Benito Mussolini – Italy;

Nazi party, Hitler - Germany.

1935 Mussolini invaded Ethiopia,

1937 Japan invaded China.

1938 Hitler took over Austria & Czechoslovakia.

1939 Germany, Italy & Japan form Axis;

Soviets sign nonaggression pact.

Hitler invades Poland;

Britain, France declare war on Germany.

spring 1940 German forces sweep through Denmark, Norway, Belgium & Netherlands.

June, 1940 Germans swept into Paris.

bomb attacks on London;

June, 1941, Germany invades USSR.

Britain-US technical cooperation:

radar ("radio detection & ranging").

Britain 1934;

Worried - German Luftwaffe 4,000 bombers; Royal Air Force 330 fighters;

"invisible curtain";

1939, British radar stations every 25 miles along coast.

MIT “Radiation Laboratory”;

Ultimately 4000 employees;

problems of antenna design, precision tracking, amplification, noise suppression, production engineering.

1935-1938 US isolationism;

June, 1940 Congress tripled budget of War Dept.; nation's first peacetime draft;

"arsenal of democracy."

December 7, 1941 Pearl Harbor;

killing 2400 US soldiers & sailors.

Dec. 8, US declared war on Japan;

Germany & Italy then declare war on US.

Hermann Goerring, "Don't worry, the Americans can't build planes, only electric iceboxes & razor blades,"

1944 96,000 planes per year - B-17 Flying Fortress, B-24 Liberator, C-47 transport.

War Production Board.

1941-1945, 18 shipyards built 2708 Liberty ships - carry 9000 tons of cargo - 400 light tanks or 3000 jeeps.

entire ship built in four days,

standardization.

"Rosie the Riveter".

1942 FDR Office of Scientific Research & Development (OSRD)

proximity fuses,

sonar;

"I don't think we could continue the war without the jeep. It does everything. It goes everywhere. It's as faithful as a dog, as strong as a mule, & as agile as a goat. It constantly carries twice what it was designed for & still keeps on going. It can turn on a dime & leave nine cents change. Riding in one feels like falling downstairs, & it takes 24 hours to stop shaking, but it's not so bad after you get used to it."

1940 entire US army 12,000 motor vehicles – 1945 Ford & other manufacturers turned out over 600,000.

incendiary bats.

June 6, 1944 D-Day;

fall 1944 pushed German army back.

April 30, 1945 Hitler suicide.

May 4, 1945, Germany surrendered unconditionally.