WWII

Americans at War
Chapter 18
1941 - 1945
How do you gear up for a
war?
*Boosted defense spending from $2
billion to ________________..
*Encouraged enlistment.
*Selective Training and Service Act
All males ________________.

The GI War
*“Government ________________.”
*Applied to all soldiers, sailors and
aviators.
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Diversity in the Armed
Forces
*______________Mexican Americans
*Million African Americans
*25, 000 Native Americans.
*________________Women

NativeAmericans in the
Military
o The US needed a code to communicate
that the Japanese couldn’t break.
o US intelligence bet the Japanese never
bothered to learn about Native American
languages.
Wind Talkers / Code Talkers
Mostly __________
African Americans in the
Military
*At first officials limited African
Americans to __________ roles
 Cooks, drivers, garbage pick up
*After 1942 – gave opportunities to fight.
 Separate units
 Tuskegee Airmen

Women in the military

*Personnel shortage allowed women into
all positions __________ combat.
 Clerks, typists, air traffic control,
mechanics, photographers, drivers.
 Towed practice targets for anti-
aircraft gunners.

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Preparing an Economy for
War
*With Japan controlling the Pacific the
US was cut off from VITAL raw
materials
 Rubber
 __________
 Tin

Preparing an Economy for

War
*Thanks to the New Deal – the
government had tremendous power
over the economy.
 WPB __________-
________________–
*Convert peacetime industries to produce war
materials.
*Cars to building bomber planes
Preparing an Economy for War
o By 1944 American production levels
doubled those of all the Axis powers
together.
o 1945
 300,000 planes
 80,000 landing craft
 100,000 armored cars and tanks
 6 million rifles
 41 __________ rounds of
ammunition!

Wartime Work Force

*War production ended any lasting
Depression __________.
*Wages rose by 50% between
__________
*Mostly women workers
 “There’s a war on, you know!”
 Rosie the __________
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Financing the War
*1939 – US govt. spending was 8.9
billion.
*1945 – US govt. spending was
__________billion!!!!

How did we pay for the

war?
*41% paid for by higher taxes
*Urged people and __________ to buy
war bonds.
 Loans of your money to
government.
*Pay back date with interest for the loan.
How did we pay for the
war?
*Went further into debt!
 1940 – deficit spending made the
US debt $43 billion.
 1945 - $259 __________ in debt!

Daily Life on the Home

Front
o Practically every family had someone in
the __________.
o 30-million people moved.
 Soldiers moved
 Families of soldiers moved
 People moved to take __________
o BUT the population grew by
__________ million 1940 – 1945.
 Double the rate of the 1930s.
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Shortages and Controls
*Workers were making $$$$
*But there was really nothing to spend it
on.
Shortages
*Zippers
*__________
*Rubber
*Nylon stockings
 Anything that had metal, rubber or
nylon was needed for the war.

Food Shortages too

*Between troop needs and enemy
stopping supply lines.
 Sugar
 Tropical fruits
 Coffee
 Chocolate
OPA: Office of Price
Administration
*When demand is greater than supply
prices go
 UP!
 INFLATION!
 Had to limit prices.

OPA decided the prices

for
*Sugar
*__________
*Meat
*Butter
*Canned food
*__________
*Gas

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Ration Books
*__________ with certain values allotted
goods for the month.
 Based on family size
 Did consider distance and needs of
farmers
Popular Culture
*Looking for ways to spend money
*Movies
*Radio
*Books and magazines
*Ballgames with __________ players

Enlisting Public Support

*Office of __________ Information
*Writers and artists created posters and
ads that stirred Americans’ patriotic
feelings.
What civilians were
encouraged to do:
*Older men: join the __________
Defense effort
*Kids: __________ __________ drives
*Women:
 Grow Victory Gardens
 Knit scarves and socks for the war
 Roll bandages for the Red Cross

Motto
*“Play __________Part”
*“Conserve and Collect”
*“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do
without”

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Nebraska Note: The North
Platte __________
*December 25, 1941 – April 1, 1946

*Served 6-million servicemen served

sandwiches, coffee, cookies and cakes
during stops.
Retaking Europe (Section 2)
*Roosevelt and Churchill met in August
1941 to decide what the goals of their
alliance would be.

The Atlantic Charter

*There would be no enlargement of
territories.
*Freedom of people to choose their
government
*Final destruction of the Nazis.
Battle of the Atlantic
*How to get supplies to the British?
*Wolf Packs
 20 U boats that hunted enemy
convoys in packs.
 Took out 175 allied ships in 1942
alone.
 Some in sight of the US coastline.
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How to combat the wolf
packs?
*SONAR (kinda worked)
*Long range sub hunting aircraft
*Better depth charges
*Cut off U Boats from their ports in
Germany and France.
The Major Players of the
Atlantic War; Western Front;
European Theatre
*Churchill – Prime Minister of England
*Roosevelt – US President
*Josef Stalin – Chairman of Soviet
Union
Players for the Fascists
*Hitler – Germany
*Mussolini - Italy
The Generals: Allies
*Dwight “Ike” Eisenhower (1890 –
1969)
*Supreme Commander of the Allied
Forces
*Excelled at
 Staffing issues
 Diplomacy

The Generals: United

States
*George Patton : 1885 – 1945.
*As a boy knew he wanted to be a hero.
*LOVED war.
*Early on realized the potential for tanks.
*Did NOT have good diplomacy skills.
The Generals: Allies
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*England’s Field Marshal Montgomery –
*Not a particularly great general – but he
made sure people thought he was
great.
The BRILLIANT Nazi
Generals
*Rommel “The Desert Fox”
*Erwin Rommel (1891 – 1944)
*Great tank commander
*Used surprise and bold moves.
*Was NOT a member of the Nazi party
The BRILLIANT Nazi
Admirals
*Admiral Karl Donitz
*U boat strategy
*Sea mine technology
*Ice water instead of blood in his veins.
The Brilliant Italian
Generals
The North Africa
Campaign
*February 1943: US had their butts
kicked by the Nazis.
*May 1943: US came back, defeated
Nazis and took 240,000 German and
Italians prisoners.
 2000 ended up in POW camps in
Nebraska.
Invasion of Italy: Start of
Retaking Europe
*7th Army under Patton took Sicily and
the English started to invade the
mainland of Italy.
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Invasion of Italy
*Mussolini’s Fascists turned against him.
*Nazis rescued Mussolini
 Set him up in a Puppet
Government in northern Italy
It sure wasn’t over yet!
*Battle of Anzio and Cassino trapped
Americans and English and went from
January – May 1944.
*Allies v. German Nazis
*April 1945 Italy was in Allied control.
The End for Mussolini
*Caught by the Italians as he tried to
leave Italy and escape to Germany.
*Ended by the Italians.
The War in the Soviet
Union
*The Germans advance in Russia 1941 –
1942.
*Blitzkrieg
*Nazis were first greeted as liberators by
the ethnic nationalities in Russia.
 They hated Stalin.
The War in the Soviet
Union
*Nazis turned on the local people.
 Executions
 Forced labor

People engaged in guerrilla actions against

the Nazis.
Russia’s Fight
*Guerrilla Warfare
*Scorched Earth Policy
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*Stalin BEGGED Roosevelt and
Churchill to invade Western Europe to
take some pressure off the Red Army.
Russia’s BEST weapon
*The Russian winter
Important Soviet Battles
*Battle of Stalingrad
*September 1942 – January 1943

Important Soviet Battles

*Siege of Leningrad (St. Petersburg
today)
Battle of Stalingrad
o 330,000 Nazi dead
o 90,000 Nazi prisoners taken
o BUT
 o 1,100,000 dead Russians to make it
happen.
o Nazis lost their holdings in Russia.

The Allied Air War

*B-17s Flying Fortress
*Carpet Bombing
 40,000 died in one day in
Hamburg, Germany

The Invasion of Western

Europe
*Time to go after the Nazis in Germany.
But where do we start
from???
Invasion of Western
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Europe: D-Day
*June 6, 1944 some 4,600 invasion craft
left England for France.
 150,000 soldiers
*1,000 RAF aircraft dropped 23,000
paratroopers in France
D-Day: Why June 6th?
*Rommel’s wife’s birthday!
 Took the chance he would go to be
with her.
 He took the bait!
D-Day: Largest landing
by sea in history
*Omaha Beach
*Utah Beach
D-Day: Omaha Beach
*Killing Zone
*12 major resistance nests that reigned
fire down over every inch of the beach.
*IF they made it to the beach.

D-Day: Omaha Beach

*If you made it to the beach
*If you made it across the beach
*You had to climb up a cliff to reach the
Germans.
D-Day: Utah Beach
*Landing was hard – currents.
*Trouble happened later.
*Hedgerow fighting
D-Day
*3,000 American, British casualties
*2,000 German casualties
*By the next week 500,000 Allies were
in France.
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Liberating France
*Patton used a Blitzkrieg to blow a hole
through the Germans to advance out of
Normandy.
*With French Resistance they liberated
Paris August 25, 1944.
The Battle of the Bulge:
Germany fights back
o December 1944 Germans cut off part of
the American army from the main group.
o Patton did an amazing movement in
winter of troops to save the American
forces.
*600,000 GI soldiers involved
*80,000 killed, wounded
*100,000 Germans killed

The War in Europe Ends

*Stalin’s Red Army approaching
Germany from the East.
*British, American and French
approaching from the West.
*March 1945
The War in Europe Ends
*Russia was out for revenge for Nazi
atrocities committed against them.
*18- MILLION dead Russians.

Crossing the Elbe River

*April 25, 1945
*US and Russian troops joined up and
pushed on into Berlin
Germany Surrenders: V-E
Day!
*April 30, 1945: Hitler commits suicide.
*May 8, 1945: Germany surrenders
*V-E: Victory in Europe.
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Yalta: Where the Peace
went wrong
*FDR, Churchill, Stalin met to discuss
the peace.
Yalta: Where the Peace
went wrong
o Plan was to divide German territories
and Berlin into four zones, each
controlled by an Ally: England, US,
France, Russia.
*Repair the economy
*Rid the zone of Nazis
*Hold free elections
*Get out after repairs are done.

Yalta
*Stalin didn’t keep to the agreement.
 Punished the Germans
  Stole what was left of the economy
 Did NOT hold free elections.
*Put puppet communist regimes in.

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