World War 2 Final

Non-Aggression Pact

 Pact that Joseph Stalin signed with Hitler to not fight

Blitzkrieg

“lightning war” fast-moving airplanes and tanks followed by massive infantry forces, to take enemy defenders by surprise and quickly overwhelm them. This worked in Poland.

“Phony War”/ Sitzkrieg

Sitting war. After war was declared in September 1939, eight months passed before any major fighting occurred in France. This period of inactivity was known as the ___ in Britain and the ____in Germany. The British Air Forces in France consisted of two separate formations.

Rescue at Dunkirk

Great Britain rescued the Allies from the German troops. They were trapped with their back to the sea. Great Britain sent a fleet of about 850 ships across the English Channel to Dunkirk. Along with Royal Navy ships, civilian craft–yachts, lifeboats, motorboats, paddle steamers, and fishing boats. Under heavy fire from German bombers, they sailed back and forth from Britain to Dunkirk. The boats carried some 338,000 battle-weary soldiers to safety.

Charles de Gaulle

French general who set up a government-in-exile in London. He committed all his energy to reconquering France. 

Winston Churchill

British prime minister declared to never give in to war. He was named Britain's most powerful weapon as they stood alone against Hitler’s Germany. He was gifted in speech, and was able to rally the people behind the effort to crush Germany.

*Luftwaffe

German word for “Air weapon” or Germany’s air force that attacked in the Battle of Britain

Battle of Britain

Germany’s attempt to invade Britain. they began to bomb Great Britain. The British did not waver even though there was destruction and loss. The RAF was able to use a radar to track the speed, number, and direction of incoming warplanes. The other decision they used was a German code-making machine named Enigma. The Enigma was smuggled into Great Britain in the late 1930’s. They were able to decode German secret messages. The British were able to stay in air-raid shelters, basements, and subways. This resistance made Hitler call off his attacks. This showed the Allies that Hitler’s attacks could be blocked. 

Erwin Rommelh

The General who commanded a German tank force to Afrika Korps. He defeated the Allies and was named the “Desert Fox” by North Africa. 

Neutrality Acts

 The laws that were passed by Congress in America to make it illegal to sell arms or lend money to nations at war. These were passed in order to avoid war involvement.

Lend-Lease Act

Passed in March 1941. The president could lend or lease arms and other supplies to any country vital to the United States. 

Atlantic Charter

 Secretly issued joint declaration made by Roosevelt and Churchill. It upheld free trade among nations and the right of people to choose their own government. This served as the Allies peace plan at the end of World War II. 

Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto

Japan's greatest naval strategist. He called for an attack on the U.S. fleet in Hawaii. He called it a “dagger pointed at Japan’s throat”

Pearl Harbor

 On December 7, 1941, American soldiers awoke to a Japanese attack underway on Hawaii. The Japanese had sunk or damaged 19 ships, including 8 battleships. More than 2,300 Americans were killed with over 1,100 wounded. 

The Battle of Coral Sea

A new kind of warfare was used. The opposing ships did not fire any shots, instead airplanes taking off in huge aircraft carriers attacked the ships. The Allies suffered more in ships and losses than the Japanese. The Allies were able to stop Japan’s southward advancement.

Battle of Midway

Japan targeted Midway Island, which was the location of a key American airfield. Admiral Chester Nimitz, a commander in chief of the U.S. The Pacific Fleet knew that a huge Japanese force was heading towards Midway because of the Allied code breakers. Admiral Yamamoto was in command of the Japanese fleet. He hoped that the attack on Midway would draw the whole of the U.S. Pacific Fleet from Pearl Harbor to defend the island. The Americans had successfully destroyed 332 Japanese planes, all four aircraft carriers, and one support ship. Yamamoto ordered his fleet to withdraw. The battle ended on June 7, 1942.

Douglass MacArthur

General and commander of the Allied land forces in the Pacific. His qualities as a leader and a fighting soldier emerged in France during WWI. He showed incredible dash and courage on the battlefield, receiving several decorations for bravery. He also won promotion from the rank of major to brigadier general. He developed the plan of “Island-hopping”

“Island-Hopping”

Douglas MacArthur’s plan for handling the Japanese troops that had dug in on hundreds of islands across the Pacific Ocean. This was the process of hoping past Japanese strongholds and seizing islands that were not well defended but were closer to Japan.

Battlel of Guadalcanal

U.S. military leaders had learned that the Japanese were building a huge air base on the island of Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. The Allies had to strike fast before the base was completed and became another Japanese stronghold. The U.S. Marines, with Australian support, landed on Guadalcanal and the neighboring island of Tulagi. They had no trouble seizing Guadalcanal’s airfield. This was a strong battle for both sides. After six months of fighting, in February 1943, the Battle of Guadalcanal finally ended. The Japanese abandoned what they called “the Island of Death” after losing more than 24,000 of a force and 36,000 soldiers. American soldiers described it as hell.

Aryan

a “master race” this referred to non-Jewish people - the name comes from the misuse of the word “aryan”

Holocaust

The systematic mass slaughter of Jews

Kristallnacht

“Night of Broken Glass” - this took place after Herchel Grynzpan found out his father had been deported to Poland. To avenge his father, he shot a German diplomat living in Paris. When Nazi leaders heard of this, they attacked the Jewish community. Two days after the shooting, on November 9, 1938, Nazi storm troopers attacked Jewish homes, businesses, and synagogues across Germany and Austria. They murdered close to 100 Jews. They rounded up 30,000 Jews and sent them to harsh concentration camps where many of them died due to living conditions. This marked a major set-up in the Nazi policy of Jewish persecution. 

Ghetto

Segregated Jewish areas. These were areas that were overcrowded with Jews in different cities, enclosed with barbed wire and stone walls. These were made in hopes of the Jews starving to death or dying of disease. 

“Final Solution”

Hitlers plan to protect the Aryan race. He sent Nazis to eliminate other races, nationalities, or groups they viewed as inferior–as “subhumans.” They included Roma (gypsies), Poles, Russians, homosexuals, the insane, the disabled, and the incurably ill. This was enforced heavily on the Jews. - Included extermination camps equipped with huge gas chambers that could kill as many as 6,000 human beings in a day. (Places like Auschwitz, which was one of the largest extermination camp

Genocide

The systematic murder of an entire people. 

Auschwitz

The largest Jewish extermination camp 

SS

Hitlers elite security force who went around eastern europe to hunt down and kill Jews of all age and gender

Joint-War Policy

A military doctrine that places priority on the integration of the various branches of a state’s armed forces into one unified command 

General Bernard Montgomery

He was sent to London by General Erwin Romel to lead troops to take control of British forces in North Africa.

The Battle of El Alamein

When he arrived, the Germans were already in El Alamein, west of Alexandria. They dug so well that the British could not get around them. They had to fire a massive frontal  attack. British forces could not get around Germany in El Alamein and sent a massive frontal attack. On october 23, about 1,000 British guns took the Axis soldiers by surprise. They fought and held the ground for days but unfortunately Rommel’s army was pushed back. 

Operation Torch

 The Allies launched this after Rommel retreated west. On November 8, an Allied force of more than 100,000 troops (mostly Americans) landed in Morocco and Algeria. 

Dwight D. Eisenhower

 American general who led the Allied force in Operation Torch. Montgomery and Eisenhower’s armies were able to crush Rommel’s Afrika Korps in May 1943.

Battle of Stalingrad

Began on August 23, 1942. The Luftwaffe went on nightly bombing raids that set much of the city ablaze and reduced most of it to rubble. Stalin had his commanders defend his city to the death. The German invader troops were trapped by Soviet troops during the Russian Winter. The Germans were starving and SUrrendered on February 2, 1943. The Germans were now on the defense with the Soviets pushing them steadily forward. 

Operation Overlord

The invasion of Normandy- the largest land and sea attack in history. This was planned by Dwight D. Eisenhower

D-Day

This is the day that operation overlord and the invasion of Normandy took place. They planned to attack the German held France across the English Channel. At dawn, British, American, French, and Canadian troops fought their way onto a 60-mile stretch of beach in Normandy. D-Day lasted for over 2 months. The Allies were able to hold the beachheads although they lost. On July 25, the Allies punched a hole in the German defenses near Saint-Lo, and the United States Third Army, which was led by General George Patton. 

Battle of the Bulge

On December 16, German tanks broke through weak American defenses along a 75-mile front in the Ardennes. The push into Allied lines gave it this name.  The Germans had little choice but to retreat, since there were no reinforcements available. 

V-E Day

The Victory in Europe day that celebrates the ending of the war in Europe.

Kamikaze

Japanese aircraft loaded with explosives and making a deliberate suicidal crash on an enemy target 

Japanese Internment

Japanese Americans were forced to leave their homes and property and live and camps for most of the war

Nuremberg Trials

During 1945 and 1946, an International Military Tribunal representing 23 nations put Nazi war criminals on trial in Nuremberg, Germany. 22 Nazi leaders were charged with waging a war of aggression. They were also accused of committing “crimes against humanity” (murdering 11 million people) 

Demilitarization

Disbanding the Japanese armed forces 

Democratization

The process of creating a government elected by the people 

Diet

The newly elected two-house parliament all citizens over the age of 20, including women, had the right to vote 

Article 9

The Japanese government could not make war. They could only fight if attacked.

Benito Mussolini

Newspaper editor and politician who promised to rescue Italy by reviving its economy and rebuilding its armed forces. He vowed to give Italy strong leadership. He founded the Facist party in 1919. 

Marshal Petain

The French leader who surrendered to Italy and was given control of the Vichy gov

Vichy

Puppet govt. of the Axis powers

Maginot Line

The border between Germany and Belgium (France)

Cash and Carry

Americans would supply wepons 

Nuremburg Laws

Antisemitic and racist laws that were enacted in Nazi Germany (Non Jew)

Einsatzgruppen

Temporary units responsible for mass killings Part of the Nazi SS