making history the second world war increase shipping

Among the hotels used were the Don Cesar in St. This led to the military taking over many hotel facilities.

Florida's weather conditions and flat land made it the perfect place for training, especially pilots.īy 1942, America's training facilities in Florida were heavily overcrowded. By the mid 1940s, there were forty airfields actively training military personnel throughout the state. Two of the smaller camps were Sopchoppy Bombing Range and Immokalee Army Air Field. Additional naval stations were reactivated at Key West, Drew and MacDill Air Fields in Tampa, Elgin Field at Valparaiso, and the Pensacola Naval Air Base. It grew to 180,000 acres and housed 55,000 soldiers at a time. Two of the larger complexes were Camp Blanding, established near Starke, and the Jacksonville Naval Air Station.Ĭamp Blanding became Florida's fourth largest city during World War II. Florida soon had 172 military installations, ranging from both extremely large to relatively small camps. In the 1930s, there was a tremendous growth of military estab-lishments throughout Florida.

who fought in this war were over 250,000 soldiers from Florida.īecause Florida had a warm climate and a lot of vacant land available, it was ideal for the building of military bases and training soldiers. Among the large number of soldiers from all over the U.S. Many men and women came to Florida to help prepare soldiers for the war. On December 8th, America entered World War II. The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Florida played an important role in the events leading up to and during World War II. Despite Florida's growing tourism, it was still the least-populated southern state in 1940, and ranked only 27th nationally.

Making history the second world war increase shipping