Great Depression & World War II Notes

Unit 10: Great Depression & World War II

Unit 10a: U.S. Great Depression (1929-1932)

Chapter 9 Lessons

  • The Causes of the Great Depression
  • Life during the Great Depression

Lesson 1: The Causes of the Great Depression

  • Overview of Causes:
    • Speculation on the stock market
    • Bank runs and closures
    • Overproduction and underconsumption
    • Credit and installment plans
    • High tariff
    • Federal Reserve’s mistakes

1) Speculation on the Stock Market

  • 1928: Republican Herbert Hoover elected President due to 1920s prosperity.
  • The stock market is where stocks (shares of a corporation) are bought and sold
  • 1920-1929: Stock market soared, but values were falsely inflated.
  • Buyers speculated, hoping to sell at a profit.
  • Many bought stocks “on the margin”.
    • Paid for 10% of the stock.
    • Took a loan for 90%.
  • Example of Buying Stock "On The Margin":
    • For a 1000 stock bought “on the margin”:
      • Paid 10% of the price of the stock (100).
      • Borrowed 90% (900).
      • If the price of the stock went up, the speculator could sell the stock for 1500, pay the loan of 900, and make a 500 profit (minus 100 initial payment).
      • BUT if the price of the stock went down to 500, the speculator still owed the loan of 900 and would lose 500 (as well as the initial investment of 100 for a total loss of 600).

The Great Stock Market Crash

  • Sept. 1929: Prices started to decline, so investors sold more stock, which made prices decline more.
  • Brokers called in margins (the loans they had made on the 90%), so people sold more stock and prices bottomed out
  • Black Tuesday, Oct. 29, 1929 – Steepest dive in prices and the official Stock Market Crash

2) Banks Closed

  • Banks had loaned money from depositors to stock speculators
  • Example:
    • Justin put his money in the bank to keep it safe and earn interest
    • Bank loaned (Justin’s) money to Marlon
    • Marlon bought stocks hoping to get rich
    • Stock market crashed
    • Justin (and all the other depositors) ran to get their money from the bank
    • Bank told Marlon he needed to repay his loan
    • Marlon’s stocks were worth less than what he paid for them, so he defaulted on loan
    • Bank closed forever and Justin and all the other depositors lost their money
  • By 1932: 25% of U.S. banks had closed forever.

3) Overproduction and Underconsumption

  • Efficient machinery produced more than people could buy.
  • U.S. income was not evenly distributed.
    • Top 5% of Americans earned 30% of the U.S.’s income.
    • 67% of Americans were at the poverty line, including most farmers.
  • Lots of people couldn’t continue to buy new stuff

4) Installment Plans

  • Installment plan – make a small down payment and then monthly payments
  • Many Americans had gone into debt for expensive new items like cars, refrigerators, and radios and couldn’t buy more and carry more debt
  • Factories slowed down and laid off workers, which also impacted jobs for people who produced things for factories (lumber, copper, glass, etc.)

5) High Tariff

  • 1929: Congress passed the very high Hawley-Smoot Tariff to try to protect U.S. businesses.
  • Other countries raised their tariffs, too, so worldwide trade decreased and hurt businesses.
  • 1929-1932: U.S. exports fell by 50%.

6) Federal Reserve’s Mistakes

  • Mistake #1 – During the 1920s, Federal Reserve should have raised interest rates to slow down borrowing and inflation, but they didn’t.
  • Mistake #2 – During the 1930s, Federal Reserve should have kept interest rates low but they raised them during the Great Depression, which made it hard to get credit. They also should have put more money into the money supply, but they didn’t.

Lesson 2: Life During the Great Depression

Life During the Great Depression

  • 1) Unemployment: Biggest problem! 25% of the workforce was unemployed!
  • 2) Hunger: Churches and cities opened breadlines and soup kitchens.
  • 3) Homelessness: Many couldn’t afford their rent or mortgage and were evicted.
    • Hoovervilles – shantytowns set up around U.S. cities. Big on in NYC’s Central Park.
    • Hoboes – homeless, unemployed mostly men and boys who wandered the country, frequently on freight trains, looking for work
  • 4) Mexican Repatriation: To get more jobs, the U.S. gov’t forcibly took between 500,000 and 2,000,000 Mexican Americans to Mexico. More than 50% were U.S. citizens.

The Dust Bowl

The Dust Bowl occurred during the Great Depression as a result of

  • Poor farming practices – deep- plowing topsoil and then not planting crops left soil to blow away
  • 7-year drought – No water to keep soil in place
  • Dust Bowl – Soil turned to dust and high winds turned it into dust storms burying crops and livestock
  • Okies – Many migrants from Oklahoma headed to California in search of a better life
  • John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath tells the fictional story of one of these families

Movies and Radio

  • Movies and radio programs became increasingly popular as people tried to escape the Great Depression
    • Movies – Marx Brothers made people laugh
    • 1937: Walt Disney produced his first feature-length animated film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
    • 1939: The Wizard of Oz and Gone with the Wind
    • Many films showed ordinary people standing up to corruption and powerful forces
    • Radio – Comedians like Jack Benny
    • Superheroes like the Green Hornet
    • Daytime dramas sponsored by laundry soap were nicknamed soap operas

Reflections of the Great Depression

  • 1936: Life weekly photojournalism magazine introduced
  • Dorothea Lange showed how Great Depression affected average Americans
  • Grant Wood’s American Gothic – paid tribute to no- nonsense Midwesterners while make gentle fun of their severity

Unit 10b: World War II (1939-1945)

Chapter 11 Lessons

  • The Origins of WWII
  • From Neutrality to War
  • The Holocaust

Chapter 12 Lesson

  • Wartime America
  • The War in the Pacific
  • The War in Europe
  • The War Ends

Lesson 3: The Origins of WWII

The Rise of Dictators

  • Italy - Mussolini and Fascism
  • USSR - Stalin and Communism
  • Germany - Hitler and Nazism
  • Japan - Tojo and Militarism
  • Why would political and economic instability lead to a rise of dictatorships?

Italy - Mussolini and Fascism

  • 1919 - Benito Mussolini founded Italy's Fascist movement.
  • Fascism - aggressive nationalism that considered the nation more important than the individual
  • Fascism was strongly anti- communist and Mussolini exploited fears of communism by presenting fascism as protecting private property against communism.
  • He also promised to return Italy to glory days of Roman Empire.
  • The Blackshirts, a Fascist militia, helped Mussolini become the Italian premier, at which point he took the title Il Duce, "the leader."
  • 1935 - Mussolini invaded Abyssinia (Ethiopia)

Germany - Hitler and Nazism

  • Adolf Hitler was a passionate nationalist who hated the Allies
  • Nazis called for Germany to expand and reject Treaty of Versailles Hitler claimed that Germans belonged to a “master race” called Aryans. Hitler blamed Jews for the world's problems.
  • When the Depression hit Germany, many desperate Germans voted for the Nazis and Hitler was appointed as chancellor.
  • Nazi storm troopers intimated voters and Hitler soon received dictatorial powers. He gave himself the title Der Fuhrer, “The Leader”

Japan - Tojo and Militarism

  • The Depression hurt Japan, too, which had to import almost all the resources they needed to produce goods. High tariffs from other countries made things worse.
  • Military leaders argued that seizing territory was the only way Japan could get the resources it needed.
  • Sept. 1931 - Japan invaded Manchuria
  • The emperor's prime minister asked Minister of War Hideki Tojo to withdraw some troops from China
  • Tojo refused and the military took command of the country.
  • The Japanese army swept through China and invaded Nanking (now Nanjing), destroying the city and killing as many 300,000 residents.
  • 1941 - Tojo became prime minister

USSR - Stalin and Communism

Note: USSR was with the Allies in WWII!

  • After the Russian Revolution, the Communist Party created the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and instituted one-party rule, punished opponents, and limited individual liberties like a free press.
  • 1924 - Lenin died and Stalin came to power and he quickly made himself a dictator.
  • He began a massive effort to industrialize and combined family farms into collectives. Anyone who resisted were killed or imprisoned in concentration camps and used for slave labor. 15-20 million people died under Stalin's 29-year rule.

Germany Expands

  • 1935: Hitler defied the Treaty of Versailles by expanding military
  • 1938, Feb.: Hitler invaded Austria and announced the unification of Austria and Germany
  • 1938, Sept.: Hitler claimed rights to the Sudetenland, an area of Czechoslovakia.
    • Britain and France agreed to Hitler's demands (appeasement)
      • Avoid a repeat of WWI
      • Some thought Hitler’s demands ok
  • 1938, Oct.: Hitler demanded the return of Danzig, Poland to German control.
  • 1939, March: Britain announced that if Germany invaded Poland, Britain and France would come to its aid.
  • 1939, Aug.: Nazi-Soviet Non- Aggression Pact shocked the world.
    • Important: Meant that Germany would not have to fight on 2 fronts. Nazis and Soviets had also agreed to divide Poland between them.
  • 1939, Sept. 1: Germany invaded Poland, so Britain and France declared war on Germany.
  • WWII had begun.

Fall of France

  • Germans used a new type of warfare called blitzkrieg, or "lightning war," massed tanks and waves of aircraft and paratroopers to break through and encircle enemy positions.
  • 1939, Oct. 5: Germany defeated Poland. Britain and France awaited attack.
  • 1940, May 10: Hitler launched blitzkrieg through the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and into France. British and French were trapped in Belgium on the English Channel.
  • "Miracle at Dunkirk” – Civilians helped evacuate about 338,000 troops across the English Channel to safety.
  • 1940, June 22: France surrendered and Nazis controlled most of France for most of WWII

Britain Remained Defiant

  • Hitler expected Britain to negotiate peace after France surrendered.
  • British Prime Minister Winston Churchill vowed Britain would never surrender.
  • Battle of Britain Hitler used the Luftwaffe, German Air Force, to bomb British ships in the English Channel and then London and other cities.
  • Britain's use of radar gave it the advantage and after major losses on both sides, Hitler canceled the invasion of Britain.

Lesson 4: From Neutrality to War & Holocaust

American Neutrality

  • Many Americans supported neutrality and isolationism again
    • Rise of dictators made WWI sacrifices seem pointless
    • Had arms factories influenced WWII to get rich?
  • Neutrality Acts
    • Neutrality Acts of 1935, 1936, and 1937 - Illegal to sell arms to any country at war

From Neutrality to War

  • Flying Tigers - Pilots from the U.S. volunteered to fight in China against Japan before the U.S. entered the war
  • Neutrality Act of 1939 - “Cash and carry" of war materials was allowed to aid Britain and France
  • Destroyers-for-Bases deal – FDR traded 50 old destroyers to Great Britain in return for access to bases
  • FDR's Four Freedoms speech to Congress began to prepare the nation for war by listing what U.S. and Britain stood: freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear.
  • 1940 – Lend-Lease Act - Britain had run out of funds, so FDR proposed Lend-Lease to allow the U.S. to lend or lease arms to any country "vital to the defense of the U.S."
  • 1941, June – Hitler invaded the USSR, so Lend- Lease went to the USSR, too.
  • 1941, Aug. – FDR and Churchill met and wrote the Atlantic Charter which committed both nations to a postwar world of democracy, nonaggression, free trade, and freedom of seas

Japan Attacks Pearl Harbor

  • To hurt Japanese aggression, FDR blocked the sale of airplane fuel and scrap iron to Japan.
  • Furious, Japan signed an alliance with Germany and Italy forming the Axis Powers.
  • 1941 – Japan headed towards the British Empire in Asia, so FDR froze all Japanese assets in the U.S., reduced oil shipments, and set Gen. MacArthur to the Philippines to build up U.S. defenses.
  • Japan started planning the Pearl Harbor attack, which came as a complete surprise to the U.S.
  • Sunday, Dec. 7, 1941 - Two waves of Japanese planes damaged or sank 8 battleships, 3 cruisers, 3 destroyers, and 3 other vessels. 180 aircraft were destroyed and 2,403 Americans were killed.
  • The next day, FDR asked Congress to declare war, and they did.
  • Dec. 11, 1941 – Germany and Italy declared war on the U.S.

The Holocaust

  • Nazis killed 6,000,000 Jews during the Holocaust.
  • Nazis killed another 5,000,000 people from other groups including people with disabilities, homosexuals, Roma (Gypsies), and political dissidents. How did it start?
    • 1935 – Nuremberg Laws deprived Jewish Germans of citizenship and banned marriage between Jews and other Germans. Then Jews weren't allowed to vote or hold political office.

Kristallnacht

  • Kristallnacht - Nov. 9, 1938 - Nazis staged attacks on synagogues and Jewish homes and businesses. More than 90 Jews died.
  • Violence against Jews increased significantly after Kristallnacht.

Jewish Refugees Try to Flee

  • Many Jews had decided to stay hoping things would get better.
  • About 250,000 Jews escaped including Albert Einstein.
  • Limits on Jewish Immigration – Thousands of Jews applied for U.S. visas each day but most did not get them – Nazis prevented Jews from leaving with more than 4; U.S. denied giving a visa to anyone "likely to become a public charge.“ – Depression unemployment and anti- Semitism in the U.S. also kept Jews out – Nazis said they were happy for Jews to emigrate, but the U.S., Latin America, and several European countries stated their regret they couldn't take in more Jews because of immigration quotas.

St. Louis Affair

  • On May 27, 1939, the SS St. Louis entered Havana Harbor, Cuba, with 930 Jews on board hoping to get to the U.S.
  • When the ship landed, the Cuban gov't refused to let them come ashore.
  • The ship's captain steered in circles off the coast of Florida, awaiting official permission to dock.
  • It never came.
  • The ship returned to Europe and most of the refugees died in the Nazis' “Final Solution.”

The Final Solution

  • 1942, Jan. 20 – Nazi leaders met to coordinate the "final solution of the Jewish question."
  • Previous “solutions” including rounding up Jews, Gypsies, Slavs, and others, shooting them or using exhaust fumes to kill them, and piling them into mass graves.
  • Concentration camps – Nazis had been using them since 1933 for political opponents. Then they began to round up Jews for the camps.
  • Healthy individuals worked as a slave laborer so until they dropped dead of exhaustion, disease, or malnutrition.
  • Most others, including the elderly and young children, were sent immediately to extermination camps and executed in mass gas
  • There were 20 main concentration camps, many of which had many subcamps
  • Many of them combined the most dehumanizing and degrading characteristics of prison and slave labor camps. In some, Nazi doctors carried out depraved experiments, while others were primarily transit camps -- places to hold Jews and other "undesirables" until they were sent to other camps.
  • There were also four main extermination camps -- Belzec, Chelmno, Sobibor and Treblinka -- devoted solely to killing everyone who passed through their gates. Treblinka nearly rivaled Auschwitz in the sheer number of people who were murdered there.
  • Auschwitz alone housed 100,000 people in 300 barracks with gas chambers that could kill 2,000 at one time and 12,000 each day. About 1,600,000 people died in Auschwitz.
  • Jewish culture in Europe was virtually obliterated in just a few years

How Could The Holocaust Have Occurred?

  1. German's sense of injury after WWI
  2. Severe economic problems
  3. Lack of a tradition of representative gov't
  4. German fear of Hitler's secret police
  5. Long history of anti-Jewish prejudice and discrimination in Europe

Putting the Enemy on Trial

  • Aug. 1945 – The U.S., Britain, France, and USSR created the International Military Tribunal (IMT) to punish German and Japanese leaders for war crimes
  • Nuremberg, Germany – IMT held trials for German leaders
  • Tokyo, Japan – IMT held trials for Japanese leaders, except Emperor Hirohito (feared an uprising)
  • The trials were to punish the wartime atrocities as well as build a better world

Lesson 5: Wartime America

U.S. Economy in Wartime

  • War production increased rapidly to provide warplanes and ships for a "2- ocean" navy.
  • Usually the gov't asks companies to submit contracts to produce military equipment, but that process is slow so the gov't signed COST-PLUS contracts, agreeing to pay the COST of making the product PLUS a guaranteed percentage for profit.
  • Congress used the RFC (Reconstruction Finance Corporation) to make loans to companies wanting to convert to war production
  • Within 6 months, almost all major industries and 200,000 companies had converted to wartime production, making the wartime "miracle" possible.
  • The country that could move troops and supplies most quickly usually won the battle.
  • Auto plants began making trucks, jeeps, and tanks. They also produced rifles, helmets, artillery, and dozens of other pieces.

Life on the Home Front

  • The Great Depression ended as the war effort created 19,000,000 new jobs
  • "Rosie the Riveter" – symbol of the campaign to hire women.
    • 2.5 million women worked in shipyards, aircraft factories, and other manufacturing
    • Most women lost or left their jobs at the end of the war

Racism Against African Americans

  • White factory owners and managers resisted hiring African Americans
  • A. Philip Randolph, the head of a major African Am. union told FDR he was organizing a march on Washington to secure national defense jobs and integrate the military
  • FDR issued Executive Order 8802 which banned “discrimination in the employment of workers in defense industries or gov't”
  • African Americans faced intolerance in northern cities. For example, a race riot broke out in Detroit and left 25 African Americans and 9 whites dead.

Hispanic Americans

  • Mexican Farmworkers
    • Bracero Program - Federal gov't recruited Mexican farmworkers to help harvest crops. More than 200,000 came during the war and also helped work on the railroads.
  • Zoot Suit Riots
    • Tension between white sailors in Los Angeles and Mexican American teenagers who wore “Zoot suits” (popular baggy suits which did not conserve cloth for the war effort)
    • Zoot Suit Riots – 2,500 soldiers and sailors attacked Mexican American neighborhoods.

Racism Again Japanese Americans

  • FDR's Executive Order 9066 gave the military the power to exclude people from areas that were deemed important to U.S. national defense and security.
  • Most of the West Coast was declared a military zone, and people of Japanese ancestry were evacuated to 10 internment camps in deserts farther inland
  • Korematsu v. U.S., 1944, p. 363 – When Mr. Korematsu refused to leave San Leandro, California, he was arrested
    • In a 6-3 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that the gov't was justified in suspending citizens' civil rights in time of "emergency and peril."

Daily Life in Wartime

  • Rationing - Limited the purchase of many products to make sure the military had enough. People had to use ration points and money to purchase meat, sugar, coffee, shoes, gas, etc.
  • Driving distances were limited and the speed limit was 35 miles per hour to save gas.
  • Victory gardens – To conserve for the military, the gov't asked Americans to grow some of their own food at home to eat
  • Paying for the war
    • 45% of the war paid for through higher taxes
    • 55% of the war paid for through war bonds
      • Individual Ams. bought 1/3
      • Banks and insurance companies bought 2/3

Building the Military

  • 1940, Sept. – Selective Training and Service Act – Congress passed the first ever U.S. peacetime conscription (draft).
  • Gen. George C. Marshall organized the largest expansion of the army in U.S. history
    • Fewer than 190,000 men in 1939
    • More than 8,000,000 men in 1945
  • 1941, Dec. – 60,000 men enlisted but the army lacked training facilities and supplies.

Segregated Military

  • African Americans were segregated into their own units

    • African American units were usually assigned to construction and supply units
    • "Double V" - The Pittsburgh Courier, an African American newspaper, launched the "Double V" campaign to support the war to win victory over… (1) Hitler's racism abroad and (2) U.S. racism
    • 1941 – Tuskegee Airmen – First African American Air Force unit
    • Tuskegee squadrons protected bombers on 200 missions without losing a single member to enemy aircraft

  • Native American - About 1/3 of all able-bodied Native American men aged 18-50 served

    • Navajo Code Talkers – 400 Navajo marines served as "code talkers," using the Navajo language to relay critical information over radios. Their code was never broken

  • Japanese Americans - Later in the war, Japanese Americans were allowed to serve

    • 50% had been in internment camps
    • Those 2 units became the most decorated in U.S. military history

  • Hispanic Americans - Almost 500,000 Hispanic Americans served despite racial hostility. 17 received the Medal of Honor.

  • 1948 - Pres. Truman's Executive Order 9981 finally ended segregation in the military

Women Join the Armed Forces

  • The army enlisted women for the first time but barred them from combat.
  • Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) - Women performed many administrative and clerical jobs. WAAC was replaced by WAC (Women's Army Corps) about a year later.
  • Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) - Women pilots made more than 12,000 flights to deliver planes to the war effort.

Lesson 6: America on the Warpath

The War in the Pacific

  • Admiral Chester Nimitz, commander of the U.S. Navy in the Pacific, began planning operations against the Japanese.
  • Right after Pearl Harbor, Japan attacked the Philippines.
  • April 9, 1942 – The badly outnumbered Filipino and U.S. troops defending the Bataan Peninsula in the Philippines had to surrender – FDR evacuated MacArthur from the Philippines, but he vowed to return
  • Bataan Death March – 78,000 prisoners of war were forced to march 65 miles to the Japanese prison camp. Almost 10,000 died on the trek.

The Battle of Midway

  • Japan decided to try to lure the U.S. Fleet into battle at Midway and destroy it.
  • U.S. code breakers deciphered the Japanese navy's code and knew about the attack on Midway, and Nimitz ambushed the Japanese instead.
  • The U.S. sank 4 Japanese aircraft carriers, the heart of Japan's fleet
  • TURNING POINT OF THE WAR - Japan's advance across the Pacific had been stopped

Two-Pronged Attack in the Pacific

  1. Admiral Nimitz and the Pacific Fleet would use “island hopping” to go from one strategic island to another to get to Japan.
  2. Gen. MacArthur's troops would advance from the south to retake the Philippines.

MacArthur Returns

  • 1942 – MacArthur fought from the Solomon Islands, up through New Guinea to the island of Morotai close to the Philippines
  • Oct. 1944 – To retake the Philippines, the U.S. assembled over 700 ships with more than 160,000 troops. – A few hours after the invasion began, MacArthur strode onto the beach and announced, “People of the Philippines, I have returned.”
  • Battle of Leyte Gulf – Largest naval battle in history and the first time Japanese used kamikaze (suicide) pilots who crashed their planes into U.S. ships.
  • March 1945 – After a long and grueling campaign in which 80,000 Japanese were killed and fewer than 1,000 surrendered, MacArthur’s troops captured Manila, the capitol of the Philippines, although the battle killed more than 100000 Filipino civilians

Lesson 7: America on the Warpath

Battle for North Africa

  • Churchill convinced FDR to not invade Europe yet but to attack the periphery (edges) of the German empire.
  • July 1942 – Gen. Eisenhower commanded the troops who invaded North Africa.
  • When the U.S. fought the Germans for the first time, they lost badly with 7,000 casualties and 200 lost tanks.
  • Eisenhower fired the general who led that attack and put General George Patton in command. With Patton, the Allied forces won North Africa on May 13, 1943

Battle of the Atlantic

  • German submarines lurked off the U.S. coast and sank 362 U.S. ships in less than a year.
  • The U.S. Navy set up a convoy system (ships traveled in groups escorted by warships) which improved the situation.
  • U.S. also began using radar, sonar, and depth charges to locate and attack subs.

Battle of Stalingrad

  • Hitler wanted to capture Stalingrad because the Soviets would be cut off from their resources as it controlled the Volga River and was a major railroad junction
  • Sept. 1942 – German troops entered Stalingrad but Stalin ordered troops to hold the city
  • Germans fought house to house at tremendous cost and were not equipped for a brutal Soviet winter
  • Soviet reinforcements arrived in Nov.
  • Feb. 1943 – 91,000 Germans surrendered (only 5,000 survived the Soviet POW camps)
  • Each side lost almost 500,000 troops in that battle

North Africa Sicily Italy

  • Gen. Eisenhower commanded the invasion of Sicily with Gen. Patton heading the U.S. ground forces. The Allied troops captured the island of Sicily in a month.
  • The King of Italy had had enough, so he arrested Mussolini and began negotiating a surrender with the Allies.
  • Germany, however, seized control of northern Italy including Rome, and returned Mussolini to power!
  • The Germans set up defensive positions in a heavily-fortified town in rocky terrain.
  • The Allies fought in Italy for almost a year and a half
  • The bloody Italian campaign had 300,000 Allied casualties

The Tehran Conference

  • 1943 – Churchill, Stalin, and FDR met in Tehran, Iran. They agreed:
    • FDR and Stalin agreed to divide Germany after the war to keep the peace forever
    • Stalin also accepted FDR’s proposal of a postwar international peacekeeping organization

D-Day Invasion

(Operation Overlord at Normandy)

  • FDR and Churchill planned an invasion of France (Germany would have to fight on 2 fronts)
  • Gen. Eisenhower commanded the invasion, the largest amphibious landing in history
  • To be successful, they needed roads, an airfield, a seaport, and surprise. (Allies tricked Germans into thinking the invasion would be where the English Channel was narrowest)
  • More than 1.5 million U.S. soldiers, 12,000 airplanes, and 5 million tons of equipment gathered in England
  • The invasion itself needed good weather, low tide, and moonlight for the paratroopers
  • The first opportunity would June 5-7, 1944. June 5 was cloudy and stormy, but Eisenhower checked the forecast for June 6 and gave the final order, “OK, we’ll go.”

The Longest Day

  • Nearly 7,000 ships carrying more than 100,000 soldiers headed for Normandy’s coast as 23,000 paratroopers were dropped behind enemy lines
  • Allied fighter-bombers raced the coast hitting bridges, bunkers, and radars as the soldiers landed and stormed the 5 beaches: “Utah,” “Omaha,” “Gold,” Sword,” and “Juno”
  • The landings at 4 of the beaches went well as the German defenses were rather weak
  • The landing at “Omaha,” though, was devastating. The Germans had fortified high cliffs and rained machine guns down on the Americans attacking the beach. It was almost too much.
  • Gen. Omar Bradley, commander of the U.S. forces landing at “Utah,” and “Omaha,” almost evacuated the beach but the U.S. troops began to ram their way through the German defenses. Nearly 2,500 Americans casualties on Omaha, but they took the beach.
  • The D-Day invasion was successful!

Battle of the Bulge

  • After the Allies broke through Normandy, they liberated Paris
  • But Hitler wasn’t done.
  • Dec. 16, 1944 – Battle of the Bulge – The Germans moved quickly to try to cut off Allied supplies coming through a port in Belgium
  • Snow covered the bitterly cold ground as the Germans caught the Americans by surprise, moving so fast their lines bulged outward
  • Gen. Eisenhower called Gen. Patton to the rescue and he slammed into the German lines and broke through by the end of December.

The War Ends in Europe

  • The British and American forces fought across France and pushed eastward into Germany
  • The Soviets drove the Germans out of Russia and pushed westward into Germany
  • April 30, 1945 – Hitler knew the end was near and committed suicide in his bunker
  • May 7, 1945 – Germany surrendered unconditionally
  • May 8, 1945 – V-E Day! (Victory in Europe)

Lesson 8: America on the Warpath

Iwo Jima, Firebombing, and Okinawa

  • April 12, 1945 – FDR died of a stroke and Harry Truman became president
  • Feb. 1945 – Marines attacked Iwo Jima to get a base to bomb Tokyo
    • The rugged, volcanic geography and Japanese network of bunkers made victory difficult
    • March 1945 – Americans began bombing Tokyo with bombs and firebombs (napalm) in case