World War II - Loudoun County Public Schools / Overview · War Begins On the Home Front War in Europe and Africa ... Sequencing Events Study Foldable Make this ... of World War II.

750

1939–1945Why It Matters

World War II, the most destructive war in history, resulted in the deaths of more than 40 million people. More than half of the deaths were civilians, including about six million

Jews and many others that were killed in the Holocaust. At the end of the war, the UnitedStates emerged as the strongest nation in the world and the possessor of a powerful

weapon—the atomic bomb.

The Impact TodayWorld War II marked the beginning of the nation’s role as a superpower. The war also

transformed the American economy into an enormously productive and enduringly prosperous economy.

The American Journey Video The chapter 26 video, “War on the HomeFront,” discusses what life was like in America during World War II.

1940• Selective Training and

Service Act passed1941• U.S. enters the war

• Lend-Lease Act passed

1942• Japanese Americans sent

to internment camps

• U.S. joins Allies in World War II

1939• Germany seizes

Czechoslovakia

1940• German troops occupy Paris

• Germany bombs Britain

1941• Germany attacks the Soviet Union

F. Roosevelt1933–1945

CHAPTER 26 World War II

1940 1941 1942

WorldWar II

751

HISTORY

Chapter OverviewVisit taj.glencoe.com andclick on Chapter 26—Chapter Overviews to pre-view chapter information.

Mission Over Normandy by William S. Phillips During World War II, the Army Air Corps fought enemy aircraft, bombed targets, and transported soldiers.


19441943 1945

1944• D-Day: Allies land

in Normandy

1945• Concentration camps found

where Nazis killed millions

• World War II ends

1945• U.S. drops atomic bombs on

Hiroshima and Nagasaki

World War IIRoad to WarWar Begins

On the Home FrontWar in Europe and Africa

War in the Pacific

Step 1 Collect 3 sheets of paper and placethem about 1 inch apart.

Sequencing Events Study Foldable Make thisfoldable to describe and sequence the events ofWorld War II.

Reading and Writing As you read the chapter,identify, sequence, and briefly describe the keyevents that belong under each heading on yourfoldable. Write information under each tab.

Step 2 Fold up the bottom edges of the paperto form 6 tabs.

Step 3 When all the tabs are the same size,fold the paper to hold the tabs in place andstaple the sheets together. Turn the paper andlabel each tab as shown.

Keep theedges straight.

Stapletogether along

the fold.

This makesall tabs thesame size.

http://www.glencoe.com/sec/socialstudies/ushistory/taj2003/content.php4/286/1

752

1931Japan invadesManchuria

1933Hitler becomes chancellor of Germany

1935Italian forces invadeEthiopia

1939Germany seizes Czechoslovakia


Main IdeaAs dictators threatened world peace,the United States tried to follow a pol-icy of neutrality.

Key Termsdictator, fascism, anti-Semitism, totalitarian, appeasement

Reading StrategyOrganizing Information As you readSection 1, re-create the diagrambelow and list three dictators and the countries they ruled in the 1920sand 1930s.

Read to Learn• why dictators came to power

around the world.• what actions led to the outbreak

of World War II.

Section ThemeGlobal Connections Europe tried to avoid war by a policy of appeasement.

Road to War

Hitler at rally

Dictators

Preview of Events

Guide to Reading

✦1930 ✦1935 ✦1940

Many people underestimated Adolf Hitler’s influence, but not American journalistWilliam Shirer. He described a rally for Hitler at Nuremberg in September 1934: “Like aRoman emperor Hitler rode into this medieval town. . . . The streets, hardly wider thanalleys, are a sea of brown and black uniforms. . . . [W]hen Hitler finally appeared on thebalcony for a moment . . . [people] looked up at him as if he were a Messiah, theirfaces transformed into something positively inhuman.” The passion of the Nazisshocked Shirer, and soon it would shock the rest of the world.

The Rise of DictatorsIn the late 1920s, Adolf Hitler achieved wide popularity in Germany. In his

book Mein Kampf (My Struggle), Hitler set forth his political views.

“He who wants to live must fight, and he who does not want to fight in this world,where eternal struggle is the law of life, has no right to exist.”

When Hitler became the leader of Germany, he put his strong words into action.Hitler was among other ruthless leaders to rise to power in the 1920s and 1930sby taking advantage of people’s anger and suffering. Some Europeans resented

753CHAPTER 26 World War II

GermanyThe Great Depression had hit Germany

extremely hard. Millions of people had lost theirjobs, and its economy teetered on the edge ofcollapse. Germans rallied around Adolf Hitler, ashrewd politician and a spellbinding speaker.Hitler gained popularity by exploiting people’sconcern about unchecked inflation and severeunemployment. Hitler also played upon bitter-ness over the Versailles treaty. The treaty hadforced Germany to give up some of its territoryand to make heavy payments to the victors.

In 1921 Hitler became chairman of theNational Socialist German Workers’ Party, or theNazi Party. Openly racist, Hitler and the Nazisportrayed the German people as superior to allothers. They directed much of their angeragainst Jews, whom Hitler blamed for Ger-many’s problems. His extreme anti-Semitism—hatred of the Jews—would later lead tounspeakable horrors.

Soon after he became chancellor, or chief min-ister, of Germany in 1933, Hitler ended alldemocracy and established totalitarian rule. In a

This American cartoon of Mussolini portrays him with ashort body, small hands, a huge belly, and fear in his eyes.Mussolini’s arm is raised in a familiar fascist salute. What is the artist saying about Mussolini and fascism?

Analyzing Political Cartoons

the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, signed in1919, which ended World War I. When a world-wide economic depression hit in the 1930s, frus-tration and fear added to this anger.

Hitler and other leaders promised a betterlife. They described a glorious future to peoplehumiliated by losing a war. Once they gainedpolitical power, these men became dictators—leaders who control their nations by force.

ItalyBenito Mussolini rose to power by appeal-

ing to the resentment of many Italians who feltthey had not won enough in the Versaillestreaty. Mussolini made fascism—extremenationalism and racism—popular in Italy. By1922 his Fascist Party had gained enoughstrength to force the king of Italy to declareMussolini the head of the government. Within afew years, Mussolini had banned all politicalparties except his Fascist Party.

Known as Il Duce (the leader), Mussoliniquickly put an end to democratic rule in Italy.Civil liberties and the free press ceased to exist.Boys and girls of all ages were enrolled in mil-itary organizations that taught them loyalty tothe new government. Mussolini built up Italy’smilitary and vowed to recapture the glory ofthe ancient Romans.

In 1935 Mussolini sent Italian forces to invadethe African nation of Ethiopia, which itannexed—took over as its own territory.Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie appealed to theLeague of Nations for help: “God and historywill remember your judgment. It is us today. Itwill be you tomorrow.” The League respondedby banning trade in weapons and certain othermaterials with Italy, but it lacked the power toenforce the ban. Italy withdrew from the Leagueand continued its aggressive policies, attackingand annexing its neighbor Albania in 1939.

Petition Sent From the Fight for Freedom National Offices, 1940We are not neutral. As freedom-loving citizens of the United

States, we recognize that our liberty, that democracy everywherewill be ended unless the menace [threat] of Hitler is smashed.

We, therefore, petition the Congress of the United States TO REPEAL OUR SUICIDAL, HYPOCRITICAL AND DANGEROUS

NEUTRALITY ACT, to remove the prohibition against armingour merchant ships, and dissolve the ban which preventsvessels flying the American flag from sailing the seven seas.American policy has traditionally been that of freedomof the seas. Our Congress must reassert and upholdthat right. Our Congress has pledged our resources to those nations fighting Axis aggression, and mustreinforce that pledge by guaranteeing that ourgoods arrive at their destination in the hands of our allies.

totalitarian state, a single party andits leader suppress all opposition andcontrol all aspects of people’s lives.

Hitler claimed that Germany had a right to expand its territory. Ger-many’s neighbors watched uneasilyas he rebuilt Germany’s militarystrength in defiance of the Versaillestreaty. To gain support in his expan-sion plans, Hitler formed an alliancewith Italy in 1936.

JapanDuring the Depression many Japa-

nese grew frustrated with their gov-ernment’s failure to solve economicproblems. As a result, military lead-ers rose to power in the early 1930s.These leaders thought they wouldsolve Japan’s problems by expandingJapanese power in Asia.

In September 1931, Japan launchedan attack on the province of Man-churia in northeastern China. TheLeague of Nations condemned theattack, but it took no action.

Left unchallenged, Japan set up agovernment in Manchuria. In 1937Japan invaded northern China, mov-ing southward until it occupied mostof the country. Three years later Japansigned a pact of alliance, known as the“Axis,” with Germany and Italy.

Soviet UnionIn the late 1920s, Joseph Stalin

rose to power as the Communistleader of the Soviet Union. Stalindemanded complete obedience fromthe people he ruled and got itthrough the use of force. Stalin exe-cuted his rivals, ordered the deathsof thousands suspected of support-ing his rivals, and sent millions ofRussians to labor camps. He alsoreorganized the nation’s economy,forcing millions of people onto gov-ernment-owned farms.

754

Should We Intervene or Remain Neutral?

As Adolf Hitler’s German army conquered parts of Europe, Americansdebated their involvement. Should the United States stand back whilethe aggression continued and avoid the horrors of a war that was notits war? Or, should it help allies like Great Britain put an end to thedestructive ambitions of Nazi Germany?

Robert M. Hutchins, President of the University of

Chicago, January 23, 1941

How can the United States better serve suffering

humanity everywhere: by going into this war, or by

staying out? I hold that the United States can better

serve suffering humanity everywhere by staying out….

If we go to war, we cast away our opportunity and

cancel our gains. For a generation, perhaps for a hun-

dred years, we shall not be able to struggle back to

where we were. In fact, the changes that total war will

bring may mean that we shall never be able to struggle

back. Education will cease. Its place will be taken

by vocational and military training.

The effort to establish a demo-

cratic community will stop. We

shall think no more of justice,

the moral order, and the

supremacy of human rights.

We shall have hope no longer.

Learning From History1. What did the members of Fight for

Freedom want the U.S. Congress to do?

2. According to Robert Hutchins, whatwould happen to Americans if theUnited States entered World War II?

3. How strongly do each of these sidesseem to feel about its opinions?

American NeutralityWhile dramatic changes were taking place in

the world, most Americans wanted to avoidinvolvement. To keep the nation out of futurewars, Congress passed a series of NeutralityActs between 1935 and 1937, which banned thesale of weapons to nations at war. The laws alsoallowed trade only to nations that could paycash for goods and transport the goods in theirown ships. Many American loans to Europeancountries from World War I remained unpaid,and Congress wanted to prevent more debts.

Explaining What is fascism?

Germany on the MarchHitler began moving forward with his plans

for expansion. In March 1936, he ordered troopsinto the Rhineland. The Treaty of Versailles haddeclared the Rhineland, a German territory westof the Rhine River, a neutral zone.

Hitler’s next victim was Austria. Hitlerinsisted that Germany should be unified withAustria, a German-speaking nation. In March1938, he sent troops into Austria and annexed it.

Hitler turned next to the Sudetenland, an area of Czechoslovakia where many German-speaking people lived. Falsely claiming that thesepeople were being persecuted, Hitler announcedGermany’s right to annex the Sudetenland.

Czechoslovakia was prepared to fight to keepthe Sudetenland. Britain and France, fearing a full-fledged war in the region, sought a peace-ful solution to the crisis. In September 1938,European leaders met in Munich, Germany.

Britain and France thought that they couldavoid war by accepting Germany’s demands—apolicy later known as appeasement. At theMunich Conference, the leaders agreed to turnthe Sudetenland over to Germany. Hitler, inturn, promised not to expand Germany’s terri-tory further. The British prime minister, NevilleChamberlain, returned home to cheeringcrowds, declaring that the agreement had pre-served “peace for our time.”

Hopes for peace were shattered the followingspring. In March 1939, Hitler’s army seized therest of Czechoslovakia. Now even Chamberlainrealized that Hitler could not be trusted.

Meanwhile, Hitler was making plans to invadePoland. He worried, however, that such an attackwould anger Stalin because Poland bordered theSoviet Union. Though bitter enemies, Hitler andStalin signed a treaty called the Soviet-GermanNon-Aggression Pact in August 1939. The pactfreed Hitler to use force against Poland withoutfear of Soviet intervention. The Nazi-Soviet pactshocked the leaders of Europe.

Explaining Did the policy ofappeasement work? Explain.

Checking for Understanding1. Key Terms Use each of these terms

in a sentence that will help explain its meaning: dictator, fascism, anti-Semitism, totalitarian, appeasement.

2. Reviewing Facts What actions didStalin use to gain obedience from theRussian people?

Reviewing Themes3. Global Connections What was the

aim of the policy of appeasement?Did it work?

Critical Thinking4. Comparing What goals did the lead-

ers of the nations of Germany, Italy,and Japan share in the 1930s?

5. Sequencing Information Re-createthe time line below and list the majorevents in Hitler’s rise to power inGermany.

Analyzing Visuals6. Analyzing Political Cartoons Exam-

ine the cartoon on page 753. Whatdo you think Mussolini’s shadow represents? What word or phrasewould you use to describe Mussolini’sappearance?

CHAPTER 26 World War II 755

Expository Writing Write newspa-per headlines about three impor-tant events covered in Section 1.

1921 1933 1936 1938 1939

N O T E B O O K

V E R B A T I MV E R B A T I MWHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

“ While I still have got breath

in my lungs, I will tell you what

a dandy car you make. I [have

driven] Fords exclusively when I

could get away with one.”CLYDE BARROW,(half the team of bank robbers

Bonnie and Clyde) in a 1934 letter to Henry Ford

“ I pledge you, I pledge

myself, to a new deal for the

American people. Let all us here

assembled constitute ourselves

prophets of a new order of

competence and courage”FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT,accepting the Democratic presidential

nomination in 1932

“ When these winds hit us, we

and our misery were suddenly

covered with dust.… If the wind

blew one way, here came the dark

dust from Oklahoma. Another way

and it was the gray dust from

Kansas. Still another way, the

brown dust from Colorado and

New Mexico.” TEXAS FARMER,in 1934, describing the worst

agricultural disaster in U.S. history, the Dust Bowl. Dust has covered an

area of 150 million square miles and has displaced more than 750,000 people

Star QualityApparently no one has toldSHIRLEY TEMPLE that this is1934 and there is a Depressiongoing on. Believe it or not, this six-year-old will earn $400,000 this year.What makes the young movie star sucha success? Here is what the group whopresented Temple with a specialAcademy Award said:

“SHIRLEY TEMPLE BROUGHT MORE

happiness to millions of children and grown-ups than any child ofher years in the history of the world.…”

MoviesSnow What and the Seven Who? Just in timefor the holidays! On December 21, 1937,Disney movie studio has released SnowWhite and the Seven Dwarfs, the first animated full-length feature film. SnowWhite is joined by Happy, Sleepy, Dopey,Grumpy, Sneezy, Bashful, and Doc.

Headlines from the TimeMISSING —Lindbergh Baby Search

Still On Nearly two months havepassed since famed flyer Charles Lindbergh and his wife Anne’s babyboy was kidnapped in March 1932. A

ladder leading up to the baby’s window,muddy footprints, and a ransom note

demanding $50,000 are the three cluesthat have been studied by over 5,000

FBI agents. About 100,000 police and volunteers have combed the

horror-stricken country, searching for the baby.

Charles Lindbergh

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What were people’s lives like in the past?What—and whom—were people talking about? What did they eat?

What did they do for fun? These two pages will give you some

clues to everyday life in the U.S. as you step back

in time with TIME Notebook.

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Number One Gone

With the Wind wins the Pulitzer Prizefor 1937. Millions of readers set asidetheir worries as they experienced theepic drama, defeat, and triumphs ofMitchell’s cast of characters.

Two is a charm for PresidentRoosevelt, sworn in for the secondtime on January 20, 1937. FDR turneddown a ride in a closed limousine—even though it was raining. He pointedtoward the thousands of wet peoplewho lined the streets of Washington,D.C., hoping to catch a glimpse of him,and said, “I’ll ride in the open limo. If they can take it,I can!”

Three hundred miles perhour — on September 3, 1935, theBluebird Special made history. Thissleek car is the first land vehicle to top 300 mph (500 km).

Four gold medals. Adolf Hitler,Germany’s Fascist leader, invited theworld to Berlin for the 1936 OlympicGames. Hitler had hoped to prove thesupposed “inferiority” of non-Aryanraces. No one told that to U.S. super-star Jesse Owens, an African American athlete who won four gold medals intrack and field events.

President Roosevelt

P R O S P E R I T Y A N D D E P R E S S I O N : 1 9 2 9 – 1 9 3 7

N U M B E R S N U M B E R SU.S. AT THE T IME

$81 billion

$41 billion

$681

$496

$45

$16

National Income Average Annual

Individual Income

Monthly Salary

of a Secretary

UNEMPLOYMENT IN THE U.S.

1929 3.2%

1930 8.7%

1931 15.9%

1932 23.6%

1933 24.9%

1934 21.7%

Percentage 10% 20% 30%

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1929 1932 1929 1932 1929 1932

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

DEPRESSION INCOMES

AMERICAN SCENE

Depression FiguresAmericans are truly suffering during thisGreat Depression. It is a time of enormousfinancial problems for millions of people—not just in the United States, but around theworld. Banks are failing, people are losingtheir life savings, and businesses are closingtheir doors. The graphs on this page give anidea of this difficult time.

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September 1939Germany invadesPoland

August 1940Britain is bombedby Germany

June 1941Hitler attacks theSoviet Union

December 1941Japan bombs Pearl Harbor


Sixteen-year-old John Garcia, like others who witnessed the attack on Pearl Harbor,never forgot it: “My grandmother . . . informed me that the Japanese were bombingPearl Harbor. I said, ‘They’re just practicing.’ She said, no, it was real and the announceris requesting that all Pearl Harbor workers report to work. . . . I was asked . . . to go intothe water and get sailors out that had been blown off the ships. Some were unconscious,some were dead. So I spent the rest of the day swimming inside the harbor, along withsome other Hawaiians. . . . We worked all day at that.”

War in EuropeIn a speech in 1937, President Franklin Roosevelt expressed the feeling of

many Americans toward the growing “epidemic of world lawlessness”:

“We are determined to keep out of war, yet we cannot insure ourselves against thedisastrous effects of war and the dangers of involvement.”

On September 1, 1939, Hitler sent his armies into Poland. Two days laterGreat Britain and France declared war on Germany. World War II had begun.

Main IdeaMany nations were drawn into the conflict, largely because of political alliances and economic relationships.

Key Termsblitzkrieg, lend-lease, disarmament

Reading StrategyClassifying Information As you readSection 2, re-create the diagramshown below and explain the impor-tance of each event.

Read to Learn• which European nations fell to

Germany in 1939 and 1940.• how the United States responded

to the war in Europe.

Section ThemeGlobal Connections The warexpanded rapidly as nations becamemore involved and were drawn intothe conflict.

War Begins

Newsboy the day afterPearl Harbor

Importance

The Battle of Britain

Signing the Atlantic Charter

Attack on Pearl Harbor

Preview of Events

Guide to Reading

✦1939 ✦1940 ✦1941 ✦1942


The German attack on Poland was swift andfierce. German planes bombed and machine-gunned targets, German tanks blasted holes inPolish defenses, and thousands of soldierspoured into Poland. The Germans called theoffensive a blitzkrieg, or “lightning war.” ThenSoviet troops moved into and occupied easternPoland, acting on the Soviet agreement withGermany to divide Poland.

Great Britain and France could do little tohelp Poland because its defeat came so quickly.In late September 1939, the conquered countrywas split in half by Hitler and Stalin. Stalin alsoforced the Baltic republics of Latvia, Lithuania,and Estonia to accept Soviet military bases.When he tried to do the same with Finland, warbroke out between the two nations. The Finnsheld out heroically until March 1940, when theSoviets forced them to surrender.

The War Expands All through the winter of 1939–1940 the west-

ern front was quiet. British and French forcessettled in at the Maginot Line, a string of steel-

and-concrete bunkers along the German borderfrom Belgium to Switzerland. In the spring thefighting began again. In April Hitler attackedDenmark and Norway to the north, and the fol-lowing month he turned west to invade theNetherlands and Belgium. The Netherlandsand Belgium immediately asked for help fromGreat Britain and France—the Allies. After ter-rible bombing raids in the Netherlands, theDutch surrendered. The Belgians fought coura-geously, but they too were overwhelmed.

With the collapse of Belgium, Allied troopsretreated to the port of Dunkirk in the north-west corner of France on the English Channel.They were now trapped between the advancingGermans and the French coast. In a daringmove, more than 800 British ships—warships,ferries, and fishing boats—joined an operationto rescue the troops. Crossing the Channel againand again, the boats evacuated more than300,000 French and British troops to safety.

In June the Germans crossed the SommeRiver and continued their sweep into France.Italy joined the war on the side of Germany

The Withdrawal from Dunkirk,June 1940 by Charles R.A. CundallBoats crossed the English Channel tobring Allied troops from France backto safety in England. Why didAllied forces retreat?

History Through Art

and attacked France from the southeast. Ger-many and Italy—and later Japan—formed theAxis Powers. On June 14, 1940, German troopsmarched victoriously into Paris. The Frenchsurrendered a week later, stunned by the Ger-man blitzkrieg.

The Battle of BritainAll that stood between Hitler’s domination of

Western Europe was Great Britain. In August1940, the Germans bombed British shipyards,industries, and cities, destroying entire neigh-borhoods of London and killing many civilians.

760 CHAPTER 26 World War II

Germany introduced jet planes late in WorldWar II. The German jets could fly almost 550miles per hour. By the 1960s American andSoviet jets roared through the skies at 1,000miles per hour. Today United States militaryaircraft includes the F-117 stealth fighter. Awinglike shape and flat surfaces that absorbradar energy make it difficult for enemyradar to detect it. How do World War IIplanes differ from modern stealth bombers?

Aerial Warfare

Stealth bomber

Flying GrummanWildcat fighter, 1942

Hitler’s goal was to break British morale beforeinvading Britain. The British people endured,however, in part because of the inspiration ofPrime Minister Winston Churchill. When Hitlercalled for Britain to surrender, Churchillresponded defiantly:

“We shall defend our island, whatever thecost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, weshall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fightin the fields and in the streets, we shall fight inthe hills; we shall never surrender.”

Although the Battle of Britain continueduntil October, the Germans never gained controlof the skies over Britain. The British Royal AirForce (RAF) mounted a heroic defense andinflicted heavy losses on the German air force.Finally, Hitler ended the air attacks.

Germany Turns EastFrustrated by his failure in Britain, Hitler

decided to realize one of his oldest dreams—todestroy the Soviet Union. Ignoring the pact hehad made with Stalin, Hitler launched an attackon the Soviet Union in June 1941. Within monthsGerman armies had moved into Soviet territory.The Soviet Union joined the Allies in their fightagainst the Axis Powers.

Examining Why did Hitler bring theinvasion of Britain to an end?

America and the WarThe United States watched the war in Europe

with growing concern. Although most Ameri-cans sympathized with the Allies, they weredetermined to avoid war. Isolationists bandedtogether to form the America First Committee.Its members thought the United States shouldkeep out of Europe’s business. Among thosewho led this group were aviation hero CharlesLindbergh and automaker Henry Ford.

While vowing to remain neutral, Roosevelttook steps to prepare for war. In 1938, at hisrequest, Congress voted to strengthen the navy.In 1939 the president asked Congress to pass a


new Neutrality Act that allowed the UnitedStates to sell weapons to other countries on a“cash and carry” basis. In 1940 FDR signed theSelective Training and Service Act, the firstpeacetime draft in United States history. The lawapplied to American men between the ages of 21and 35.

The 1940 ElectionWith the world in crisis, President Roosevelt

decided to run for a third term, breaking the tradition set by George Washington. The Repub-licans chose as their candidate a former Demo-crat—business leader Wendell L. Willkie ofIndiana. Willkie approved almost all of Roo-sevelt’s New Deal reforms and generally agreedwith his foreign policy. Public sentiment to stayout of the war was so strong that Rooseveltpromised the American people, “Your boys are not going to be sent into any for-eign wars.” Roosevelt won aneasy victory.

U.S. Involvement GrowsWith the election won,

Roosevelt moved to sup-port the Allies openly. AtRoosevelt’s urging, Con-gress approved the Lend-Lease Act in March 1941. TheLend-Lease Act allowed Americato sell, lend, or lease arms or otherwar supplies to any nation considered “vital tothe defense of the United States.” Britain, whichwas running out of cash, was the first to uselend-lease. Isolationists opposed the Lend-LeaseAct, arguing that it would increase Americaninvolvement in the war.

German submarines in the Atlantic Oceanhad been sinking British ships, including thosecarrying supplies from the United States. InApril 1941, American ships began escorting con-voys of British merchant ships. After the Ger-mans began firing on American destroyers,Roosevelt issued a “shoot-on-sight” order toAmerican naval vessels that found German andItalian ships in certain areas.

The Atlantic CharterIn August 1941, President Roosevelt and

British prime minister Churchill met and drewup the Atlantic Charter. While Roosevelt madeno military commitments, he joined Churchill insetting goals for a world after “the final destruc-tion of the Nazi tyranny.” The two nationspledged that the people of every nation wouldbe free to choose their own form of governmentand live free of “fear and want.” They urgeddisarmament—giving up military weapons—and the creation of a “permanent system of gen-eral security.”

Explaining What did the Lend-Lease Act allow the United States to do?

761

The bombing of London caused much ruin. The Royal Air Force (inset) forced Hitler to abandon his invasion plans.


The Japanese ThreatWhile Hitler and Mussolini were waging war

in Europe, the Japanese were making militaryconquests in the Far East. After seizing much ofChina in the 1930s, the Japanese continued theirexpansion. After the fall of France in 1940, theyseized the French colony of Indochina in South-east Asia. Japan also planned to take the DutchEast Indies, British Malaya, and the Americanterritory of the Philippines, primarily to acquirebadly needed rubber and oil.

The United States RespondsThe United States responded to Japan’s

aggression by applying economic pressure. Roo-sevelt froze all Japanese assets in Americanbanks, preventing the Japanese from obtainingfunds they had in the United States. He alsostopped the sale of oil, gasoline, and other natu-ral resources that Japan lacked. The action out-raged the Japanese.

In October 1941, the Japanese prime minister,Fumimaro Konoye, resigned. Konoye had beenwilling to negotiate with the United Statesbecause he did not believe Japan could defeatAmerica in a war. The new prime minister, Gen-eral Hideki Tojo, did not share Konoye’s views.Still, on November 20, negotiations were openedin Washington between the United States andJapan. At the same time, confident of Japan’smilitary might, the Tojo government beganplanning an attack on the United States.

Attack on Pearl HarborAt 7:55 A.M. on Sunday, December 7, 1941,

Japanese warplanes attacked the American mili-tary base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The Ameri-can installations at Pearl Harbor could not havebeen more vulnerable to attack. Ships wereanchored in a neat row and airplanes weregrouped together on the airfield, easy targets fora Japanese air attack. As the following excerptshows, the Americans at Pearl Harbor weretaken completely by surprise:

Navy 1,998 710

Marine Corps 109 69

Army 233 364

Civilian 48 35

Sunk or beached 12

Damaged 9

Destroyed 164

Damaged 159

Human Casualties Killed Wounded

Ships

Aircraft

U.S. Losses at Pearl Harbor

Source: USS Arizona Memorial.

Japan’s surprise attack on Pearl Harbor severelydamaged the U.S. Pacific Fleet. How did theattack affect American neutrality?

History

“ In the Navy housing areas around PearlHarbor, people couldn’t imagine what waswrecking Sunday morning. Captain ReynoldsHayden, enjoying breakfast at his home on Hospital Point, thought it was construction blasting. . . . Lieutenant C. E. Boudreau, dryingdown after a shower, thought an oil tank hadblown up near his quarters . . . until a Japaneseplane almost grazed the bathroom window.Chief Petty Officer Albert Molter, put-tering around his Ford Island flat,thought a drill was going on untilhis wife Esther called, ‘Al, there’s abattleship tipping over.’”

The attack devastated theAmerican fleet, destroying eightbattleships, three cruisers, andfour other vessels. Hundreds ofplanes were destroyed on theground. More than 2,300 soldiers,sailors, and civilians were killed.

Fortunately, at the time of theattack, the navy’s three aircraft car-riers were at sea. Their escape from destructionprovided the only good news that day.

Grace Tully, one of the president’s secretaries,received an urgent call to report to the WhiteHouse. She later recalled:

Checking for Understanding1. Key Terms Define the following

key terms: blitzkrieg, lend-lease, disarmament.

2. Reviewing Facts What nationsformed the Axis Powers?

Reviewing Themes3. Global Connections What diplo-

matic actions did the United Statestake to prevent Japan from takingover nations in Asia?

Critical Thinking4. Predicting Consequences Do you

think the United States would haveeventually joined the war even ifJapanese forces had not attackedPearl Harbor? Explain.

5. Sequencing Information Re-createthe time line below and identify theimportant events.

Analyzing Visuals6. Analyzing Art Look at the painting

on page 759. What event does thepainting show? Why do you think theartist decided to portray this event insuch a large view?

“Most of the news on the . . . attack was thencoming to the White House by telephone fromAdmiral Stark, Chief of Naval Operations, at theNavy Department . . . each report more terriblethan the last, and I could hear the shockedunbelief in Admiral Stark’s voice.”

Pearl Harbor was the worst defeat in UnitedStates military history. Yet Pearl Harbor also

united Americans. All debate aboutinvolvement in the war ended. Onthe day after Pearl Harbor, Presi-dent Roosevelt asked Congress fora declaration of war, calling Decem-ber 7 “a date which will live ininfamy.” Congress quicklyapproved the president’s requestto declare war on Japan.

Three days later Germany andItaly, Japan’s allies, declared war onthe United States. Congress thendeclared war on them as well. TheUnited States had joined the Alliednations—including Great Britain,

France, and the Soviet Union—against the AxisPowers—Germany, Italy, and Japan—in WorldWar II.

Explaining Why did the UnitedStates enter World War II?


Descriptive Writing Write andrecord a 15-second radio news bulletin announcing the Japanesebombing of Pearl Harbor.

Sept. 1, Mar. Jun. 14, Dec. 7, 1939 1940 1940 1941

Main IdeaDemand for war goods created newindustries and new jobs.

Key Termsmobilization, ration, internmentcamp

Reading StrategyOrganizing Information As you readthe section, re-create the diagrambelow and identify three ways Ameri-cans on the home front helped thewar effort.

Read to Learn• what steps the United States took to

prepare for fighting the war.• how the war affected Americans.

Section ThemeEconomic Factors The United States had to switch rapidly from a peacetime economy to a wartimeeconomy—providing arms and othersupplies for thousands of troops.

On the Home Front


1941FDR establishes Fair EmploymentPractices Commission

1942Revenue Act raises taxes to financethe war; Office of War Informationpromotes patriotism

1943Navajo soldiers developunbreakable radio code

He wanted to join the Marines, but at 5 feet five inches tall he was too short. TheNavy also turned him down. Reluctantly, Audie Murphy, the orphaned son of Texassharecroppers, enlisted in the Army. By the end of the war, Murphy was the most deco-rated combat soldier of World War II. When victory was declared in Europe in May1945, Murphy had still not reached his twenty-first birthday. Today, through the AudieMurphy Club, the Army honors noncommissioned officers who best represent AudieMurphy’s motto, “You lead from the front.”

America Prepares The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor united the American people as nothing else

could. With astonishing speed the nation’s economy and its people prepared tofight the war. Even before Pearl Harbor, the United States had begun raising anarmy under the Selective Service acts of 1940 and 1941. More than 15 million Amer-icans joined the armed forces during the war, both as draftees and as volunteers.

Helping the war effort

Preview of Events

Guide to Reading

✦1941 ✦1942 ✦1943

Audie Murphy

For the first time, large numbers of womenserved in the military. About 250,000 womenserved in the WACs (Women’s Army Corps), theWAVES (Women Appointed for Volunteer Emer-gency Service in the Navy), and women’s units inthe marines, Coast Guard, and army air corps.These women did not fight in combat—most per-formed clerical tasks or worked as nurses—butthey played important roles in the war effort.

Equipping the troops and providing arms andother war materials required changes in thenation’s economy. To speed up mobilization—military and civilian preparations for war—theAmerican government created a number of newgovernment agencies.

The War Production Board supervised theconversion of industries to war production.Under its guidance, automakers shifted frombuilding cars to producing trucks and tanks. TheOffice of Price Administration set limits on con-sumer prices and rents to prevent inflation. TheNational War Labor Board helped resolve labordisputes that might slow down war production.

Financing the War From 1941 to the end of World

War II, the United States spentmore than $320 billion on thewar effort—10 times the amountspent in World War I. Much ofthis money was raised throughtaxes. The Revenue Act of 1942raised corporate taxes andrequired nearly all Americans topay income taxes. Congressapproved a system for withhold-ing taxes from workers’ pay-checks—a practice still in effect.

The government also bor-rowed money to finance thewar. As in World War I, the gov-ernment sold war bonds. Moviestars and other celebrities urgedpeople to buy bonds to supportthe war.

ExplainingWhat was the purpose of the RevenueAct of 1942, and what did it do?

Wartime AmericaDuring the war, industry soared. Factories

produced more than 70,000 ships, almost100,000 tanks and airplanes, and millions ofguns. Production speed increased as well. Somecargo ships were built in a matter of weeks.

Those who remained at home had to providefood, shelter for all those in uniform. Civiliansalso provided training, equipment, transporta-tion, and medical care.

Wartime production helped restore prosper-ity to the nation after the long years of theDepression. Incomes rose and prices remainedfairly stable.

Making SacrificesWith the war effort came many sacrifices. For

millions of American families, the war meantseparation from loved ones serving overseas.Those at home lived in dread of receiving atelegram announcing that a family member hadbeen killed, wounded, or captured.

With industries making war materials,Americans faced shortages of many consumergoods. After 1942, for example, automakers


About 2,000 women were accepted intothe Women’s Air Force Service Pilots.

stopped making new cars and turned insteadto making tanks, planes, and trucks. Womencould not buy stockings—silk imports fromwar-torn Asia had halted, and nylon wasneeded to make parachutes.

In addition many resources and goodsneeded for the war effort were rationed—con-sumers could buy only limited numbers ofthem. Americans used government-issuedbooks of ration coupons to purchase certainitems, such as shoes, gasoline, tires, sugar, andmeat. When people ran out of coupons, they didwithout the rationed items.

Helping the War EffortPeople found other ways to help the war

effort. Many planted “victory gardens” to growvegetables, which were in short supply. Chil-dren collected scrap metal for use in industry.

766

TKFPO


C26-05C FPO

U.S. Women in the Labor Force, 1900–1950

Source: Historical Statistics of the United States: Colonial Times to 1970.

Num

ber o

f wom

en e

mpl

oyed

(in

mill

ions

)

1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950

1

3

5

7

9

11

13

15

17

Year

18%

21

21

2224

27

Percent of total labor force

Many people joined in civildefense—protective measures in caseof attack. For example, volunteerspotters scanned the skies for enemyaircraft that might try to approachAmerica. Coastal cities enforcedblackouts at night so that lights couldnot serve as beacons for enemy pilots.

The Office of War Information,established by the government, pro-moted patriotism and helped keepAmericans united behind the wareffort. It also broadcast messages allover the world. ; (See page 975 for another way

Americans were asked to contribute to the war effort.)

Explaining Why weremany consumer goods in short supply?

Women and MinoritiesThe war had a tremendous impact on

the lives of women and minorities. It brought opportunity for new jobs and a newrole in society. Yet for some, unfair treatment leftlasting scars.

As millions of men joined the armed forces,more women than ever before entered the laborforce. In factories women worked as welders andriveters and in other jobs previously held by men.An advertising campaign featuring a charactercalled Rosie the Riveter encouraged women totake factory jobs. For many women it was theirfirst opportunity to work outside the home.

Although women had new job opportuni-ties, they usually earned less than men. More-over, when the war ended and the troopsreturned home, most women would lose theirjobs. Still, the war opened new fields to womenand changed public opinion about women’sright to work.

African Americans During the WarAbout one million African American men and

women served in the armed forces during thewar. At first most were given low-level assign-ments and kept in segregated units. Gradually,military leaders assigned them to integrated

During World War II, the American work-force took on a whole new look.

Analyzing Information In 1940 whatpercent of the labor force was made upof women?

units. In 1942 the army began training whites andAfrican Americans together in officer candidateschool. Finally, African Americans were allowedto take combat assignments. The 332nd FighterGroup, known as the Tuskegee Airmen, shotdown more than 200 enemy planes. BenjaminDavis, Jr., who trained at the Tuskegee flyingschool, became the first African American generalin the United States Air Force. His father, Ben-jamin Davis, Sr., had been the first African Amer-ican general in the army.

In civilian life African Americans soughtchange. In the summer of 1941, labor leaderA. Philip Randolph demanded that the govern-ment ban discrimination against African Ameri-cans in defense industries. He planned a largedemonstration in Washington in support of hisdemands. President Roosevelt persuaded Ran-dolph to call off the march by establishing theFair Employment Practices Commission to com-bat discrimination in industries that held govern-ment contracts. The president announced that

“. . . there shall be no discrimination in theemployment of workers in defense industries orgovernment because of race, creed, color, ornational origin.”

The war accelerated the population shiftthat had begun during World War I. Largenumbers of African Americans moved fromthe rural South to industrialized cities in theNorth and the West in search of work. In somecities, racial tensions erupted in violence. The

violence sometimes resulted in death. The riotsinspired the African American poet LangstonHughes to write:

“Yet you say we’re fightin’ for democracy.Then why don’t democracy Include me?”

Native AmericansMany Native Americans left reservations to

work in defense industries. Thousands of NativeAmericans served in the armed forces. Ira Hayesbecame a hero in the battle for Iwo Jima in thePacific. A special group of Navajo formed the“code talkers.” Many of the American radio com-munications about troop movements and battleplans were being intercepted by the Japanese.The “code talkers” used a special code based onthe Navajo language to send messages—a codethat the Japanese never broke.

Hispanic AmericansMore than 300,000 Hispanic Americans

served in the armed forces. The CongressionalMedal of Honor, the nation’s highest militarymedal, was awarded to 12 Mexican Americans.Mercedes Cubría of Cuba became the first His-panic woman officer in the Women’s ArmyCorps. Horacio Rivero of Puerto Rico becamethe first Hispanic four-star admiral since DavidFarragut to serve in the United States Navy.

Prompted by the wartime need for labor,United States labor agents recruited thousands offarm and railroad workers from Mexico. Thisprogram, called the bracero program, stimulatedemigration from Mexico during the war years.

Penicillin was first used on a large scale during WorldWar II. Alexander Fleming’s discovery of penicillin in1928 happened accidentally in the course of research oninfluenza. The first widespread use of the medicine tookplace in 1943 to treat Allied troops in the North Africacampaign. Today penicillin is used in treating a widerange of diseases.

Penicillin

Tuskegee Airmen in Italy

Checking for Understanding1. Key Terms Define the following key

terms: mobilization, ration, intern-ment camp.

2. Reviewing Facts List two ways theUnited States financed the war effort.

Reviewing Themes3. Economic Factors How did wartime

industrial production help the Ameri-can economy recover from theDepression?

Critical Thinking 4. Drawing Conclusions Why did

many Americans move to industrial-ized cities during the war?

5. Organizing Information Re-createthe diagram below and explain howeach of these actions helped the wareffort.

Analyzing Visuals6. Graph Skills Examine the graph on

page 766. When did the number ofwomen employed pass 10 million?

Military and political leaders worried aboutthe loyalty of Japanese Americans if Japaneseforces invaded the United States. The presidentdirected the army to relocate more than 100,000West Coast Japanese Americans to detentioncenters. Located mostly in desert areas, theseinternment camps were crowded and uncom-fortable. Conditions were harsh.

With only days to prepare for the move, mostJapanese Americans left valuable possessionsbehind. Many abandoned their homes and busi-nesses or sold them at a loss. Most had to stay ininternment camps for the next three years.

Peter Ota and his family were sent to a campin Colorado. His father had come to Californiain 1904 and built up a successful fruit and veg-etable business. After the war Ota rememberedhow his father had suffered.

“After all those years, having worked hiswhole life to build a dream—having it all takenaway. . . . He died a broken man.”

In 1944, in Korematsu v. United States, theSupreme Court upheld the order providing for therelocation of Japanese Americans. In 1988 Ameri-cans acknowledged the injustice of relocation.Congress issued a formal apology and agreed togive each survivor $20,000, a token of the nation’sregret. ; (See page 998 for a summary of the Korematsu case.)

Identifying Who were the Nisei?


Writing Suppose you are a womanworking in a defense factory duringthe war. This is the first job youhave had outside of your home.Write a journal entry describingyour first day on the job.

Like African Americans, Mexican Americanssuffered from discrimination, and their presencecreated tensions in some cities. In 1943, for exam-ple, a four-day riot started in Los Angeles whenwhite sailors attacked Mexican American teens.

Japanese AmericansAfter the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor,

Japanese Americans were feared and hated bymany other Americans. About two-thirds ofJapanese Americans were Nisei—American citi-zens who had been born in the United States.But this fact made little difference to some whoquestioned the loyalty of Japanese Americans.

Helping the war effort

Civil defense Bracero program Rationing

The United States Marines recruited Navajo soldiers to develop a military code that the Japanese could not break.


Yoshiko Uchida (1921–1992)Yoshiko Uchidagrew up in Cali-fornia in the1930s. As aJapanese Ameri-can, she some-times felt very

different from the peoplearound her. She wanted to be a “typical” American and oftenresented the Japanese ways ofher family. Eventually Uchidalearned to value the “invisiblethread” that linked her to herheritage.

READ TO DISCOVERDuring the war, the Americangovernment relocated to campsthose Japanese people living inthe West. How did Yoshiko andher sister, Kay, spend their timein the internment camp?

READER’S DICTIONARYTanforan: horse racing park

used as a camp for JapaneseAmericans

mess hall: military-style diningarea

canteen: a generalstore at a militarycamp

contraband: forbidden items

diversion: entertainment

Gradually we became accus-tomed to life in Tanforan,especially to standing in

long lines for everything. We linedup to get into the mess hall or touse a laundry tub or to buy some-thing at the canteen (finding onlyshoelaces when we got in) or to getinto the occasional movies thatwere shown.

We got used to rushing back toour stall after dinner for the 6:00P.M. head count (we were still in bedfor the morning count), and to thesudden unexpected campwidesearches for contraband by the FBIwhen we were confined to ourstalls for several hours.

For diversion we could also goto talent shows, recorded concerts,discussion groups, Saturday nightdances, softball games, art classes,and hobby shows. . . .

Representatives from the univer-sity, the YMCA and YWCA, andvarious church groups also came to give us their support and help.They were working on arrange-ments to get students out of camp

and backinto schoolsas soon aspossible.

One day our neighbor Mrs.Harpainter came to see us, bringingall sorts of snacks along with flowers from her garden for Mama.Her boys, however, were notallowed inside because they wereunder sixteen.

When Kay and I heard they werewaiting outside the gate, we hur-ried to the fence to talk to them.

“Teddy! Bobby!”We ran to greet them, squeezing

our fingers through the chain linksto touch their hands.

But an armed guard quicklyshouted, “Hey, you two! Get awayfrom the fence!”

Reprinted with the permission ofSimon & Schuster Books for Young Read-ers, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Chil-dren’s Publishing Division from TheInvisible Thread by Yoshiko Uchida. Copy-right © 1991 by Yoshiko Uchida.

ANALYZING LITERATURE1. Recall and Interpret Why did

representatives from churchesand other groups visit the camp?

2. Evaluate and Connect How doyou think you would have felt inUchida’s place in the internmentcamp?

Interdisciplinary ActivityArt Draw plans for a communitymemorial suitable for rememberingJapanese Americans treated unfairlyduring World War II.

The Invisible Thread

FBI agentsearches family’sbelongings

January 1942U.S. joins Allies

June 1944Allied ships landat Normandy

December 1944Battle of the Bulgetakes 75,000 lives

May 1945Germany surrenders

Main IdeaTo win the war, the Allies had toregain control of North Africa andmost of Europe.

Key TermsD-Day, genocide, Holocaust

Reading StrategySequencing Information As youread the section, re-create the timeline below and identify importantevents during the war.

Nov. 1942 May 1943 Jun. 1944

Read to Learn• what important battles took place

in North Africa, Italy, and the SovietUnion between 1942 and 1944.

• what factors contributed to theAllied victory in Europe.

Section ThemeGlobal Connections The horrors ofwar continued as the Allies attemptedto defeat the Axis Powers.

War in Europeand Africa

Ernie Pyle, a war correspondent, described the life of the World War II American soldier: “In the magazines war seemed romantic and exciting, full of heroics and vitality. . . . I saw instead men suffering and wishing they were somewhere else. . . . All of them desperately hungry for somebody to talk to besides themselves . . . coldand fairly dirty, just toiling from day to day in a world full of insecurity, discomfort,homesickness and a dulled sense of danger.”

North African CampaignOn January 1, 1942—three weeks after Pearl Harbor—the United States

joined Britain, the Soviet Union, and 23 other Allied nations in vowing to defeatthe Axis Powers. Although the Japanese were conquering vast areas in thePacific, the Allied leaders decided to concentrate first on defeating Hitler beforedealing with Japan. The situation in Europe was desperate. German forces occu-pied almost all of Europe and much of North Africa. If the Germans defeatedthe Soviets, Germany might prove unstoppable.


Ernie Pyle

Preview of Events

Guide to Reading

✦1942 ✦1944 ✦1946


Stalin and many American military leaderswanted the Allies to launch a major attack oncontinental Europe across the English Channel.Such an attack would force the Germans todefend the heart of their own empire. Churchill,however, argued that such an assault would betoo difficult because of the German militarypresence in the area. FDR concluded thatChurchill was right. The Allies made plans toattack North Africa instead. The Axis forces

there were under the command of German gen-eral Erwin Rommel, known as the “Desert Fox”because of his success in desert warfare.

In November 1942, the British turned Rom-mel back at El Alamein. The victory preventedthe Germans from capturing the Suez Canal,linking the Mediterranean and the Red Sea.

Landing in Algeria and Morocco on November8, American, British, and Canadian troops underAmerican general Dwight D. Eisenhower

Sp.

Den.

Fr.

Fr. U.K. and Egypt

U.K.

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500 kilometers

500 miles0

0Lambert AzimuthalEqual-Area projection

N

SE

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0°20°W40°W 20°E 40°E 60°E

60°N

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40°N

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ARCTIC CIRCLE

Atlantic

Ocean

Mediterranean Sea

Black Sea

CaspianSea

Aral Sea

RedSea

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Nov. 8, 1942Aug. 15, 1944

July 10, 1943

D-DayJune 6, 1944 FINAL SOVIET DRIVE

July-Aug., 1944

1942 - The Britishdefeat the German

tank division atEl Alamein.

Sicily

ICELAND

NORWAYSWEDEN FINLAND

IRELANDUNITED

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SPAIN

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ITALY

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1. Place Where did the Allied forces land on D-Day?2. Analyzing Information When did Allied forces invade

Sicily?

Allied ForcesMajor Axis powersGreatest extent ofAxis controlAllied or Ally-controlled

Neutral nations

World War II in Europe and Africa


advanced eastward swiftly. The inexperiencedAmericans met defeat in Tunisia. With the back-ing of British air and naval power, however,American general George Patton closed in onRommel. The Allies drove the Germans out ofNorth Africa in May 1943.

The Invasion of ItalyThe Allies used bases in North Africa to launch

an invasion of southern Europe. They took theisland of Sicily in the summer of 1943 and landedon the Italian mainland in September. As theAllies advanced, the Italians overthrew dictatorBenito Mussolini and surrendered. However,German forces in Italy continued to fight.

In the winter of 1943, the Allies met fierceresistance at the monastery town of MonteCassino in central Italy, and their advance fal-tered. The next January the Allies landed farthernorth at Anzio, a seaport near Rome. Germanforces kept the Allies pinned down on the beachesat Anzio for four months. The Allies finally brokethrough the German lines in May and advancedtoward Rome. They liberated Rome in June 1944.

Air War Over GermanyWhile fighting raged in North Africa and Italy,

the Allies launched an air war against Germany.In the summer of 1942, British and American airforces began a massive bombing campaign

D-DayOn June 6, 1944 General Dwight Eisenhower directed the

largest combined land-sea-air invasion in history. The code namefor the offensive was Operation Overlord, but most Americansremember the assault as D-Day. Some 150,000 Allied soldiersbegan to come ashore before dawn along a 60-mile stretch of thecoast of Normandy in France.Once they controlled the coast,the Allied forces had a base fromwhich they would try to sweep theGermans out of France.

The D-Day invasion marked aturning point in the war inEurope. In August, Paris would fallto the Allies. Early in 1945 thefinal Allied assault in Europebegan. It was the beginning of theend of the war.

“We will accept nothing less thantotal victory.”

—General Dwight D. Eisenhower


against Germany. Each day hundreds of Ameri-can bombers pounded German factories andcities. Each night British bombers battered thesame targets. The bombing caused massivedestruction and killed thousands of Germancivilians. In July 1943 a week-long series ofbombing raids on the port of Hamburg created awhirling tower of fire that engulfed the city. Morethan 30,000 people died in the raids. Yet theattacks failed to crack Germany’s determinationto win the war.

Explaining Why did the Alliesdecide to attack North Africa rather than launch an attack oncontinental Europe?

The Tide Turns in EuropeMeanwhile, the Soviets and the Germans

were locked in ferocious combat. For months theSoviet Union bore the main force of Germany’sEuropean war effort.

The Eastern FrontAfter invading the Soviet Union in June 1941,

German troops had moved quickly into thenation’s interior. By September the Germanssurrounded Leningrad and began a siege, ormilitary blockade, that lasted nearly 900 days.The German attack continued, but Leningraddid not fall. As food ran out, the people of the

NumbersAllied Forces

• 150,000 troops (11 divisions)

• 1,500 tanks

• 5,300 ships and landing craft

• 12,000 airplanes

• 20,000 airborne troops

Casualties

By the end of the day, 2,500 Allied soldiers were killed.

D-Day planners had forecast 10,000 dead.

D-Day Invasion

The invasion army was split into five forces. The two American forces, code-named Utah and

Omaha, would strike in the west. Three British forces, namedGold, Juno, and Sword, would land farther east.

3°W

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UNITEDKINGDOM

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UTAH

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Shoreham

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London

Paris

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Caen

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Portsmouth

N

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Axis territory

Allied territory

British troopsCanadian troopsU.S. troopsAirborne and gliderlanding zones forceMajor Germanfortifications

Scale varies inthis perspective

Unpredictable andflamboyant, George S.Patton was one of themost remarkable U.S.Army commanders andalso the leading authorityon tank warfare. Pattonwas a clever planner,which helped make himone of the war’s greatestcombat commanders.

Patton distinguishedhimself in various World

War II campaigns, includ-ing the invasion of NorthAfrica and the capture ofSicily. The controversythat arose after Pattonstruck a soldier almostcost him his career. Even-tually Patton was reas-signed to lead the ThirdArmy. After the invasionof Normandy in the sum-mer of 1944, Patton’sarmy swept across

Europe. In December, theThird Army helped winthe Battle of the Bulge.By the end of the war, theThird Army liberatedmore than 80,000 squaremiles of territory andtook thousands of prison-ers. Patton died inDecember 1945 frominjuries suffered in anautomobile accident.


Invasion of FranceAs the Soviets pushed toward Germany from

the east, the Allies were planning a massive inva-sion of France from the west. General Eisen-hower, the commander of Allied forces inEurope, directed this invasion, known as Opera-tion Overlord. Eisenhower later wrote of thetense days of preparation:

“All southern England was one vast military camp,crowded with soldiers awaiting final word to go.”

Eisenhower planned to land his troops on theFrench coast of Normandy on June 5, but roughseas forced him to delay the landing. Finally, onJune 6, 1944—D-Day—the Allied ships landedon the coast of Normandy.

After wading ashore the troops faced landmines and fierce fire from the Germans. ManyAllied troops were hit as they stormed across thebeaches to establish a foothold on high ground.Within a few weeks, the Allies had landed a mil-lion troops in France.

From Normandy the Allies pushed acrossFrance. On August 25 French and American sol-diers marched through joyful crowds and liber-ated Paris.

city ate horses, cats, and dogs—even breadmade from wallpaper paste. Thousands died.The Germans could not take the city, however,and in early 1944 the siege was broken.

German forces also attacked other Sovietcities. In 1941 the Germans tried to capture theSoviet capital of Moscow. Heavy losses and badweather slowed their advance, but the Germansreached Moscow’s outskirts by December.When all seemed lost, the Soviets staged a coun-terattack and forced a German retreat.

In the spring of 1942, Germany launchedanother offensive. A major target was the city ofStalingrad, key to oil-rich lands to the south. Totake the city, the Germans had to fight street bystreet and house by house. No sooner had theGermans won Stalingrad than Soviet forces sur-rounded the city, cutting off the German supplylines. Cold and starving, the German troopsfought on until February 1943, when the tatteredremains of their army finally surrendered.

After Stalingrad, a major Soviet offensivedrove the Germans back hundreds of miles. TheGermans mounted a counteroffensive in thesummer of 1943, but their defeat at Stalingradmarked a major turning point in the war.


(Left) Polish Jews taken prisoner, 1943; (above) liberatedprisoners at concentration camp at Ebensee, Austria inMay 1945

Victory in EuropeGermany fought for survival on two fronts. In

the east the Soviets pushed the Germans out ofeastern Europe. In the west the British andAmericans approached the German border.

The Allied advance across France moved sorapidly that some people thought the war wouldbe over by the end of the year. In late 1944, how-ever, the drive came to a halt at the Rhine River,stalled by German defenses and cold weather.

In mid-December the Germans mounted alast, desperate offensive. On December 16, 1944,they launched a surprise attack along a 50-milefront in Belgium. In the Battle of the Bulge, theGermans at first drove troops and artillery deepinto a bulge in the Allied lines. After severalweeks, however, the Allies pushed the Germansback. The battle, which resulted in more than75,000 casualties, marked the end of serious Ger-man resistance.

The final phase of the war in Europe nowbegan. By mid-April 1945, the Soviets had surrounded Berlin, the German capital. Hitler,who had spent the final months of the war in anunderground bunker there, realized that the sit-uation was hopeless and committed suicide onApril 30. Germany signed an unconditional sur-render on May 7, ending the war in Europe. TheAllies declared May 8 V-E Day for “Victory inEurope.”

Death of a PresidentPresident Roosevelt did not share in the

Allied victory celebration. In February 1945, hehad traveled to Yalta in the Soviet Union to meetwith Churchill and Stalin. After returning homeRoosevelt had gone to Warm Springs, Georgia,for a vacation. He died there suddenly on April12, 1945.

Americans were saddened by the death of theman who had led them for 12 difficult years.When Vice President Harry S Truman heard thenews, he asked Eleanor Roosevelt if there wasanything he could do for her. She replied, “Isthere anything we can do for you? You are theone in trouble now.”

Explaining Why was the Battle ofthe Bulge an important victory for the Allies?

The HolocaustAs the Allies liberated areas that had been

under German control, they found horrifyingevidence of Nazi brutality. Hitler had warned in 1939 that another war would result in “the destruction of the Jews in Europe.” Nazileaders developed what they called “the finalsolution of the Jewish question.” Their “solu-tion” was genocide—wiping out an entiregroup of people.

Checking for Understanding1. Key Terms Define D-Day, geno-

cide, and Holocaust.2. Reviewing Facts In what region did

the Allies launch an invasion afterthey drove the German forces out ofNorth Africa?

Reviewing Themes3. Global Connections When the

United States joined the Allies, whydid the Allies concentrate first ondefeating Hitler?

Critical Thinking4. Drawing Conclusions Why do you

think Hitler felt threatened by Jewsand other minorities?

5. Organizing Information Re-createthe diagram below and describe thesignificance of these events.

Analyzing Visuals6. Geography Skills Examine the map

on page 771. When did the Alliedforces launch an attack on Germanforces in North Africa?

Ever since Hitler had gained power in 1933,the Nazis had persecuted Jews. This persecutionbecame more deadly as German power spreadthrough Europe. Once the war began, Nazisrounded up thousands of Jews, shooting themand throwing them into mass graves. One manwho witnessed a massacre of Russian Jewswrote of the act:

“I watched a family of about eight persons. . . .[A soldier] instructed them to go behind the earthmound. . . . They went down into the pit, linedthemselves up against the previous victims andwere shot.”

Nazi troops crammed thousands more intorailroad cars like cattle, depositing them in con-centration camps—prison camps for civilians.Guards took the prisoners’ belongings, shavedtheir heads, and tattooed camp numbers ontheir arms. Forced to live in horrible condi-tions, the prisoners often had only a crust ofbread or watery soup to eat. Thousandsbecame sick and died.

In the early 1940s, the Nazis embarked ontheir “final solution” to destroy the Jews. Theybuilt death camps where they killed thousandsof people a day in gas chambers, then burnedtheir bodies in ovens. At the largest camp—Auschwitz in Poland—the Nazis killed between1 and 2 million people. As many as 6 million

Jews died in what has become known as theHolocaust. Millions of others, including Sovietprisoners of war, Poles, Gypsies, and peoplewith handicaps—were also ruthlessly killed.

As Allied forces moved through Germanyand Poland after V-E Day, they saw firsthand theunspeakable horrors of the camps. R.W. Thomp-son, a British reporter, wrote about one suchcamp:

“Across the sandy clearing is the incinerator,but it ran out of [fuel]. A rough record by thechief burner of bodies records 17,000 burnedlast month. They say each body was roughlyclubbed as it went in.”

People around the world were stunned by thisterrible result of Nazi tyranny.

In RemembranceThe United States Holocaust Memorial

Museum is located near the National Mall inWashington, D.C. This memorial provides anational mark of respect for all victims of Nazipersecution. In 2001 Congress passed legislationto approve construction of the National WorldWar II Memorial on a site on the National Mall.This is the first national memorial dedicated toall who served during the war.

Identifying What groups of peoplewere victims of the Holocaust?


Geography Draw a map of theformer Soviet Union and use sym-bols to show the outcome of thebattles between German and Sovietforces.

Significance

D-Day V-E Day

777

April 1942Allies surrender Bataan

March 1945Americans seizeIwo Jima

August 1945Atomic bomb is droppedon Hiroshima

September 1945Japan surrenders; World War II ends

Main IdeaJapan’s surrender ends World War II.

Key Termsisland hopping, kamikaze

Reading StrategyClassifying Information As you readthe section, re-create the diagrambelow and explain the importance ofeach subject.

Read to Learn• how the United States planned to

gain control of the Pacific region.• what role the atomic bomb played

in ending the war.

Section ThemeGlobal Connections When Japaneseleaders would not surrender, Presi-dent Truman ordered the use of theatomic bomb.

War in the Pacific


Bob Krell, a soldier in World War II, felt a need to describe his life in the war: “Atnight before a big airborne operation you crawl deeper in your sack, but you can’t getaway from the noise. Over the roar of engines, somebody is shouting a bunch ofnames. . . . [W]e will climb into our parachutes as dawn breaks. We will trudge out tothe planes and climb in, not saying much of anything about anything. . . .” Bob Krellwas killed in action 12 hours after he wrote these words.

The Pacific FrontOn December 7, 1941, the same day the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor,

Japanese bombers struck American airfields in the Philippines and on theislands of Wake and Guam—key American bases in the Pacific. In the follow-ing days, the Japanese intensified their campaign in the Pacific. They invadedThailand and Malaya and captured Guam, Wake Island, and the British colonyof Hong Kong.

Importance

Island hopping

Manhattan Project

V-J Day

Preview of Events

Guide to Reading

✦1942 ✦1944 ✦1946

The war brought sadnessto separated families

Pearl HarborDec. 7, 1941

MidwayJune 3–6, 1942

Coral SeaMay 4–8, 1942

Leyte GulfOct. 23–26, 1944

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TokyoHiroshima

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Manila

Japanese troops had landed in the Philip-pines in mid-December and quickly taken thecapital of Manila. The defending forces—Fil-ipino and American troops commanded byAmerican general Douglas MacArthur—wereforced to retreat to the rugged Bataan Penin-sula west of Manila and the small islandfortress of Corregidor.

The Philippines FallAfter months of fierce fighting, the exhausted

Allied troops defending Bataan surrendered onApril 9, 1942. The forces on Corregidor held outfor another month. The Japanese forced theirBataan prisoners—many sick and near starva-tion—to march to a prison camp more than 60miles away. Only much later did the public learn


General Douglas MacArthurdirected the recapture of thePhilippines.

1. Region What parts of China were under Japanese controlin 1942?

2. Analyzing Information What two cities weredestroyed by atomic bombs?

World War II in the Pacific

Japanese Empire, 1936

Extent of Japanese control, 1942

Allied troop movements

Major battleAtomic bomb explosions

Dorie Miller wasone of the first

heroes of the war in the Pacific.


what these prisoners endured. About 76,000prisoners started out, but only about 54,000 ofthose on the Bataan Death March reached thecamp. As one survivor recalled:

“Anybody that could walk, they forced ’eminto line. . . . If you fell out to the side, you wereeither shot by the guards or you were bayo-neted [stabbed] and left there.”

Two months before the surrender, GeneralMacArthur had left for Australia to take com-mand of Allied forces in the Pacific. MacArthurpromised the Filipinos, “I shall return.”

Island HoppingWith Japan’s string of quick victories, Ameri-

can morale was low. Then, in April, 16 Americanbombers, launched from an aircraft carrier in thePacific, bombed Tokyo. This daring raid led byJames Doolittle had little military importance,but it lifted Americans’ spirits.

In May, American and Japanese fleets clashedin the Coral Sea northeast of Australia. Ameri-can ships were heavily damaged, but the Japan-ese suffered crippling losses. The Battle of theCoral Sea was a strategic victory because ithalted the Japanese advance on Australia.

An even greater victory followed in June1942. In the Battle of Midway, northwest ofHawaii, the navy destroyed four Japanese air-craft carriers and hundreds of airplanes. Thiswas the first major Japanese defeat.

The United States was now ready to go on theoffensive against Japan. The commanders—General MacArthur and Admiral ChesterNimitz—adopted a strategy known as islandhopping. This called for attacking and captur-ing certain key islands. The United States thenused these islands as bases for leapfrogging toothers, moving ever closer to the Philippines—and to Japan.

Between August 1942 and February 1943,American forces engaged in one of the mostvicious campaigns of the war for the control ofGuadalcanal, one of the Solomon Islands.Although the Japanese put up fierce resistance,the Americans finally secured the island.

In June 1944, Ameri-can forces capturedGuam and other islandsnearby. Guam provideda base for launchingbombing strikes onJapan. In October, Amer-ican ships destroyedmost of the Japanesefleet at the Battle of Leyte Gulf in the Philippines,the biggest naval battle in history—in all, 282ships took part. MacArthur had fulfilled hispromise to return to the Philippines.

The Advance on JapanAmerican forces now closed in on Japan itself.

In March 1945, they seized the island of Iwo Jimaand in June the island of Okinawa. The Japanesefought fiercely to defend these islands so near toJapan. Thousands of Americans died in the bat-tles, and many thousands more were wounded.

With most of Japan’s air force and navydestroyed, American bombers pounded Tokyoand other Japanese cities. The raids killed thou-sands of civilians and crippled Japan’s econ-omy. In desperation, the Japanese unleashed acorps of suicide pilots known as kamikazes.They crashed planes loaded with explosives intoAmerican ships. Kamikaze pilots sank severaldestroyers during the battle for Okinawa.

Explaining What is significantabout the Battle of Midway?

The Atomic BombAlthough the Japanese faced certain defeat,

they continued to fight. Their refusal to surren-der led the United States to use a powerful newweapon: the atomic bomb.

In 1939 the German-born physicist AlbertEinstein had written to President Rooseveltwarning him that the Nazis might try to use theenergy of the atom to build “extremely powerfulbombs.” Wanting to develop such weapons first,Roosevelt created a top-secret operation, theManhattan Project. After years of work, scien-tists tested the atomic bomb in the New Mexico

HISTORY

Student Web ActivityVisit taj.glencoe.com andclick on Chapter 26—Student Web Activitiesfor an activity on WorldWar II.

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Checking for Understanding1. Key Terms Use each of these terms

in a sentence that will help explain itsmeaning: island hopping, kamikaze.

2. Reviewing Facts Explain the signifi-cance of the Battle of Leyte Gulf.

Reviewing Themes3. Global Connections Why did

kamikaze missions pose such adeadly threat to Allied forces?

Critical Thinking 4. Identifying Central Issues If you

had been president, would you haveordered the attacks on Hiroshimaand Nagasaki? Why or why not?

5. Sequencing Information Re-createthe time line below and list importantevents in the Pacific in 1945.

Analyzing Visuals6. Geography Skills Examine the map

of World War II in the Pacific on page778. What naval battle took place inMay 1942? In June 1942?

The War EndsAfter the bombings, the Japanese government

agreed to surrender. August 15, 1945, was pro-claimed V-J Day, for “Victory over Japan.” Allaround America, people expressed happinessand relief. Japan signed the formal surrender onSeptember 2 aboard the battleship the U.S.S.Missouri. World War II had finally ended.

In the years immediately after the war, Alliedauthorities put the top Nazi and Japanese leaderson trial. They were accused of war crimes andcrimes against humanity. The Allies held the trialsin Nuremberg, Germany, and in Tokyo.

The Cost of the WarWorld War II was the most destructive conflict

in history. More than 40 million people died dur-ing the war; more than half of these were civilianskilled by bombing, starvation, disease, torture,and murder. American casualties—about 322,000dead and 800,000 injured—were high, but lightcompared with those of other nations. The SovietUnion suffered more than 20 million deaths.Those who survived faced the huge task of tryingto rebuild their lives and their countries. Nation-alist movements grew, particularly in colonialnations that had suffered invasions by the warring powers. Many colonies began to seekindependence in the postwar years.

Describing Who was brought totrial at the Nuremberg trials?


Math Make a bar graph that com-pares the number of people killedduring the war in the major Axisand Allied countries.

Mar. July Aug. Sept. 1945 1945 1945 1945

Raising the U.S.flag at Iwo Jima

desert on July 16, 1945. Truman now had todecide whether to use the bomb against Japan.

The Allies issued the Potsdam Declaration,warning that if Japan did not surrender, it faced“prompt and utter destruction.” The Japaneseleaders did not surrender, and Truman orderedthe use of the bomb.

On August 6, 1945, an American B-29 bomber,the Enola Gay, dropped an atomic bomb on theJapanese city of Hiroshima. Three days later, asecond bomb was dropped on the city ofNagasaki. The atomic bombs caused immensedestruction. The first bomb leveled Hiroshimaand killed about 70,000 people; the Nagasakibomb killed about 40,000. Thousands more wereinjured, and many died later from radiation.

Identifying On what Japanesecities were atomic bombs dropped?


Study & WritingStudy & Writing

Why Learn This Skill?Paragraphs are the building blocks of an essay or

other composition. Each paragraph is a unit—agroup of sentences about a single topic or idea.

Learning the SkillMost well-written paragraphs share four

characteristics. • First, a paragraph expresses one main idea or is

about one subject. A topic sentence states thatmain idea. The topic sentence may be located at the beginning, the middle, or the end of aparagraph.

• Second, the rest of the sentences in a paragraphsupport the main idea. The main idea may bedeveloped by facts, examples, or reasons.

• Third, the sentences are arranged in a logicalorder.

• Fourth, transitional words link sentences withinthe paragraph. These words can also link oneparagraph with the next. Examples include next,then, finally, also, because, however, and as aresult.

Practicing the SkillUse the following sentences to build a paragraphcontaining a topic sentence and other sentencesthat give supporting details. Put the sentences in a logical order and add transitional words if youneed to. Underline your topic sentence.

1 Three days later an American plane droppedanother bomb on Nagasaki.

2 The bomb killed about 70,000 people.

3 This second bomb killed nearly 40,000 peopleinstantly and many more later.

Hiroshima after the atomic bomb

4 On August 6, 1945, the United States dropped anatomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan.

5 About 100,000 others died later from the effectsof radiation.

6 When the bomb exploded, a sheet of flamespread over the city.

Writing a Paragraph

Applying the SkillWriting a Paragraph Choose a topic from theWorld War II era and write a paragraph about it.Then rewrite the paragraph with its sentences out of order. Exchange papers with a classmate.Can he or she find the topic sentence? Does it work logically?

Glencoe’s Skillbuilder InteractiveWorkbook CD-ROM, Level 1, providesinstruction and practice in key social studies skills.

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782

Reviewing Key TermsExamine the pairs of words below. Then write a sentenceexplaining what the words in each pair have in common.1. fascism, dictator 2. genocide, Holocaust 3. island hopping, blitzkrieg

Reviewing Key Facts4. How did Britain and France try to prevent war with

Germany?5. When did Japan attack Pearl Harbor?6. What did the government do to ensure that industries

produced enough war materials?7. What was Operation Overlord?8. Who succeeded Franklin Roosevelt as president?9. What actions by the Japanese convinced the United

States to use the atomic bomb?

Critical Thinking10. Drawing Conclusions Explain the importance to

Hitler of Germany’s 1939 non-agression treaty withthe Soviet Union. Why do you suppose the SovietUnion signed it?

11. Reviewing Themes: Economic Factors Why did thegovernment require rationing during the war?

12. Drawing Conclusions Why did the Allies focus firston the war in Europe rather than on the war in thePacific?

13. Comparing Re-create the diagram below and com-pare the roles that the United States played in worldaffairs during the 1930s and 1940s.

Technology Activity14. Using the Internet Search the Internet for a World

War II site that includes memoirs or excerpts from vet-erans and/or civilians. Copy or print a part of thememoirs that you find interesting. Post the excerpts on the classroom bulletin board under the heading“Voices of World War II.”

World War II

1931• Japan invades Manchuria

1933• Hitler becomes chancellor

of Germany

1935• Italian forces invade Ethiopia

1939• Germany seizes

Czechoslovakia

• Germany invades Poland

1940• Germany bombs Britain

1941• Hitler attacks the Soviet

Union

• FDR establishes Fair Employ-ment Practices Commission

• Japan bombs Pearl Harbor

Role in world affairs

The U.S. in the 1930s

The U.S. in the 1940s

1942• Revenue Act raises taxes

to finance the war

• Office of War Informa-tion promotes patriotism

• U.S. joins Allies

• Allies surrender Bataan

1943• Navajo soldiers develop

unbreakable radio code

1944• Allied ships land at

Normandy

• Battle of the Bulge

1945• Germany surrenders

• Americans seize IwoJima

• Atomic bomb is droppedon Hiroshima

• Japan surrenders

• World War II ends

Self-Check QuizVisit taj.glencoe.com and click on Chapter 26—Self-Check Quizzes to prepare for the chapter test.

HISTORY


Directions: Choose the bestanswer to the following question.

Which of the following was a turning point inEurope during World War II?

A The Treaty of ParisB The election of RooseveltC The bombing of Pearl HarborD The German defeat at Stalingrad

Test-Taking Tip

Eliminate answers that you know are wrong. For example, choice A, the Treaty of Paris, was not

made in World War II.

Standardized Test Practice

Geography and History ActivityThe map below shows the attack on Pearl Harbor. Study themap and answer the questions that follow.

15. Location What ships are located along the eastern sideof Ford Island?

16. Location What ships were nearest the Nevada?17. Location What happened to the Raleigh during the

attack?

Practicing SkillsWriting a Paragraph Write a short paragraph for each ofthe topic sentences that follow. Each paragraph must have at least three sentences supporting the topic and arranged ina logical way. Use transitional words or phrases to connectyour ideas smoothly.18. The leaders of Italy, Germany, and Japan attempted to

restore their nations to their former greatness through theuse of the military.

19. Minority groups played vital roles in World War II, both inthe armed forces and at home.

Cooperative Citizenship Activity20. Foreign Policy Goals With a partner, check current

newspapers and newsmagazines for articles about UnitedStates relations with foreign nations. Clip the articles andbuild a table categorizing these relations under theseheadings: Maintaining national security, Promoting worldpeace, Protecting free trade, Supporting democratic gov-ernments, and Promoting humane treatment of people.

Economics Activity 21. How might rationing have changed the way families

lived? Write a one-page paper in which you describethree ways rationing affected individuals and families during World War II.

Alternative Assessment22. Portfolio Writing Activity Choose a person discussed

in this chapter. Research the life of this individual. Be sureto take notes about his or her life and accomplishmentsbefore, during, and after World War II. Write a one-pagebiography based on your findings.

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Naval Air Station

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PearlCity

Headquarters,CommanderPacific Fleet

NavyHospital

CurtissUtah Raleigh

California

Oklahoma

Maryland

WestVirginia

VestalNevada

ArizonaTennessee

Shaw

DownesCassin Pennsylvania

OglalaHelena

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RoadRailroadBuilt-up area

Pearl Harbor,December 7, 1941

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World War II - Loudoun County Public Schools / Overview · War Begins On the Home Front War in Europe and Africa ... Sequencing Events Study Foldable Make this ... of World War II.

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