#1 N.M. Helps Win WWII

#1 N.M. Helps Win WWII

Objective: I will be able to explain how New Mexico helped fill the needs for solders, supplies, training, and new weapons during WWII.

New Mexicans Help Win World War II

World War II began in Europe in 1939. Adolf Hitler, the Nazi dictator of Germany, believed the German people were a superior race. He set out to conquer Europe and to cleanse it of what he called inferior peoples, especially members of the Jewish religion. Hitler sent millions of Jewish people to concentration camps where more than six million were put to death in gas chambers. This mass murder of the Jewish people is called the Holocaust.

Multiple Choice

The Holocaust was the mass murder of which religious people?

• Christians

• Muslims

• Hindu

• Jewish

Multiple Select

Who was the leader of Germany during the Holocaust?

• Frederick Von Bismarck

• Joseph Stalin

• Winston Churchill

• Adolf Hitler

New Mexicans Help Win World War II

The Allied Powers, led by England, France, and the Soviet Union, tried to stop German expansion in Europe. Germany and its allies, Italy and Japan, known as the Axis Powers, resisted. The Allies declared war on Germany when Hitler's military invaded Poland in 1939.

Multiple Select

During WWII the Allied Powers were...(check ALL Allied Powers)

• Soviet Union

• Italy

• France

• Great Britain

Multiple Select

During WWII the Axis Powers included Germany and what two other countries?

• Japan

• Poland

• Spain

• Italy

World War II

As in World War I, the United States tried to stay out of the conflict for as long as it could. President Roosevelt's administration sent ships and supplies to help the Allies defeat Hitler, but he warned Americans that someday they might have to join the fight.

Pearl Harbor

That day came on December 7, 1941.. Without warning, the skies over the U.S. Naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, darkened as wave after wave of Japanese fighter planes dropped bombs on U.S. ships and planes. The surprise attack destroyed 188 planes and21 ships. More than 2,400 Americans lost their lives. 

Pearl Harbor

President Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on Japan the next day. The president called December 7 a "date which will live in infamy." The United States joined the Allies in their fight against the Axis Powers in both Europe and Asia. 

Multiple Select

President Roosevelt called December 7,"date which will live in infamy."

• False

• True

Defending The Philippines

Many New Mexicans were already in the military when 'World War Il began. More than 1,800 New Mexicans had volunteered to serve in the National Guard. In 1941", many of these soldiers traveled to the Philippine Islands to help defend that U.S. territory just months before the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Defending the Philippines

The Japanese attacked the Philippines within hours of their attack on Pearl Harbor. American forces, including those from New Mexico, fought the invaders. Although they fought as long and as hard as they could, U.S. forces in the Philippines were forced to surrender

Bataan Death March

In April 1942, the Japanese captured at least 10,000 American and 60,000 Filipino troops and forced them to march 65 miles to a prison camp where they remained for three years. During the march, Japanese soldiers withheld food and water and viciously, beat many of the prisoners of war (POWs). Execution squads following behind killed those who became too weak or sick to go on. This became known as the Bataan Death March. 

Bataan Death March

Conditions at the prison camp were not any better. At least 600 American soldiers and sailors, many from New Mexico, died in the Philippines. Those who survived the Bataan Death March and Japanese POW camps were finally freed at the end of World War II. Most had been treated so badly that they suffered poor health for the rest of their lives.

Multiple Choice

What Does POW stand fore?

• Power of Women

• "POW!" is seen in Comic Books

• People of war

• Prisoner Of War

Multiple Choice

New Mexican, Ernie Pyle, was the most famous newspaper reporter of World War II.

• True

• False

Open Ended

Exit Ticket: What was most interesting about today's lesson?