WWII Americans at War

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WWIIAmericans at War

• 1941 - 1945

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How do you gear up for a war?

• Boosted defense spending from 2 billion to 10
  billion.
• Encouraged enlistment.
• Selective Training and Service Act
• All males 21 36.

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The GI War

• Government Issue
• Applied to all soldiers, sailors and aviators.

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Diversity in the Armed Forces

• 300,000 Mexican Americans
• Million African Americans
• 25, 000 Native Americans.
• 350,000 Women

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NativeAmericans in the Military

• The US needed a code to communicate that the
  Japanese couldnt break.
• US intelligence bet the Japanese never bothered
  to learn about Native American languages.
• Wind Talkers / Code Talkers
• Mostly Navajo

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African Americans in the Military

• At first officials limited African Americans to
  supporting roles
• Cooks, drivers, garbage pick up
• After 1942 gave opportunities to fight.
• Separate units
• Tuskegee Airmen

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Women in the military

• Personnel shortage allowed women into all
  positions EXCEPT 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
• Oil
• Tin

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Preparing an Economy for War

• Thanks to the New Deal the government had
  tremendous power over the economy.
• WPB War Production Board
• Convert peacetime industries to produce war
  materials.
• Cars to building bomber planes

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Preparing an Economy for War

• By 1944 American production levels doubled those
  of all the Axis powers together.
• 1945
• 300,000 planes
• 80,000 landing craft
• 100,000 armored cars and tanks
• 6 million rifles
• 41 BILLION rounds of ammunition!

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Wartime Work Force

• War production ended any lasting Depression
  unemployment.
• Wages rose by 50 between 1940 1945.
• Mostly women workers
• Theres a war on, you know!
• Rosie the Riveter

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Financing the War

• 1939 US govt. spending was 8.9 billion.
• 1945 US govt. spending was 95.2 billion!!!!

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How did we pay for the war?

• 41 paid for by higher taxes
• Urged people and businesses to buy war bonds.
• Loans of your money to government.
• Pay back date with interest for the loan.

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How did we pay for the war?

• Went further into debt!
• 1940 deficit spending made the US debt 43
  billion.
• 1945 - 259 billion in debt!

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Daily Life on the Home Front

• Practically every family had someone in the war.
• 30-million people moved.
• Soldiers moved
• Families of soldiers moved
• People moved to take jobs
• BUT the population grew by 7.5 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.

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Shortages

• Zippers
• Typewriters
• Rubber
• Nylon stockings
• Anything that had metal, rubber or nylon was
  needed for the war.

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Food Shortages too

• Between troop needs and enemy stopping supply
  lines.
• Sugar
• Tropical fruits
• Coffee
• Chocolate

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OPA Office of Price Administration

• When demand is greater than supply prices go
• UP!
• INFLATION!
• Had to limit prices.

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OPA decided the prices for

• Sugar
• Coffee
• Meat
• Butter
• Canned food
• Shoes
• Gas

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Ration Books

• Coupons with certain values allotted goods for
  the month.
• Based on family size
• Did consider distance and needs of farmers

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Popular Culture

• Looking for ways to spend money
• Movies
• Radio
• Books and magazines
• Ballgames with female players

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Enlisting Public Support

• Office of War Information
• Writers and artists created posters and ads that
  stirred Americans patriotic feelings.

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What civilians were encouraged to do

• Older men join the Civilian Defense effort
• Kids Scrap metal drives
• Women
• Grow Victory Gardens
• Knit scarves and socks for the war
• Roll bandages for the Red Cross

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Motto

• Play YOUR 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 Canteen

• December 25, 1941 April 1, 1946
• Served 6-million servicemen served sandwiches,
  coffee, cookies and cakes during stops.

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Retaking Europe (Section 2)

• Roosevelt and Churchill met in August 1941 to
  decide what the goals of their alliance would be.

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The Atlantic Charter

• There would be no enlargement of territories.
• Freedom of people to choose their government
• Final destruction of the Nazis.

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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.

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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

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Players for the Fascists

• Hitler Germany
• Mussolini - Italy

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The Generals Allies

• Dwight Ike Eisenhower (1890 1969)
• Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces
• Excelled at
• Staffing issues
• Diplomacy

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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.

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The Generals Allies

• Englands Field Marshal Montgomery
• Not a particularly great general but he made
  sure people thought he was great.

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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

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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.

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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

• Mussolinis Fascists turned against him.
• Nazis rescued Mussolini
• Set him up in a Puppet Government in northern
  Italy

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It sure wasnt 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.

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The End for Mussolini

• Caught by the Italians as he tried to leave Italy
  and escape to Germany.
• Ended by the Italians.

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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.

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The War in the Soviet Union

• Nazis turned on the local people.
• Executions
• Forced labor
• People engaged in guerrilla actions against the
  Nazis.

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Russias Fight

• Guerrilla Warfare
• Scorched Earth Policy
• Stalin BEGGED Roosevelt and Churchill to invade
  Western Europe to take some pressure off the Red
  Army.

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Russias BEST weapon

• The Russian winter

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Important Soviet Battles

• Battle of Stalingrad
• September 1942 January 1943

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Important Soviet Battles

• Siege of Leningrad (St. Petersburg today)

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Battle of Stalingrad

• 330,000 Nazi dead
• 90,000 Nazi prisoners taken
• BUT
• 1,100,000 dead Russians to make it happen.
• Nazis lost their holdings in Russia.

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The Allied Air War

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

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The Invasion of Western Europe

• Time to go after the Nazis in Germany.

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But where do we start from???
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Invasion of Western 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

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D-Day Why June 6th?

• Rommels wifes birthday!
• Took the chance he would go to be with her.
• He took the bait!

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D-Day Largest landing by sea in history

• Omaha Beach
• Utah Beach

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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.

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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.

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D-Day Utah Beach

• Landing was hard currents.
• Trouble happened later.
• Hedgerow fighting

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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.

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The Battle of the Bulge Germany fights back

• December 1944 Germans cut off part of the
  American army from the main group.
• 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

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The War in Europe Ends

• Stalins Red Army approaching Germany from the
  East.
• British, American and French approaching from the
  West.
• March 1945

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The War in Europe Ends

• Russia was out for revenge for Nazi atrocities
  committed against them.
• 18- MILLION dead Russians.

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Crossing the Elbe River

• April 25, 1945
• US and Russian troops joined up and pushed on
  into Berlin

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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.

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Yalta Where the Peace went wrong

• 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.

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Yalta

• Stalin didnt keep to the agreement.
• Punished the Germans
• Stole what was left of the economy
• Did NOT hold free elections.
• Put puppet communist regimes in.