analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the allied and axis powers in 1941
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Analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the Allied and Axis Powers in 1941. Outline the steps that the U.S. took to prepare for war. Increased production. More workers Increased production of cars, ammunition, rifles, aircraft, planes, naval vessels Ended the Depression - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the Allied and Axis
Powers in 1941.
Allied Powers Axis Powers
Advantages
Disadvantages
Allied Powers Axis Powers
Advantages •U.S. had tremendous production capacity•Soviet Union had vast manpower•Br. And Soviet Union had not been defeated
•Better prepared for war•Firm control over invaded areas•Had been rearmed since the 1930s•Already had airfields, barracks, and military training centers•Economies ready for war
Disadvantages •Faced a long, drawn-out fight on several fronts•Enemy held firm control of conquered areas spread over an enormous area (both Eur. And Pacific)
•Had to defend multiple fronts
Outline the steps that the U.S. took to prepare for war.
Increased production
• More workers• Increased production of cars, ammunition,
rifles, aircraft, planes, naval vessels• Ended the Depression• Farmers wartime production (feed
Americans at home and overseas)
Expand the government
• War Production Board (WPB): Increase military production– Directed conversion of existing factories to wartime
production– Supervised building of new plants– Assigned raw materials to industry
• Office of War Mobilization (OWM): Coordinated all govn’t agencies involved in the war effort– Production and distribution of consumer goods
Direct the economy
• Increased # of Americans who paid income tax• Sold war bonds• Office of Price Administration (OPA): set
maximum prices on consumer goods and rationed scarce items
• Keep wages and prices down by freezing them
Raise the army
• Selective Training and Service Act: Provided for the first peacetime draft in U.S. history– Req. all men 21-35 (later 18-45) to register• Women's involvement:– 300,000 volunteers– Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC), Women
Airforce Service Pilots (WASPS), auxiliary branches of navy, coast guard, and marines
– Worked as nurses, drove vehicles, and ferried planes
Identify locations where the Japanese military attacked after
Pearl Harbor.
Clark Air Force Base (12/8/1941)
• U.S. aircraft sitting on runway like “sitting ducks”; air support planes destroyed
• Fleet had to withdraw to the Bataan Peninsula• General Douglas MacArthur: Defended the
Philippines; later given command of all U.S. Army units in the Pacific– Famous quote regarding the Philippines: “I shall
return."
Bataan Death March (April 1942)• After retreat, continued to fight; surrendered in
April– Japanese soldiers forced >70K survivors to march
through the jungle to their prison camp; more than 10K died• Treated brutally, prevented from drinking water, beaten, or
shot• Disease spread quickly in camps
Other Locations of Japanese Attack
• Burma• Borneo• Netherlands East Indies• Wake Island• Hong Kong• New Guinea
Battle of the Java Sea (2/27/1942)
• Japanese navy crushed a fleet of Australian, British, Dutch, and U.S. warships that had been trying to prevent an invasion of Java
• Japanese invaded Java the next day and began conquest of New Guinea
Discuss the early turning points of the war in the Pacific.
Battle of the Coral Sea
• Date: May 7, 1942• U.S. Commander: Chester
Nimitz• Events:– British/U.S. naval force
intercepted Japanese attack on Solomon Islands
– Damaged a Japanese carrier and destroyed another and several aircraft
– Effect: Stopped Japanese advance on Australia
Battle of Midway
• Date: June 3-6, 1942• U.S. Commander: Chester Nimitz• Events:– Japanese launched joint attack: Aleutian Islands (near
Alaska; to draw U.S. fleet away from Hawaii) and Midway (main attack)
– U.S. had broken Japanese code and had advance warning
– U.S. ambushed Japanese attack on Midway– Japanese lost ships, planes, and a number of skilled
pilots
Guadalcanal
• Date: August, 1942• U.S. Commander: Maj. Gen. Alexander A.
Vandegrift• Events:– 1st major U.S. offensive– “Ferocious fighting”– Japanese tried to recover in Nov. but were
defeated again
Clark Air Force Base
Burma
Borneo
Wake Island
Hong Kong
Java SeaNew Guinea
Axis Victories
Allied Victories
Coral Sea
Midway
Guadalcanal
Relate the major battles in Europe and North Africa in 1942.
Battle of El Alamein
• Date: July 1942• Axis Commander: “Desert Fox”
Erwin Rommel• British General: Gen. Bernard
Montgomery• Result: – Axis forces suffered shortages of men
and supplies– Rommel’s troops pushed westward
out of Egypt and into Libya
Battle of Stalingrad
• Date: Nov. 1942 – Jan. 1943• Events: – German troops had pushed far into the Soviet Union
and captured many industrial centers and rich grain fields; were closing in on Moscow; laid siege to Leningrad
– Closing in on Stalingrad’s oil fields– Soviet forces refused to surrender and trapped
Germans in the city with few supplies and little food• 200K German casualties
Axis Victories
Allied Victories
Stalingrad
El Alamein
“Before Alamein we never had a victory. After Alamein we never had
a defeat.”Winston Churchill