World War II

US Moves Away from Neutrality

In Sept. 1939, FDR persuaded Congress to pass a “cash and carry” provision of the Neutrality Act that allowed warring nations to buy US arms as long as they paid cash and transported them

After Nazi victories in 1940, Congress passed the Selective Training and Service Act, the nation’s 1st peacetime draft

FDR Runs for a 3rd Term

In 1940, FDR decided to break with the two term tradition established by Washington and ran for a third term

He won with about 55% of votes

The Lend-Lease Act

By late 1940, Britain was running out of money

FDR came up with the lend-lease policy that stated the president could lend or lease arms to “any country whose defense was vital to the US”

Congress passed this act in March of 1941

The Phony War

Several months after the fall of Poland, French and British troops stood on the Maginot line and waited for something to happen

On April 9, 1940 the phony war ended when Hitler attacked Denmark and Norway

He soon took over the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg

Dunkirk

The German offensive trapped almost 400,00 British and French soldiers as they fled to the beaches of Dunkirk

In less then a week over 800 vessels, which included fishing trawlers, tugboats, river barges and pleasure, ferried about 330,000 French, British and Belgium troops to freedom

The Fall of France

On June 22,1940 France signed an armistice with Germany, agreeing to German occupation of northern France and the coast. The French military was demobilized, and

the French government, now located at Vichy, in the south (and headed by Marshall Henri Philippe Pétain), would collaborate with the German authorities in occupied France.

Refusing to recognize defeat, General Charles de Gaulle escaped to London and organized the Free French forces.

Britain now stood alone against Germany.

The Battle of Britain

Hitler expected Britain to make peace, however, Britain, led by a new Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, refused to surrender.

Hitler proceeded with invasion plans. The Luftwaffe began massive attacks on Britain to destroy its air defenses.

Britain held firm during the Blitz despite devastating destruction to English cities. The British resistance convinced

Hitler to postpone the invasion but he continued the bombing attacks.

German Invasion of USSR

Called Operation Barbarossa

June 1941, Hitler broke the agreement he had with Stalin and invaded the USSR

The US soon started sending aid to the USSR

A Grand Alliance

The Big ThreeGreat Britain

(Winston Churchill)The U.S. (FDR)The Soviet Union

(Joseph Stalin) Strategies for War

Defeat Germany first

Atlantic Charter August of 1941, Churchill and FDR

met secretly on the USS Augusta. On this ship they created the

Atlantic Charter, which was a joint declaration of war aims.

Both countries pledged the following: collective security, disarmament, self-determination, economic corporation, and freedom of the seas.

The Atlantic Charter became the basis of a new document called “A Declaration of the United Nations”

Mobilization In the U.S.

The war effort required all of America’s huge productive capacity and full employment of the workforce.Government expenditures soared.

U.S. budget increases1940 $9 million1944 $100 millionExpenditures in WWII greater than all previous

government budgets combined (150 years)GNP 1939 91 billion 1945 166 million

Pearl Harbor

Dec 7th, 1941 the naval station located in Pearl Harbor Hawaii

Atlantic Theater

Battle of the Atlantic After Pearl Harbor Hitler

ordered sub raids against ships along America’s east coast.

The German aim was to prevent supplies from reaching Great Britain and the USSR

In the beginning it appeared that Hitler’s plan might work, within the first 7 months Hitler’s wolf packs shot down 681 Allied ships

Convoy System The Allies responded by

organizing their cargo ships into convoys, which were groups of ships traveling together for mutual protection.

They were escorted by destroyers and airplanes armed with radar.

This improved tracking allowed them to find U-Boats and destroy them

Gloomy Prospects for the Allied Powers

By the end of 1942, the Allies faced defeat. The chain of spectacular victories disguised fatal

weaknesses within the Axis alliance: • Japan and Germany fought separate wars,

each on two fronts. They never coordinated strategies.

The early defeats also obscured the Allies’ strengths: • The manpower of the Soviet Union and the

productive capacity of the United States.

Invasion of the Soviet Union It was then that Hitler made his pivotal

mistake. He invaded the Soviet Union. The obliteration of Bolshevism was a

key element of Hitler’s ideology; however, it was a gigantic military mistake.

On June 22, 1941, Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa, consisting of an attack army of 4 million men spread out along a 2,000-mile front in three massive offensives.

The German army quickly advanced, but at a terrifying cost. For the next three years, 90 percent of German deaths would happen on the eastern front.

Turning Points of the War: The Battle of Stalingrad

The Battle of Stalingrad was the turning point of the war. The German Army (Wehrmacht) had already lost 2 million men on the eastern front.

In 1942-43, a German army of over 300,000 was defeated and captured at the Battle of Stalingrad.

The Germans then lost the battle of Kursk and began a long retreat.

The Red Army crossed into Poland in January 1944.

Turning Points of the War: Western Front

Operation Torch (1943) Allies needed to open a “second front” to the war to alleviate pressure

that the USSR was feeling. Stalin wanted Great Britain and the US to go across the English

Channel, but Churchill and FDR did not think they had enough troops to attempt such an invasion.

Led by Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Allies launched an attack in North Africa

In November 1942, Allied troops landed in N. Africa and by May 1943 the last of Erwin Rommel’s Afrika Korps surrendered

Turning Points of the War: Western Front

The Italian Campaign (summer 1943)

After the attack in North Africa, the Allies decided that they needed to attack next.

The US wanted to attack across the English Channel, but Churchill thought it would be safer to attack Italy

The campaign got off to a good start

Turning Points of the War: Western Front

D-Day: Operation Overlord http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/war/wwtwo/

launch_ani_d_day.shtml The Allied needed to establish a second front. General Dwight Eisenhower launched an invasion of Normandy

on June 6, 1944. An invasion fleet of some 4,000 ships and 150,000 men (57,000

U.S.) Invasion successful. 5,000 killed and wounded Allied troops. It allowed them to gain a foothold on the continent from which

they could push Germany back.

The Turn of the Tide in Europe

Battle of the Bulge (Dec. 16, 1944)

Under dense fog, eight German tank divisions broke through weak American defense along an 80 mile front

The tanks drove 60 miles into Allied territory creating a bulge in the line

The battle lasted a month. When it was over the Germans had been pushed back and all the Nazis could do was retreat

Race to Berlin

D-Day was the turning point of the western front. Stalingrad was the turning point of the eastern front.

The British, U.S., and Free French armies began to press into western Germany as the Soviets invaded eastern Germany.

Both sides raced to Berlin.

Victory in Europe

Mussolini was captured and killed by Italian partisans and Hitler committed suicide in April 1945, as the Russian troops took Berlin.

Germany surrendered unconditionally on May 7, 1945 (V-E Day).

Fighting in the Pacific would continue until August.

Pacific Theater

The Pacific Theater

Within 6 months of Pearl Harbor, Japan had a new empire. Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere

• Japanese racial purity and supremacy• Treated Chinese and Koreans with brutality.

• “Rape of Nanjing”- Japanese slaughtered at least 100,000 civilians and raped thousands of women in the Chinese capital between Dec. 1937 and Feb. 1938.

Could have consolidated “victory disease”

After Pearl Harbor, American military leaders focused on halting the Japanese advance and mobilizing the whole nation for war.

The Pacific Theater: Early Battles Guadalcanal

The Pacific Theater: Early Battles

American Forces halted the Japanese advances in two decisive naval battles.Coral Sea (May 1942)

• U.S. stopped a fleet convoying Japanese troops to New Guinea

• Japanese designs on Australia ended

The Pacific Theater: Early Battles

Midway (June 1942)• Japanese Admiral Yamamoto hoped to

capture Midway Island as a base to attack Pearl Harbor again

• U.S. Admiral Chester Nimitz caught the Japanese by surprise and sank 3 of the 4 aircraft carriers, 332 planes, and 3500 men.

• American cryptanalysts

Importance of Midway

The Japanese defeat at Midway was the turning point in the Pacific.Japanese advances stopped.U.S. assumes initiative.Japanese have shortage of able pilots.

Censorship and PropagandaNews of the defeat was kept from the

Japanese public.

The Beginning of the End in the Pacific

Yamamoto is assassinated by the U.S. (April 1943) Loss of Saipan (August 1944)

“the naval and military heart and brain of Japanese defense strategy”

Political crisis in Japan• The government could no longer hide the fact that

they were losing the war.• Tōjō resigns on July 18, 1944

Intensive air raids over Japan

The Beginning of the End in the Pacific

Iwo Jima (February, 1945)• American marines invaded this island,

which was needed to provide fighter escort for bombings over Japan

A Grinding War in the Pacific

In 1945, the U.S. began targeting people in order to coerce Japan to surrender 66 major Japanese cities bombed 500,000 civilians killed

A Grinding War in the Pacific

Battle for Leyte Gulf Total blockade of Japan Japanese navy virtually destroyed Kamikaze (divine wind) flights begin

A Grinding War in the Pacific

Okinawa (April, 1945) All 110,000 Japanese defenders killed U.S. invaded this island, which would

provide a staging area for the invasion of the Japanese islands.

Atom Diplomacy

FDR had funded the top-secret Manhattan Project to develop an atomic bomb

Dr. Robert Oppenheimer successfully tested in the summer of 1945.

FDR had died on April 12, 1945, and the decision was left to Harry Truman.

An amphibious invasion could cost over 350,000 Allied casualties.

Turning Points of the War: The Pacific

August 6, 1945 – Enola Gay drops bomb on Hiroshima 140,000 dead; tens of thousands injured;

radiation sickness; 80% of buildings destroyed

August 9, 1945 – Nagasaki 70,000 dead; 60,000 injured

Emperor Hirohito surrenders on Aug. 14, 1945. (V-J Day) Formal surrender signed on September 2

onboard the battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay

WWII the Homefront

Women in the Military Army Chief of Staff, George Marshall,

formed the Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC)

The law was passed in 1943 and gave women an official status and a small salary

1000s of women enlisted and the Auxiliary status was dropped and women received all the same benefits as men

Women became nurses, ambulance drivers, radio operators ect… anything but direct contact

Recruiting and Discrimination

Minority groups – African Americans, Mexican Americans, and Asian Americans – were all discriminated against

African Americans soldiers lived and worked in segregated units in mainly non-combat roles until the last year of the war

Economic Problems at Home

FDR was fearful that consumer good prices would go up because industry was focused on the war

FDR developed federal government boards to control the economy

Prices on goods were frozen and income taxes were raised

This led to less spending on consumer goods and inflation remained below 30 percent

A system of rationing was also established to make sure that the supplies were available to soldiers

Social Adjustments at Home Mothers were left to raise their

children by themselves or with babysitters and daycare

More people were married and in places like Seattle, marriage certificates went up by 300%

The GI Bill was passed to help returning servicemen. The bill provided education and training for veterans

About 7.8 million men went to college or received a college education

Restoration of U.S. Prosperity

World War II ended the Great Depression. Factories run at full capacity

Ford Motor Company – one bomber plane per hour

People save money (rationing) Army bases in South provide economic

boom (most bases in South b/c of climate) The national debt grew to $260 billion (6

times its size on Dec. 7, 1941)

Economic Gains

Industry: unemployment fell to a low 1.2 percent, paychecks rose 35%

Agriculture: good weather, better machinery, crop production increased 50%

New Workers

There were 18 million new workers 6 million were women, who proved

to be more valuable then owners first thought.

Women only made 60% as much as men did for the same job.

2 million minority workers were also hired.

Minority workers also faced discrimination

A. Philip Randolph

In protest of the discrimination A. Philip Randolph called for African Americans to come Washington D.C. to demand equal rights

FDR called Randolph and asked him to cancel the march, Randolph said no

FDR was fearful in the march and made a deal with Randolph

If Randolph canceled the march then FDR would issue an executive order telling defense industries not to discriminate

Racial Equality

African Americans left the south and moved to the Midwest

In between 1940-1943 the percentage of African Americans working in skilled in semi-skilled jobs rose from 16% - 30%

African Americans still faced discrimination and fought for more rights

James Farmer founded the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) to organize sit-ins and demonstrations.

Racial Tensions

In 1943, there was a rise in racial violence

Costs of War

Cost of War

Germany- 3 million combat deaths (3/4ths on the eastern front)

Japan – over 1.5 combat deaths; 900,000 civilians dead

Soviet Union - 13 million combat deaths U.S. – 300,000 combat deaths, over 100,000

other deaths When you include all combat and civilian

deaths, World War II becomes the most destructive war in history with estimates as high as 60 million, including 25 million Russians.

Postwar Effortsat Revenge

The Nuremberg Trials of 1945-46 After, WWII the Allied powers decided to place on trial

the highest-ranking Nazi officers for “crimes against humanity”

Allied forces had attempted to do this after WWI, but had released them on the grounds that they “were just following orders”

Hitler, Goebbels, and Himmler were dead; but, 22 Nazi leaders (including Goring) were tried at an international military tribunal at Nuremburg, Germany. 12 were sentenced to death. Similar trials occurred in the east and throughout the world. • The Tokyo Trial (1946-48)

Postwar Efforts at Peace

The United Nations – There was some hope when, in 1945, the United Nations was created; an organization to promote international stabilityA General Assembly where representatives from

all countries could debate international issues.The Security Council had 5 permanent members

– U.S., Soviet Union, Britain, France, and China could veto any question of substance. There were also 6 elected members.

Key: the U.S. joined in contrast to League of Nations

Wartime Agreements

Unlike WWI, there was no Peace of Paris to reshape Europe. Instead, the Yalta agreement of February 1945,

signed by Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin, turned the prevailing military balance of power into a political settlement.

Potsdam Conference, in suburban Berlin (July 1945)—Truman, Stalin, Churchill – Finalized plans on Germany. Germany would be demilitarized and would remain divided.

Postwar Reality:Soviet Control of Eastern Europe

Europe was politically cut in half; Soviet troops had overrun eastern Europe and penetrated into the heart of Germany.

During 1944-1945, Stalin starts shaping the post-war world by occupying SE Europe with Soviet troops that should have been on the Polish front pushing toward Berlin.

Roosevelt did not have postwar aims because he still had to fight Japan; Stalin did have postwar aims.

Postwar Reality

Consequences of World War II Soviet Union with agenda Unlike the isolation after WWI, the U.S.

was engaged in world affairs The triumph of Communists in ChinaDecolonization

• The independence of nations from European (U.S. & Japan) colonial powers.