WWII

World War II, 1939-1945

I. The Dilemmas of Neutrality
A. The roots of war
1. The aftermath of World War I planted the seeds of World War II. The peace settlement created new nations in Eastern Europe that were vulnerable to attack, failed to recognize the major nation status of Italy and Japan, and convinced Germans they had been betrayed rather than defeated in World War I.
2. The Japanese attempt to create a Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, Italy’s expansion into Africa, and Germany’s Nazi resurgence were signs of a coming conflict.
B. Hitler’s war in Europe
1. Hitler invaded Poland in 1939, leading Britain and France to declare war on Germany.
2. The Germans used blitzkrieg tactics to overrun Denmark and Norway in the north, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France to east, and south into the Balkans.
3. Having failed to defeat Britain, Hitler invaded the Soviet Union, despite having signed a non-aggression pact in 1939.
Map: Axis Europe, 1941

C. Trying to keep out
1. Strong American isolationist sentiment limited President Roosevelt’s ability to help Britain and its allies.
Percent of National Income Spent on Defense, 1937
United States 1.5 %
British Empire 5.7 %
France 9.1 %
Germany 23.5 %
Japan 28.2 %
USSR 26.4 %
Source:<http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/historyonline/us35.cfm>
2. Nonintervention spanned the political spectrum from leftist labor unions to ultra-conservative business leaders.
D. Edging toward intervention
1. In October 1939, Congress passed a measure that allowed armed sales to belligerents on a cash basis. Britain and France were the only expected customers.
2. Anti-semitism and isolationism restricted U. S. aid to Jewish refugees.
3. In 1940, FDR established the National Defense Advisory Committee and the Council of National Defense to plan the war preparedness strategy.
Armaments Production, 1940-1943 United States $1.5 billion $37.5 billion
Britain 3.5 billion 11.1 billion
USSR 5.0 billion 13.9 billion
Germany 6.0 billion 13.8 billion
Japan 1.0 billion 4.5 billion
Source:<http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/historyonline/us35.cfm>
4. The collapse of France scared Americans into rearming and Congress passed laws to expand the army, build planes and ships, and institute the first peacetime draft.
5. Roosevelt was elected to a third term in 1940.

E. The brink of war
1. After fierce debate, the Lend-Lease Act was passed, allowing Britain to borrow military equipment.
2. Roosevelt and Churchill met secretly off Newfoundland to map out military strategy and post war goals. They signed the Atlantic Charter.
3. The United States decided to build a two-ocean navy antagonizing Japan. The U.S was also restricting imports of steel, iron ore, and aluminum to Japan. After Japan invaded French Indo-China, FDR froze Japanese assets in the U. S. and blocked oil exports.
December 7, 1941
4. The Japanese attacked the U. S. fleet at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, leading Congress to declare war.
USS Arizona

II. Holding the Line
A. Stopping Germany
1. In 1941, the war was being fought in six fronts: North Africa, eastern Europe, the North Atlantic, China, Southeast Asia, and the central Pacific.
2. The allies focused on defeating Germany first.
3. The Eastern Front held the key to victory over Germany. The turning point came in 1942 with the German defeat at Stalingrad.
Map: A Global War

B. The survival of Britain
1. The failure of the German air attacks to knock Britain out of the war led to the Battle of the Atlantic between 1939 and 1944.
2. At sea, convoys protected British shipping from submarine attacks. German submarines dominated the Atlantic in 1942 but the balance shifted when Allied aircraft attacked with depth charges.
3. British ground forces fought in North Africa, stopping the German advance at El Alamein.

C. Retreat and stabilization in the Pacific
1. The Japanese expanded into Singapore, Burma, and the Philippines. The battle of Bataan led to the capture of thousands of American and Filipino prisoners who were treated brutally by the Japanese.
2. At the battle of the Coral Sea and later at the Battle of Midway, the Japanese were defeated, ending Japanese expansion in the Pacific.
Map: World War II in the Pacific

III. Mobilizing for Victory
A. Organizing the economy
1. Congress authorized the President to reorganize the government for war. The War Manpower Commission allocated workers among vital industries and the military. The War Production Board invested funds in new factories and managed war supply contracts.
2. Industry converted from consumer goods to defense production, applying mass production techniques to aircraft production. While most defense contracts went to established industrial states, the South and west also benefited greatly.
3. The mobilization of industry produced astounding results that ended the depression.
Map: State with Population Growth of 10 Percent or More

B. The enlistment of science
1. Scientific laboratories also contributed to the war effort, developing new drugs, blood transfusion procedures, weapons systems, radar, sonar, and other military technologies.
2. The Manhattan Project began in1941 to build an atomic weapon before Germany did. It ushered in the age of atomic energy.
C. Men and women in the military
1. In 1939, the U. S, Military had 334,000 soldiers, sailors and Marines. In 1945, that number had reached 8.3 million men and women in the army and army air forces and 3.4 million in the navy and Marines.
2. 25,000 Native Americans served in the armed force, including the famous Navajo code-talkers.
3. About one million blacks served in the military in segregated units. They often encountered discrimination on and off the military base.
4. Women served as nurses and as members of the WACS (Army), WAVES (Navy), SPARS (Coast Guard) and in the Marine Corps Women’s reserve. The civilian auxiliary of the air force used women pilots to ferry aircraft across the nation.

D. The home front
1. The war penetrated every aspect of life.
2. Many men and women married as economic times improved and the war intensified romances.
3. Married women often followed their husbands to various military bases.
4. “Latchkey children: of working mothers were left to fend for themselves. Children also participated in various war drives and campaigns.
5. The federal government tried to maintain war support through drives and campaigns and managing the war news, Censorship was uneven. The Office of War Information enlisted Hollywood to produce films supporting the war.
Hollywood's World War II Combat Movies

Wartime Hollywood

E. New Workers
1. The war provided women with new job opportunities. The image of Rosie the Riveter embodied the work of women who found employment in war production plants.
2. The government provided day care centers that served 600,000 children.
3. Mexican Americans and Mexicans recruited under the bracero program worked on farms and railroads.
4. Native Americans were a key labor force for military supply depots and many stayed in cities when the war ended.
5. Blacks also experienced economic advancement but only after a planned march on Washington forced FDR to bar racial discrimination by the federal government in war plants.

F. Clashing cultures
1. The migration caused by the war crossed traditional regional and racial boundaries.
2. Black migration out of the South accelerated as migrants went to northern and western cities. Racial tensions erupted into violence in 50 cities in 1943.
3. Tensions between Anglos and Mexican Americans led to the zoot suit riots in Los Angeles in 1943.

G. Internment of Japanese Americans
1. In 1942, President Roosevelt ordered the removal of civilians who were threats to national security. The 112,000 Japanese in California, Washington, Oregon, and Arizona were the chief targets.
2. The Japanese were interred in isolated western locations, housed in barracks surrounded by barbed wire and guarded by military police.
3. In Hawaii, less than 1 percent of the 160,000 Japanese Americans were interned.
4. Approximately 11,000 German Americans and German nationals and fewer than 2,000 Italian Americans and Italian nationals were interned.

H. The end of the New Deal
1. In 1938, the New Deal had lost momentum. The war had changed the direction of the government and after 1942, conservatives controlled Congress.
2. In 1943, FDR declared the end of the New Deal.

IV. War and Peace
A. Turning the tide in Europe
1. The question was when a second front would be opened against Germany. In 1943, Roosevelt and Churchill demanded the unconditional surrender of Germany, Italy, and Japan. At Tehran, Stalin met with the British and American leaders who promised to invade France within six months.
2. Operation TORCH signaled the U.S. entry into the European ground war. British and American troops invaded Algeria and Morocco meeting little resistance.
3. In 1943, Allied troops invaded Sicily and then Italy. Mussolini was forced from power and peace negotiations began.
4. The Soviets recaptured western Russia and the Ukraine. Victory at Kursk left Germany too weak to win the war.

B. Operation Overlord
1. On June 6, 1944, D-Day, Operation OVERLORD began as Allied forces invaded western Europe at Normandy.
2. After fierce fighting, the Allies broke though German lines and raced across France, liberating Paris. The Germans regrouped by the border of Germany.
3. On the eastern front, the Soviets hammered the Germans who continued to retreat.
Map: World War II in Europe, 1942-1945

C. Victory and tragedy in Europe
1. In late 1944, massive air strikes destroyed German war production.
2. The Germans launched a final offensive in western Europe against U. S. forces in Belgium. The Battle of Bulge led to a German advance but ended with a German retreat.
3. On May 8, 1945, Germany surrendered after Hitler committed suicide.
4. The defeat of Germany revealed the horror of the Holocaust. Allied liberation of Nazi concentration camps showed the devastation of mass genocide that claimed up to 6 million Jews, and one million Poles, Gypsies and others.

D. The Pacific War
1. In 1943, the United States probed the enemy and built up their war capacity.
2. The island hopping campaign began in late 1943. It involved American invasions of strategic Japanese-held islands such as Tarawa and Saipan.
3. The U. S. invaded Philippines in 1944 and at the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the offensive capacity of the Japanese fleet was destroyed.
4. Submarines and bombings of Japan also devastated the Japanese economy.
Map: World War II in the Pacific, 1942-1945

E. Searching for peace
1. In early 1945, the Allies sensed victory. At Yalta, FDR, Churchill, Stalin met to discuss the postwar world.
2. In Europe, the Allies had decided in 1944 to establish French, British, American, and Soviet zones of occupation in Germany and Austria.
3. The Soviets agreed to join a new international organization, the United nations, whose foundations were set at a Conference in San Francisco in spring 1945.
4. After FDR’s death, at Potsdam, the future of Germany was debated and Japan was given an opening for surrender.
5. The atomic bomb was dropped first in Hiroshima and then on Nagasaki i leading to the the Japanese surrender.

F. How the allies won
1. The Allies won with economic capacity, technology, and military skill.
2. The ability to outthink and outmaneuver the enemy staved off defeat in 1942 and 1943.
3. The ability to out-produce the enemy assured victory in1944 and 1945.
4. In addition,the Allies had the appeal of democracy and freedom that made the Axis nations aggressors and gained Allied support among conquered peoples.

V. Conclusion
• World War II changed the lives of Americans. It created and broke up families. It provided millions of women with new responsibilities and then returned them to their homes.
• The war ended the depression and put money in people’s pockets.
• The war unified the nation but racial barriers remained.
• The United States ended the war as the world’s supreme economic power. It suffered the least of all the combatant nations.
• The insecurities of the war years influenced the United States for decades.