CHAPTER 36
After Pearl Harbor, the free world was on the edge of disaster
Japan Germany What do most Americans want?
US had massive economic potential, but needed time to get geared up.
Convert factories
v. U.S (1944)
War snapped US out of the depression. Full employment. War Production Board Henry J. Kaiser -Ship-building king
Rationing
War industries had first priority in transport and raw materials Saving oil/rubber: Food Rationing Farmers have bumper crops and boom time. Why?
Do Your Part
Economic Bumps
John L. Lewis
Roosevelts
response?
Manpower Shortage
Braceros.
Wartime Migrations
Reason for wartime migrations. Cities Sunbelt- 1.6 million blacks
Treatment? FDRs
response?
V over what?
NAACP membership
Congress for Racial Equality (CORE) Move north continues after the war.
Americans at home suffered very little from the war War invigorated the US economy GNP? Paychecks Disposable income.
Result?
Federal Spending
cost-
TURNING POINT!!!!
Leapfrogging/island hopping
8/1942Guadalcanal Aleutians Gilbert Islands Marshall Islands Marianas Philippines (June 1944)
German subs were sinking merchant ships faster than they could be built.. Enigma
9/42 Russia stalls the German steamroller on the outskirts of Stalingrad High-water mark for Hitler
Soviets beg Allies to open second front. Stalins concerns and fears
Allies
concerns
1942Americans want crosschannel invasion, but Churchill says no. British argue for an attack at the underbelly of Europe in the Mediterranean.
Operation Torch
Invade North Africa 11/42. US Germany Biggest sea-born invasion up to that time. US loses in Kassarine-takes over. U.S. and Brits begin to drive Germans East. Forced Germans to surrender in Tunisia 5/43
Casablanca
Sicily
Italy
Invasion of Italy
9/43 Allies invade toe of Italy and start fighting up the boot. Bogs down; amphibious invasion
Italy Assessed
Benefits:
Diverts some German troops and provides Allies with airbases to bomb Germany. Opens the Mediterranean to Allies, greatly restricting Germans.
Problems:
Delayed the cross-channel invasion by many months, giving Soviets a chance to get further into Eastern Europe before the war ends. Increased Soviet suspicion
Tehran Conference
Late Nov. 1943 Purpose First meeting of Big Three Placate Stalin
Patton?
Eisenhower is given command of D-day landing. June 6, 1944. Biggest sea-borne invasion in history. Land near Normandy. Five beaches. Gold, Juno, Sword, Utah, Omaha
D-Day
Very hard fighting; Have to break out before Germans bring in reinforcements and drive invasion back into the ocean.
August, 1944, invasion of southern France opens a second front. Patton breaks out and races to the German border, but is forced to stall.
Election of 1944
Election of 1944 comes at a bad timethe war is reaching its climax Republicans nominate Thomas E. Dewey
Roosevelt Again
FDR stays in the White House running the war for most of the election.
Dewey is hurt by his VP candidate who has been a staunch isolationist. FDR wins by 3 Million votes and 432-99 in the Electoral College. Reasons?
December 1944, Germany was wobbling. Dec. 16, 1944. Battle of the Bulge.
Ardennes Forest
German problems Low on fuel No air support US101st Airborne is surrounded but refuses to surrender at Bastogne. Constantly shelled, low supplies, no winter clothing. Patton drives north in record time and relieves Bastogne.
V-E Day
March 1945Rhine River April, 1945 US forces meet Russian forces outside Berlin Discover the concentration camps. April 12, 1945, Roosevelt dies. Truman is hastily sworn in. April 30, 1945, Hitler commits suicide as Berlin is falling around him. May 7, 1945, Germany surrenders unconditionally.
American subs devastate Japans merchant fleet. Massive fire-bomb raids of Japanese cities. March, 1945Tokyo
Atomic Awfulness
Manhattan project. Very secret. First atomic bomb in New Mexico July 1945. A-bombsHiroshima (8/6) and Nagasaki (8/9) Hiroshima70,000 instant deaths and 60,000 more over next months due to radiation. Soviets enter the war just after the first bomb and overrun Manchuria and Korea (hence North Korea) Japan surrenders August 10, 1945
Avoid US casualties To show Soviets what we have To prevent Soviets from being involved in Pacific longer and grabbing more territory and having a say in rebuilding of Japan.