The United States in World War II
Chapter 25
Essential Question
 Is there any ethical problem (is it wrong) to
play war games of battles that really
happened or watch movies like Saving
Private Ryan for entertainment?
Mobilizing for Defense
25-1
Selective Service and the G.I.
 G.I. – Government Issue

The nickname given to enlisted WWII soldiers
 Selective Service – the draft

Men who did not sign up for the military were
called to military service
Women in the Military
 George Marshall: Army Chief of Staff

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Started the Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps
Organized women to do non-combat work for
the army in WWII
Discrimination in the Military
 African Americans, Mexican Americans,
Native Americans, and Asian Americans
were put into segregated troops and given the
worst military jobs
 Huge groups of these soldiers volunteered for
the war
 It was ironic to segregate troops while
fighting to liberate people from unfair leaders
Filipino Troops
War Production
 Car factories in the US shut down and were
used for making tanks, planes, boats, and
command cars
 Many factories went from making household
goods to things needed in the war
 With millions of men going to fight, millions
of women took over work in the factories
Women in Factories
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhswqZ
h2Rc4
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgpvKX
LTwr8
African Americans at Home
 Still given the worst jobs in factories
 Asa Philip Randolph: a labor leader who
planned a huge march on Washington to
protest poor treatment of African Americans
in factories
 FDR said if Randolph called off the march he
would work to end discrimination in the
workplace
War Science
 Office of Scientific Research and
Development
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Created by FDR in 1941
Developed better sonar and radar
Developed the use of DDT against insects
Developed drugs like penicillin that saved
soldiers
Worked to develop the atomic bomb
Manhattan Project
 Group of top scientists in New York who
worked to create the atomic bomb
Government Agencies Control
the Economy (1942-1945)
Office of Price
Administration
 Fought inflation by
freezing wages, prices,
and rents
 Rationed foods such as
meat, butter, cheese,
veggies, sugar, and
coffee
Government Agencies Control
the Economy (1942-1945)
 National War Labor
Board
 Limited Wage
Increases
 Allowed negotiated
benefits (vaca,
pensions, insurance)
 Kept unions stable by
forbidding workers
from changing unions
Government Agencies Control
the Economy (1942-1945)
 War Production Board
 Rationed fuel
important materials
 Dept. of Treasury
 Issued War Bonds to
raise $
 Revenue Act of 1942
 Extended income tax to
raise $
Government Agencies Control
the Economy (1942-1945)
 Smith-Connally AntiStrike Act (1943)
 Limited the right to
strike in industries
crucial to the war effort
 Gave President the
power to take over
factories that were in
strike
25-2
The War for Europe and North Africa
FDR and Churchill had an alliance so
America focused on the War in Europe
first.
Battle of the Atlantic (’42-’43)
 Germans tried to stop food and materials from
crossing from America to England or the Soviet
Union
 Jan-Apr 1942: Germans sank 87 Am. Ships
 Apr-Aug 1942: Germans sank 594 more
 US ships started traveling in convoy’s surrounded
by destroyers and airplanes
 This helped the US sink German U-Boats and win
the Atlantic

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bB8GNHxf__A
Battle of Stalingrad (In Soviet Union)
 Timeline:
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June 1941: Germany invades Soviet Union
Nov. 1941: Bitter cold stops fighting
Spring 1942: fighting starts back up
June 1942: Germans winning in south
Aug. 1942: Germans reach Stalingrad
Battle of Stalingrad
 Fall/Winter 1942:
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Germans fight house to house combat;
Winter sets in (bitter cold);
Hitler orders them to stay there; they had
destroyed all the houses
The horrible winter kills many and they
surrender to the Soviet Union
 Soviets Lost 1,100,000 soldiers at Stalingrad
Battle in North Africa
 North African countries were under Axis control
 The Allies invaded N. Africa while Stalingrad was
going on
 They won back N. Africa and called for
unconditional surrender: they had to agree to
whatever the Allies said
 Dwight Eisenhower: American General who
commanded Allied Troops in N. Africa
Battle in Italy
 While the battle in N. Africa was still
happening, the Allies decided to attack Italy
next.
 They quickly won Sicily and were successful
in Italy at first

They made Benito Mussolini resign and many
Italian people were very happy
Battle in Italy
 Germany stepped in and fought the Allies in
Italy

This kept Italy from being taken back by the
Allies until 1945 (End of WWII)
 “Bloody Anzio”: a terrible battle just outside
Rome that lasted 4 months

30,000 Axis and 25,000 Allied casualties
 Allied forces of all races fought for Italy
Strategy of Operation Overlord
 Many troops parachuted behind German
lines and thousands stormed the beaches of
Normandy
 General Omar Bradley made a gap in the
German line with a massive air and land
bombardment
 General George Patton led The Third Army
through the gap and advanced into Paris

Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uP
U4p7UQOtU
The Battle of the Bulge
 October 1944
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Americans/Allies were invading Germany
Germans attacked the Belgium port of Antwerp
 December 1944

German tanks made it 60 miles into the Allied
lines making a bulge in the lines
The Battle of the Bulge
 SS Troopers: Elite Nazi Soldiers

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Captured 120 American GI’s
Herded them into a field and shot them all
The Battle of the Bulge
 After 1 month fighting, Germans were
pushed back but had serious losses
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120,000 Troops
600 Tanks
1,600 Planes
 Germans were forced to retreat from all
combat
Liberation of Death Camps
 Allies were working east into German and
Soviets were working west through Poland

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July 1944: First death camp was liberated by the
Soviets (Majdanek: name of camp)
SS Guards tried to burn evidence, but they could
not do it in time

Soldiers found 1,000 starving people, the largest
crematorium in the world, and 800,000 pairs of shoes
from those who were killed
V-E Day
 V-E Day: Victory in Europe Day

April 25, 1945:
Berlin was under attack
 Hitler Married Eva Braun
 Hitler wrote his last address to the German people

Hitler’s Last Address
 Blamed Jews for starting WWII
 Blamed Generals for losing WWII
 Said that he and Braun would choose death
over the disgrace of being captured by the
Allies
 Both killed themselves the next day

He shot himself, she drank poison
V-E Day
 The Germans surrendered unconditionally on
May 8, 1945

This was V-E Day, Victory in Europe Day
 FDR died on April 12, 1945 and never lived
to see any of this

Harry S. Truman (VP under FDR) took over as
President of the United States at the end of WWII
25-3
War in the Pacific
WWII in the Pacific
Military Action
Significance
Philippines
Japanese victory destroyed the myth of white supremacy in Asia.
Doolittle’s raid
American spirits lifted by the Tokyo bombing.
Midway
Damaged Japanese air power
Leyte Gulf
Reduced Japanese navy to minor role
Okinawa
Allowed attack on Japan itself
Hiroshima
America is first to use the atomic bomb.
Nagasaki
Led to Japan’s surrender
Philippines
 The Japanese won the islands from the
Americans
 This proved Japan’s power and it took away
a major port for America
Doolittle’s Raid
 April 1942
 James Doolittle led a successful air raid on
Tokyo (capital of Japan)
Battle of the Coral Sea
 Americans and Australians stopped Japan
from taking Australia
 One of the first times the allies were able to
stop Japan
Battle of Midway
 June 1942
 US found out Midway Island was Japans next target
and attacked their planes and ships before they
attacked the island
 Many Japanese planes and ships were destroyed
 Was a turning point in the war
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Americans were attacking now, not defending
Japanese Official: “Americans avenged Pearl Harbor”
“Island Hopping” and Kamikaze
 Once they won Midway, Americans started
attacking Japan one island at a time

As soon as they got a new island, they would lay
a cement airstrip and begin attacking the next
island
 Kamikaze pilots tried to stop them

Kamikaze pilots: Japanese suicide bombers who
flew bomb-laden planes into American ships
Battle of Iwo Jima
 General Macarthur: American General in the
Pacific War

Led attack on the island of Iwo Jima
 Iwo Jima was close enough to Japan that heavy
bombers could take off there and reach Japan
 6,000 US marines were killed
 20,500 Japanese soldiers were killed (only 200
survived)
Scenes from “Flags of Our
Fathers
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewIzAlm
k8pQ&feature=related
Battle for Okinawa
 April 1945
 1,900 Kamikaze attacks and worse fighting than
Iwo Jima
 7,600 American casualties
 110,000 Japanese casualties

Two Generals committed suicide rather than surrender
 The fighting in Okinawa showed that an invasion of
Japan would be horribly deadly
Atomic Bomb
 Because Iwo Jima and Okinawa were really
difficult battles, the Allies thought that an
invasion of Japan would be a desperate
struggle
 They decided instead to use the Atomic
Bomb

New technology developed by the Manhattan
Project
Atomic Bomb
 Manhattan Project led by J. Robert
Oppenheimer
 It was first tested in the desert of New
Mexico
 July 26, 1945: US warned Japan to surrender
or it would face “prompt and utter
destruction”
Hiroshima
 August 6, 1945
 B-29 Bomber (plane) named Enola Gay
 Atomic Bomb named Little Boy
 Hiroshima: city where Little Boy was
dropped

Hiroshima turned completely to dust after the
bomb was dropped
Nagasaki
 Japan did not surrender after the bomb was dropped
on Hiroshima
 August 9, 1945: A second bomb was dropped on a
city called Nagasaki

Fat Man: Code name of second bomb
 This prompted Japan’s Emperor Hirohito to
surrender
 200,000 people were killed by the bombs
The Yalta Conference
 A meeting in the Soviet Union to discuss how
things should be in Germany after the war (how to
prevent a WWIII)
 Feb 1945
 The Big Three: Churchill, Stalin, FDR
 They decided to split Germany into four zones that
would be governed by America, Britain, France,
and the Soviet Union that would all eventually
come together to be a united Germany again
 Soviet Union joined the war against Japan
 They would start the United Nations
The Nuremberg Trials
 The trials of 24 surviving Nazi leaders for
crimes against humanity, crimes against the
peace, and war crimes
 Held in Southern Germany, a town called
Nuremberg
 12 were sentenced to death
 Most were sent to prison
Nuremberg Trials
 Eventually almost 200 more were put on trial and
sent to prison
 Some said this was not enough and many Nazi’s
who were part of the Holocaust went free
 Trials set the principle that individuals are
responsible for their actions during war
 If you do terrible things you cannot just say that
you were following orders so it is okay
Occupation of Japan
 After Japan surrendered, American forces
stayed in Japan to control the country and to
put leaders on trial for war crimes
 Led by Gen. Douglas MacArthur
 Lasted 7 years
 Started a new democratic government and a
free market economy