Travel Trunks from the Northeast Georgia History · PDF fileTravel Trunks from the Northeast Georgia History ... documents and reproduction ... Hirohito, Truman, Mussolini, and Hitler

Travel Trunks from the

Northeast Georgia History

Center

Travel trunks enrich and support classroom learning, home-school instruction and media center

presentations. At every age level, these materials encourage the development of critical thinking

skills and reinforce content knowledge. Each trunk contains artifacts, documents and

reproduction clothing chosen for their versatility in the teaching environment. Each is a catalyst

for comprehension.

Trunk resources can be used as learning centers, as the core of a student-created museum

display, for hands on discovery and as supplemental teacher tools in the regular ed, special ed

and ESOL classroom. Trunk materials provide prompts for teaching multiple perspectives,

enhance comprehension of instructional texts, structure inquiry learning and costume

characters in classroom simulations.

You will also find recommended trade books and associated lesson plans that address core goals

for teaching across the curriculum and integrating literacy skills. We believe the travel trunk

materials will support your instruction as you build social studies vocabulary, encourage critical

thinking and analysis, and support students gaining the depth of knowledge and rigor that

inform the Common Core GPS standards.

We hope you enjoy your experience with our Travel Trunk. Please return the evaluation form

and let us know your ideas for using and improving these resources.

Best wishes!

Glen Kyle

Executive Director,

NEGa History Center

Northeast Georgia History Center page 2 World War Two Travel Trunk

Standards addressed in this Travel Trunk

SS5H6 The student will explain the reasons for America’s involvement in World

War II.

a. Describe Germany‟s aggression in Europe and Japan‟s aggression in Asia.

b. Describe major events in the war in both Europe and the Pacific; include Pearl Harbor, Iwo

Jima, D-Day, VE and VJ Days, and the Holocaust.

c. Discuss President Truman‟s decision to drop the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

d. Identify Roosevelt, Stalin, Churchill, Hirohito, Truman, Mussolini, and Hitler.

e. Describe the effects of rationing and the changing role of women and African- Americans;

include “Rosie the Riveter” and the Tuskegee Airmen.

SS8H9The student will describe the impact of World War II on Georgia’s

development economically, socially, and politically.

Common Core Standards for Reading and Writing Informational Texts in History/

Social Studies

ELACC5RI2: Determine two or more main ideas of a text and explain how they are supported

by key details; summarize the text

ELACC5RI3: Explain the relationships or interactions between two or more individuals, events,

ideas, or concepts in a historical, scientific, or technical text based on specific information in the

text

ELACC5RI5: Compare and contrast the overall structure (e.g., chronology, comparison,

cause/effect, problem/solution) of events, ideas, concepts, or information in two or more texts.

Integration of Knowledge

ELACC5RI7: Draw on information from multiple print or digital sources, demonstrating the

ability to locate an answer to a question quickly or to solve a problem efficiently.

ELACC5R9: Integrate information from several texts on the same topic in order to write or

speak about the subject knowledgeably.

Middle School ELACC 6-8RH2Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or

secondary source; provide an accurate summary of the source distinct from prior knowledge or

opinions.

Middle School ELACC 6-8RH4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are

used in a text, including vocabulary words specific to domains related to history/social studies.

Middle School ELACC6-8RH7 Integrate visual information (e.g., in charts, graphs,

photographs, videos or maps) with other information in print and digital texts.


What’s in the travel trunk?

Teacher Guide

It‟s what you‟re reading now! Please feel free to reproduce pages as you need, including the NE

Georgia History Center credit line and logo. Take a moment to read Database: World War 2for

an overview of the content supported by the trunk materials. Links at the end of the essay point

the way to more resources.

Books

Included in the trunk you will find a selection of trade books and suggestions for incorporating

strategies that build comprehension in the content area. These books can supplement your own

resources and serve as the core of a learning center.

Maps, documents and newspaper reproductions

Large printed resources (posters, for example) are laminated and rolled into protective tubes.

Newspaper reproductions are in folders. Please replace them when you pack.

Artifacts: All Real! Some Reproduction!

The selection of three-dimensional materials in the travel trunk represents key concepts for this

unit. Unless we tell you otherwise, these are reproductions -- carefully made copies of historic

objects found in museums and archives. The difference between an artifact that is preserved in

a museum and the item in the trunk is that you can handle the reproductions. There is no glass

case between students and the information you want them to acquire. We‟ve included objects

that kids during the 1930s and 1940s would have used at home and in school. There are also

examples of objects that soldiers would have used. Some were made recently (reproduction D-

Day clicker and dog tags) and some are authentic (metal helmet, LIFE magazines).

Clothing

One of the best ways to encourage your students to „step through the door‟ into an appreciation

of the lived past is to let them wear the clothing of the era. We‟ve included vintage military

clothing and a “Rosie the Riveter” style pair of women‟s overalls.

Music and DVDs

World War II was reported on the radio and in movie houses across the United States.

Americans listened to the President announce the country‟s entrance into the war after Pearl

Harbor and watched newsreels that brought the war into focus. In their free time, Americans

danced to big band music and listened to songs that often referenced the war. We‟ve included a

selection from the wealth of primary sources available.


1. Database: World War II in Georgia

One page introductory texts cover key concepts, leaders, and events of the war. These

pages can illustrate a timeline of the war, build background knowledge, support

vocabulary comprehension and serve as a framework for student research.

Georgia in World War II

1940: Georgia‟s Airfields, Naval Stations, and Army Bases

Pearl Harbor, 1941

Battles, Bonds and Bombers, 1942

Rosie the Riveter

The Double V

Reporting the War, 1943

D-Day, 1944

1945: Marching to Berlin/Flying to Japan

2. Inventory of Trunk Resources: A checklist for quick reference when unpacking and

repacking the trunk.

3. Illustrated Inventory: An item by item description of each object in the trunk with

suggestions for use in your classroom and media center presentations.

Books and documents: Content area literacy is a core skill developed by this

travel trunk. Here you will find a list of the books chosen for the trunk and

suggestions for building student comprehension with reading strategies.

Artifacts: Each object in the trunk is described with suggested questioning

strategies for engaging student thinking.

4. Teaching with Artifacts Lesson Plan and Worksheets: An introductory activity to

give your students guided practice working with hands on materials. This lesson plan

scaffolds student understanding with explanations, demonstrations and explicit teaching

of content comprehension using tactile, visual, textual and auditory sources.

5. Lesson Plans

Timeline Activity: Chronological Thinking in Social Studies

Reading Photographs for Writing Responses

National Archives Lesson Plan: Documents from World War Two

Vocabulary Building (Semantic Mapping activity)

Discovery Learning Center: Rationing in WW2

Reporting from the Battlefront: Researching and Writing a Radio Script

Victory and Homecoming: Listening to Veterans’ Voices

6. Culminating activity: Step-by-step instructions for setting up your own museum

display using materials in the travel trunk student generated

Travel Trunks from the Northeast Georgia History Center:

World War II


Georgia, 1939

If you had picked up a newspaper on September 4, 1939 anywhere in Georgia you would have

learned that the weather was predictably hot and sunny on the weekend before Labor Day.

Local stores offered back to school specials and movie theatres advertised their feature films and

air conditioning. Banner headlines on the front page gave the latest news of escalating tensions

across the Atlantic in Europe. Adolf Hitler had sent German troops into neighboring Poland,

triggering an avalanche of denunciations from England and France. If you turned the page,

there was news from China where Japanese forces were battling the Nationalist Army.

Georgians may not have known it at the time but September 4th was the first day of World War

Two, a global conflict that had been building since the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. On this date,

the first “Great War” became World War One and a new World War was underway. This war

would last longer, demand more resources and devastate the globe more thoroughly than the

first war of the century. At the end, in 1945, the United States and its allies, as well as the

defeated nations of Germany and Japan, would be transformed.

In 1939 the state of Georgia was emerging from an agricultural and industrial depression that

had begun with the boll weevil infestation of the early 1900s. The state had suffered economic

collapse, labor unrest and the loss of thousands of black citizens who left on the Great Migration

to northern and western states. Within months of the outbreak of war in Europe, however,

ripples from the conflict were bringing changes in Georgia. Military bases added thousands of

jobs in Atlanta, Macon and Columbus. Industries supplying war material to the Allies as part of

the “Lend-Lease” program began to run extra shifts around the state. British pilots from the

Royal Air Force training in the US strolled the streets of small Georgia towns located near new

airfields. The war was still far away but getting closer.

In December 1941, it arrived on American territory. Alarmed that their plans for Asian

expansion were threatened by the loss of American gasoline exports, Japan‟s Imperial Navy and

Air Force attacked Pearl Harbor on the Hawaiian island of Oahu. Their target was the western

fleet of the United States Navy on guard in the Pacific Ocean. The result was America‟s entry

into the war. Franklin Roosevelt assured the nation that they would claim the ultimate victory.

The nation went to work to prove him right.

Over the next four years Georgians fought the Axis powers in word and deed. They supplied

troops with food and raised cotton for uniforms and gear. Women welded together the Liberty

ships that ran convoys across the Atlantic Ocean. Rural Georgians flocked to Marietta to take

jobs in the Bell Bomber plant. Just over the Alabama border in Tuskeegee, the first black pilots

in the Army Air Corps trained for combat roles. If they came to Atlanta on leave, they would

frequent the segregated USO for black soldiers. Kids collected metal scrap and paper. Everyone

dealt with rationing, shortages and the news that filled the papers, day after day. In 1939,

Georgians didn‟t know what would happen next.

Database: World War Two in Georgia


1940: Georgia’s Airfields, Naval Stations, and Army Bases

In early 1940, the mayor of Macon stood with a group of Army Air Corps officers in a field near

the tiny whistle stop railroad station of Wellston, Georgia. The landscape of Houston County,

just south of Macon, was miles of flat ground interrupted by nothing more than the occasional

dairy cow. Within a year those fields had been transformed into Warner Robins Air Force base,

a massive training and repair operation that employed over 13,000 people from the nearby area

as well as housing thousands of servicemen.

This story was repeated across Georgia as bases were built and expanded to meet the

requirements of the American military, now mobilized for war. By the end of the war, every

large city in Georgia had some form of military presence. Powerful politicians from Georgia,

such as Congressman Carl Vinson, lobbied for the placement of bases in the South where

commanders could have access to cheap land, rail connections and ample labor forces. South of

Atlanta, the Army built a Quartermasters Depot (later renamed Fort Gillem) in Forest Park and

shipped tons of war materiel in and out on the nearby rail lines. North of the state capitol, in

Marietta, the Navy purchased thousands of acres to house its personnel and aircraft at Dobbins

Air Station near what would become the Bell Bomber B-29 construction plant. The University of

Georgia, in Athens, lost students but gained hundreds of Navy combat pilots training there.

Outside Columbus, World War One era Fort Benning expanded and became the headquarters of

the First Infantry Division of the US Army. The newly established Airborne Division of the Army

filled the base with trainees and an Officers Candidate school brought thousands more to the

base. Fort Benning soon became the largest infantry training center in the world. Across the

state, west of Savannah, the army purchased over half the land in Liberty County to build Fort

Stewart as an anti-aircraft artillery training facility. The nearby settlement of Hinesville became

a boomtown almost overnight, offering housing for base workers and recreation for the

servicemen on leave. In Savannah, the municipal airport was incorporated into Hunter Air Field

for the use of Air Corps pilots attached to Fort Stewart.

In the wiregrass region, prominent citizens of Valdosta lobbied US Senators Walter F George

and Richard Russell to secure a defense project for their area. They pointed out that south

Georgia had temperate weather year round that would allow pilots to uninterrupted training.

Congress authorized construction to begin on Moody Field in 1941. In Bainbridge, Moultrie,

Albany, Douglas and Cochran trainee pilots practiced the skills that would support the

overwhelming use of airpower in the war.

From the mountains of north Georgia where paratroopers ran up Currahee Mountain, to

Atlanta, where Fort McPherson processed thousands of recruits, the presence of the military

grew in Georgia during World War Two. At Camp Gordon in Augusta and Camp Lawton in

Chamblee, Georgians now had access to jobs, both on military bases and in factories supplying

those bases. Roads were paved, housing constructed and electrical lines were laid to parts of the

state that had gone without them during the Depression years, thanks to the enormous

expansion of the military presence during World War Two.


USS West Virginia burning in Pearl Harbor

Library of Congress Digital ID fsa.8e00810

Pearl Harbor, 1941

Early on December 7, 1941 a Marine named Mack Abbott was eating breakfast on the Hawaiian

island of Oahu. He wasn‟t expecting to see Japanese pilots fly over Hickham field where he was

stationed at Pearl Harbor. Machine guns from the planes raked the mess hall with bullets.

Abbott grabbed a rifle and ran outdoors, shooting at the Japanese attackers from the ground.

He was later credited with being the first United States Marine to fire a shot in World War Two.

Japanese bombers struck eight American battleships that were resting at anchor in Pearl

Harbor, sinking four of them. The USS Arizona exploded and went to the bottom of the harbor

taking over a thousand sailors with her. The USS West Virginia, engulfed in flaming fuel from

the USS Arizona was hit by torpedoes and bombed. Shrapnel shredded the ship‟s bridge,

mortally wounding the captain. Dorrie Miller, a sailor

who worked in the ship‟s kitchen, manned an anti-

aircraft gun and fired on the attackers. Nearby the USS

California, hit by torpedoes, took on water and

capsized. A single bomb dropped on the USS Shaw

ignited the ship‟s ammunition magazine, setting off a

massive explosion.

Over two thousand soldiers, sailors, marines and

civilians were killed in the attack. The Japanese navy

hoped the destruction of the fleet would keep American

forces from interfering with imperial plans to extend

hostilities into southeast Asia. In addition, the

Japanese military believed that a successful attack on

Pearl Harbor would demoralize the United States and

prevent a rapid expansion of American strength in the Pacific.

Japan was proved wrong. The attack on Pearl Harbor galvanized American support for the

Allies. The day after the attack on Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt declared war on Japan and

vowed to fight through to “absolute victory”. Japan‟s Axis allies reciprocated and declared war

on the United States. The attack on the Pacific Fleet berthed in Hawaii did not prevent the

expansion of American military force in the Pacific. To the contrary, the attack on Pearl Harbor

ended the pretense of neutrality and allowed the United States to support Britain and France in

Europe. Roosevelt was now leading an Allied nation with the manufacturing capacity to support

the war effort while remaining protected from attack by two oceans.

“Remember Pearl Harbor” became a rallying call for the American military and homefront.

Across the country, teenage boys looked at maps to find an island that was suddenly in the

headlines; some decided to join up immediately. The US Navy began repairing ships that had

been damaged at Pearl Harbor; several joined subsequent naval battles in the Pacific. The USS

Nevada, the one battleship to get underway during the attack, was salvaged and refitted in time

to see service at D-Day, Iwo Jima and Okinawa.

Mack Abbott fought across the Pacific to the final shots on Tinian in 1945. He later retired to

Gainesville, GA and became a charter member of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association.

http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/fsa.8e00810


Battles, Bonds and Bombers, 1942

As the new year began, Georgians coped with shortages of tires and sugar at home as rationing

went into effect. By May civilian access to gasoline was limited with a coupon system that gave

priority to first responders and factory workers. In December, coffee was rationed. Oil, gas, and

food had to be shared now with a growing number of service men

and women. American forces were deploying around the globe.

Soldiers and medical staff were shipping out to North Africa, to

Britain, to the Pacific. They required huge amounts of fuel for both

humans and machines. They looked to the homefront for the

supplies that would win the war for the Allies.

The demands on American production came quickly. In May 1942

American aircraft carriers launched hundreds of planes against

Japanese forces in the Battle of the Coral Sea. In June an American

fleet defeated the Japanese in the Battle of Midway. By the late

autumn Allied soldiers and sailors developed the „island hopping‟

strategy of capturing stepping stones to Japan. In November,

American Marines captured the island of Guadacanal.

Across the Atlantic, convoys of war material escorted by Merchant Marine craft shipped across

the cold approaches to the Arctic Sea, hounded by German U-boats. In Britain the US Army Air

Force arrived with B-17 “Flying Fortress” bombers to support Royal Air Force raids on Germany.

Farther east, in North Africa, German and Italian troops waged a tank war with Allied forces

through Libya, Tunisia and Egypt. At every camp, from the deserts to the jungles, American

forces relied on a steady stream of uniforms, medical supplies, ammunition, weapons and food.

Factories at home in the United States began to operate around the clock.

Just as importantly, the war effort depended on infusions of cash raised from the American

public in bond drives. The United States would spend over $300 billion on the war, far more

than could be raised by conventional taxes. The US treasury offered „war bonds‟ instead.

Americans were offered a bond for the price of $18.75 with the promise that after the war it

could be redeemed for $25. When the cruiser USS Atlanta sank off Guadalcanal in 1942,

Atlanta school children bought „war stamps‟ for 25 cents that would go toward rebuilding a

replacement. Georgia‟s best known author, Margaret Mitchell, became a spokeswoman for the

USS Atlanta bond drive. She was credited with raising $65 million and christened the new ship.

As the year ended, Americans read newspapers, listened to the radio and watched newsreels at

the movie theaters across the state to get news about the war. They heard that the German

army, which had attacked its former ally Russia, was now encircled in a desperate fight around

Stalingrad. The previously undefeated Nazi forces were being ground down by the Soviets and

their winter weather. Optimistic news watchers wondered if this would mean a Nazi defeat.

Closer to home, Japanese-American families faced winter in the high mountains of the Rockies

where they had been interned. In urban Chicago, scientists with the Manhattan Project worked

in a secret laboratory hidden under the University‟s football stadium, setting off the first nuclear

chain reaction on December 2.


Helen Longstreet, December 1944

1 Helen Longstreet, December 1944 LIFE magazine

Rosie the Riveter

As American factories added workers to meet wartime needs, the mathematics of warfare meant

that fewer men were available to work. With millions of American men in uniform, women

began to take jobs that had been traditionally male-dominated. Before long, people were

singing along to Kay Kyser‟s big band hit tune, “Rosie the Riveter.” The lyrics celebrated the

patriotic female workers who put together planes, Jeeps, trucks

and weapons needed for the Allied forces:

All the day long,

Whether rain or shine

She’s part of the assembly line.

She’s making history,

Working for victory

Rosie the Riveter.

The most popular image of Rosie was the creation of Norman

Rockwell, one of the best known illustrators of the 20th century.

Rosie quickly became a symbol of all women who took blue collar jobs to keep production

growing during the war. “Real Rosies” were also the face of a profound change in the American

economy. Women who had not worked outside their homes lined up for factory jobs. They were

often paid more than their counterparts in traditional „womens

work‟ jobs in domestic, educational and clerical areas.

Georgia had thousands of real Rosies. On the coast, in Savannah

and Brunswick, women riveted and welded together hundreds of

Liberty Ships. At the Bell Bomber Plant in Marietta, 30,000

workers produced B-29 “Flying Fortress” planes; of those workers,

37% were women. Among them was the widow of Confederate

general James Longstreet. At eighty years old, Helen Longstreet

insisted on doing her part to defeat Hitler, according to an article

about her in LIFE Magazine.

Women also took on increased responsibilities as each branch of

the services established auxiliary units. For the first time in

American history, large numbers of women enlisted. They could choose between the Women‟s

Army Corps (WACs), the Navy‟s WAVES and the Coast Guard SPARS. Women Marines were

called Reservists. WASP pilots – Women‟s Auxiliary Service Pilots – were considered a civilian

support group under the command of the Army Air Corps.

One traditional role for women became a career in the war years. During World War Two the

need for skilled nurses was greater than ever. In 1941 the Georgia Nurses‟ Association reported

an urgent need for 50,000 student nurses nationwide. Young women with at least a high school

diploma were in demand to fill the training schools in Georgia. Nurses training was segregated,

as was every other aspect of education in Georgia, with fourteen training schools for white and

two for African-American students.


The Double V

On the battlefronts and on the homefront, African Americans knew they were fighting against

two enemies during World War Two. The first was the threat of fascism. The second was

pervasive discrimination in the segregated armed forces and in the factories where white

workers were the majority. A 1942 letter to the Pittsburgh Courier (a leading African-American

newspaper) proposed that black citizens organize against the

forces they were fighting at home and abroad. Echoing the

popular motto “V for Victory”, the Courier called for a

“Double V Campaign” to achieve two victories. The first

would defeat the Axis powers in World War II and the

second would end racial discrimination in the United States.

The effect of segregation on the war effort had been in the

news since before Pearl Harbor. President Roosevelt found

himself faced with the possibility of a march on Washington

two decades before the famous event modern historians

credit with galvanizing the civil rights movement. A. Philip

Randolph, founder of the black Pullman Porters Union,

visited the White House in 1940 to discuss segregation in the armed forces and at home, both

obstacles to the full participation of African-Americans in the war effort. In the military, black

soldiers were restricted to menial jobs in kitchens and motor pools. More people were employed

in factories supported by federal war department money but blacks workers were barred from

most skilled jobs. Roosevelt‟s delicate dance with Southern Democrats whose support he

needed meant that he temporized on committing fully to the one issue that would drive

Southern votes away – an end to segregation in the workplace and in the military.

In the early 1941 Randolph gave notice of a planned march on Washington by Americans who

demanded an end to racial discrimination in the war effort. Roosevelt tried to stop the march,

appealing to the organizers‟ patriotism and called for national unity. Randolph did not back

down. He upped the stakes and promised 100,000 marchers would attend. One week before the

march was to begin, on June 25, 1941, Roosevelt signed an executive order banning all racial

discrimination in war industry employment. Avoiding Congress by invoking direct Presidential

action, Roosevelt had intervened directly on behalf of fair employment practices. The Act had

far reaching results. Millions of black Americans left the rural South and moved to find jobs in

the coastal and northern cities with large industries.

Military segregation continued until after the war when Harry Truman again used presidential

power to order an end to racial discrimination in uniform. One branch of the service during the

war formed an all-black unit that defied stereotypes: the Tuskeegee Airmen. On a training field

in rural Alabama, black pilots learned to fly military craft and take the occasional passenger for a

ride. (Eleanor Roosevelt was the most famous person to fly with the Airmen.) Tuskeegee

Airmen were the first black military pilots in the United States. The highly trained fighter and

pursuit groups of the unit served in North Africa and Italy as escorts on bomber runs. Easily

recognizable by the distinctive tail fins of their planes, the “Red Tail Angels” protected hundreds

of bombers from Axis attacks and became one of the best known units in the Army Air Corps.


Reading the news on V-J Day, 1945. Library of Congress photograph

Margaret Bourke-White, LIFE magazine reporter, 1943

Reporting the War

World War Two was fought in newspapers, on radio, and on filmed newsreels in movie theatres.

Televisions were available in the 1940s for the small number of wealthy trendsetters who could

afford them in urban centers such as New York City where programs were transmitted two

nights a week. During the war however the military claimed all the television transmitters that

were manufactured in the US; engineers who were developing television technology were

drafted to build radar installations. For most of America during World War Two breaking news

arrived on the front stoop in the morning or from a radio announcer reading the headlines.

News reporters were celebrities in a society that depended

on the written word to inform and analyze the war‟s

events. Among them were some of the best American

writers of the mid-20th century. William Shirer sent

eyewitness accounts of Nazi Germany until he had to

escape Hitler‟s thugs; Edward R. Murrow narrated the

Battle of Britain from flame lit streets in London and the

bombing of Berlin from an American bomber. Ernie Pyle

sent accounts from North Africa, Italy and the Pacific.

John Hersey was an eyewitness to the fight on

Guadalcanal. John Steinbeck reported from Salerno.

These best-selling authors were featured in both the

newspapers and large circulation magazines such as LIFE,

LOOK and the Saturday Evening Post. These pioneering

hybrids, displaying the power of photojournalism, brought the war in print, photography, and

artists‟ illustrations to millions of readers.

Women took increasingly public roles in broadcasting

as Margaret Bourke-White reported from the Soviet

front and Martha Gellhorn told the stories of wounded

pilots and the medical staff who saved their lives.

Gellhorn later scooped every American newspaper

correspondent (including her then-husband, Ernest

Hemingway) by stowing away on a troop transport

during D-Day to report from the beaches.

The Atlanta Daily World, the first black-owned and

edited daily newspaper in the American South, sent a

reporter to the front lines. The Daily World participated fully in the „Double V‟ campaign and

kept a running account of the second battlefield, protesting discrimination against black workers

and servicemen in Georgia.

Many newspaper and magazine reporters went on the air during the war, broadcasting by

shortwave from overseas. Their reports brought the sounds of the war close to home in a way

that past technologies could not. With World War Two, the war was now in American homes.


Atlanta newspaper advertisement. WSB Radio trumpets Wright Bryan news broadcasts, 1944

I said to myself, in the

great cliché of the

Second World War,

“This is it,” and so, I

suppose, did every

other man in our fleet

of little ships when he

heard the news.”

A.J.Liebling,

June 6, 1944

D-Day, 1944

In the early hours of June 6, 1944 an Atlanta newspaper

man named Wright Bryan sat down in a radio station in

England and put a sheet of paper into his portable

typewriter. He began to write a report describing his

journey aboard an American troop transport plane. The

plane had taken off from England, just past midnight,

heading for France. Bryan had watched as the plane‟s

passengers, paratroopers from the 101st Airborne Division,

jumped into enemy territory. The plane turned back to

reload. Bryan headed for a shortwave transmitter. His

report, broadcast before dawn in the United States, was

the first eyewitness report from D-Day.

Planning for the invasion of Nazi-held Europe had begun

years before the flotillas left the English coast in 1944.

Josef Stalin had asked the Allies to open up a second front

of combat in Europe to take pressure off Soviet troops fighting Germany in the east. Churchill

had refused to sanction another prong of attack until Nazi German troops in North Africa were

defeated. The high level Allied conference held in Casablanca in early 1943 (after the successful

campaign against Rommel‟s Afrika Corps) included drafting a tentative timeline for the

European invasion. Dwight D. Eisenhower was named the supreme commander of Operation

Overlord, the coordinated assault on the French coast, in December 1943. Months of

preparation followed as supplies were stockpiled and a detailed plan for each unit‟s participation

was developed. Just as importantly, the Allies began a disinformation program to convince

Hitler that the invasion would be focused on a port city far from the eventual landing zones.

On the morning of June 6th the weather cleared enough to allow

planes to begin flying across the English Channel. Over 20,000

Allied airborne troops landed behind enemy lines and began

securing roads, bridges and river crossings to allow infantry troops

to move quickly into the interior of Normandy. At dawn troop

transports began landing soldiers, jeeps, tanks and weapons on the

beaches. Navy ships in the Channel kept up an incessant barrage of

cannon fire in an attempt to eliminate German gun emplacements

near the landing zones. 300,000 troops arrived by boat and plane

in the largest amphibious assault in history. They stormed ashore

along a fifty mile long stretch of stony beachfront in successive

waves over the day, landing at areas codenamed Gold, Sword,

Omaha, Utah and Juno. The casualties were heavy and best laid

plans went awry. Brigadier General Theodore Roosevelt, jr. (the only American general to make

a landing with his troops) waded ashore at Utah beach with the 4th Army division to find strong

currents had put them a mile off course. Undaunted, the general declared, “We will start

the war from right here,” and, under fire, acted as a traffic cop to direct Allied troops inland.


US Army mapshowing the ‘bulge’ in Allied front lines made by German troops attacking from the east.

Marching to Berlin 1945

The last year of the war in Europe stretched from the frozen forests of Belgium, through

Germany to the ruins of Berlin. Around the globe, in Greece and in Poland, in Vietnam and in

Denmark, the final decisive movements of troops and supplies sealed the defeat of the Axis and

set the stage for the post-war world. In December of 1944 Hitler began a surprise counter-attack

against Allied troops moving toward Berlin from the shore landings of D-Day. This offensive,

called the “Battle of the Bulge” for the irregular lines of the

battlefront, became the costliest conflict of the war in Europe.

The German assault was intended to surround and defeat the

separate Allied forces moving east across France. Allied

supply lines, including an armada of half-ton trucks called the

„Red Ball Express‟, tipped the balance as German supply lines

failed. By the end of January, the Nazi troops retreated toward

the interior of Germany. Farther east, Soviet troops captured

Prussia and pushed west toward a meeting with Allied troops.

Hitler moved his headquarters to a bunker buried under the

Reichstag in Berlin.

Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin met in early February at Yalta,

a resort on the Black Sea in the Crimea region of Russia. Each

leader came with a plan in mind. FDR wanted Russia to

redouble its efforts to defeat Japan in the Pacific. Churchill was

looking toward the end of the war and the establishment of democracy in Europe. As a

condition of his support, Stalin required Allied recognition of a Soviet zone of influence that

would encompass countries that had been occupied by Germany. All three agreed that Nazi

Germany must sign an instrument of unconditional surrender; there would be no armistice to

end this war. The country could then be „denazified‟ and demilitarized.

In early 1945 however it was still not clear when the post-war plan for Germany could be put

into motion. Allied bombers continued to fill the skies over Berlin, Dresden and other large

manufacturing centers, attempting to destroy German supply lines and morale. The Allied

forces also targeted the launch sites of the V-1 (jet propelled) and V-2 (rocket powered) bombs

that German scientists sent toward England. The V-1 “buzzbombs”, named for their distinctive

motor sound, caused thousands of civilian deaths. The V-2, the world‟s first ballistic missile,

left bomb craters across southern England but it also required expensive technology and fuel to

launch, resources that Germany was quickly depleting.

By late April 1945, Russian troops were at the gates of Berlin. Mussolini was dead and the

Italian government had surrendered to the Allies. Adolf Hitler, isolated from the chaos above

him, committed suicide on April 30. His successor surrendered to the Allies days later, ending

the war in Europe on May 8th, now remembered as V-E (Victory in Europe) Day. As American

troops closed in on the V-2 launch site, Wernher von Braun, the project director, met them and

surrendered. He went on to become an architect of NASA‟s manned mission to the moon.


Flying to Japan 1945

On the other side of the world the last battles of the war were fought on the

tropical islands of the South Pacific, in China and Burma and Okinawa.

Slowly but inevitably the empire of Japan used up its resources of material

and manpower in the attempt to protect its home island and possessions

gained in the war. Battleground tactics became more deadly as the technology and geography

of the war changed.

The strategic bombing of Japanese territory grew more frequent as Allied forces captured Pacific

Islands within flight range of enemy territory. As the „island hopping‟ strategy gave Allies more

potential airfields, factories in the United States (including the Bell Bomber Plant in Marietta)

manufactured hundreds of B-29 Superfortress planes capable of flying long distances with

heavier munitions on board. American planes began to fill the skies over Japan, dropping

incendiary bombs and destroying oil fields, fuel depots, factories and nearby neighborhoods. In

response, the Japanese military command increased the use of suicide bombing raids, sending

kamikaze missions against Allied ships.

Japanese ground troops were in retreat from Burma, China and the Phillipines by early 1945.

American and Filipino soldiers captured Manila and Corregidor under the command of General

Douglas MacArthur, making good on his promise to return to the islands. Moving toward Tokyo

in pursuit of more island airfields, American Marines invaded Iwo Jima on February 19. Less

than a week later, on February 23, photographer Joe Rosenthal caught the now famous image of

Marines raising the American flag on Mt. Suribachi, the highest point on the island. Of the six

Marines photographed raising the flag, half were killed in the weeks of fighting that followed.

Iwo Jima was captured, with extraordinary American casualties, in Mid-March of 1945.

By then American military leaders were focusing their efforts on capturing Okinawa, the logical

point from which to launch an amphibious assault on Japan. By July however, when the

Japanese had been driven off Okinawa, the technology of the war had changed yet again. Far

away from the Pacific fighting, in the high desert of New Mexico, the Manhattan Project had

succeeded in building and igniting an atomic bomb. The news of the successful “Trinity Test” at

Alamogordo flashed to Washington, where a new President got the news. Franklin D. Roosevelt

had not lived to see the final chapters of the war he had declared in 1941. FDR died at the Little

White House in Warm Springs, Georgia, on April 12. His vice-president Harry Truman had

been sworn in and it would be Truman who made the decision to use the atomic bomb on Japan.

At the Potsdam Conference between the Allied leaders in July of 1945, all agreed that the

unconditional surrender of Japan was their goal. Only the United States had the technological

power to force the issue. On the 6th of August, 1945, the American bomber Enola Gay dropped

the bomb code named “Little Boy” on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. On the 9th of August, the

second bomb, “Fat Boy”, destroyed Nagasaki. Six days later the Emperor of Japan‟s voice,

unheard until then by his subjects, came over the radio announcing the surrender of his nation

to the Allies. August 15th, now called V-J Day, marked the end of the war. Surrender documents

were signed, on the decks of the battle scarred USS Missouri, on the 2nd of September. In China,

hostilities had exploded between Nationalists and Communists; the tiny Democratic Republic of

Vietnam declared its independence from colonial powers. The future was already unfolding.


The Veterans Speak - Sources

The Veterans History Project

http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/primarysourcesets/veterans/

Mack Abbott (article in Georgia Magazine)

http://georgiamagazine.org/archives_view.asp?mon=9&yr=2009&ID=2237

Pearl Harbor survivors in AJC


Sites:

Douglas, GA Flight Training Museum

http://wwiiflighttraining.org/

http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/primarysourcesets/veterans/



http://wwiiflighttraining.org/


Database World War 2 Sources:

An excellent general research destination for all things Georgia is the online encyclopedia

maintained by the Georgia Humanities Council, the New Georgia Encyclopedia

http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-3507

The National Parks Service and Georgia State Parks provide information for sites with World

War Two significance:

Tuskeegee Airmen NHShttp://www.nps.gov/tuai/index.htm

What is a legend? How is one made? This site offers virtual exhibits and information

about Moton Field, home of the Tuskegee Airmen. An additional link toggles between

between English and a Spanish translation of the website

text:http://www.nps.gov/tuai/espanol/index.htm

Roosevelt‟s Little White House Historic Site

http://www.gastateparks.org/LittleWhiteHouse

Franklin Roosevelt first visited Warm Springs, Georgia in 1924. He was searching for a

therapy that would help him regain the use of his muscles that were weakened by polio.

Swimming in the warm water of the pool became a favorite activity and Roosevelt build

a home for himself nearby. Over the next decades FDR was a regular visitor.

Historians connect his years in Georgia with shaping his New Deal programs to aid

farmers, bring electricity to rural areas and put young men to work in the CCC.

The letter to the editor of the Pittsburgh Courier that began the „Double V‟ campaign is reprinted

with annotations at the Annenberg‟s “American History in the Making” site:

http://www.learner.org/courses/amerhistory/resource_archive/resource.php?unitChoice=19&

ThemeNum=3&resourceType=2&resourceID=10106

Miller Center recordings of FDR and APR

http://millercenter.org/scripps/archive/presidentialrecordings/roosevelt

The Miller Center of the University of Virginia is an archive of presidential materials. The center

has made recordings from the White House available on their website. Franklin Roosevelt

installed a tape recorder in the Oval Office in 1940 to record press conferences. Other

discussions before and after those press conferences were also preserved, giving historians

access to the president‟s observations. Two recordings include a conversation with A. Philip

Randolph during the tense negotiations over the threat of a mass march on Washington to

demand equal pay for black employees of plants supported by Federal contractors.

http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-3507

http://www.nps.gov/tuai/index.htm

http://www.nps.gov/tuai/espanol/index.htm

http://www.gastateparks.org/LittleWhiteHouse

http://www.learner.org/courses/amerhistory/resource_archive/resource.php?unitChoice=19&ThemeNum=3&resourceType=2&resourceID=10106


http://millercenter.org/scripps/archive/presidentialrecordings/roosevelt


Wright Bryan recording of first eyewitness report from D-Day,

June 1944

William Wright Bryan (1905 --1991 ) was a South Carolina

native and Clemson graduate who went on to study journalism

at the University of Missouri. He took a job at the Atlanta

Journal and became the newspaper‟s managing editor in 1943.

Bryan also became a war correspondent that year, reporting

from London and France for the Journal, its radio station WSB

and the station‟s affiliate, NBC radio. He scooped the entire

press corps by broadcasting his account of watching

paratroopers landing in France before dawn on D-Day. Bryan

continued to report from Europe as Allied troops moved toward

Berlin. He was captured at a German roadblock in September

1944. He was a prisoner in Poland until 1945. After the war he

returned to Atlanta and his desk at the Atlanta Journal.

http://www.otr.com/dday_eyewitness.html

Wright Bryan WSB ad

http://www.wsbradio.com/news/news/photos/wsb-history-1940s/nLPj8/

Margaret Bourke-White “A Life Less Ordinary”

Smithsonian Magazine article celebrating the life of an American photograph/journalist.

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/life-less-ordinary.html

LIFE D-Day photographs – recently restored color photographs from the war in Europe

http://life.time.com/history/d-day-rare-color-photos/#2

Pearl Harbor

An article in the National Archives‟ magazine “Prologue” covers the first reports of the attack

from the words of deck crews on US ships:

http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2011/winter/ph-decklogs.html

Pearl Harbor photographs are in the National Archives:

http://www.archives.gov/research/military/ww2/photos/images/thumbnails/

http://www.otr.com/dday_eyewitness.html

http://www.wsbradio.com/news/news/photos/wsb-history-1940s/nLPj8/

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/life-less-ordinary.html

http://life.time.com/history/d-day-rare-color-photos/#2

http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2011/winter/ph-decklogs.html

http://www.archives.gov/research/military/ww2/photos/images/thumbnails/


Why Do We Teach World War Two?

The Second World War was the most deadly and costly military struggle

ever fought. It is estimated that some 60 million people died as a

result of it, most of them civilians. But this figure is only a

guess…

Despite the war’s frightful cost, the Soviet Union and the Western

democracies had no choice except to resist the forces of Imperial

Japan and Nazi Germany. To start with, of course, they fought to save

themselves. But there was more at stake than simple survival. Japan

intended to enslave the peoples of East and Southeast Asia, whom the

Japanese regarded as racially inferior. The Nazis also viewed most of

the people of Europe as racially inferior to the Aryan “race” of which

they believed Germans to be members. The Nazi plan was to rule Europe

… and to exterminate not only Jews by Gypsies and millions of Slavs.

The wars against German and Japan were, in a sense, wars against

particularly murderous forms of racism. They were also wars fought to

save democracy and freedom…

World War II remains a struggle that was not less noble for being

imperfect. It was fought at time with methods that are hard to defend

today. It failed to solve all the problems of humanity. But what it

did do was save a large part of the world from tyranny and make

possible the salvation of other parts of the world in the future.

Every Allied nation can take pride in what it sacrificed for this

great outcome. No subject is more worth studying today for what it

teaches us about the meaning of freedom and democracy.

From: William L. O’Neill

World War II: A Student Companion

Currently out of print, this encyclopedia was compiled by a distinguished historian with a wealth of resources and resilient opinions .

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/images/B008P7PPUK/ref=dp_image_0?ie=UTF8&n=283155&s=books


BOOKS: received returned

World War 2 For Kids □ □

DK Eyewitness: World War II □ □

Hall County in World War II □ □

Franklin D Roosevelt for Kids □ □

The Good Fight □ □

Great WW2 Projects you can build yourself □ □

Remember World War II: Kids Tell Their Stories □ □

World War II: The Definitive Visual History □ □

Everyday Fashions of the 1940s □ □

DK D-Day Landings Reader □ □

The Journey that Saved Curious George □ □

A New Coat for Anna □ □

Baseball Saved Us □ □

World War II in the Classroom □ □

World War 2

Travel Trunk

Contents Checklist


CLOTHING received returned

Ike Jacket □ □

Garrison Cap □ □

M1 Helmet □ □

OD Shirt □ □

Navy Coverall and Bandana □ □

Civil Defense Helmet □ □

GEAR:

WW2 Web belt □ □

WW2 canteen □ □

Gas Mask Bag □ □

Mess Kit □ □

Dog Tags □ □

Clicker Clacker □ □

World War 2

Travel Trunk

Contents Checklist


MATERIALS: Received Returned

Set of laminated WW2 posters

Cotton Goes to War

Victory Garden (6)

Rosie the Riveter

Buy US Bonds

Newspaper Front pages

LIFE magazine Covers

President Truman

Winston Churchill

USS Iowa

Foot Soldier

LIFE Magazine Advertisements

Studebaker

Lucky Strike

Ration Books and Stamps □ □

Songs That Got Us through World War 2 □ □

Bing Crosby Radio Show CD □ □

Blue Star Flag □ □

48 Star Flag □ □

World War Two in Georgia

Travel Trunk

Contents Checklist


MATERIALS: Received Returned

Sweetheart Pillow

World War Two in Georgia

Travel Trunk

Contents Checklist


A NOTE ABOUT THE BOOKS

IN THE TRAVEL TRUNK

Why does a hands-on history trunk have so many books in it?

There‟s a short answer: content literacy

Teaching social studies content is an opportunity to craft lessons that support effective reading

comprehension strategies and critical reading skills. The books in this trunk can help you teach

across the curriculum and promote a multi-resource, multi-genre learning environment.

There is a common language for talking about things and texts. What kids learn from talking

about books can transfer to talking about artifacts and primary resource documents. The

materials in this trunk helps kids see different points of view, ask good questions, and create

reflective responses. Students will learn from the trunk materials as they apply the

understanding they construct from textbooks and trade books.

The trunk materials include several picture books that work well for interactive read-alouds.

Reading books out loud to a class is an entry point for reluctant and ELL students. Using

materials from the trunk helps make vocabulary terms concrete and memorable. Find an

opportunity to pull items from the travel trunk to use as props and to illustrate challenging

vocabulary. The books we recommend have been used by teachers and media center staff who

search for compelling, authentic accounts of the past. Well written narratives keep student

interest high while building background knowledge about the past. Kids can generally listen

at a higher comprehension level than they can gain by reading themselves so using these books

can help fill gaps in understanding.

This teacher guide will suggest other strategies such as concept mapping, constructing a

timeline, and F/Q/R (Fact/Question/Response) charting. Each of these techniques will

support your students as they internalize the skills of summarizing, synthesizing, evaluating and

creating. That‟s why all these books are in the travel trunk; they‟re a scaffold to help your

students grow!

As teachers, we want our students to be active,

independent, strategic learners but that is not

possible if they do not comprehend text.

Maureen McLaughlin, Content Area

Reading: Teaching and Learning in an

age of Multiple Literacies (Pearson, 2010).


DK Eyewitness: World War II

Simon Adams

ISBN 0756672678

From the indispensable DK Eyewitness series, this

book includes high quality photographs of artifacts and

documents with supplementary information. Kids can

see examples of spy craft artifacts, uniforms and home

front materials. Good „go-to‟ resource to build

background knowledge. Arranged chronologically for

reference or in a timeline activity.

Hall County in World War II

Glen Kyle

ISBN 0738594016

What was it like to live in Gainesville, Georgia during

World War 2? Archival photographs and brief

informational texts give the answers. Along with

Liberty bonds, rationing and the growth of a naval

air station, Hall County citizens had to deal with a

destructive tornado, a Presidential visit, and an

overwhelming need for the region‟s textile and

agricultural production. Life in one little north

Georgia town would never be the same.

World War Two in Georgia: Resource Books

World War II for Kids: A History with 21

Activities

Richard Panchyk (with an introduction by John

McCain)

ISBN 1556524552

Clearly written, well organized history with directions

for constructive learning. It‟s hands on, rich in primary

source content and encourages kids to build

comprehension with activities that have cross

curricular and literacy links: creating a recruitment

poster, learning military lingo, sending V-mail.


Great World War II Projects You Can Build Yourself

Sheri Bell-Rehwoldt

ISBN 0977129411 Spy messages, Victory gardens, ration cards, bomb shelters and instructions on how to fold paper cranes – it‟s all here in an accessible guide to how it felt to live through World War II. A timeline and simplified maps make this book a good choice to boost vocabulary and build background knowledge as well as inspire hands-on participation.

World War 2 in Georgia: Resource Books

The Good Fight: How World War Two

Was Won Stephen Ambrose

ISBN 0689843615

The author of Band of Brothers summarizes his

research and opinions for a YA audience. His

familiarity with primary sources shows in the

selection of eye-witness anecdotes that illustrate

major events and technological change in the war.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt for Kids Richard Panchyk ISBN 1556526571

FDR‟s life and times, written in the same format as other “For Kids” books in this series from the Chicago Press. Includes a timeline, activities with directions and information about both FDR and ER (as well as her famous uncle, Theodore).

Remember World War II: Kids Who Survived

Tell Their Stories

Dorinda Makanaonalani Nicholson

ISBN

The author, an eyewitness to the attack on Pearl Harbor as a

child, has compiled a collection of first person accounts of

WW2. Nicholson interviewed adults about their experiences

and blended their memories with photographs. The

introduction is by a famous grown up who was once a refugee

from the Nazis - former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.


DK Reader: D-Day Landings

Richard Platt

ISBN: 978-0-7566-0275-8

An accurate version of D-Day, the D-K volume is aimed at independent grade school readers and uses primary source images with some illustrations to cover events from June 6, 1944 to the capture of Paris.

World War 2 in Georgia:

Resource Books

Everyday Fashions of the Forties

JoAnne Olian

ISBN: 978-0-486-26918-4

This book is a compilation of 122 fully illustrated and

captioned pages selected and reproduced from rare copies

of the Sears catalogs of the World War II era.

World War II: The Definitive Visual History

Richard Holmes

ISBN: 978-0-7566-7548-6

The most destructive and world-shattering conflict of all time is brought

vividly to life in this powerful, engaging and visually stunning book. It looks

at this epic war from every angle, tracing the course of military, strategic, and

political events across the globe documenting the experiences of combatants

and civilians.

The Journey that Saved Curious George

Louise Borden

ISBN: 978-0-547-41746-2

Curious George is known and loved all over the world. Bur

few people know the exciting history of his creators. In 1940,

Hans and Margret Rey had to flee their Paris home as the German

army advanced on the capital city. They began their harrowing

journey on bicycles with their children‟s book manuscripts among

their few possessions.


World War 2 in Georgia:

Resource Books: Illustrated

A New Coat for Anna

Harriet Ziefert

ISBN: 978-0-394-89861-2

Even though there is no money, Anna‟s mother finds a way to make Anna a badly needed winter coat. Inspired by a story told to the author by Dr. Ingeborg Hoffman, a NJ pediatrician who still has the coat her mother had made from bartered cloth in postwar Germany

Baseball Saved Us

Ken Mochizuki

ISBN: 978-1-880000-19-9

A Japanese American boy learns to play baseball when he and

his family are forced to live in an internment camp during

World War II, and his ability to play helps him after the war is

over.

World War II in the Classroom: A Collection of Activities for Grades 5-12

Publication of the Atlanta History Center

A compendium of lesson plans, classroom projects, maps, images,

and manuscripts written and collected with the express purpose of

educating Georgia schoolchildren.


ARTIFACTS AND DOCUMENTS

in the TRUNK

Handling 3-D objects and reading historic documents encourages both the development of

critical thinking skills and the retention of content knowledge. Travel trunks can help your

students build vocabulary and encourage respect for diverse points of view and perspectives.

Travel trunks give students a chance to practice their critical thinking skills: analysis, inquiry

and synthesis. Asking questions about an object is one way to learn historical literacy, one of the

many strategies for comprehension that our students will need in the future.

Looking for cause and effect, identifying turning points in the past, understanding change and

continuity, looking at the world through the eyes of people who lived then – these are all skills

developed by interaction with primary sources.

In the next section we‟ve put photographs of the materials in the travel trunk along with some

inquiry questions. If you‟re unpacking the trunk with students, questions like these to get them

thinking past the „wow, this is cool‟ first reaction. They ARE cool. They are also clues about the

past that you can touch, a structure for understanding how the past was very much like and very

much different from our time in history. After the catalogue of trunk items, you‟ll find the

lesson plans. The first one is an all grades introduction to working with artifacts. We‟ll walk you

through it step by step and suggest ways of using these resources.

Let‟s look at the stuff in the trunk!

Primary sources are the raw materials of history — original documents and objects that were created at the time under study. They are different from secondary sources, accounts or interpretations of events created by someone without firsthand experience.

Examining primary sources gives students a powerful sense of history and the complexity of the past. Helping students analyze primary sources can also guide them toward higher-order thinking and better critical and analysis skills.

Library of Congress, “Using Primary Sources”

http://www.loc.gov/teachers/usingprimarysources/

http://www.loc.gov/teachers/usingprimarysources/


General Dwight Eisenhower holds up the pens used signing the German surrender documents, May 1945. LIFE Magazine photo.

This jacket was the most popular uniform worn by American army and Air Force personnel in

World War Two. It replaced a longer uniform jacket that looked much like a man‟s suit coat, a

style that had not changed much since World War I. Soldiers found that the Ike jacket had

several advantages: the shoulder loops (called epaulets) kept the straps of equipment from

slipping; the covered buttons made it easier for soldiers to move without getting tangled up; the

sleeves were roomy enough to allow a soldier to fire a weapon easily. General Dwight David

“Ike” Eisenhower, the supreme commander of Allied forces, favored this jacket. “Ike” insisted

on wearing the same jacket issued to regular American troops. American soldiers therefore were

commanded by a general who wore exactly the same uniform they wore as they fought across

Europe. General Eisenhower‟s original jacket is now displayed at the Kansas Museum of

History in Topeka, KS, not far from his home town of Abilene.

What had changed about American army uniforms since earlier wars? Use photographic

evidence to compare and contrast the uniforms of the Civil War, for example. Uniforms are still

made of wool in World War Two but are no longer made of blue or grey wool. The standard

colors are olive drab and khaki – the colors of camouflage. In addition, WW2 uniforms are

standard government issue with little variation and were not made at home. The phrase “GI”

comes from the term “government issue” – the source for everything the soldier received.

World War Two Travel

Trunk: Clothing

Eisenhower (Ike) jacket

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Eisenhower_jacket_88122.jpg


American Soldiers wearing M-1 Helmets on patrol in the Pacific, 1944

M1 Steel Pot Helmet

The M-1 helmet, called a “steel pot” after its resemblance to (and occasional use as) a cooking

utensil, is one of the most recognizable pieces of World War 2 American soldier gear. When the

United States joined the war in 1941, soldiers were wearing a variation on the shallow brimmed

helmet made famous by doughboys in World War 1. The technology of WW2 demanded a

different helmet, one that would protect soldiers from shrapnel, ricocheting bullets from

automatic weapons, and debris thrown by high powered explosives. The M-1 helmet was

developed by borrowing from other designs. The lower back brim that protected the soldier‟s

neck, for example, was a feature of WW1 German helmets. The M-1 served its purpose as a

sturdy head protector that could also be used as an impromptu wash basin, bucket or chair.

Tens of millions of M-1 helmets were made for the American army in World War 2 and many

went on to see service in Korea. This example is a late war surplus helmet. It once had a fabric

and leather liner that has since been removed.

Find pictures, descriptions or illustrations in the

trunk materials (and classroom resources) of

soldiers and other armed forces personnel who are

wearing this helmet. One American general

credited three inventions with winning the war for

the Allies: the M-1 rifle this soldier is holding, the

M-1 helmet he is wearing and the landing craft

(Higgins boats) used during D-Day.

World War Two Travel Trunk

Clothing and Gear


Garrison Cap

World War II in Georgia

Travel Trunk: Clothing

Civil Defense Helmet

Dog tags

“Rosie the

Riveter” coveralls

In World War II Clickers were used by Allied paratroopers preceding and during Operation Overlord as a way of covertly identifying friend from foe. A soldier would click once and if two clicks were received in return from an unidentifiable soldier then his identification was confirmed.

Each soldier, sailor, or Marine was issued, soon after entering the service, a pair of identification tags, commonly known as “dog tags.” These were worn around the neck on a chain. If he died in combat, one tag was buried with the body for future identification by the Graves Registration Service. The other tag was collected for the unit commander and for administrative purposes. Tags for the US Army were oblong and included a notch at one end. This notch allowed the tag to be correctly inserted into an embossing tool.

In 1939, a new field cap - adapted from a World War II shape – was adopted for barracks and field use. It was then standardized on February 19, 1941. Olive drab serge material was used for winter uniforms, and tan cotton was used for summer/tropical wear. Officers often wore caps made of “elastique” material. For enlisted individuals garrison caps had colored “piping” around the folds (called the “curtain”). Sometimes these colors were in special designs. Each arm of the Army had its own design. For officers, caps had gold braiding (for generals), or gold/black braiding (for other officer ranks). In addition, each unit‟s distinctive insignia was placed on the left front, until August 25, 1942, when it was replaced by insignia designating the rank of the wearer.

Clicker

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ewpEPV7ANWI/SDiF-fxdEZI/AAAAAAAAAVE/Y8-wj_I07bg/s1600-h/SJlogo.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Overlord


Coveralls – Army Air

Corps and WASP pilots

Historians agree that air power was a key element of the Allied victory in World War Two. The

technology needed to design faster, efficient aircraft had been put in place after World War One

showed the tactical advantages gained by using planes. American factories could manufacture

bombers, fighter planes and transport craft. Who would pilot these expensive, essential pieces of

war materiel? This olive drab coverall symbolizes the answer to a persistent problem.

Learning to fly an airplane demanded quick reflexes, good decision making skills and an

element of fearlessness in the face of danger. The Army Air Corps, then part of the regular army,

searched for adequate numbers of pilots. One solution to the ongoing pilot shortage came from

two groups of Americans who had never been encouraged to take off into the wild blue yonder

until wartime emergencies forced the hand of the military. Women pilots joined the Air Force as

civilians in the WASP (Womens Auxiliary Service Pilot) corps. Black pilots joined a segregated

Air Force unit, training in Tuskeegee, Alabama. In addition, the Air Force enlisted increasingly

younger pilots, some of whom had just walked off the stage of their high school graduation

ceremony before taking the controls of a trainer airplane.

This one piece overall was worn by pilots and mechanicswho kept the airplanes in the air. As

with any advanced technology, the air craft of World War II required constant attention. Pilots

were responsible for their craft and their crew, doing mundane tasks that added up to the

overwhelming display of military firepower offered by the Air Force.

World War Two

Travel Trunk Clothing


“Web gear” is a catchall term that describes the woven fabric “belt and suspenders” that kept

soldier‟s gear safe and accessible. Infantry troops have carried the same items for millennia:

food, water, shelter, clothing, weapons. In World War Two for example a soldier could find

himself carrying more than a dozen pieces of equipment attached to a cartridge belt or

suspender strap: shovel, gas mask, M-1 rifle and ammunition, first aid kit, map satchel, canteen,

field rations and mess kit.

Q: What items are the same as the items a Civil War soldier carried? What is different?

A: Soldiers really do “fight on their stomachs”. Soldiers in both the 19th and 20th century had to

carry water and food. Some of the most dramatic changes in soldier gear came with the first aid

equipment and weapons that World War 2 soldiers used. American soldiers carried sulfa powder

to treat open wounds that could lead to infections; they also carried multiple rounds of

ammunition for semi-automatic weapons that could be barely imagined by Civil War soldiers.

World War Two

Travel Trunk: Soldier Gear

US Army WW2 era metal

canteen (with black

Bakelite cap) and cotton

web belt with

ammunition pockets

American infantrymen approach a Belgian town, September 1944, wearing web gear supporting entrenching tools, ammunition belts, and canteen pouches. Source: NARA

Mess Kit


Every American soldier was issued web

gear, woven cotton gear transport tools

such as cartridge and pistol belts and the

bags, pouches and packs that were carried

with shoulder straps or suspenders.

TYPICAL EQUIPMENT for rifle infantry man

included items such as:

- canvas bags and packs. The military

manufactured several types: a satchel called

a haversack, a rubber lined waterproof

"jungle pack", stuff sacks called "musette

bags" that were carried by officers and

paratroopers.

- canteen with a carrier and cup

- mess kit with utensils

- portable stove, matches, fuel

- steel helmet & fiber liner

- entrenching tool (a small shovel for digging

foxholes)

- gas mask and carrying pouch

- flash light

- first aid kit

- combat suspenders

- identification discs ("dog tags," each man

carried 2 on a chain around his neck)

- web belt (with cartridge pockets for

riflemen and BAR gunners).

Soldiers who were responsible for field

communication carried early walkie-talkies,

considered “portable” communication

devices. Battery operated telephones

required hard wiring to work and weighed

about 10 pounds per receiver.

An infantryman from the Japanese American 442nd unit prepares

to embark for Europe, 1944. Photo accessed on olive-drab.com

Japanese American troops in World War 2

Japanese immigrants' children born in the United States were, under the Fourteenth Amendment,

American citizens. Many of these first generation Americans, called Nisei in Japanese, volunteered to serve

in the United States military. The 442nd Regimental Combat Team was an all-Nisei U.S. Army regiment

which served in Europe during World War II becoming one of the most decorated units of the war.

A United States Army Infantryman and his Gear


Sixteen million American men and women joined the armed forces during World War Two. For

many it was their first chance to travel far from their hometowns. Georgia born soldiers could

find themselves training on the West Coast while soldiers from the northeastern states rode

trains south to forts in Georgia. From every stop soldiers sent postcards, letters and souvenirs.

The armed forces were allowed free postage within the United States on inexpensive postcards

sold at Army bases for quick messages. Overseas the armed forces maintained a postal system

that moved packages and messages across oceans. The result was tons of mail filling railroad

cars and planes. The military soon required that letters would only be sent to soldiers, marines

and sailors if they were written on stationary that could be photographed and sent as a filmed

image to be printed at the destination. This form of communication – called “Victory Mail” or

V-Mail – lightened the load on Allied planes delivering war materiel to the battlefront but never

entirely replaced the postcard and package as a welcome sign of a soldier‟s thoughts of home.

World War Two

Travel Trunk: Soldier Gear

Souvenir pillow case

and postcards

I must have around 500 letters from my husband, some V-mail and some airmail. You could send a regular letter for about $0.03 and an air letter was I believe $0.06.V-mail was something to expedite your letters- to get them over to the service people quicker. They had two post offices- one was in New York and the other was I believe in San Francisco and you would purchase this sheet of paper and you would write your letter on one side, fold it up and write the address on the other side. The postal service would photograph it, reduce it to about half of the size, and men send it off overseas.

Veterans History Project Interview with Clare Johns


Ration Books #3 and #4

When the United States joined the Allied war effort in 1941, civilians began to see changes on the

home front. Gasoline and tires became harder to purchase since the military now needed

everything the country could produce. Goods that had been imported from Asia and South

America – rubber, coffee, silk and sugar, for example – became scarce. It was too dangerous to

ship them through heavily patrolled enemy waters. With millions of men (and 350,000 women)

joining the armed forces food was in short supply as well. Canned and processed foods were

going to the military overseas while fresh produce could no longer be shipped long distances by

trucks or trains due to fuel restrictions. The federal government established a rationing system

to distribute foods more equitably across the country. Every American citizen over the age of 12

was issued a ration book with coupons that could be torn out at the cash register in the grocery

store. Stamps were good for a week, for specific items at the store. Shoppers could only buy a

rationed item by providing the right ration stamp along with the money for the purchase. Once

the stamps were used, people had to wait until the next ration week began. During World War

Two families planned ahead to save scarce items like sugar and used substitutes for some items.

World War Two

Travel Trunk

Homefront

Ration books were issued by the Office of Price Administration and came with rules and regulations for their use.

Kids learned how to use ration books during World War II. Canned foods were rationed in order to conserve metal that could be used in wartime for weapons. Buying a can of V-8 in 1943 required both money and a ration stamp.


RATION STAMPS AND COUPONS

Look at the images of ration stamps and coupons on this page. Each one was issued during World

War Two for civilians who wanted to buy a rationed item. What items were rationed?

Why were these items rationed? Think about where the items came from, how they were

transported and who needed them during a war.

Large

families

received

extra

ration

coupons

like these.

The grocery

store had

charts that

unlocked

the ‘code’

on these

rations

stamps.

They could

be for

canned

goods or

sliced

bread.

What do meat,

fats, fish and

cheese have in

common? Why

do we need to

eat these

foods?


48 Star US Flag Single Blue Star

Service Flag

Maps

World War Two

Travel Trunk – Flags

Flags flew from every home, office building,

school and military base during World War

Two. Every US flag displayed forty-eight stars,

representing the states of the Union. Some

flags, smaller and more poignant, hung in the

windows of houses and apartments. Some

showed one blue star, some more. Some

displayed gold stars.

These “service flags” belonged to families who

used them to show how many people had left

home to join the armed forces. The

appearance of a gold star in place of blue star

told the community that the family had

suffered the loss of a soldier, sailor, pilot or

Marine in the war. Service flags were first

used in World War One and have remained in

use since then.

Clair Morrison Johns’ WWII service flag,

now in the Library of Congress (Veterans

History Project Collection). Mrs. Johns’

flag shows stars for her husband, who

died during the war, and her two

brothers who survived.

http://memory.loc.gov/diglib/vhp/story

/loc.natlib.afc2001001.01754/

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Blue_Star_Service_Banner.svg&page=1

http://memory.loc.gov/diglib/vhp/story/loc.natlib.afc2001001.01754/

http://memory.loc.gov/diglib/vhp/story/loc.natlib.afc2001001.01754/


World War Two

Travel Trunk

Homefront – LIFE Magazines

Authentic magazines from World War Two are accessible

primary sources for images of soldiers and civilians and

eyewitness accounts of events. The advertisements are just as

rich a source of information about what people were thinking

about and purchasing during the war years.

TREAT THESE MAGAZINES CAREFULLY. The paper is over

half a century old and will not stand up to the kind of casual

flipping kids use with contemporary printed sources. Teaching

the importance of handling primary sources with respect will

require explaining, demonstrating and guiding use of these

fragile materials.

Support the magazine on a table at all times while

viewing

Turn one page at a time, very gently

Use the scanned images included in the trunk for

timelines and other displays, leaving the original source

safely displayed in its Mylar protective pocket.


Advertisement placed by General Motors, 1944 LIFE

This ad for Cadillac in a 1944 magazine tells us about what happened to car companies in the US during

the war and generates questions about the economy during the war. What’s missing from the picture?

A car! American automobile manufacturers went into the business of making what the Army needed

and civilians had to do without! What countries are mentioned in the text? What was going on in 1944

in Europe? What is the ad at the bottom right telling you to buy? What is that symbol of a man with a

gun? It’s a Minuteman, a symbol of a much earlier American war. Why would this be chosen as a

symbol for the war bond sales program ?


Newspapers

World War Two was reported in newspapers across the United States. In Georgia, most readers

looked to the flagship white-owned Atlanta papers: the Journal and the Constitution. On

Auburn Avenue, a few blocks west of the home where the Reverend Martin Luther King, Sr. was

raising his family, the Daily World printed news from the African-American community. This

trunk includes Xerox copies of vintage newspapers from 1939 to 1945.

Time line

Compare and contrast: Take a daily newspaper and a World War II era paper and place

side by side. Have students look for what has changed and what has remained the same.

What parts of the newspaper are still around today (headlines, banners)? What has

changed? (Length of articles, use of color and photography). And, yes, people still wanted

some diversions during war times. Comics were a regular feature, including Superman,

Tarzan, Little Orphan Annie and

Class project newspaper

World War Two

Travel Trunk


World War Two

Travel Trunk

Posters


World War Two

Travel Trunk

World War II Radio Broadcasts on CD


http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/ThinkingLikeaHistorian/

Thinking Like a

Historian: Rethinking

History Instructionby

Nikki Mandell and

Bobbie Malone

What do we ask of the past?

Looking for evidence of change over time gives students the

experience of „thinking like historians‟.

These five questions form the basis of historical inquiry:

1) Cause and effect – what were the causes of past events? What

were the effects of these events in their time and now?

2) Change and continuity – what has changed? What has stayed

the same from past times to the present?

3) Turning points – what decisions in the past changed the

kinds of choices people would have later?

4) Using the past – how does learning about the past help us

understand the present?

5) Through their eyes - How did people in the past view their

world?

http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/ThinkingLikeaHistorian/

http://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Like-Historian-Rethinking-Instruction/dp/0870204386/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1348168288&sr=1-1&keywords=thinking+like+a+historian




Why use primary sources? To answer the five questions historians ask.

Content: Primary source materials support your learning objectives. Documents help

students focus on the actions of individuals, groups and institutions in the words of their

time. World War Two era newspapers and images bring a timeline of the conflict to life.

Participants in the World War Two did not know how it would end. From Franklin

Roosevelt to children in war torn Europe, different people made decisions and confronted

obstacles to meet their goals. Primary sources illustrate the conflicts inherent in the United

States during this time and show the changes that came about as a result of the war.

Primary sources answer essential questions.

History is more than lists of dates and terms to memorize. A good historian reads

documents and looks at artifacts to answer essential questions: Did geography affect the

course of the World War Two? What effect did the Holocaust have on the course of the war?

Was World War Two worth its costs? What was the effect of the World War Two on the

home front in Georgia? These questions require higher order thinking to answer and

analytical skills to decipher. They are the questions we want students to engage with by

using primary sources, developing their opinions. At the end of the class, students should

have a viewpoint and back it up with evidence drawn from original materials.

Primary sources connect historic eras to the present.

What is the point? Every lesson has a goal, something to discover rather than to just

“cover.” Teachers can look to primary sources for vivid examples of history‟s recurring

themes. Laws and letters, art and artifacts can bring students to understand that the

past is reflected in the present. Holding an object that someone held over sixty years ago

bring the relevance of the past into the present. Students are challenged to recognize the

enduring themes that were part of the World War Two experience as well as their own.

World War Two

Travel Trunk

Working with Primary Sources


Q: Where Do You Find Primary Resources?

A: In the Archives – actual or virtual!

An archive is a storage place for primary resources – newspapers, diaries, letters, unpublished

manuscripts, photographs and other visual resources, interviews and other audio materials.

Here is an example of a World War Two primary source preserved in one of the nation‟s greatest

collections of authentic materials, the National Archives and Records Administration:

World War Two

Travel Trunk

During the evening of December 7, 1941,

Franklin Roosevelt dictated this brief

request to Congress for a declaration of war

against Japan. President Roosevelt then

edited the typed draft that his secretary

prepared. He added some details about the

attack that had come to his attention and

selected stronger words to convey his

message. For example, he changed the

original phrase in the first line, “a date that

will live in world history,” to the more

emphatic “date that will live in infamy”.

The president addressed the joint session of

Congress the next day and signed the

declaration of war almost twenty-four hours

after the attack on Pearl Harbor began. This

draft of the president’s speech is archived

with his papers at the FDR Library in Hyde

Park, NY (an administrative unit of the

National Archives).

http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons

/day-of-infamy/

http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/day-of-infamy/

http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/day-of-infamy/


TEACHING WITH ARTIFACTS

An artifact is any object made by humans to fill a need. Artifacts are representatives of the

culture in which they were made and the resources that were available.

As you examine artifacts, you can learn about the time and place in which they were made.

Working with the materials in this travel trunk is a teaching strategy for structuring real

encounters with the past that support further learning.

Artifacts can introduce a rich vocabulary lesson, add depth to comprehension of soldier life and

the homefront during the World War Two and reinforce „then and now‟ understandings of how

cultures express themselves in material objects.

How do we learn from artifacts?

We READ them. The best analogy for working with artifacts is the process of gaining literacy.

Understanding artifacts mirrors many of the skills that students use to read and comprehend

text. Students use diverse learning styles to investigate these materials, led by their natural

curiosity and supported by background knowledge about the subject matter and content area

vocabulary.

Framing questions and developing answers are part of interpreting an object, a document or a

song. As they investigate an artifact, students can use strategies they have learned from reading

such as directed inquiry and composing summative reflections. These skills are flexible and

fluid, reinforcing each other across the curriculum.

How to handle artifacts

Just as we ask students to handle books carefully, we ask

them to handle artifacts respectfully. Learning to handle

artifacts for learning is a metacognitive skill supported

by this trunk. Before starting the artifact inquiry activity,

work with your students to brainstorm a list of

appropriate ways to handle an artifact and post the list:

“We will hand each object carefully and respectfully. We

will not grab an artifact out of somebody‟s hands.” There

are fragile, vintage textiles and paper in this trunk that

are older than your students‟ grandparents so this bears

repeating.


One veteran teacher uses an “Object of the Day” inquiry strategy when working with travel trunks. She opens the travel trunk box and examines it, building suspense. She reaches in for one item and as it emerges, begins her questioning: “Look at this old magazine! You may notice that I’m holding it very carefully to show you the cover. I’m looking for some clues – who is this on the cover? A soldier? Why do you think he’s a solder? His uniform? His weapon? Good observation. What else do you notice? The price of the magazine is 15 cents. Well, when was it printed – can you tell by looking at the cover? “

Teaching in Time: Lesson Plan for

Directed Artifact Inquiry

“Reading” is a familiar activity and a useful analogy for discovering the use and significance of

an object. Just as students learn to deal with differences in texts, they will see that some objects

are easier to identify than others. Some artifacts need more careful examination to determine

what they are and how they were used. In this lesson, students learn to analyze an object and

summarize their opinion about it.

When students examine an object, they become detectives, piecing together clues from what

they observe. They use their background knowledge to compare and contrast, intuit, deduce,

and assess the historical significance of an artifact. The lesson plan includes a graphic organizer

so that students can record their observations, “leaving tracks” toward comprehension.

GOAL: Students will gain a richer understanding for and appreciation of history by analyzing

and describing objects from the travel trunk.

Method: Begin with a whole class discussion and a teacher-led inquiry

1. Anticipation! Build some interest in the concept of artifact. What do we mean when we say

artifact? Set up an anticipation guide to support student inquiry. Here are four short

statements about artifacts to present to the class.

i. Artifacts can be old but do not have to be.

ii. Artifacts are made by humans to fill a need in their lives.

iii. Artifacts are manufactured from the resources available to the people who made them.

iv. Artifacts can tell you about the people who made them – when, how, and why.

Ask students to respond to each statement. True? What do they think about this statement?

Kids often think of artifacts as dusty objects from an ancient tomb or obsolete items from the

attic. Have they ever thought about how their own possessions tell other people about them?

2. Model an artifact inquiry with a think out loud.

Choose one artifact from the trunk. Handle it carefully while talking about its shape and

dimensions, the materials from which it is made, your guess as to who might have made it and

why. Thinking out loud gives students a model for generating their own questions.


3. Transition to directed artifact inquiry. (Two options – stationery or mobile)

a. Divide the class into table groups or pairs and distribute the artifacts, one per group

or pair. Ask each to examine the artifact and work together to prepare a verbal report for

the class on what they have concluded about the artifacts. Refer to the information on

each artifact from the teacher guide to review the group‟s identification and support the

discussion. Encourage questions about production and consumption processes, the

place of trade and bartering, the use of natural resources and the work of artisans in

manufacturing each object. Trade objects between tables once each group has finished

with an object and add more as needed. As time permits, ask for verbal reports.

b. Set up stations around the classroom so that artifacts from the trunk are placed into

functional clusters: clothing, things from a house, printed documents, things that were

traded. Divide the class into groups and send each to a table, rotating them around the

class until each group has visited each table.

On the following pages you will find guidelines for asking questions about artifacts. There are

two reproducible artifact discovery worksheets with guided questions for fact-finding.

Worksheet #1 scaffolds students through identification and compare/contrast questions. The

second page of the worksheet is a graphic organizer for the transition to evaluative questions

and writing a summary statement. Worksheet #2 can be used to encourage research about the

artifact. It includes a Fact/Question/Response chart that includes space for student

investigations to answer questions that are generated during the activity.

The worksheets can also be used as outlines for written reflections with an opening statement,

supporting facts and a concluding statement. Using these prompts, students can construct a

statement summarizing their inquiry process and their discoveries.

How does this work in real life? What if you have never modeled an artifact inquiry before?

1) Explain what you’re doing.

2) Demonstrate how to describe an artifact.

3) Guide the students by modeling an artifact examination with them.

4) Let the students practice what they have learned by watching you.

5) Leave time to reflect and respond.

Remember: Ask good questions that can’t be answered with a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’.

Canteen: Let’s look at this metal object. Does it have a cap? Is there any writing on it? What

could you use this for? Water?Great idea. What do we have now that’s like this object?

And, for any object, ask the important question: What can we learn from this? What can this object tell us about the way people lived long ago?


Teacher’s Guide to Artifact Inquiry

Sample questions to ask while modeling artifact “reading”

1. What kind of item do you have? Pick it up and feel it. Is it heavy or light?

2. What kind of material is it made of? Be specific. Artifacts may be made of several materials.

Try to list them all.

3. Does it have anything written on it? English?Other language? Read what you can on the

artifact to learn more about it.

4. Was it manufactured? Was it made by hand? Can you tell? How?

5. How was it used? Who was it used by? Where would it have been used?

8. Do we have or use anything similar today? If so, how is this object the same and how is it

different?

9. Note those things that are different or strange or that you cannot identify or do not

understand.

And, perhaps, the most important question:

10. What can we learn from this object?

This last question is important because it helps us understand history, the story of human life

over time. There are many ways to research and analyze history. Reading books and watching

documentaries are great ways to learn history. But being able to handle actual pieces of history

(primary sources) gives students a unique opportunity to interact with history in a physical,

hands-on way.

When students reach a conclusion or gain an insight about history from studying an

artifact, they gain not just knowledge, but a material connection to the past and the

experience of discovery they cannot get from text books, documentaries, or other

secondary sources.


NAME:

___________________________

1. EXAMINE THE ARTIFACT

Write a few words about the artifact‟s shape or color. What about texture? Is it rough or

smooth? Heavy or light? Look for any movable parts, anything printed, stamped or

written on the object. Record what you find out here:

2. WHAT CAN IT DO?

A: What do you think it could be used for?

B: Who do you think used it?

C: Where do you think they were?

D: When do you think someone used this?

ARTIFACT DISCOVERY WORKSHEET With summary organizer


What does this object tell us

about technology of the time in

which it was made and used?

What does it tell us about the

life and times of the people who

made this and used it?

Do we have anything like

this now? Look around and

see if you can find

something similar.

Think about what you‟ve noticed already about the artifact. Now put it together. Answer these

three questions and summarize what you have learned.

A summary is a short paragraph telling the most important

things you have learned about this artifact:

WHAT DOES THE ARTIFACT TELL US?


Northeast Georgia History Center Travel Trunk

Worksheet for Artifact Study with Fact/Question/Response

What IS this object? Do you know? Can you guess?

Write a sentence or phrase about what you think:

Identification:

1) What materials were used to create this artifact? What went into it?

2) Are there any markings or writing on the artifact? List them here:

3) How do you think this artifact was used? ? Why would anyone need something like this?

Evaluation

4) Is this artifact one of a kind or do you think many were made just like this one?

5) Who would have used this artifact?

6) What does the artifact tell you about the time in which it was made?


7) Can you think of anything you use now that is like this artifact?

8) What is your conclusion about this artifact? Complete the prompts below.

FACT

QUESTION

RESPONSE

This object is a:

I wondered if

I found out that:


3. Whole class “now and then” synthesis

A. On the white board or chart paper, write: If you lived during the World War Two, you

would know….

Ask for some phrases to fill in the blank:

Some people who were fighting in the war

What you could do to help the war effort like recycling metal and scrap paper

All about who was fighting - the Axis against the Allies

People who got wounded

B. Ask: If you lived during the World War Two, you would NOT know:

Think about all the things that kids didn‟t have then and all the things that happened

after the war was over:

I wouldn‟t know about computers.

I wouldn‟t know about cell phones.

C. Ask: What do you think is the biggest difference between your life and the lives of

kids in the 1940s? Why?

Pair and share for a few minutes to generate answers!

Artifact Analysis Worksheet

1. ANALYZE THE ARTIFACT

What do you think this object is made out of?

Is it bone, pottery, metal, wood, stone, leather, glass, paper, cardboard, cloth, plastic?

I think it is made out of

This type of open ended discussion can generate dozens of questions. Record them for future mini-

research projects using a Fact/Question/Response graphic organizer.

FACT QUESTION RESPONSE

It was hard to find out what was How did people find out what was Some technologies that we happening around the world going on where Americans don’t think about much now because the war was so big. were fighting. were very important – people listened to the radio a lot and they read newspapers.

During read alouds or sustained silent reading, kids can keep F/Q/R logs on their own and return

to their questions during the discussion. Post students’ completed F/Q/R organizers as a reference for other students Use F/Q/R logs to generate research questions.


“ An essential understanding in the social studies, particularly history, is

chronology… In order for students to understand issues of continuity, change,

and cause and effect, they must know what events occurred and the order in

which these events occurred. … Significant events can be examined through

revolutions, progress, cause and effect.”

50 Social Studies Strategies for K-8 Classrooms

o Obenchain and Morris (2011)

This lesson plan is adapted from Chapter 46: Timelines.

1Lesson Plan: Timeline

One of the best ways to utilize the travel trunk materials is in the construction of a student

generated timeline. A timeline demonstrates student comprehension of an essential

understanding of social studies and is open to differentiation and elaboration. This project

produces a visible record of class work and can also serve as an anchor for subsequent

instruction.

Timelines are essentially graphic organizers. They can be written on a white board or acted

out with students. Timelines can be written onto index cards and placed in order on a string or

posted around the classroom as an ongoing year-long project. Trunk materials can be used to

research timeline events and to prompt entries on the timeline.

What do you need to make a timeline?

A starting point and ending point

Dates to investigate – think of them as hooks to hang history on

Vocabulary words: sequence, cause, effect, earlier, later, consequence

Essential Questions:

How does a timeline help us understand what happened in the past?

What events and people are essential on a timeline of World War Two ?

What were some of the turning points in World War Two? What happened? This is an open

ended question with many answers. Military and political decisions, social and cultural mores,

as well as technological changes could all be considered part of a turning point in history

connected to the events of World War Two.


Skills/Objectives:

Students will create a correctly sequenced timeline of significant events during the years of the

World War Two. Students will be able to make inferences about

Cause and effect in the course of the war

The effect of the war on the lives of people, both civilians and soldiers

Teacher Preparation:

Decide on the form that the timeline will take:

o Poster style: Students, singly or in groups, report on an event or person and post

their research on a timeline that becomes a part of the classroom wall display.

o Digital: To incorporate technology, a digital timeline can include music and

narration.

o Single presentation: A “living timeline” is made up of students holding artifacts

to illustrate the timeline element they are representing. They can “wear” a year

or identifying information and answer questions about their choice.

Teaching Procedures:

Introduction

o Determine the students‟ understanding of “timeline”. Review the school year

or a contemporary event such as a political campaign, in context as part of a

timeline.

o Focus on the EQ: History is a line of many days. We can put them in order

just as you do your day at school. A timeline can tell us a lot about the past: what

came first, what one event did to affect another event, how people refine their

technologies over time, what happens when people make decisions to adapt,

change or resist.

o Relevance: Timelines are handy organizational tools for remembering key

events in the order that they happened. This is a skill that students will use when

recalling important terms and events, when writing DBQs and analyzing

information for research papers.

Method: Determine the beginning and end dates of the timeline and assign

years/subjects/people that would be essential to the timeline (major battles, events such as

the attack on Pearl Harbor, V-E Day and V-J Day) and the effects on the homefront.

Clarify the necessary elements of a timeline, including:

o Correct Dates -- “about 1940” is not a good date for the attack on Pearl Harbor

o Accurate description of the document/image used in the timeline.

Model working with primary source: Place document on ELMO or project a scanned

images.

o Indicate key elements: source, date of publication or creation of a document, for

example. For artifacts, determine who would have used it and when.

o “Think-talk” the document or artifacts place on the time line. “Where would you

put this headline about the Battle of Britain?” Demonstrate placing an item.


o Break into mixed ability groups or pairs.

o Explain that students will create contributions to the timeline using a pre-

selected set of primary source documents and images.

o The group is responsible for determining the dates/events for coverage.

o Encourage the use of items from the travel trunk, photographs, newspaper

headlines, examples of technological advances in the era. There should be both

primary source documents and illustrations incorporated into the timeline.

Students will determine the date a document or image was created and summarize its

significance.

o The National Archives has posted graphic organizers for documents,

photographs, magazines, recordings and other archival materials.

http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/worksheets/

Each group will then sort their primary sources into chronological order and display

their group‟s set of images/document copies onto the timeline of the war.

Students will interpret the compiled sources to identify turning points such as key

battles, homefront shifts affecting gender and racial roles, and the effect of technological

innovations on the course of the war.

Suggested strategies:

Jigsaw the years of the war so that every table becomes the “experts” in one year of

sources

Jigsaw the major events of the war so that one table has D-Day resources, one has

homefront, one has Pearl Harbor, etc.

o Groups should work together to identify the source, using the graphic organizer, and

summarize its content, audience and purpose. One student records the group‟s work for

assessment.

o Rotate materials (or students) to distribute exposure to sources. Ask each group to

share their findings with other students.

Additional Materials and Resources:

Primary sources from World War Two are available on line at the Library of Congress and

through the National Archives:

National Archives Docs Teach page http://www.archives.gov/education/

Library of Congress http://lcweb2.loc.gov/fsowhome.html and

http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/primarysourcesets/

Focused collections such as Pearl Harbor images (34 large format b/w) are

here: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/related/?fi=subject&q=United%20States-

-Hawaii--Honolulu%20County--Pearl%20Harbor


http://www.archives.gov/education/

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/fsowhome.html

http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/primarysourcesets/

http://www.loc.gov/pictures/related/?fi=subject&q=United%20States--Hawaii--Honolulu%20County--Pearl%20Harbor

http://www.loc.gov/pictures/related/?fi=subject&q=United%20States--Hawaii--Honolulu%20County--Pearl%20Harbor


Differentiated Instruction

Provide a „word web‟ graphic organizer for ELL students and have them find the

words (dictator, Allies, Axis, battleship, assault, for example) in the sources and

record the sentence or phrase in which they are found.

Distribute a timeline of World War Two for each group to scaffold the process of

assigning chronological order to the events summarized.

Closing: Build the timeline

o If the groups have been jigsawed, students return to their original group work

tables and take a few minutes to look over the completed graphic organizers,

adding any details they have collected during the rotations.

o Each table in turn reports on their primary source(s) answering the questions:

type of document, content summary, audience, purpose.

o Copies of documents and images are posted on the timeline.

o Student generated illustrations of objects that are not suitable for a 2-

dimensional timeline can be added in their place.

Presentation and Closing

The timeline activity can be completed over the time spent on the World War Two

unit in the classroom. It does not have to be completed in a single class period! Every

installation of the timeline should have its own presentation moment however so that each

group can show their work, answer questions and discuss their choices.

Sequence:

Groups display their contribution to the timeline (poster page, costumed tableau, entry

in a digital timeline).

o Each group should be able to explain how the students came to their conclusions.

Display the contribution in chronological order on the timeline.

o Each group must turn in a written or illustrated page about their conclusions.

Review and ask for feedback: How does a timeline help you answer the EQ?

o Did you see connections that you had not seen before?

Assessment/Evaluation:

Check for understanding before, during and after the lesson

o If you end the day with structured journal writing, ask students to summarize

what they observed while constructing the timeline. What do they know now that

they did not know when they began the activity?

o Some key elements of a rubric for the timeline: accurately reported events (years,

name of community), students‟ ability to narrate events on the timeline and

explain their importance and reason for inclusion.


JUMPSTARTING THE TIMELINE

The following pages show suggested formats for timeline pages.

Display them as examples for students who need an explicit model for investigation.

Every source should cite a DATE and a SUMMARY of its contents.

Use these pages as a framework for the timeline, keeping it in chronological order and

making space for student contributions

Pre-teach different primary sources (photographs, newspaper headlines, magazine

covers) by referring to the examples. Students can then match timeline materials by

referencing the examples.

Assign group work: Ask “who is missing from this timeline? Who else should be in it?”

and “How can you explain where these battles happened?”

Model linking dates and events in „cause and effect‟ relationships:

o What effect did the invasion of Poland by Nazi forces have on the United States?

o What is the historic connection between England and the United States?

o What should be the FIRST event on the timeline?


World War Two Timeline September 1, 1939

Front page of the Atlanta Journal newspaper

DATE

SOURCE

This primary source answers

the question “When did

World War Two begin” and

“Who was the leader of the

German nation during the

war?”


1941


1939

Sept 1, Nazi Army and Airforce (Luftwaffe) invade Poland Sept 3, Britain and France declare war on Germany German submarine (U-boat) sinks British liner off Ireland

British Navy requires ships to cross North Atlantic in convoys Japanese forces attack the Chinese National Army

Adolf Eichmann begins deporting Jews from Austria and Czechoslovakia into Poland.

Oct 11, Albert Einstein describes implications of atomic power to FDR, who orders the a plan to develop an atom bomb.

Nov 4,Neutrality Act is signed into law .Isolationists in the US are intent

on keeping American out of the conflict but allow “belligerent nations” to buy arms on a cash and carry basis.

1940

January, Adolf Hitler orders unrestricted submarine warfare, beginning

the “Battle of the Atlantic”. March 18, Hitler and Mussolini announce Italy will fight with Germany,

“forming an axis on which Europe will revolve”. April -May, Germany invades Norway, Denmark, Belgium, France,

Luxembourg and the Netherlands

May 10, Winston Churchill becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Oversees the Dunkirk evacuation by UK forces.

June 18, France and Germany sign an armistice, ending the invasion of France. Charles deGaulle establishes a Free French government in London, in opposition to pro-Nazi Vichy rule.

July 10, Battle of Britain begins with Luftwaffe attacks on UK August 14, British scientist, Sir Henry Tizard, leaves for the United States

with top secret UK technologies including the magnetron, key to the successful radar systems being used in defense of Britain against German air

attacks Sept 2, The Destroyers for Bases Agreement is signed. Britain obtains 50

mothballed US destroyers in exchange for 99 year leases for US naval and air

bases in the Atlantic and Caribbean. Sept 10, Selective Training and Service Act of 1940 authorizes the first

peacetime conscription (draft) in the US. Sept 27, The Tripartite Pact is signed in Berlin by Germany, Italy, and

Japan, promising mutual aid. These countries are known as the Axis

powers. Nov 4, Franklin Roosevelt wins a third term as US President

December. FDR tells Americans that the US will become an „arsenal of democracy’ for the Allies fighting against Germany.

WORLD WAR TWO TIMELINE


1941

8 Feb, Churchill asks in a speech that the United States, “give us the tools”

to defeat Germany. 11 Feb, United States President Roosevelt signs the Lend Lease Actallowing

Britain, China, and other allied nations to purchase military equipment. FDR compares this to lending a neighbor a garden hose to put out a house fire next door to your home.

11 April, the US begins sea patrols in North Atlantic shipping lanes where American convoys are in danger of U-boat attacks.

8 May, Heavy convoy losses in the Atlantic continue; however, one U-boat is captured by the British. They find a German "Enigma" code machine and

break Germany‟s encryption. 21 May, American Merchant Marine ship USS Robin Moor is sunk by a

German U-boat. FDR declares a national emergency.

2 June, “Tuskeegee Airmen” (99th Fighter Squadron, Army Air Force) unit is formed– the first black pilots of the US military.

22 June. German invades Russia, their former ally, breaking a „non-aggression pact’ between the two countries. Roosevelt promises American aid to Russia under the Lend-Lease Act.

25 July. Japanese army invades French Indochina. FDR freezes all Japanese assets in the US and cuts off exports of oil to Japan.

31 July. Adolf Hitler orders his assistant Herman Goring to provide a plan for the „final solution to the Jewish question‟.

9 – 14 August. FDR and Churchill meet in Newfoundland, Canada to sign the

Atlantic Charter, a statement of Allied goals: open trade, freedom of the seas and political “self-determination”.

27 September. “Liberty Fleet Day”. The first Liberty Ship, USS Patrick Henry, is launched, a symbol of US wartime production.

17 October. The USS Kearney is torpedoed off Iceland by a German U-boat.

Eleven sailors are killed, the first American casualties of World War 2 in the Atlantic.

18 October. In Japan, General Hideki Tojo becomes prime minister, signaling the military‟s increasing power in the country.

31 October. The USS Reuben James, a convoy escort off the coast of Iceland,

is sunk by a German U-boat. It is the first United States Navy vessel lost to hostile action in WW2.

26 November. Cordell Hull, Secretary of State, tells Ambassador Nomura that the American embargo on oil exports to Japan would continue until Japanese troops withdraw from Indochina. The strike force heading for Pearl

Harbor leaves Japan that day. 7 December. Japanese planes bomb the US Pacific Fleet in Pearl Harbor and

destroy US planes on the ground. 8 December. The United States declares war on Japan. 11 December. Axis powers declare war on the United States.


1942

2 January. Japan takes control of the Philippines. US General Douglas

MacArthur holds Corregidor, a Manila fortress. 20 January. Wansee Conference. Nazi leaders determine the “final solution

to the Jewish problem” is extermination. 15 February. British colony of Singapore surrenders to Japanese Army.

Japanese forces soon invade Burma, Timor and Bali.

19 February. FDR signs Executive Order 9066, mandating exclusionary zones in which foreign nationals can no longer reside. This order paves the

way for Japanese relocation. 11 March. General MacArthur leaves the Philippines, vowing “I shall return.”

American forces move to the Bataan Peninsula. 9 April. 75,000 American and allied troops surrender to the Japanese,

starting the „Bataan Death March‟ to prison camps.

18 April. The Doolittle Raid by American pilots on Tokyo does little damage to the island but boosts American morale.

4-8 May. Battle of the Coral Sea. American planes attack from navy aircraft carriers, stalling Japanese invasion of Australia.

15 May. First national gasoline rationing goes into effect in US.

15 May. A bill creating the Women‟s Auxiliary Army Corps (the WACS) is signed into law by FDR.

31 May. In North Africa, German General Edwin Rommel fights British troops now supplied with American made Sherman tanks.

3 June. Japanese troops begin the Aleutian Island Campaign, attacking

islands in Alaska Territory, owned by the US. 3-6 June. Battle of Midway. US Navy engages with Japanese and destroys

the enemy fleet, ending the threat to Australia. 22 July. Treblinka concentration camp opens in Poland. 7 August. US Marines land on Guadalcanal (Solomon Islands) to eliminate

Japanese defenses and give the Allies a „stepping stone‟ to use during an eventual invasion of Japan.

22 August. In Russia, the Germans attack Stalingrad. Nazi forces expect to take control of the city by autumn but instead face stiff resistance from the Russians.

4 September. In the US, Manhattan Project scientists led by Enrico Fermi begin work on an atom powered bomb

3 October. First successful launch of a ballistic missile, theV2 rocket, at Peenemunde, Germany, led by Werner von Braun.

12-15 November. Battle of Guadalcanal. The US fleet sinks 28 Japanese

warships, leaving the island open to American capture. 25 November. The German army‟s attempt to encircle Stalingrad and force it

to surrender by a siege has failed. Winter sets in and the German forces are now surrounded by Soviet troops.

1 December. In the US, coffee is rationed.


1943

14-24 January. At the Casablanca Conference, Roosevelt and Churchill map

out a strategy for the invasion of Europe. 2 February. German people learn that the Nazi Army has been defeated and

has surrendered to Russians at Stalingrad. 7 February. Shoe rationing begins. Civilians will get three pairs of leather

shoes a year, using coupons from Ration Book #3.

14 – 25 February. American troops under General Patton link up with British troops to stop Rommel‟s drive across North Africa.

1 April. In the US, meats, fats and cheese are now rationed. 7 May. British and American troops defeat Axis (German and Italian) troops in

North Africa, ending Hitler‟s attempt to capture the Suez Canal and block oil supplies heading to Britain.

16 May. In Poland, the Warsaw uprising in the Jewish ghetto is crushed by

Nazi troops and the survivors are deported to concentration camps. 27 May. After A. Philip Randolph threatens a „march on Washington‟ to protest

racial discrimination by government contractors, FDR issues an executive order forbidding the practice.

29 May. Rosie the Riveter is born. Norman Rockwell‟s illustration for the

Saturday Evening Post features a woman in coveralls who symbolizes the 6 million female factory workers who have stepped into traditionally male jobs.

10 June. Allied forces invade Sicily, giving Allies control of the Mediterranean sea.

19 June. Allies bomb Rome from bases in Sicily, forcing Musssolini‟s

resignation as prime minister. 23-24 July. RAF (British) bombers fly heaviest raids of the war into German

territory, bombing Kiel and Hamburg. 2 August. Lt. John F. Kennedy‟s boat, the PT109, is attacked and sunk by

Japanese. Kennedy and his crew, wounded, escape.

3-9 September. Allied invasion of Italy, with fierce fighting against German troops who have supplanted the Italian forces.

6 November. On the anniversary of the Russian Revolution in 1917, Soviet troops take Kiev from German occupiers.

20 November. Battle of Tarawa. At the cost of 3,900 casualties, the US

Marines capture the island and its airstrip, nearing Japan. 28 November. The Teheran Conference brings together FDR, Churchill and

Stalin to discuss the invasion of Europe. 3 December. American newsman Edward Murrow broadcasts an eyewitness

report on the RAF bombing of Berlin

27 December. General Dwight “Ike” Eisenhower is named Allied commander of the planned invasion of Europe, code named “Operation Overlord”.


1944

22 January. Allied invasion of Anzio, coastal area near Rome, Italy.

Concurrent attacks on Monte Cassino continue inland. 31 January. Allied invasion of Marshall Islands in the Pacific.

26 February. “Big week” Allied bombing campaign over Germany proves P-51 fighter escorts can protect the slower bombers.

4 April. General Charles deGaulle takes command of Free French forces

fighting with Allies and coordinates with the growing Resistance movement sabotaging German occupation of France.

5 June. Rome falls to Allied forces, the first capitol of an Axis nation to surrender.

6 June. D-Day invasion begins before dawn with Allied planes dropping paratroopers into German-occupied France. Hours later, Allied forces land on beaches of Normandy and Allied ships begin artillery assault from the

English Channel. By the end of the day, Allied troops have broken through German coast defenses in the largest amphibious military operation in

history. 13 June. German scientists launch the first V-1 jet propelled bomb toward

London. (V is for “Vengeance”, in retaliation for the Allied invasion.) British

targets call them “buzz bombs”. 15 June. B-29 “Superfortress” bombers raid Japan from bases in China. US

troops begin amphibious assault on Marianas Islands. 19 June. Battle of the Phillippine Sea, largest aircraft carrier battle in

history. US Navy pilots call it the “Great Marianas Turkey Shoot” for the large

numbers of Japanese planes lost. 22 June. President Roosevelt signs Servicemen‟s Readjustment Act -- better

known as the GI Bill. 20 July. An assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler, led by a group of German

Army officers, fails.

10 August. US forces capture Saipan, Guam and Tinian Islands, giving Allies airfields for bombardment of Japan.

25 August. Paris is liberated by Allies and Free French Army. 12 September. V-2 bombs, the first modern rockets, are launched from

Peenemunde, Germany. More accurate than the V-1 bombs, five hundred hit

London. 20 October. General Douglas MacArthur returns to the Philippines, as

promised, wading ashore at Leyte Island. The subsequent battle of Leyte Gulf is a major Japanese defeat, leading to the use of kamikaze (suicide) attacks on US ships.

7 November. FDR elected to unprecedented fourth term in office. 16 December. Battle of the Bulge, the last major German counteroffensive

action. Allied troops are trapped in the Belgian Ardennes Forest for two weeks of brutal fighting in winter before stopping the offensive with the aid of Patton‟s tank forces.


1945

20 January. Franklin Roosevelt is inaugurated for his fourth term. Harry S

Truman is inaugurated Vice President. 1 February. 1,000 American bombers attack Berlin.

3 February. US forces enter Manila, capital of the Phillippines. 4 February. Yalta Conference. Churchill, Stalin and FDR meet in the Crimea

to plan final assault on Germany and partition of post war Europe. They also

plan a peace conference of Allied nations to be held in San Francisco, the first assembly of what will become the United Nations.

13-14 February. Firebombing of Dresden by Allied planes. 23 February. US Marines raise the flag on Mt. Suribachi during the Battle of

Iwo Jima. Marines capture the island a month later, suffering greater casualties than the Japanese defenders.

7 March. US troops cross the Remagenbridge into Germany.

9 March. US bombers firebomb Tokyo. 23 March. Allied troops move into Germany from the west; Soviet troops

reach Austria, heading for Berlin, from the East. 1 April. In the Pacific, US forces begin the Battle of Okinawa to secure a final

“stepping stone” for invasion of Japan.

10 April. US troops liberate Buchenwald concentration camp. 12 April. Franklin Roosevelt dies of a stroke at Warm Springs, Georgia (the

Little White House). Harry Truman becomes President of the United States. 18 April. US war correspondent Ernie Pyle is killed by a sniper while reporting

from the battlefront, near Okinawa.

25 April. US and Russian troops meet at the Elbe River in German. Russian forces have surrounded Berlin by April 27.

30 April. Hitler and a handful of his senior staff have remained in Berlin, in a bunker under the Reichstag (central government building). Hitler names General Donitz his successor as president of the Third Reich and, with his

wife Eva Braun, commits suicide. 8 May. Germany having surrendered on the 7th of May, the 8th is celebrated

as “V-E Day” – marking the Victory in Europe. 26 June. The United Nations Charter is signed in San Francisco. 16 July. The Trinity test in Alamagordo, New Mexico, is the first explosion of

a nuclear bomb. 6 August. The US bomber Enola Gay drops the first atomic bomb on Japan,

obliterating the industrial center of Hiroshima. 9 August. The second A-bomb is dropped on Nagasaki. 15 August. Emperor Hirohito broadcasts the announcement of Japan‟s

unconditional surrender. This is V-J day. 2 September. Allied commanders and representatives of the Emperor sign

the Instrument of Surrender on the USS Missouri.


2

Lesson Plan:

Reading World War Two Photographs

Goal: Use primary resources to describe the forces engaged in the war, important locations of

World War Two and effects of the war on the homefront.

Materials: Use copies of photographs from the trunk or

the Library of Congress website: www.loc.gov and search in the index for World war

Two photographs . You can also go directly to

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/cwphtml/cwphome.html

or the National Archives (NARA) photograph resources (see below)

Each picture can tell a story or answer a question.

Example: This is downtown Atlanta in ?1944

Q: Why was Atlanta an important location in WW2 ?

A: For the same reasons that it was important in the Civil War! The railroads which met in the

center of the city made it an important shipping and manufacturing location.

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/cwphtml/cwphome.html


Suggested Photograph Reading Process:

For each photograph ask students to follow the guidelines below. Students may

work individually or in groups, sharing the photographs.

Look closely at the photograph.

Describe the scene in the picture. Describe the people in the picture.

What expression is on the face of that person? (For younger students, ask „Are they sad,

mad, glad, or angry? Are they funny or serious?‟)

If you could step into the photograph, what would you be seeing, smelling, hearing?

If you could step into the photograph, what would you ask the person?

Write a caption for the photograph.

Sources for Lesson Plans: National Archives


The NARA site is a gold mine of resources for working with primary materials.

Start here for an introduction to the NARA collection for educators.

http://www.archives.gov/education/research/

You can find lesson plans for reading photographs from WW2 here:

Curated collection of NARA images from WW2

here:http://www.archives.gov/research/military/ww2/photos/

A NARA lesson plan on WW2 photos?

http://www.archives.gov/education/research/

http://www.archives.gov/research/military/ww2/photos/


Photo Analysis Worksheet

Step 1. Observation

A

.

Study the photograph for 2 minutes. Form an overall impression of the photograph and

then examine individual items. Next, divide the photo into quadrants (with a ruler or

another piece of paper) and study each section to see what new details become visible.

It‟s important to take some time to develop a good mental image of the photograph and

identify any objects, signs, buildings, transportation or other technology.

B

.

Use the chart below to list people, objects, and activities that you see in the photograph.

People Objects Activities

Step 2. Inference

Based on what you have observed above, list three things you might infer from this

photograph.

_____________________________________________

_____________________________________________

_____________________________________________


Step 3. Questions

A

.

What questions does this photograph raise in your mind?

_____________________________________________

_____________________________________________

B

.

Where could you find answers to them?

____________________________________________________________

______________________________

Adapted from a worksheet designed and developed by the

Education Staff, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, DC

20408.




Written Document Analysis Worksheet

1. TYPE OF DOCUMENT (Check one):

___ Newspaper

___ Letter

___ Patent

___ Memorandum

___ Map

___ Telegram

___ Press release

___ Report

___ Advertisement

___ Congressional record

___ Census report

___ Other

2. UNIQUE PHYSICAL QUALITIES OF THE DOCUMENT (Check one or more):

___ Interesting letterhead

___ Handwritten

___ Typed

___ Seals

___ Notations

___ "RECEIVED" stamp

___ Other

3. DATE(S) OF DOCUMENT:

4. AUTHOR (OR CREATOR) OF THE DOCUMENT:

5. FOR WHAT AUDIENCE WAS THE DOCUMENT WRITTEN?

http://www.archives.gov/


6. DOCUMENT INFORMATION

A. List three things the author said that you think are important:

B. Why do you think this document was written?

C. What evidence in the document helps you know why it was written? Quote from the

document.

D. List at least two things the document tells you about life in the United States at the

time it was written:

Designed and developed by the

Education Staff, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, DC

20408.

http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/worksheets/document.html


Make a Museum!

World War II Edition

Materials in the World War II travel trunk can be displayed in the classroom with

museum-style labels written by students.

Supplement the trunk materials with student-constructed dioramas, interpretive

timelines, and photographs of artifacts, maps and portraits.


If your museum display is in a high

traffic area, you might need this sign!

This museum was set up in the hallway

near the classroom door.

1) Begin with the vocabulary of museum work. Write on the board or post the bold

faced terms on a word wall and derive definitions for them in the context of the

travel trunk:

What is a museum?

o In a museum, people collect, organize, identify and take care of things (also

known as artifacts).

o The objects in a museum are on display so you can see them and learn from

them.

o Artifacts displayed in a museum are identified with some form of text: a written

label, an entry on a podcast, or an audio guide to the museum.

Museums are not just cases full of stuff. Objects in a museum need contexts and

connections to tell their story.

o Museums use technology to interpret the artifacts on display. Some museum

include videos that show the context an object might have been used in or record

a curator (expert) talking about the artifact.

o Exhibits include audio recordings of text so that visitors to a museum can hear

the label text as well as (or instead of) hearing it. Museums can place an iPad or

tablet in the exhibit with detailed information about the objects in an exhibit.

The goal of a museum exhibit is to let the objects speak. In order to do that, exhibit

designers have to think about how to display an object, how to protect it and how to

help visitors make personal connections to it.

Do your students collect anything? The methods they use to assemble, organize

and protect their personal collections can give them an insight into museum

responsibilities.

What do you collect?

How do you organize your collection?

How do you take care of your collection? Do you

leave your card collection on the floor or do you put

your cards in a box to protect them?

2) Make a Museum Exhibit:

Creating a museum display will require your students to

summarize information and ask evaluative questions about

the artifacts they select.

A student generated museum exhibit is also a meaningful

form of assessment, connecting your students‟ learning

with a „real world‟ presentation of their comprehension.


A: Brainstorm the THEME of the exhibit with the whole class

Ask: what story will the objects tell us?

Here are some suggestions:

o Chronological - year by year, from the beginning of the war in Europe (1939) or from

the entry of the United States (December 1941), highlighting significant events and

people

o Compare and contrast – For example, looking at the Allied and Axis powers, students

can ask„What was different about their form of government?‟

o What happened in Georgia during the war? What kind of primary evidence do we

have to tell us the story?

B: Working in groups, match artifacts to the theme of the exhibit.

o Every museum artifact should help tell the story of the exhibit.

o If the organization is chronological, for example, each artifact chosen for “1941”

should propel the story of that crucial year as German invades Russia and Japan

attacks the Pacific Fleet in Hawaii.

o List the objects the group has chosen and present it to the whole class for

constructive feedback: Explain what the item is, who would have made it, written it,

and used it during the war. How does this artifact or document support other stories

in the exhibit?

o Each group should present a collaborative summary statement for the part of the

exhibit for which they are responsible. This can become part of the exhibit label text.

C: Find a safe place to display the artifacts.

o How much room do you need to tell the story of the war in a comprehensive way?

Look around the classroom for space. Pushing tables against a wall gives you

more display area. Grouping desks into theme areas gives you a „museum in the

round‟ experience.

o Clear table space, place the objects in order according to the theme.

4: Organize the artifacts.

What do you need to help your visitors understand the significance of the artifacts?

At the very least you need a label near each artifact, clearly stating what the artifact is,

what it is made out of, and how it was used.

5: Write labels for the exhibit.

Label writing exercise adapted from the

D-Day Clicker

Reproduction

Paratroopers were given this child’s toy and

told to use it to communicate with other

American troops in the darkness of the early

morning hours of June 6,1944.


Smithsonian Museum activity:

“Creating a Classroom Museum”

http://www.smithsonianeducation.org/educators/lesson_plans/collect/crecla/cre

cla00.htm

A GOOD LABEL IS ACCURATE AND INFORMATIVE

Comprehensive labels – Students, working in groups or individually, write labels for the

objects. In museums, the word "label" refers to the printed information in an exhibition. The

labels should include all the essential information about the object and indicate why it was

chosen for the exhibit.

A LABEL MUST

IDENTIFY the object.

Explain what it's MADE OUT of. Animal, mineral, vegetable?

TELL WHO would have owned or used the object.

TELL WHY someone would want or need this object.

Point out any particular parts that the viewer should pay attention to and explain why

they matter.

Keep your label short. (Remember that exhibition visitors don't want to spend all their

time reading. Also keep in mind that exhibition space is limited.) Three expanded points

may be enough to cover all the prompts listed above.

Place the label – on a folded card, laminated or otherwise displayed for viewing – on

your exhibit space and place the object with its label.

You’re ready to give a tour of the museum!

http://www.smithsonianeducation.org/educators/lesson_plans/collect/crecla/crecla00.htm

http://www.smithsonianeducation.org/educators/lesson_plans/collect/crecla/crecla00.htm



KWL pages - Want to Learn More?

About the World War Two Homefront in Georgia?

Interviews with Veterans – Help put a veteran in the Library of Congress

Put a Veteran in the Library of Congress

The Library of Congress Veterans History Project. American Folklife Center hopes you’ll mark

Veterans Day by taking time to talk to a Veteran, video tape or audio record the conversation (it

must be 30 minutes or longer), and submit it for inclusion into the Library of Congress records.

There are specific guidelines and forms, but the Library of Congress has a user friendly website

and a downloadable “field kit.” What a better way to pay tribute to the veterans in your family

than to ensure their voices will be part of the national archives for generations to come

See what is on the Veterans History Website already:

Photographs

http://www.loc.gov/vets/vets-news-photos.html

Models for MS/HS work

http://wwii.lmc.gatech.edu/charlie/media.php

Japanese American national museum

http://janmstore.com/aboutus.html

Annenburg Double V lesson plan

http://www.learner.org/courses/amerhistory/resource_archive/resource.php?unitChoice=19&

ThemeNum=3&resourceType=2&resourceID=10106

V-Mail http://www.postalmuseum.si.edu/exhibits/2d2a_vmail.html

http://www.brighthubeducation.com/middle-school-history-lessons/9189-wwii-project-

writing-and-producing-a-newspaper/ - also has “persona journal‟ activity

http://www.loc.gov/vets/

http://www.loc.gov/vets/kitmenu.html

http://www.loc.gov/vets/kit.html

http://www.loc.gov/vets/pdf/fieldkit-2007.pdf

http://www.loc.gov/vets/vets-news-photos.html

http://wwii.lmc.gatech.edu/charlie/media.php

http://janmstore.com/aboutus.html



http://www.postalmuseum.si.edu/exhibits/2d2a_vmail.html

http://www.brighthubeducation.com/middle-school-history-lessons/9189-wwii-project-writing-and-producing-a-newspaper/

http://www.brighthubeducation.com/middle-school-history-lessons/9189-wwii-project-writing-and-producing-a-newspaper/