WWII: The Home Front
Bell-ringer: Read, “A Personal Voice” on page 562, and do one of the following in at least 5 sentences:
Write a response to the letter as the husband
Write a similar letter to a loved one overseas
Selective Service
After Pearl Harbor, Japan boastedAmerica is now a 3rd rate powerTrembling in her shoes
With RAGE not fear
Selective Service5 million volunteersDraft expanded
10 million drafted
Military ExpandedWAAC (Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps.Ridiculed the idea at first
• Later, employers couldn’t hire enough
Dramatic Contributions
300,000 Mexican Americans
13,000 Chinese Americans
33,000 Japanese Americans
25,000 Native Americans
Discrimination
Upon receiving his draft notice, one African American was quoted:
“Just carve on my tombstone, ‘Here lies a black man killed fighting a yellow man for the protection of a white man.’”
Production Miracle
Auto plants tanks, planes, boats
Bedspread mosquito netting
Soft drink filled shells with explosives
Shipyards and defense plants expanded
Workforce6 million women
Employers feared they wouldn’t have the strength or stamina
• They were wrong
African Americans75% of employers refused to hire
• “Negroes will be considered only as janitors.”- General Manager of North American Aviation
Mobilization of ScientistsGerman scientists were successful in splitting uranium atoms, releasing massive amounts of energy
Einstein (German refugee) warned the president
Manhattan ProjectGoal was to produce an atomic bomb
Government Takes Control
See Chart on p. 567
War PlansChurchill spent 3 weeks at the White House planning strategies for the war with FDR
Roosevelt to Churchill• “It is fun,” he wrote, “to be in the same decade with you.”
Plan- Deal with Germany and Italy first, then hit Japan later
Battle of the AtlanticWolf Packs (U-Boats) destroyed carriers on their way to Great Britain
U.S. used convoys and airplanes to combat Wolf Packs
Success!
WWII Battles
Stalingrad
D-Day
Battle of the Bulge
Doolittle’s Raid
Midway
Coral Sea
Iwo Jima
Okinawa
What to include:Date of NewspaperEnvironment (cold? Rainy?)CasualtiesEvents surrounding the battleGoalsSignificant peoplePicturesOther news (sporting event?)
Using:PowerPointWordPublisherPaintI don’t care what you use, but it must be in digital format
30 points (HW)
Example
Author
Date
Pictures
Headlines
Other news
What’s missing?
Battle of StalingradMajor industrial center on the Volga River
Also symbolic, why?
Germans pushing toward Stalingrad for months
Winter cold stopped themSoviets launched counter-attack
Battle of Stalingrad
9/10 of city destroyed
Neither Stalin or Hitler wanted to back down
“Enemy at the Gates”
Battle of Stalingrad
1,100,000 Soviets dead
More than total U.S. dead
Turning Point
Soviets pushed west
North African FrontAllies chased the Desert Fox
Erwin Rommel, leader of the Afrika Korps
Victory in May 1943
Read Ernie Pyle’s writing on p. 572
Rommel pleads with Hitler to surrender after D-Day
Assassination attempt