Introduction Regarding WWII  

1941 was a much different time than now. Half of the nation’s children came from homes that earned less than $500/year. One quarter of the population lived on farms and the average farmer made less than $1000/year. One fourth of all US homes lacked running water and one third were without flush toilets. The average American left school after the eighth grade. The country’s population was 132 M and demographers predicted it would not get much larger. The GNP was $90 B and the Dow Jones was hovering around $150. At the turn of the decade, there was only 2 Black officers in the Army and none in the Navy. In 1941, Bob Feller threw a no-hitter, Joe DiMaggio hit safely in 56 straight games and Lou Gehrig died. A hit song was, "Goodbye Mamma, I’m Off to Yokohama."

Historian William Manchester said that in 1941 the US was not even a third rate military power. As late as the mid-thirties, we had the 16th largest Army in the world….ranking behind Czechoslovakia, Turkey, Spain, and Romania. Our 30,000 man ready Army was smaller than the Army that England had sent in an attempt to defeat us in the Revolutionary War.

But mobilize for WWII we did, and during the next four years we produced 90K ships, 100K tanks, 300K Warplanes, 2.5M trucks and 20M weapons. The war cost $245B, more than all of the US budgets from 1789-1940 combined.

16.3M men and women entered our military. A total of 70M men and women served in the Allied and Axis forces. Of this 70M, 17M lost their lives. The Soviet Union lost the most…7.5M. Germany lost 3.5M, and Japan lost 1.25 M. It is estimated that the Soviet Union also lost 20M civilians and China 10M civilians.

Of our 16.3M service personnel, 672K were wounded and survived, and 407K died.