World War II

1939 -1941

Blitzkrieg: German for "lightning war."      Blitzkrieg was a military tactic which involved     heavy, unrelenting, and rapid military force to     break through enemy lines.

Luftwaffe: German Air Force.

Phoney War:  Name given to the period     between the invasion of Poland in     September 1939 and the Battle of     France in May of 1940 which was     marked by few major military            operations.

Battle of Britain:  The air campaign     waged by the Luftwaffe against     Britain during the summer and     autumn of 1940.

Neutrality Acts

Between 1935 and 1939, the United States passed four separate Neutrality Acts, each designed to prevent the U.S. from becoming entangled in another costly international conflict.

• Prohibited trading arms and war materials to all parties involved in a war.

 • Roosevelt objected to the Acts, and made several

attempts to override them.

Cash and Carry Provision (1937):  If the     receiving country would provide transportation and     pay cash immediately for the goods, the President     could choose to sell goods to parties involved in a     war.

Lend-Lease Act (March 1941):  Allows the U.S. to     sell, give, or lease war materials to allied nations.      Effectively ends U.S. neutrality.

The War at Home

1941-1945

Rationing:  The controlled distribution of scarce goods or services.

Black Market: a term for an underground economy, where individuals illegally purchase or sell goods.

Office of Price Administration

The Office of Price Administration (OPA) was created in 1941 to keep the prices of certain goods stable during World War II.  The OPA was also responsible for rationing products like:

• Rubber• Gasoline• Shoes• Coffee

• Sugar• Meat• Nylon • Processed Foods

(canned goods, etc.)

J. Howard Miller's famous "Rosie the Riveter" poster from 1942 became an emblem of working American women during the war.

Women at Work

By 1944, more than 20 million American women were working outside of the home-- an increase of more than fifty percent from 1940.  This rise in employment came from two major factors:

1.  The war effort required the United States to produce lots of war materials (like bombers, ships, weapons, food, etc).

– With so many men gone to war, factories needed to hire women so that they could produce the materials needed.

A Double-Edged SwordPositive Aspects of

Wartime Employment:

1. More jobs were considered "appropriate" for women.

– Many minorities-- especially African-Americans-- were hired for jobs that had previously only been open to whites.

– Women proved they could be just as productive on the job as men.

Negative Aspects of Wartime Employment:

1.  Women were paid considerably less than men for the same job.

– Many jobs-- like factory positions-- were understood to be temporary.  When the war was over and more men were back to work, women would no longer be needed.

A. Philip Randolph, a prominent African-American civil rights leader, proposed a march on Washington in 1941 to protest discrimination in the U.S. armed forces and in war industries.

Philip Randolph: Mr. President, time is running on. You are quite busy, I know. But what we want to talk with you about is the problem of jobs for Negroes in defense industries. Our people are being turned away at factory gates because they are colored. They can't live with this thing. Now, what are you going to do about it?

Franklin D. Roosevelt: Well, Phil, what do you want me to do?

P.R: Mr. President, we want you to do something that will enable Negro workers to get work in these plants.

FDR: Why, I surely want them to work, too. I'll call up the heads of the various defense plants and have them see to it that Negroes are given the same opportunity to work in defense plants as any other citizen in the country.

P.R.: We want you to do more than that. We want something concrete, something tangible, definite, positive, and affirmative.

FDR: What do you mean?

Philip Randolph: Mr. President, we want you to issue an executive order making it mandatory that Negroes be permitted to work in these plants.

Franklin D. Roosevelt: Well Phil, you know I can't do that. If I issue an executive order for you, then there'll be no end to other groups coming in here and asking me to issue executive orders for them, too. In any event, I couldn't do anything unless you called off this march of yours. Questions like this can't be settled with a sledge hammer.

P.R: I'm sorry, Mr. President, the march cannot be called off.

FDR: How many people do you plan to bring?

P.R.: One hundred thousand, Mr. President.

FDR: Walter, how many people will really march?

Walter White: One hundred thousand, Mr. President. 

Fair Employment Act

In response to A. Philip Randolph's proposed march on Washington, Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 8802 in 1941, also known as the Fair Employment Act. 

• The Fair Employment Act required all federal employers involved with war production to not discriminate on the basis of "race, creed, color, or national origin."

 Some protesters were disappointed that Executive Order 8802 did nothing to alter the segregation of the U.S. armed forces, but the Fair Employment Act is generally considered to be an early victory in the civil rights movement.

American Engagement

Major Conflicts 1941-1945

European Theater

Encompassing a huge area of Europe, the European Theater was characterized by heavy fighting during the war, from the invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939 until the unconditional surrender of Germany on May 8, 1945. Major conflicts in the European Theater include: •   Battle of Britain (1940)•   Battle of Stalingrad (1942-1943)•   D-Day invasion/ Operation OVERLORD (1944)•   Battle of the Bulge (1944-1945)•   Battle of Berlin (1945)

Stalingrad

One of the bloodiest battles in modern warfare, the Battle of Stalingrad raged from July 17, 1942 until February 2, 1943 and resulted in over 1.5 million civilian and military deaths. The battle, which was fought between German and Soviet troops, was one of the major turning points of the war for the Allied forces.  The defeat of Germany's 6th Army marked the beginning of the Soviet counter-offensive in the war, which greatly contributed to the German surrender in 1945.

Battle of the Bulge

The single largest and most destructive battle faced by American forces during the war, the Battle of the Bulge was fought in a mountainous and forested part of Belgium.  German forces "bulged" forward into Allied lines, giving the battle its name.   After the initial offensive caught them off-guard, Allied troops responded and repulsed the German attack. American casualties:• 19,000 killed•  62,000 wounded• 23,000 missing

D-Day and Operation Overlord

The code name for the Allied invasion of Western Europe, "Operation Overlord" was designed to push Germany forces back east towards the U.S.S.R.  The invasion began with a series of landings and aerial attacks in Normandy, France on June 6, 1944-- known as "D-Day."  

Pacific Theater

Covering most of the Pacific Ocean and encompassing many countries which border the area, the Pacific Theater of Operations during World War II was one of the major sites for U.S. involvement against the Axis Powers during the war. Major conflicts include: • The attack on Pearl Harbor (1941)•  Battle of Midway (1942)•  Battle of Iwo Jima (1945)•  Atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki (1945)

The Holocaust

1939-1945

1933:  Hitler elected to power in Germany.            A series of laws passed containing "Aryan             paragraphs" which prohibited Jews from working in             certain fields.            The first concentration camp is openned at Dachau.1935:  Nuremburg Laws passed, outlawing marriages             between Jews and Aryans and stripping Jews of all             their civil rights.1938: Kristallnacht.  The assassination of a German             diplomat by a Jew prompts Nazis to violently  attack             Jews and destroy Jewish property around Germany,             Austria, and Czechoslovakia.1939:  Germany invades Poland, and begins to force Jews             into ghettos.            Nazis introduce death by gas chamber in the camps.

1941: Himmler pushes for an acceleration of the Final Solution,             and begins Operation Rheinhart.1942: Polish ghettos are systematically emptied, the residents             moved to one of the 15,000 concentration camps             established in German-occupied areas.1944: Attempts are made to disguise what occurred at the             camps: crematoria are dismantled, bodies dumped in             mass graves are dug up and burned, etc.  Camp             leaders force inmates on "death marches" until they             collapse from fatigue, illness, or starvation. 1945:  Camps are liberated by Allied forces.

Death toll: Approximately 6 million Jews throughout Europe. 4 to 5 million other victims-- including Soviet prisoners of war, communists, socialist, homosexuals, Roma (gypsies), Jehovah's Witnesses, and other political, religious, and racial minorities. Total: 10 to 11 million individuals.

End of the War