US- WWII PT 1

02/26/2023

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World War II Part One

America in the War
• 5 Million Americans volunteered for

war after Pearl Harbor

• An additional 10 million were drafted
• Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps

(WAAC) was formed of women
volunteers for noncombat duty

• 1 million African Americans, 300,000

Mexican Americans, 13,000 Chinese
Americans, 33,000 Japanese
Americans, and 25,000 N. Americans
joined the Armed forces

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WWII Armed Forces

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• Feb. 1942 automobile factories

stopped making cars and started
making tanks, planes, boats, and
command cars.

• Almost all other factories were used

for military purposes

• Workers worked at record speed
• By 1944 18 million workers were in

war industries (6 million were
women)

• Factories hired minority workers due

to demand and pressure from A.
Phillip Randolph to FDR

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Office of Scientific Research & Development

(OSRD)

• Made improvements in radar/sonar, developed

penicillin, & started Atomic Bomb research
(Manhattan Project)

• Albert Einstein, German theoretical physicist,

wrote letter to FDR saying Germany was
planning on making one and he escaped to US
in 1933

Office of Price Administration (OPA) FDR froze

prices on goods since they were scarce due
to war production

War Production Board (WPB) Converted

businesses and factories for war production

• Collected all scrap iron, tin, paper, rags, and

cooking fat to recycle

Rationing
• Households received ration coupon books for

meat, shoes, sugar, coffee, and gasoline

Multiple Choice

What is the name of the project for the Atomic Bomb?

• Manhattan Project

• Oppenheimer

• Einstein's Theory

• Paperclip

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Rationing

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• Churchill & FDR meet to decide war plans.

Convinces FDR to attack in Europe first

Battle of Atlantic
• German u-boats attacked American supply ships

in hopes of starving Britain & USSR and sunk
681 ships.

• US responded with the convoy system &

advances in Sonar the Americans started sinking
more u-boats then Germany could make

Battle of Stalingrad
• German troops conquered the Russian city but

were cut off and surrounded by Soviet Army in
the cold and surrendered

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Battle of
Stalingrad

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North African Front
• General Dwight D. Eisenhower leads

invasion into Africa to fight German troops

• Chased the German General Rommel and

his Afrika Corps and defeated them by
May 1943

Italian Campaign
• US captures Sicily in 1943. Stunned by

defeat Mussolini is forced to resign.

• “Bloody Anzio” battle lasted 4 months with

25,000 Allies and 30,000 Axis dead. Allies
eventually captured Italy in 1945.

Multiple Choice

In what year does Mussolini resign?

• 1939

• 1941

• 1943

• he is killed

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Italian & African

campaigns

Rommel

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• Tuskegee Airmen, all black fighter pilots won two

distinguished unit citiations

• 17 Mexican – American soldiers won the

congressional medal of honor

D Day Invasion
• Eisenhower leads invasion force of 3 million

British, American, and Canadian troops

• Set up a fake army with false information to fool

Hitler into thinking invasion was to come
somewhere else

• Using sea and air to bring troops in the Allies

suffered heavy casualties

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D-Day

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• After 7 days of fighting Allies took an 80

mile stretch of beaches in France

• General Patton liberated France, Belgium

& Luxemborg by Sep. 1944

• Roosevelt wins record 4th term in Nov.
Battle of the Bulge
• Hitler’s last offensive effort as he drove

eight tank divisions in the middle of the
American & British lines

• After initial success US troops drove them

back and destroyed 600 tanks and 1,600
planes with 120,000 German troops dead

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Battle of the

Bulge

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Liberation from Death Camps
• SS troops try to burn evidence as Soviet and

American troops advance but there is no time
and the camps become abandoned

• Prisoners left alive are starving and emaciated

and the smell of burnt flesh is everywhere

Unconditional surrender
• April 1945 Soviet troops are at Berlin and

American troops are close to the west

• Hitler commits suicide in his underground bunker

on April 29

• May 8, 1945 V-E Day (Victory in Europe Day)
FDR dies
• April 12, 1945 FDR has a stroke and dies. Vice

President Harry Truman is sworn in as President

Multiple Choice

FDR lives just long enough to see Hilter commit suicide

• True

• False