An Overview of Early American

Involvement

American Soldiers• 5 million volunteers, 10 million drafted

• Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC)

• non-combat duties – nurses, ambulance drivers, radio operators, electricians, pilots

• Minorities Served (over 1.3 million) in segregated units

• Mexican, African, Chinese, Japanese, and Native Americans

• Tuskegee Airmen

• all African American squadron that fought against Germans over Italy

• won highest awards from military for successes

• Purple Heart Battalion

• all Japanese Americans battalion that fought in Africa & Italy

• became the most decorated unit in U.S. history

• Home Front Employment Expands

• due to the high numbers of soldiers, women & minorities are hired to work in factories, and the Depression officially ends

WWII Teams

Allies Axis• Poland

• Britain

• France

Additions:

• USSR

• U.S.

• Italy

• China

• and over 40 other countries

• Germany

• Japan

• Italy (switches sides)

• USSR (switches sides)

• 7 other small countries

Battle of the Atlantic (1941 – 1943)• Battle between Britain and Germany over control of Atlantic Ocean

• From 1941 to 1943 Germany dominated the battle using U-Boats to destroy cargo ships

• With American aid, but 1943 Allies were able to control the Atlantic

• Significant because U.S. now able to safely provide supplies, weapons, soldiers to war in Europe

Battle of Stalingrad (1941 – 1943)• Germans wanted to destroy the major industrial city

• quickly gained control of 90% of city, then the winter set in

• Soviets surrounded the city, trapping the Germans

• at the end of January 1943 Germans surrendered

• turning point on Eastern Front – Soviets began to move westward towards Germany

North African Front (1942 – 1943)• Allied Offensive – “Operation Torch”

• Allied invasion of Axis controlled North Africa

• American General Eisenhower fought against German General Rommel (“desert fox”).

• Allied victory

Doolittle’s Raid (1942)• following Pearl Harbor Japanese quickly took over parts of mainland Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Philippines

• Lt. Colonel Doolittle led 16 bombers on an attack against Tokyo and other major Japanese cities

• Weakened Japanese morale

Battle of Coral Sea (1942)• five day battle where the Japanese

were trying to take over Australia

• Japanese vs. Americans & Australians

• all fighting was done by planes

• first time since Pearl Harbor a Japanese attack had been stopped

Battle of Midway (1942)• Japan wanted to seize this island near Hawaii

• U.S. broke a Japanese code allowing us to successfully defend the island

• the U.S. bombed and destroyed Japanese aircraft carriers, a cruiser, and 250 planes

• turning point in War in the Pacific

• led to the Island Hopping Campaign

Italian Campaign (1943 – 1945)• Allies moved North from Africa towards Italy

• quickly captured Sicily

• Mussolini overthrown in Italy

• Hitler sent German forces to Italy to fight the Allies

• Fighting continued in Italy, until Germany was near collapse

The END

of the War

D-Day (1944)• code name “Operation Overlord”

• purpose of the attack was to free parts of France from Axis control, then move into and destroy Germany

• Attack came in three phases – paratroopers, airplanes dropped bombs, and then infantry landed on the beaches

• Allies were successful and began to slowly gain back control of France (had been controlled by Germany for 4 years)

Island Hopping Campaign• American strategy in the Pacific

• began after the Battle of Midway

• Allies began to move from island to island in the Pacific, seizing control from the Japanese

• Allies began moving closer and closer to Japan

Battle of the Bulge (1944)• following the Allied capture of the first German city, Hitler ordered an

offensive attack

• Germans attempted to divide the Allied lines in half

• battle lasted for a month, with an eventual Allied victory

• Germans lost 120,000 troops, 600 tanks, and 1,600 planes

• Germany could no longer effectively attack, could only defend themselves

• simultaneously the Soviets were continuing to push westward towards Germany

Yalta (1945)

• Stalin, Churchill, and FDR meet

• determine that when the Germans surrender…

• Germany & Berlin will be split into four zones

• Stalin will allow free elections in Eastern European countries he has liberated from Hitler

• Stalin will aid in war with Japan – attack from the west

FDR Dies (1945)• FDR dies of a stroke

• Vice President Harry Truman assumes office of the President

V-E Day (1945)

• Soviet troops enter Berlin with Americans approaching from the West

• Hitler commits suicide in his underground bunker

• A week later, on 8th of May 1945, Germany surrenders unconditionally

• war is over in Europe – Victory in Europe Day

Battle of Iwo Jima (1945)• strategically important island,

needed as a base to attack mainland Japan

• heavily guarded by Japanese – over 20,700 Japanese soldiers were stationed on the island

• Eventually the Allies succeeded in taking the island

• only 200 Japanese soldiers survived the battle

• showed the Japanese commitment to fighting to the death

Battle for Okinawa (1945)

• last location needed to gain access to Japan

• Japanese used kamikaze attacks to fight off the Allies

• By the time the Allies won the island, 7,600 Americans had died & 110,000 Japanese had died

• estimated that the cost of invading mainland Japan could be over 1.5 million Allied lives