World War II

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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 Italy 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

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Prior to December 7, 1941

• Isolationism
• FDR called a war monger
• A Selective Service Act - passed in 1940 but few
  men were drafted and trained
• The Lend-Lease Act of 1941 aid to Allies with
  supplies and equipment only

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Theaters of War

• Europe / Atlantic Ocean

• North Africa / Mediterranean Sea

• Asia / Pacific Ocean

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Europe - 1941

• Germany had conquered all of Western Europe
  except for Great Britain
• Operated from the conquered nations to bomb Great
  Britain daily, inflicting casualties and
  destroying factories

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• Operation Barbarossa took the Soviets by surprise
  (June)
• Within a few weeks, the Germans were within a few
  miles of Moscow

German U-Boats inflicted large losses on
American ships in the Atlantic
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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

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The Pacific - 1941

• Within 24 hours of Pearl Harbor, the Japanese
  attacked
• The Philippines
• Hong Kong
• Wake
• Guam
• Thailand
• 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

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American/Allied Advantages

• All of the Japan, Germany, and Italys
  disadvantages

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American/ Allied Disadvantages

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German / Japanese Advantages

• All of the Allied Powers disadvantages

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German / Japanese Disadvantages

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Mobilization(Chapter 25.1)
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Mobilizing the Armed Forces

• Selective Training Service Act (September,
  1940)
• required all males age _______ to register (later
  revised to 18 to 45)
• Between ____________ people served in World War
  II, _____ of them were drafted

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Mobilizing the Armed Forces

• People from all groups served, including
• 300,000
• 25,000
• (400 Navajo code-talkers)
• 1,000,000
• ( )
• 350,000

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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

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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

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• By the end of the war, produced 300,000 aircraft
  
• 100,000
• 88,000
• 215
• 952
• 5200
• 47

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Labor

• Average salaries increased by 50
• ___________________ (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

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Financing the War (1941-1945)

• Government spent 321,000,000,000 (321
  billion dollars)
• ___________ - paid about 41 of costs of war
• _____________ - paid about 58 of the cost

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Life on the Home Front

• 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

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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
• Scarce items included
• Rationed items included

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Life on the home front

• People spent their money on magazines, movies,
  and records like "White Christmas"
• People planted ______________ 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

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World War II

• North Africa and Europe

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North Africa and the Middle East
Suez Canal
Morocco
El Alamein
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North Africa (1940)

• Italy controlled major areas of Africa, from
  ________________________
• Great Britain controlled Egypt, Palestine, and
  Trans-Jordan
• Italians invaded ____________
• British began an offensive against the Italians
  in East and North Africa
• British were gaining ground Italians were doing
  poorly

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North Africa (1941)

• Germany sent _______________ and the Afrika Korps
  to assist the Italians
• The _____________ attacked the British lines
• The British counter-attacked and drove
  _____________ back

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North Africa (1942)

• By June, Rommel reached ____________ near Cairo,
  Egypt
• Battle of ___________ lasted over a month
• British sent Bernard Montgomery to lead the
  troops
• __________ pushed the German troops back from
  __________
• Rommel and Montgomery push each other back and
  forth across the desert

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Operation Torch

• American forces landed in
  Northwest Africa
• __________ led the Americans to hard-fought
  victories against the German Panzer divisions
• _____________________ met on April 6, 1943
• By May 12 the German and Italian troops
  surrendered in North Africa

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Operation BarbarossaJune 22, 1941

• Germanys attack surprised the Soviets
• They advanced hundreds of miles into the Soviet
  Union
• The Soviets had a _____________ policy
• Soviet civilians fought behind the German lines
  in acts of resistance
• The Germans were stopped within sight of Moscow
  by the _____________

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(No Transcript)
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Soviet soldiers were no match for seasoned German
fighters
Over 2 million Soviets were taken by the Germans
for use as slave laborers. Most of them did not
survive.
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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 _____________died in the fighting or
from starvation, but the Soviet troops at
Leningrad never surrendered the city.
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Phase 3 March to the

• The plan was to march southeast toward the
  Soviets oilfields in the ________________________
  
• Along the way, they stopped in _______ and
  murdered 33,000 Jews in one night
• They brutalized the countryside as they
  relentlessly pushed forward
• Germans hung ___________ that were uncooperative
• They often left them on display

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The Battle of Stalingrad

• One of the most vicious battles of the war
• ________________________
• City lies along the path to the oil-rich caucuses
• The Germans quickly surrounded the city

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The Battle of Stalingrad

• Stalin issued the order ____________
• This included
• Despite staggering losses, the Soviets clung to
  the heart of the city
• The German Army weakened from lack of supplies
• The ___________ was reinforced during the winter
• The Soviets took back what was left of the city.

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Both sides suffered staggering losses over 1
million Soviets and over 600,000 Germans
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• 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 _______________ were a natural protection
  from Nazi bombers
• Even so, by wars end, the Soviets lost over
  _____________ people.

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Italy

• British and American forces landed on _________
  and then the mainland
• They worked their way north toward _______
• The Italian government fell apart and
  ____________ lost power
• The new Italian government declared war on
• __________ fled north, where the Germans
  reinstated his authority

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Italy

• The Americans made an ill-fated invasion at
  ________ and suffered thousands of casualties
• It would take until ___________ to fully remove
  the Germans from Northern Italy
• Mussolini and his mistress, Clara Petacci,

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Navies

• _______________ was the strongest in the world
  but was spread around the globe
• Germany depends primarily on _________
• Early in the war the _____________ inflicted
  serious damage to our convoys
• By 1943 the Americans had decreased the German
  U-boat threat with increased air patrols and radar

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• The Germans had almost four years to build
  defensive positions in Western Europe
• The ______________ 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

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German Defenses

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Operation OverlordHow?

• 1.
• 2.
• 3.

• 4.
• 5.

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Operation OverlordIntelligence

• British _____________ before D-day
• Sent ____________ to the Germans

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June 5, 1944

• _________________ - blown off course
• Landed in water or near Germans
• Casualties heavy
• Effectiveness - limited
• Failed to take out /other targets

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Casualties were over ___________ on D-day alone
but the beaches were secured.
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Within 2 days, ___________ troops landed on the
beaches of Normandy
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Liberation of Europe

• After June 6, 1944 Allied Forces advanced East
  toward Germany
• By August, 1944 they had liberated Paris from the
  Germans
• __________________ were mistreated after the
  liberation

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Liberation of Europe

• ______________________
• December, 1944
• Last German offensive
• Over 600,000 Americans fought this month-long
  battle

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Liberation of Europe

• Allied forces liberated Western Europe
• Soviet Forces liberated Eastern Europe
• The two sides met in Germany in April, 1945

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VE Day!!Germany Surrenders - 5/8/45
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To be continued