World War II History Posters, Prints, Charts & Maps, pg 2 of 2
for the social studies and history classroom and home schoolers.

The Tuskegee Airmen

Poster Text: In March of 1942, five African American men earned the siver wings of military pilots at Tuskegee Army Air Field in Alabama. These men were the firs "Tuskegee Airmen," a group of black pilots who served wit hgreat distinction during World War II.

The War Department established a black fighter squadron only after great pressure from African American leaders and the press. Blinded by prejudice, many Americans of the time believed blacks could not fly airplanes. In early 1941, the Secretary of War reluctantly approved a plan that set up the first all-black squadron in the Army Air Corps. The plan included the construction of a training base at Tuskegee Institute, a historically black college. Yet even facilities at the Tuskegee Army Air Field, where the African American cadets were learning to fly, remained segregated. And all the commanding officers at Tuskegee were white. Thirteen young African American men made up the first class, but only five completed the hard training. After America entered World War II in December of 1941, black men applied for admission to the Army Air Corps in larger numbers than ever. Gradually, class sizes were increased at the Tuskegee air field. By the end of World War II in 1945, nearly a thousand African American pilots had trained at Tuskegee, and 450 of them had flown in combat.

In 1943, the first squadron of Tuskegee Airmen left for overseas duty. It was stationed in West Africa. The squadron was soon joined by three more squadrons of Tuskegee Airmen. At first, the job of America's small and fast fighter planes in World War Ii was to escort and protect the heavier and slower bombers. Later in the war, fighter planes were permitted to pursue enemy aircraft. In hundreds of escort missions over North Africa and Europe, the Tuskegee Airmen never lost a bomber. No other group in the Army Air Corps could make that claim Grateful bomber crews called the Tuskegee group the Red-Tail Angels because of the red markings on the tails of their aircraft.

The Red-Tail Angels also compiled an outstanding combat record. They participated in the D-Day operation, downing many German fighter planes in the days following the June 6, 1944, invasion of France. On June 25, 1944, two Tuskegee Airmen sank a German warship with machine gun fire. This was the first time a fighter aircraft had accomplished such a feat. During the war, the Tuskegee Airmen destroyed many enemy aircraft and damaged and destroyed a great number of enemy railroad cars, barges, boats, oil and ammunitions dumps, buildings, and factories. They earned 150 Distinguished Flying Crosses, a Legion of Merit, 744 Air Medals, eight Purple Hearts, two Soldier's Medals, and fourteen Bronze Stars. Sisty-six Tuskegee Airmen died in aerial combat and 32 more were shot down and captured as prisoners of war. After World War II, the black squadrons were deactivated. By 1947, the Army Air Corps had become the United States Air Force and had begun integrating its units. Some historians believe that the performance records of the Tuskegee Airmen helped bring an end to segregation in the military.

• Tuskegee Airmen at Amazon.com
• Black Military History posters
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Eisenhower and Churchill Inspect Troops
1944

Winston Churchill
b. 11-30-1874; Blenheim Palace
d. 1-24-1965

"I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat."

Victory - Franklin D. Roosevelt

1942 America Will Build 60,000 War Planes, In 1943 America will Build 125,000 War Planes.

• President posters
• Eleanor Roosevelt posters

The Big Three: Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin at Yalta Conference, February 4 to February 11, 1945

The Big Three, the leaders of Great Britian, US and Stalin, held the second war time conference of Allies in the Crimean resort of Yalta on the north coast of the Black Sea.

The first conference was held in Tehran, Iran in 1943; the Yalta meeting was followed by the 1945 Potsdam Conference with Harry S Truman attending in place of the late FDR, and the newly elected Clement Attlee in place of Churchill.

• Russia posters

Dwight D. Eisenhower
b. 10-14-1890; Denison, TX
b. 3-28-1969; Washington, DC

• President Dwight D. Eisenhower
• Eisenhower House, Abilene, Kansas

Omar Bradley
b. 2-12-1893; Clark, Missouri
d. 4-8-1981

George Marshall
b. 12-31-1880, Uniontown, PA
d. 10-16-1959

George Marshall was the chief military adviser to FDR and considered the "organizer of victory" by Winston Churchill for his work for the Allies. Marshall was named TIME's Man of the Year in 1944 and 1948 and also awarded the 1953 Nobel Peace Prize for his 'Marshall Plan', a plan for rebuilding Europe supported as Secretary of State under Eisenhower.

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Douglas MacArthur
b. 1-26-1880; Little Rock, AR
d. 4-5-1964; Washington, DC

Japan signed the official Instrument of Surrender on the morning of September 2, 1945 - a moment that finally brought World War II to a close. In a ceremony on board the U.S.S. Missouri at anchor in Tokyo Bay, the official documents received the signatures of General Douglas MacArthur as Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers and of General Yoshijiro Umezu, who signed on behalf of Japanese Imperial Headquarters.

George S. Patton
b. 11-11-1885; California
d. 12-21-1945; Germany, from injuries suffered in a car accident.

Heroes of the 20th Century -
Anne Frank
b. 6-12-1929; Frankfurt am Main, Germany
d. Feb/March, 1945; Bergen-Belsen Camp

“I feel the suffering of millions. And yet, when I look up at the sky, I somehow feel that everything will change for the better, that this cruelty too shall end, that peace and tranquility will return once more.”

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The Atomic Bomb
Inventions that Changed
the World -

At 8:16 in the morning, August 6, 1945, in a blinding flash of light, the world changed forever. Humankind entered a new era, symbolized by a mushroom-shaped cloud rising seven miles into the air over the city of Hiroshima, Japan. The Atomic Age had begun. ...

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The Royal Air Force-

“Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.” Churchill

The quote from British Prime Minister Winston Churchill is from his June 18, 1940 speech to the House of Commons. In the speech Churchill described the defense of Britain by the R.A.F. against the sustained efforts by the German Luftwaffe (generic German term for an air force).

Pictures of R.A.F. planes: Lancaster III, Halifax IV, Stirling, Typhoon, Mosquito II, Tempest, Spitfire XIV.

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• more Great Britian posters

Defense Bonds were a type of savings bonds marketed as a way for the common citizen to support the war effort, but more importantly, they were a way to curb inflation in the country that was coming out of the Great Depression due to the need for armaments. The defense bond stamps were sold to children.

The bonds sold in World War I were called Liberty Bonds.

Adolf Hitler
b. 4-20-1889; Austria-Hungary
d. 4-30-1945; Berlin

Benito Mussolini
b. 7-28-1883; Predappio, Italy
d. 4-28-1945; Giulino di Mezzegra, Italy