World War II
See also: Camp Lejeune; Cherry Point Marine Corps Air Station; Fort Bragg; Liberty Ships; Moore General Hospital; Naval Section Bases; North Carolina, USS; Old Hickory Division; Overseas Replacement Depot; Refugees (World War II); Seymour Johnson Air Force Base; Submarine Attacks; Tar Heels in WWII (from Tar Heel Junior Historian); American Indians in WWII (from Tar Heel Junior Historian); U-Boats off the Outer Banks; Prisoners of War in North Carolina; Two World Wars
Part i: Introduction; Part ii: North Carolina Contributions in Battle and on the Home Front; Part iii: World War II Military Installations in the State; Part iv: Prisoners of War Held in North Carolina
Part I: Introduction
World War II was fought on three continents, with North Carolinians serving in every major theater. Hostilities began in earnest on 1 Sept. 1939, when Nazi Germany invaded Poland, prompting Great Britain and France to declare war in defense of Poland. America joined the Allies (Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union) against the Axis Powers (Germany, Italy, and Japan) in December 1941, after the Japanese bombing of the Pearl Harbor naval base in Hawaii.
More than 362,500 North Carolinians (including 69,000 African Americans and 7,000 women) served in the armed forces during the war. Casualties included 6,458 battle deaths and more than 3,000 deaths from other causes. World War II in Europe ended when Germany surrendered on 8 May 1945. The war in the Pacific lasted several months longer, officially concluding on 2 September, when the Japanese signed a treaty of surrender aboard the USS Missouri.
Keep reading > Part II: North Carolina Contributions in Battle and on the Home Front 
References:
Mary Best, ed., North Carolina's Shining Hour: Images and Voices from World War II (2005).
Robert D. Billinger Jr., "Behind the Wire: German Prisoners of War at Camp Sutton, 1944-46," NCHR 61 (October 1984).
Spencer Bidwell King Jr., Selective Service in North Carolina in World War II (1949).
Arnold Krammer, Nazi Prisoners of War in America (1979).
Sarah McCulloh Lemmon, North Carolina's Role in World War II (1964).
David A. Stallman, A History of Camp Davis (1990).
J. Gordon Vaeth, Blimps and U-Boats: U.S. Navy Airships in the Battle of the Atlantic (1992).
Additional Resources:
North Carolina's WWII Experience, UNC-TV: http://wwii.unctv.org/; http://wwii.unctv.org/the-experience
Timeline of World War II, 1931-1941. ANCHOR. https://www.ncpedia.org/anchor/timeline-world-war-ii-1931
Timeline of World War II, 1941-1945. ANCHOR. https://www.ncpedia.org/anchor/timeline-world-war-ii-1942
The Great Depression and World War II, ANCHOR. https://www.ncpedia.org/anchor/great-depression-and-world
World War II and After, History of Medicine. Encyclopaedia Britannica (online). https://www.britannica.com/topic/history-of-medicine/World-War-II-and-after
Video Credit:
NC's WWII EXPERIENCE: Boomtown North Carolina: Fort Bragg, UNC-TV. Uploaded by exploreUNCTV on Nov 15, 2010. Available from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycE86mq-6io&feature=plcp (accessed August 29, 2012).
1 January 2006 | Bell, John L., Jr.; Belton, Tom; Billinger, Robert D., Jr.; Hill, Michael; Howard, Joshua; Parker, Roy, Jr.; Powell, William S. ; Tetterton, Beverly; Williford, Jo Ann