AMERICA IN WWII

Americas Enemies: Japan, Germany, Italy Americas Allies: Britain, France, Soviet Union, China THE ALLIED POWERS Americas Enemies: Japan, Germany, Italy AXIS POWERS

Dwight D. Eisenhower Franklin Roosevelt American President for a majority of the War. Gave the famous “Day of Infamy” speech about Pearl Harbor inspiring the Nation to join the war American General in charge of Allied forces in Europe. He was the mastermind behind the D-Day Invasion.

PROPAGANDA This popular WWII poster uses Hitler’s image to symbolize the enemy. The poster is using the emotion of guilt to get people to share cars or carpool to save fuel. The government hopes people will save fuel so it can be used to power military vehicles on the battlefield.

PEARL HARBOR Dec. 7th 1941 This was a surprise attack on the U.S. Naval base in Hawaii by the Japanese Navy. Hundreds of Japanese aircraft bombed ships and airfields. The Japanese hoped to knock out the U.S. Navy and keep them from joining the war against them. The Americans lost over a dozen ships and nearly 3,000 lives.

THE BATTLE OF THE ATLANTIC 1942 After America’s entry into the war, Hitler was determined to prevent foods and war supplies from reaching Britain and the USSR from America’s east coast He ordered submarine raids on U.S. ships on the Atlantic During the first four months of 1942 Germany sank 87 U.S. ships This forced the Untied States to develop new technology such as sonar to stop German submarines.

D-Day was an amphibious landing – soldiers going from sea to land D-DAY JUNE 6, 1944 D-Day was the largest land-sea- air operation in military history Allied forces attacked on the beaches of France to invade Europe Within a month, the Allies had won and landed 1 million troops, 567,000 tons of supplies and 170,000 vehicles The Allies then began to push the Germans back into Germany D-Day was an amphibious landing – soldiers going from sea to land

BATTLE OF THE BULGE October 1944 The Americans captured their first German town (Aachen)– the Allies were closing in on Hitler The Battle of the Bulge was one last ditch massive offensive with everything the Germans had left. Hitler hoped breaking through the Allied line with his tanks and infantry. The Nazi Army was stopped making it the last German offensive of the War

LIFE ON THE HOMEFRONT Many laws and organizations were created to help fight WWII. WAR POWERS ACT 1941 Which gave the president extra powers during a time of war. Examples: Censorship of mail, full control over government companies, take any land or equipment needed to fight a large scale war. WAR PRODUCTION BOARD decided which companies would convert to wartime production and how to best allocate raw materials to those industries. Companies like Ford were taken over and converted into making war machines.

LIFE ON THE HOMEFRONT continued The War Production Board also organized nationwide drives to collect scrap iron, tin cans, paper, rags and cooking fat for recycling Office of Price Administration (OPA) froze prices on most goods and encouraged the purchase of war bonds to fight inflation. They also set up a system of rationing Households had set allocations of scarce goods – gas, meat, shoes, sugar, coffee Women played a major role back home much of the production in factories was done by women.

COST OF THE WAR The war cost the U.S. 288 Billion in 1944 The total cost in lives was over 400,000 WWII greatly increased the governments role in the economy and daily lives of its citizens. It also set up the Cold War with the U.S. and the Soviet Union as the new World Superpowers competing for control.