Mobilizing for War

Section 1

Converting the Economy

• Roosevelt worried about difficulties fighting a global war

• Churchill not worried• Believed that victory in modern war depended

on nation’s industrial power• Compared American economy to a gigantic

boiler– “Once the fire is lighted under it there is no limit

to the power it can generate.”

Cont.

• U.S. was able to expand its war production very quickly after Pearl Harbor

• Government had started mobilizing the economy before U.S. entered the war

• 1940 when German blitzkrieg swept thru France, Roosevelt declared national emergency

• Plan to build 50,000 warplanes a year• Americans willing to build country’s defense

due to the success of German attack

Warplanes

Cont.

• When government needed military equipment, companies would bid for the contract

• Too slow in wartime• Cost-plus—government pay a company

whatever it cost to make product plus guaranteed percentage of costs as profit

• More a company produced and faster it did work, the more money it would make

• Wasn’t cheap but got war materials produced

American Industry gets the Job Done

• Fall of 1941 much had been done to prepare economy for war

• Many companies produced military equipment but preferred making consumer goods

• Depression was ending• After 1942 most industries converted to war

production

Tanks Replace Cars

• Automobiles weren’t necessity/luxery anymore

• Automobile factories produces trucks, jeeps, and tanks

• Used to transport troops and supplies quickly

George C. MarshallChief of Staff for the Unites States Army

“The greatest advantage the United States enjoyed on the ground in the fighting was…the jeep and the two-and-a-half ton truck. These are the instruments that moved and supplied United States troops in battle, while the German army…depended on animal transport…The United States, profiting from the mass production achievements of its automotive industry…had mobility that completely outclassed the enemy.”

Cont.

• Automobile factories produced more than just vehicles– Artillery– Rifles– Mines– Helmets– Pontoon bridges– Cooking pots– Dozens more military equipment

B-24 bomber“the Liberator”

• Henry Ford launched ambitious projects to create an assembly line for enormous B-24 bomber

“the Liberator”

Cont.

• Factory build over 8,600 aircraft by the end of the war

• Automobile industry produced nearly 1/3 of military equipment manufactured during WWII

Building the Liberty Ships

• Henry Kaiser matched Ford’s aircraft achievements in the shipyards

• His shipyards build many ships but best known for Liberty ships

• Liberty ship- basic cargo ship used during war• Welded instead of riveted• Hard to sink• Easy to repair and return to service

Weld vs. Riveted

Liberty Ships

The War Production Board

• Read this section– War Production Board– Office of War Mobilization• Why was it created?

Building an Army

Creating an Army

• Roosevelt expanded the army within days of Germany attacking Poland

• Selective Service and Training Act- plan for the first peacetime draft in American history

• Spring of 1940 draft is opposed– College students– Labor unions– Isolationists– Members of Congress

• Congress approves draft by wide margin in September 1940

• Opinions changed after Germany defeated France

You’re in the Army Now

• Flood of draftees overwhelmed army’s training facilities

• Lived in tents or temporary facilities• Equipment shortages– Sticks for guns– Stones for grenades– Trucks with signs that read “TANK”

Cont.

• G.I.

Cont.

• After physical exams, smallpox and typhoid injections, and aptitude tests G.I.’s were sent to basic training for 8 weeks

• Basic training did more to bring the men together and make them a unit

• Learned how to…– Handle a weapon– Read a map– Dig trenches– Load backpacks

A Segregated Army

• U.S. military completely segregated at beginning of war

• White’s and African Americans didn’t train alongside each other

• African Americans organized into their own military units with white officers (usually)

Pushing for “Double V”

• Some African Americans disagreed with war and wanted no part of it– What more can Hitler do to us?

• Others strongly supported the war• “Double V” campaign– Double victory for African Americans• Victory over Hitler’s racism abroad• Victory over racism at home

African American writer Saunders Redding

• “There are many things about this war I do not like…yet I believe in the war…We know that whatever the mad logic of [Hitler’s] New Order there is no hope for us under it. The ethnic theories of the Hitler ‘master folk’ admit of no chance of freedom….This is a war to keep [people] free. The struggle to broaden and lengthen the road of freedom-our own private and important war to enlarge freedom here in America-will come later….I believe in this war because I believe in America. I believe in what America professes to stand for….”

African Americans in Combat

• Roosevelt orders army air force, navy, and marines to begin recruiting African Americans and put them in combat

• Benjamin O. Davis• 99th Pursuit Squadron was formed– Trained in Tuskegee, AL

• Became known as the Tuskegee Airmen• April 1943 sent to the Mediterranean • Played important role during Battle of Anzio in Italy

Tuskegee Airmen

Women Join the Armed Forces

• Read this section– Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC)– Women’s Army Corps (WAC)– Oveta Culp Hobby

Americans Go to War

• Many felt we weren’t ready nor prepared for war

• Most officers had never led men in combat• Yet U.S. armed forces performed well in battle• U.S. suffered fewest casualties in combat

compared to all other major powers in war• Read last paragraph