicate
Allies take Messina &
Sicily
September:
Italy agrees to
surrender
–German calls Italy a traitor
begins to treat it as an
enemy
–Invasion of the Peninsula
begins
Germans
forced to
abandon Salerno
–Battle continues by inches
up the peninsula
October:
Naples captured
by US General Mark Clark
–Germans destroy the city
as they retreat
December:
Eisenhower
becomes Supreme
Commander of Allied
Forces
Pacific Theater
February:
Marines take
Guadalcanal
–Major step in the war as it
st
is 1 major land defeat for
Japanese
Island
Hopping
March:
Battle of the
Bismarck Sea off New
Guinea
–US defeats Japan convoy
–Major blow against Japan
holding New Guinea
November:
In bloody
fighting, the US Marines
take Tarawa & Makin
Islands in the Gilberts
Wartime Diplomacy
Casablanca Conference
January
1943: Roosevelt
meets with Churchill
Calls for unconditional
surrender of Germany
Decide on Italy first, then
France
Moscow Conference
October
1943: US, USSR,
Britain, & China meet to
discuss treatment of Axis
Powers after the war
USSR enters against
Japan after Germany done
November:
Congress
passes the Connolly
Resolution calling for a
international peace
organization
Cairo Conference
Dec.
1943: Roosevelt,
Churchill, & Chiang Kaishek meet
Call for unconditional
surrender by Japan
Japan must give up all
gained territories
Teheran Conference
1943: “Big
Three” meet for 1st time
Agree to timing of
coordinated invasions
Disputes over post-war
world emerge here
Nov-Dec.
Teheran Conference
“Big Three”
1944
European Theater
Eisenhower
arrives in
London to take command
& begins planning
invasion of "Festung
Europa"
Allies
land at Anzio, Italy
meet stiff & bloody
German resistance
bogging down invasion
February:
German forces
in Italy create a defensive
line, “The Gustav Line” at
Monte Cassino
–Hold it with full force
–Allies reluctant to destroy
medieval monastery
February:
“Big Week"
bombing raids over
Germany
March: US bombers begin
bombing raids over Berlin
–10% loss of planes
B-17 Bomber
Dresden after “fire bombings.” Roughly
130,000 people killed in raid.
May:
Monte Cassino falls
after bombing reduces it
to rubble
–Gustav Line collapses
May:
Allied forces break
out of Anzio beachhead &
begin to move on Rome
Monte
Cassino
June:
Allies
enter
Rome
June 6, 1944: D-Day
Operation
“Overlord”
begins with invasion of
Normandy
4600 ships, 10,000 planes,
& 176,000 troops in
largest invasion in history
D-DAY
Storming the Beach
Breaking
of German
codes & use of
misinformation leads to
lack of German
coordination in defense
What is wrong with this picture?
June
th
10 :
Allied beaches
link up & forces begin
march on Berlin
Germany launches first
V-1 rocket on London
Allies
capture French port
of Cherbourg, Germans
destroy port facilities
July: General Patton leads
"break out" thrust against
Germans
Plot
to assassinate Hitler
by bomb fails & military
plotters executed
Invasion of Southern
France begins
August:
Paris falls after
German general refuses
Hitler's orders to resist at
all costs
The
Yanks
Are Back
September:
First V-2
rockets fall on London
US forces enter Germany
Battle of the Bulge
December:
Germany
launches a counteroffensive in the Ardennes
Forest in Belgium
–Named after bulge created
when center of allied
advance retreats
US
st
101
Airborne Division
surrounded by German
force at Bastogne
–When told to surrender, US
General Anthony McAuliffe
replies "Nuts!”
–Siege relieved by Patton's
3rd Army
Pacific
Theater
US
forces
take the
Marshall
Islands in
the Pacific
US
forces capture Saipan
Island - bombing of Japan
begins
Battle of Philippine Sea
–Japan defeated at heavy
costs to US naval forces
August:
Island of Guam
retaken in heavy fighting
October:
MacArthur lands
in Philippines fulfilling
his promise
Mac is Back
Battle
of the Leyte Gulf
–Japanese risk major naval
force to halt US invasion of
Philippines
–Suffer a major defeat
–Japanese reduced to
suicidal "kamikaze"
attacks on US ships
1944 Election
Republicans
nominate
Thomas Dewey, governor
of New York, for president
Democrats nominate FDR
th
for 4 term,
–Running mate is Harry
Truman of Missouri
November:
FDR wins
term as president but
campaigning left him
weak & ill
th
4
1945
European Theater
1000
US planes begin
bombing of Berlin
March: US forces capture
last remaining bridge on
the Rhine at Remagen &
begin full scale invasion
of Germany
US
& Russian troops
begin liberating Nazi
concentration camps
discover remains of Nazi's
"Final Solution" =
genocide of 6,000,000
Jews
Buchenvald
April:
US & Soviet Troops
link up in Germany at Elbe
River
Shaking Hands at the Elbe
April
30: Hitler commits
suicide in his private
bunker
May 7: Germany
Surrenders & VE Day
declared
Pacific Theater
In
the Philippines,
MacArthur lands on the
island of Luzon & sets out
for Manila
Iwo Jima
US
Marines capture the
island
Raise US flag on Mt.
Suribachi
4000 US dead
Iwo
Jima
Okinawa
April
1-June 21: US
Marines suffer 80,000
casualties capturing
island
Japanese suicide charges
& cave retreats leave
160,000 Japanese dead
Yalta Conference
January
1945: FDR,
Churchill, & Stalin meet
Discuss plans for postwar world & agree to
United Nations meeting in
San Francisco
Yalta Conference
The End of the War
April
12: FDR dies in
Warm Springs, Georgia of
a massive cerebral
hemorrhage
–Truman takes office
–Promises to maintain
FDR's program for the war
The
Champ
is Gone
April
25: United Nations
meets in San Francisco
July 5: Philippines
recaptured
Berlin divided among Big
Four (US, USSR, GB, &
France)
July
16: Manhattan
Project successful as
atomic bomb is
detonated at
Alamogordo, New Mexico
Los Alamos research
plant in NM has two
bombs
Trinity Test
Potsdam Conference
July
17: Truman meets
with Churchill & Stalin at
Potsdam, Germany
Tries to establish ground
rules for post-war world
Truman
warns Stalin we
have the bomb: Cold War
begins?
Potsdam declaration with
China calls for
unconditional surrender
of Japan
August
6, 1945: US drops
Atomic Bomb on
Hiroshima, Japan
–180,000 killed, missing, or
wounded
Hiroshima
August
8: Russia enters
war against Japan
August 9: Second A-bomb
dropped on Nagasaki
–80,000 killed
or missing
August
14: Armistice in
Asia
August 17: US & USSR
th
divide Korea at 38
parallel
September
2, 1945:
Japanese surrender
aboard the USS Missouri
in Tokyo Bay
V-J DAY
Aftermath
46-55
million dead
– 30
million soldiers
– 25 million civilians
– 23 million Russians
35
million wounded