WWII Vocabulary and Information

Cost Plus Contract: The government agreed to pay a company whatever it cost to make a product plus a guaranteed percentage of the cost as profit.

Reconstruction Finance Corporation: The RFC, a government agency set up in during the Depression, was now permitted to make loans to companies to help them cover the cost of converting to war production. 

Tank Factories: The automobile industry replaced their car production with the mass production of tanks, trucks, jeeps and artillery. 

B-24 Liberator: Henry Ford launched a project that created an assembly line for the B-24 bomber at Willow Run Airport near Detroit. They built 8,600 bombers by the end of the war. 

Liberty Ship: The Liberty Ship was the basic cargo ship used during the war. The ships were welded instead of riveted making them cheaper and harder to sink. They were built at the Kaiser Shipyard. 

Problem With The Training Of US Troops: The amount of people that were drafted into the army initially overwhelmed the army's training camps, and many recruits were forced to live in tents and use temporary facilities. They also suffered through equipment shortages. Troops carried sticks instead of guns, threw rocks instead of grenades, and used trucks with the word 'TANK' on the side to simulate a tank. In an early battle a soldier raised his rifle in the air wile pointing at it and shouted "how do I load this thing?" that shows how bad the training was at the beginning of the war.

'Double V' Campaign: A campaign that urged African Americans to support the the war in order to achieve a double victory- a victory over Hitler's racism in Europe and over America's racism at home. 

Role of African Americans in The War: African Americans were first allowed to fight in combat in WWII after the Double V campaign convinced the Army Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps to accept African Americans. Many African Americans went on to be great heros, for example the first all African American Army Air Force unit the 99th Pursuit Squaron which fought in several battles in the Mediterranean. 

Role of Women in The War: The US Congress first allowed women into the armed forces in May of 1942, though they were not allowed in combat they served as nurses and more in more administrative areas. Over 68,000 women served as nurses in the Women's Army Corps and others like it during the war.