Download Mobilizing for Defense

Mobilizing for Defense
Section 25*1
Americans Join the War Effort
• Selective Service drafted 10 mil GI’s
• Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps
– Formed to meet additional labor needs
– Only worked in non-combat positions
Americans Join the War Effort
• Recruiting and Discrimination
– Live in segregated bases
– Restricted from combat duties
– Japanese serve as interpreters
A Production Miracle
• Industrial Response
– Factories converted
to war production
– Shipyards function at
record speed
A Production Miracle
• Labor
– Women replace men
as labor source
– A. Philip Randolph
• Protest for equal
labor rights for Afr.
Amer.
• FDR issued executive
order for equality
A Production Miracle
• Office of Scientific Research & Development
– Improved use of radar and sonar
– Manhattan Project researched atomic weapons
Federal Government Takes Control
• Office of Price
Administration
– Froze prices to
prevent inflation
– War bonds
Federal Government Takes Control
• War Production
Board
– Allocated raw
materials
– Organized collection
drives
The War for Europe and North
Africa
Section 25*2
US & Britain Join Forces
• Agree to defeat Hitler first, then Japan
• Battle of the Atlantic
– Prevent supplies from reaching UK
– Convoys and sonar help US ships survive
– Allies gain control of the seas
Eastern Front & Mediterranean
• Battle of Stalingrad
– First turning point in the war
– Soviets trap Germans and cut off supplies
– Germany surrenders 1/31/43
– Soviets lost 1.1 million defending city
Eastern Front & Mediterranean
• Operation Torch – November 1942
– Allies attempt to take N. Africa
– Led by Gen. Eisenhower
– German Gen. Rommel surrendered May
1943
– Morale for Allies
Eastern Front & Mediterranean
• Italian Campaign
– “Soft Underbelly” of Europe
– Allies capture Sicily
– Mussolini forced to resign
– Allies don’t capture Italy
Eastern Front & Mediterranean
• Decorated Minority Units
– Tuskegee Airmen: African Americans
– Japanese 442nd Combat Team was most
decorated unit in US history
Allies Liberate Europe
• D-Day: June 6, 1944
– Massive invasion of Normandy coast
• Largest land-sea-air invasion in history
• German retaliation was brutal
– Allies work for 3 months to liberate France
• August 1944: Paris liberated
• September 1944: All of France liberated
Allies Liberate Europe
• Battle of the Bulge
– Hitler tried to cut off Allied supply lines
– Germans push 60 miles into France
– Germans forced to retreat, suffer heavy
losses
• Allies begin discovering concentration
camps
Allies Liberate Europe
• Hitler shot himself to avoid capture
• April 12, 1945: FDR dies in GA
• VE Day: May 8, 1945