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Pearl Harbor
A Japanese dive-bomber swooped low over Pearl Harbor which is the largest U.S. naval base in the Pacific. The Japanese had killed 2,403 Americans and wounded 1,178 more. Congress quickly approved Roosevelts request for a declaration of war against Japan. Three days later, Germany and Italy declared war on the U.S. Isolationism was the cause. -
Office of Price Administration
Roosevelt responded to the threat of the Manhattan Project by creating the Office of Price Administration (OPA). The Opa fought inflation by freezing prices on most goods. Congress also raised income tax rates and extended the tax to millions of people who ha never paid it before. The higher taxes reduced consumer demand on scarce goods by leaving workers with less to spend. The gov also encouraged Americans to use their extra cash to buy war bonds. -
Lend- Lease Act
Roosevelt compared his plan to lending a garden hose to a neighbor whose house was on fire. He asserted that this was the only sensible thing to do to prevent the fire from spreading to your own property. Isolationists argued bitterly against the plan, but most Americans favored it, and Congress passed the Lend-Lease Act. This act stated that the U.S gov could lend (rather than sell) war supplies to any nation that is to the defense to the U.S. -
Internment
General Delos Emmons was eventually forced to order the internment, which is the confinement of 1,444 Japanese Americans, 1 percent of Hawaii's Japanese-American population. -
Battle of the Atlantic
After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Hitler ordered submarine raids against ships along America's east coast. The German aim was to prevent food and war materials from reaching Great Britain and the Soviet Union. Britain depended on supplies from the sea, and Hitler knew that if he could cut that lifeline, Britain would be starved into submission. Americans were easy targets. Germans sank 87 ships off Atlantic shore. 7 months later, Germans destroyed 681 allied ships in Atlantic. -
Operation Torch
While the battle of Stalingrad raged, Stalin pressured Britain and America to open a "second front" in Western Europe. He argued that an invasion across and English channel would force Hitler to divert troops from the Soviet front. Churchill and Roosevelt didn't think the Allies had enough troops to attempt an invasion on European soil. Instead, they launched Operation torch, an invasion of Axis-controlled North Africa, commanded by American General Dwight D. Eisenhower. -
Women's Auxiliary Army corps (WAAC)
George Marshall pushed for WAAC. He states, "There are innumerable duties now being performed by soldiers that can be done better by women. Some members said it was the"silliest piece of legislation". It became law and gave women an official status and salary but few of the benefits granted to male soldiers. They worked as nurses, ambulance drivers, radio operators, electricians, and pilots. -
Manhattan Project
It would take from 3-5 years to build an atomic bomb. Hoping to shorten the time, the OSRD set up an intensive program in 1942 to develop a bomb as quickly as possible. Because much of the early research was performed at Columbia University in Manhattan, the Manhattan Project became the ode name for the research work that extended across the country. -
War Production Board
Gov needed to ensure that the armed forces and war industries received the resources they needed to win the war, The War Production Board (WPB) assumed that responsibility. The WPB decided which companies would convert from peacetime to wartime production and allocated raw materials to key industries. Also organized drives to collect scrap iron, tin cans, paper rags, and cooking fat, for recycling into war goods. -
Battle of Stalingrad
The Germans pressed in on Stalingrad trying to conquer it. They controlled nine-tenths of the city. As winter came, the soviets saw the cold as an opportunity to roll fresh tanks across the frozen landscape and begin a massive counterattack. The Soviet army closed Stalingrad trapping the Germans in and around the city, suffering and cutting off their supplies. Germans were hopeless, they froze and surrendered. Soviet victory marked a turning point in the war despite the loss of 1,100,000 ppl. -
U.S. Convoy System
The allies responded by organizing their cargo ships into convoys. Convoys were groups of ships traveling together for mutual protection. By 1943, 140 liberty ships were produced each month. The launchings of allied ships began to outnumber sinkings. By mid-1943, the tide of the battle of the Atlantic had turned and it was known as "the best month (at sea). -
Korematsu v. United States
The supreme court decided that the governments policy of evacuating Japanese Americans to camps was justified on the basis of "military necessity" -
Bloody Anzio
Hitler was determined to stop the Allies in Italy rather than fight on German soil. One of the hardest battles the allies encountered in Europe was fought less than 40 miles from Rome. This battle, "Bloody Anzio," lasted 4 months- until the end of May 1944- and left 25,000 allied and 30,000 axis casualties. -
D day
Under Eisenhower's direction in England, the allies gathered a force of nearly 3 million British, America, and Canadian troops w military equipment and supplies. Planned to attack Normandy in Northern France. Wanted plans secret. D-Day on June 6, 1944, was the first day of the invasion. -
Unconditional Surrender
Roosevelt, Churchill, and their commanders met. At this meeting, the two leaders agreed to accept only the unconditional surrender of the Axis powers. Enemy nations would have to accept whatever terms of peace the Allies dictated. -
The Battle of the Buldge
Hitler hoped that a victory would split American and British forces and break up Allied supply lines. Tanks drove 60 miles into Allied territory, creating a bulge in the lines that gave this desperate last-ditch offensive its name, the Battle of the Buldge. -
V-E Day
The Allies celebrated this day which was the victory in Europe day. The war in Europe was finally over. -
Harry S. Truman
President Roosevelt didn't live to see V-E day. On April 12, 1945, while posing for a portrait in Warm Springs, Georgia, the president had a stroke and died. That night, Vice president Harry S. Truman became the nation's 33d president. -
Death of Hitler
On the same day he died, he wrote out his last address to the German people. He blamed the Jews for starting the war and his generals for losing it. "I die with a happy heart aware of the immeasurable deeds of our soldiers at the front. I myself and my wife choose to die in order to escape the disgrace of capitulation". The next day, he shot himself while his new wife Eva Braun swallowed poison. Their bodies were burned.
