1. 25.4: Men and Women in Uniform

2. A. Creating the Armed Forces Maps: Wartime Army Camps 1.Even before formally entering the war, the government had begun a draft. 2.The officer corps, except for General Eisenhower, tended to be professional, conservative, and autocratic. 3.Junior officers were trained in special military schools and developed close ties with their troops.

3. Women Enter the Military For the first time, the War Department created women’s divisions of the major services. Most women stayed in the country and performed clerical or health-related duties. Some flew planes and others went into combat with the troops. The military closely monitored sexual activity and practiced racial segregation.

4. New recruits to the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) pick up their clothing “issue” (allotment). These volunteers served in many capacities, from nursing men in combat to performing clerical and communication duties “stateside” (within the United States). Approximately 140,000 women served in the WACS during World War II. SOURCE:Nationale Archives and Records Administration.

5. Old Practices and New Horizons Despite suspicions of the military’s racism, 1 million African Americans served in the armed forces. These soldiers encountered segregation at every point. Many racial or ethnic minorities (along with homosexuals) also served and often found their experience made them feel more included in American society. In Europe, American troops met a mixed welcome, in part dictated by their actions.

6. The Medical Corps The risk of injury was much higher than that of getting killed in battle. Battle fatigue also was a problem. The Army depended on a variety of medical personnel to care for sick and wounded soldiers. The true heroes of the battlefront were the medics attached to each infantry battalion.

7. Prisoners of War POWs held in German camps were treated much better than those held by the Japanese. This treatment, along with racism, led Americans to treat Japanese POWs more harshly than those captured in the European theater.

8. 25.5: The World at War

9. MAP 25.1 The War in Europe The Allies remained on the defensive during the first years of the war, but by 1943 the British and Americans, with an almost endless supply of resources, had turned the tide.

10. A. Soviets Halt Nazi Drive 1.During the first year of American involvement, FDR called the war news “all bad.” The burden of fighting the Nazis fell to the Soviets who blocked the German advance on Moscow. 2.The Soviets broke the siege of Stalingrad in February 1943 and began to push the Germans back.

11. B. The Allied Offensive 1.Although the Soviets appealed for the Allies to open up a “second front” in western Europe, they instead attacked North Africa and Italy. 2.Churchill and FDR met in Casablanca and agreed to seek an unconditional German surrender. 3.American and British planes poured bombs on German cities that: a.weakened the economy b.undermined civilian morale c.crippled the German air force

12. As part of the air war on Germany, Allied bombers launched a devastating attack on Dresden, a major economic center, in February 1945. Of the civilians who died, most from burns or smoke inhalation during the firestorm, a large number were women and children, refugees from the Eastern Front. The city was left in ruins. SOURCE:“Commuters boarding a tram.” Getty Images,Inc.Photo by Fred Ramage (97K/HATY/7781/08).

13. C. The Allied Invasion of Europe 1.The Allied invasion forced Italy out of the war, though German troops stalled Allied advances. 2.Uprisings against Nazi rule tied up German power. 3.By early 1944, Allied units were preparing for the D- Day assault on France. 4.Paris was taken on August 25, 1944. France and other occupied countries fell as Allied units overran the Germans. 5.The Battle of the Bulge temporarily halted the Allied advance. 6.On May 8, 1945, Germany surrendered.

14. D-Day landing, June 6, 1944, marked the greatest amphibious maneuver in military history. Troop ships ferried Allied soldiers from England to Normandy beaches. Within a month, nearly 1 million men had assembled in France, ready to retake western and central Europe from German forces. SOURCE:Photo by Robert Capa.CORBIS.

15. D. The War in Asia and the Pacific 1.In the Pacific theater Allied forces stopped Japanese advances by June 1942. 2.Naval battles and island hopping brought U.S. forces closer to the Japanese home islands. 3.Victories in the Philippines, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa enabled the Allies to bomb Japanese cities. 4.Britain and the United States pressed for rapid surrender to prevent the Soviets from taking any Japanese-held territories.

16. MAP 25.2 War in the Pacific Across an ocean battlefield utterly unlike the European theater, Allies battled Japanese troops near their homeland.

17. 25.6: The Last Stages of the War

18. A. The Holocaust 1.The horror of the Nazi’s systematic extermination of Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, and other “inferior” races was slow to enter American consciousness. 2.Although Jewish refugees pleaded for a military strike to stop the killings, the War Department vetoed any such plans.

19. Belsen Camp: The Compound for Women, painted by American artist Leslie Cole, depicts Belsen as the Allied troops found it when they invaded Germany in 1945. SOURCE:Leslie Cole,Belsen Camp.The Compound for Women. Imperial War Museum,London.

20. B. The Yalta Conference 1.The “Big Three” attempted to hammer out the shape of the postwar world. 2.The ideals of the Atlantic Charter fell before Soviet and British demands for spheres of influence. 3.FDR continued to hold on to his idealism, but his death in April cast a shadow over hopes for peaceful solutions to global problems.

21. C. The Atomic Bomb 1.The new president, Harry S. Truman, lacked FDR’s finesse and planned a get-tough policy with the Soviet Union. 2.At Potsdam, little progress was made on planning the future. 3.Truman decided to use nuclear weapons against the Japanese. 4.Truman was aware that the war could have been brought to a peaceful conclusion with only a slight modification in policy. 5.Truman claimed the use of the bomb would substantially shorten the war and save American lives.

22. Specialists worked for nearly a decade to restore the components of the Enola Gay, making the B-29 bomber the museum’s largest restoration project. This photograph shows the forward fuselage with bomb bay and the propellers. If fully assembled, the Enola Gay is too big and too heavy to fit in the museum. National Air and Space Museum/Smithsonian Institution.

23. This photograph shows the Genbaku Dome, the exterior of one of the buildings in central Hiroshima to survive the bombing. After the atomic bomb fell, fires thoughout the central city combined to make a huge fire storm. A “black rain” of radioactive debris caused by the blast fell for more than a hour, covering an even wider area. More than a quarter of the city’s population died immediately following the explosion, and few buildings within a radius of three miles were left standing. Bettmann/Corbis.

24. Peace activists around the world commemorate August 6th as “Hiroshima Day,” whereas most Americans celebrate “Victory Over Japan Day,” or V-J Day.”This photograph shows demonstrators gathering at the United Nations in New York City on the fifteenth anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb over Japan. AP Wide World Photos.

25. The so-called mushroom cloud has become a familiar, iconic image of the power released with the explosion of atomic bombs. Here, a photograph of the mushroom cloud from the atomic bomb Little Boy that was dropped on Hiroshima is paired with American Pop artist Andy Warhol’s silk-screen on canvas, Atomic Bombs, which was produced in the 1960s. National Archives and Records Administration.

26. Atomic age adventures were popular themes in comic books during the 1950s. Atomic War, which appeared at the height of the Korean War, featured atomic weapons used against Communist nations. This genre continued to be produced well into the 1960s. The Authentic History Center.

27. The Hiroshima Peace memorial Museum and Park, which is located at the city center, opened in 1955. The Genbaku Dome appears in the background of this photograph. Every year, on August 6th, people gather to offer prayers for those who died in the bombing and to express their hope for peace. John Van Hasselt.Corbis/Sygma.