Lecture 10 Flashcards
Allies (WWII)
US, Great Britain, Soviet Union
G.I.
nick name for American soldiers (originally came from government issue)
General Douglas MacArthur
- Commander of the forces in the Philippians since 1937
- escaped and went to Australia where he could coordinate he war in the pacific
- namedthe supreme allied commander in the pacific theater
” I shall Return”
quote of Douglas McArthur that he would return to free the Philippines
“Saving Face”
Bataan Death March
- 80-mile Bataan Death march to prisoner war camps in the Philippines
- no food for the first 3 days and had to drink filthy water on the side of roads
(After the fall of the Japanese, they took the remaining American and Filipino soldiers as prisoners of war)
Battle of Coral Sea
A battle between Japanese and American naval forces that stopped the Japanese advance on Australia.
Battle of Midway
- 2nd battle that halted the Japanese offensive
- US Navy destroyed 4 Japanese aircraft carriers and 275 enemy aircraft
- shifted the balance of strength permanently to the United States. This US was now on the offensive
“island hopping”
offensive military strategy used during World War II that involved selectively attacking specific enemy-held islands and bypassing others
General Dwight Eisenhower
- Supreme Allied commander of all forces in the upcoming invasion of Europe
Concentration Camps
- prison camps under the rule of Hitler in Nazi Germany. Conditions were inhuman, and prisoners, mostly Jewish people, were generally starved, worked to death, or killed immediately.
Hitler’s Final Solution
the holocaust
Wind Talkers/Code Talkers
US used members of the Navajo Indian Tribe to use the Navajo language as a secret code to send messages that the japanese would not be able to decipher
- only code never broken during the entire war
- remained a national secret until 1968.
Who was the last of the original Wind Talkers?
Chester Nez
Invasion of Africa
Allies defeated the Axis Powers in Africa and mounted an amphibious invasion of Sicily and then Italy
Rationing
A limited portion or allowance of food or goods
- Butter, sugar, and meat were rationed
- given ration stamps to determine how much of these perishables items each home could use a month
War Bonds
debt security issued by a government to finance military operations
- purchaser would pay 75% of the total value
( $50 bond would cost $37.50 could be redeemed for a total price of $50 in 10 years)
United Service Organization (USO)
provide morale and recreation to US military (libraries, dances, movies, snacks, help with mail
Rubber, paper, and scrap metal drives
recycled materials used in the war effort
Victory gardens
Backyard gardens; Americans were encouraged to grow their own vegetables to support the war effort
Bob Hope
Actor/Comedian who entertained U.S. troops at war
Pin ups – Betty Grable
- poster
- most popular, selling over 2 million copies
(most iconic pictures in US history)
Rosie the Riveter
A propaganda character designed personified the women in America who united to do their part for the war effort
- women took over jobs tradionally help by men
- over 6 million women left their homes and began working
WACS
Women’s Army auxiliary corps
WAVES
Womens navy auxilary corps
Fair Employment Practices Commission
FDR forbids discrimination in defense industries
Tuskegee Airman
first african american piolts
Executive Order 9066 – Japanese Internment Camps
- allowed war departments to set up camps or confineament locations for ALL japanese living in US
- relocated to west coast
(fear that Japanese citizens were spies)
Election of 1944
Roosevelt won his 4th term
- seletced Harry S. Truman to be his VP
Battle of the Leyte Gulf, The Philippines – 1944
- greatest sea fights in the war (Macarthur returns)
- US planes enabled American forces to defeat the Japanese. The Japanese fleet was so badly injured it was no longer a threat to the conquest of the Pacific.
Kamikaze
Japanese suicide pilots
D Day: June 6, 1944
- Invasionof Nomandy, France
- Led by Eisenhower, nearly 5,000 landing crafts brought 176,000
(the largest invasion force in history)
- stormed the beaches at Normandy and began the process of re-taking France. The turning point of World War II.
- Omaha and Utah Beaches were the American landings. Omaha was the most difficult and the bloodiest.
Race across France
allies conquered french coast, continued moving eastward across france.
- aug 25 paris is liberated
Battle of the Bulge, Dec. 1944 – Last German Offensive
- hitler pulled forces from russian front in the east to attack american and american forces on western front
- pushed back 50 miles into france
The ultra secret
allies broke German code at Bletchley park
What was the name of the ultra-secret coding machine?
enigma
Yalta Conference
- the Allies pressed onward to Germany, Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin met at Yalta in Feb. to discuss the post-war world
- discussed how to carve up Germany(agreed on unconditional surrender)
Unconditional surrender
giving up completely without any concessions
Death of Roosevelt
- died of a cerebral hemorrhage while visiting Warm Springs, Georgia
Harry Truman
took over the presidency after the death of Roosevelt
United Nations
a new league of nations
- opened its first meeting in Francisco
V-E Day – May 8, 1945
Victory in Europe Day- marking the surrender of Hitler
- Germany had no say or guarantees to their status or condition in the post-war war world. Its complete fate is in the hands of the Allies
Iwo Jima and Okinawa
allies focused all their attention to ending the war in the pacific against Japenese
- focused on concentrated on taking islands closer and closer to Japan to serve as air bases for bombing and for staging point
- the first 2 islands taken in 1945
Manhattan Project
-US scientist were secretly developing an atomic weapon
(first bomb tested in new mexico desert in july 1945)
Hiroshima
Japanese refused to surrender
- first atomic bomb on Aug. 6, 1945
- wiped out 4 square miles of the city
- 70,000 were killed instantly
- “Little boy”
USS Missouri
The Battleship where the Japanese offically surrendered
V-J Day: Sept. 2, 1945
Victory in Japan
- surrendered Aug 14 but offically surrendered Sept 2
The Good War – Why?
- country came together to fight a common enemy
- unlike WWI there were clear reasons for fighting
- US came out unharmed besides bomboing of pearl harbor
What did the government give to living Japenese camp surviors?
$20,000 in respirations
Nagasaki
- 2nd atomic bomb dropped 3 days after hiroshima
- 80,000 people were killed
- “fat man”
what were the key points at the Yalta Conference
- Agreement to the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany.
- After the war, Germany would be divided into four occupied zones under the authority of the United States, British, France, and the Soviet Union.
- Nazi war criminals were to be hunted down and brought to justice.
- The government of Poland was installed by the Soviet Union. Stalin pledged to hold freeelections (a vow he will not keep).
- Stalin agreed to enter the fight against Japan within 90 days after the defeat of Germany
Death of Mussolini
captured by the Italian army and was executed on April 28, 1945
Death of Hitler
- feared being captured, committed suicide and his burned (german people were told he died fighting Berlin) April 30, 1945
