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Lend-Leases 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. Isolationist argued bitterly against the plan, but most Americans favored it, and congress passed the Lend-Lease Act in March 1941 -
Office of Price Administration
The OPA fought against inflation by freezing prices on most goods. Congress also raised income tax rates and extended the tax to millions of people who have never paid tax before. The higher taes reduced consumer demand on scares goods by leaving workers less to spend -
Pearl Harbor attack
November 5, 1941, Tojo ordered the Japanese navy to prepare for an attack on the US. The US military had broken Japans secret communication codes and learned Japan was preparing for a strike, but they didn't know where. Later that month Roosevelt sent out a war warning to military commanders in Hawaii, Guam,and the Philippines. Then on December 6, 1941, Roosevelt received a decoded message that instructed Japans peace envoy to reject all American proposals. The next day at 9:30am, Japan attacked -
Manhattan Project
Roosevelt created an Advisory Committee on Uranium to study the new discovery. In 1941, the committee reported that it would take 3-5 years to build an atomic bomb. Hoping to shorten that 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 code name for research work that extended across the country -
War Production Board
The WPB decided which companies would convert from peacetime to wartime production and allocated raw materials to key industries. They also organized nation wide drives to collect scrap iron, tin cans, and back alleys looking for useful junk -
Battle of Stalingrad
Germany had been fighting the Soviet Union since June 1941, in the summer of 1942, they took the offensive in southern Soviet Union to capture oil fields. The Germans approached Stalingrad in August 1942. The Germans announced that it would be a easy fight, their airforce did constant bombing runs and basically every house was sent ablaze. The Soviets wanted to retreat but Stalin said no. During the winter Soviets circled the Germans and cut off their supplies and they surrendered on Jan 31 1943 -
Interment
After the attack of Pearl Harbor, a rumor spread about Japanese Americans about how they were committing sabotage by poisoning vegetables. This raised tensions with the American military and in early 1942, the War Department declared the mass evacuation of all Japanese Americans in Hawaii. They put these people in internment camps, or confinement, 1% of hawaii's japanese american population population. Then on February 19, 1942, Roosevelt made the national security roundup 110,00 Japanese -
Women's Auxiliary Army Corps
The military's work force needs were so great that Army Chief of Staff General George Marshall pushed for the formation of WAAC. Marshall said in support of a bill to establish the WAAC. Under this bill, woman volunteers would serve in noncombat positions -
Operation torch
Operation Torch was an Anglo–American invasion of French North Africa during the Second World War. The French colonies in the area were dominated by the Vichy French, formally aligned with Germany but of mixed loyalties. The American General Dwight D. Eisenhower, commanding the operation, planned a three-pronged attack on Casablanca, Oran and Algiers, then a rapid move on Tunis. Oran surrendered after bombardment by British battleships. -
Battle of the Atlantic
After the attack of Pearl Harbor, Hitler ordered submarine raids against ships along the America's coast. The German aim in the battle of the Atlantic was to prevent food and war materials from reaching Great Britain and the Soviet Union. American ships were unprotected and the Germans were destroying them left and right. The Allies responded by organizing their cargo ships into convoys. They were accompanied by destroyers and plans who had sonar to detect German U-boats. -
U.S. Convoy system
During the Battle of the Atlantic, Ally cargo ships were being destroyed in mass numbers because they were undefended, so German U-Boats sunk them to prevent supplies being transported. However America had enough a used a tactic in WW1,which were convoys. Cargo ships would travel in big number being accompanied by several Battleships and Aircraft with special sonar to detect when a German U-boat was in the area and on the surface of the water, they destroyed u-boats faster than they were made. -
Unconditional Surrender
By April 25, 1945, the Soviet army had stormed Berlin. As Soviet shells burst overhead, the city panicked. Hordes of soldiers stationed in Berlin deserted and were shot on spot or hanged from the nearest tree -
Bloody Anzio
One of the hardest battles the Allies encountered in Europe was fought less than 40 miles away from Rome. This battled lasted 4 months, until the end of May 1944, and left about 25,000 Allied and 30,000 Axis casualties -
Korematsu v. United states
Japanese Americans fought for justice, both in the courts and in Congress. The initial results were discouraging. In 1944, the Supreme Court decided, in Korematsu v. United States, that the government's policy of evacuating Japanese Americans to camps was unjustified on the basis of military necessity -
D-Day
June 6, 1944, the first day of the invasion. Shortly after midnight, 3 divisions parachuted down behind German lines. They were followed in the early morning hours by thousands and thousands of seaborne soldiers- the largest land-sea-air operation in army history -
The Battle of the Buldge
On December 6, undercover of dense fog, eight German tank divisions broke through weak American defenses along an 80-mile front. Hitler hoped that a victory would split American and British forces. Tanks drove 60 miles into Allied territory, and creating a bulge in the lines that gave this desperate last ditch offensive named Battle of the Bulge. As the Germans went westward, they captured 120 American GIs. When it was over Germany lost 120,000 troops, 600 tanks, and 1,600 planes -
Harriet S. Truman
President Roosevelt did not 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 dies. That night, Vice President Harry S. Truman became the nation's 33rd President -
Death of Hitler
Hitler shot himself in the head in his underground head-quarters in Berlin -
V-E Day
A week later after Hitlers death, General Eisenhower accepted the unconditional surrender of the Third Reich. On May 8, 1945, the Allies celebrate V-E Day, Victory in Europe day. The war in Europe is finally over
