A . P . U . S . H I S T O R Y
C H A P T E R 3 5

“Day of Infamy” Speech

Source: United States Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics
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Rationing was a system that provided everyone with the same amount of scarce goods.
Some things were scarce because they were needed to supply the military - gas, oil, metal, meat and other foods
They didn't make Coca-Cola during the war because sugar was so scarce. Other things disappeared entirely as well, like silk stockings.
Everyone was given a ration book. Each book had a bunch of ration stamps in it.

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Grocers and other business people would post what your ration stamps could buy that week.
It was up to you to decide how to spend your stamps.
Ration books became a way of life for everyone at home during World War II
You had to have ration stamps to buy things at the store. It still cost money, but you couldn't even buy it unless you had stamps.

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On November 8, 1942, the Allies launched
Operation Torch- code name for their invasion of North Africa
British and American forced carried out an amphibious landing on the coast of North Africa which involved more than 100,000 men and over
600 ships
The successful mission allowed the Allies to take more than 1,000 miles of North African coastline
The Allies were able to launch an attack on
Southern Europe from North Africa

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From July 10, 1943-July 22, 1943 U.S. and British forces began
Operation Husky- code name for Allied invasion of the island of
Sicily using gliders, parachutes, and boats
The next day, July 23, 1943, Italy’s fascist ruler Benito Mussolini was ousted in a peaceful coup
On September 8, 1943 Italy announced its unconditional surrender to the Allies
As Allied forces advanced through southern Italy, German forces resisted in central Italy forming the Winter Line- a fortified line of
German forces which resisted Allied advance for six months
After months of bombing and considerable casualties on both sides, the
Allies forced the Germans to northern Italy and Rome was liberated from German occupation on June 4, 1944

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Beginning in 1943, Allied forces led by U.S. general Dwight D.
Eisenhower had been planning an invasion of France
The Germans had anticipated such and invasion and began building the
Atlantic Wall- a series of heavily armed fortifications all along the
French coast
The Allies instigated a mass disinformation campaign in hopes of directing German forces away from the actual landing point
Double agents in Britain (former German spies) helped to convince the
German leadership that the invasion would take place near Calais, the point where the English Channel was narrowest, while in fact the invasion was targeted farther south in Normandy

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Before dawn on June 6, 1944 175,000 allied soldiers began to come ashore along a 60 mile coast of Normandy, France
Overnight 20,000 British and American airborne troops had been dropped by parachute and glider a short distance inland of the coast and were ordered to do as much damage as possible to the German fortified coastal defenses
Over 6,000 boats, 11,000 airplanes, along with motorcycles, tanks and bulldozers were used to invade occupied France via Normandy
Although the Allies faced heavy casualties, they were successful in securing the landing areas in the first day

Battle of the Bulge,
December 1944–
January 1945
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The Battle of the Bulge was the largest battle in Western
Europe during WWII and the largest battle ever fought by the U.S. Army
600,000 GIs, 80,000 were killed, wounded or captured
German losses totaled about 100,000
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The Battle of the Bulge was the last German offensive of the war
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The road into Germany was now open
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The Allies now saw first hand what had been happening in Nazi Germany

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When Allied forces entered Germany in 1945, the uncovered Hitler’s planned effort to wipe out Jews,
Slavs, Gypsies, Communists and homosexuals referred to as the Holocaust
In 1942 Hitler put in place what he called his
“final solution” to eliminate Jews in Nazi
Germany and its territories
Nazi soldiers rounded up Jews from all over
Europe and sent them to concentration camps
Prisoners were subjected to slave labor, medical experiments , and other atrocities

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Although news of the Holocaust was reaching the Allies in 1942, it was not until
Allied forces invaded Germany that it was discovered that more than six million Jews and several million others died in Nazi concentration camps.
F.D.R. is criticized by some as having known of the horrors of the Holocaust and not acting fast enough to stop it

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As Allied forces pushed into German-occupied lands from the west, Soviet troops pushed in from the east
April 12, 1945 F.D.R. died and Vice President
Harry S. Truman became president
April 30, 1945 Hitler killed himself in his bombproof bunker in Berlin
May 7, 1945 Germany surrendered to the Allies
The Allies declared May 8, 1945 V-E Day or
Victory in Europe Day

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August 1939- F.D.R. received a letter from Albert Einstein warning that physicists in Germany could be developing a powerful new type of bomb called the atomic bomb.
Manhattan Project- top secret program for the United States to develop an atomic bomb before Germany. The project was led by Dr.
J. Robert Oppenheimer.
 April 12, 1945- President Franklin Delano Roosevelt died of a cerebral hemorrhage. Vice President Harry S. Truman (1882-1972) is sworn in as president.
 April 24, 1945- Truman is told of the Manhattan Project by Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson

Corregido r and
Bataan
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United
States
Thrusts in the Pacific,
1942–1945
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Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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ABC Conference
Atlantic Charter
January-March, 1941
August, 1941
Casablanca Conference January, 1943
Tehran Conference Nov- Dec., 1943
Yalta Conference February, 1945
Potsdam Meeting July-Aug, 1945