WWII

Hitler

born on April 40, 1889

wrote meinkampf in jail

the Fuhrer

NAZI

National Socialist German Worker’s Party

Enabling Act

1933 — gave Hitler to power to do whatever he wanted

Nuremberg Laws

1935 — stripped the Jews of their citizenship

Axis Powers

Germany, Italy, and Japan

Japan Invades China

1937 — historians believe this to be the start of WWII

Mussolini invades Ethiopia

1935

1936 — Hitler takes back the Rhineland

• strengthens hitler’s reputation with the military

• leaves France open for attack

• encourages Hitler to take more land in the future

Neutrality Acts

the U.S. cannot sell weapons to countries at War

Munich Conferece

Hitler meets with Neville Chamberlain to talk about Sudetenland, it was appeasement because GB was scared of hitler — this makes WWII inevitable

Hitler takes over Poland

September 1 , 1939

blitzkreig

military tactic that bombed and overwhlemed countries

Phone War

8 month period of stalemate in poland

Evacuation of Dunkirk

british soldiers had to go back across the English channel — citizens used their own boats to help

france split into two zones

North — German occupied

South — Vishy government (Philppe Petain)

Operation Sealion

the plan for an amphibian invitation that never happens — the royal air force protected the channel

The Blitz

nighttime bombing campaigns

Battle of Britain

air battles between the royal air force and Luftwaffe

Ultra

GB breaking German military code — Alan Turing

Cash and Carry Plan

U.S. sells weapons to countries, but they have to pick it up and pay in cash

Lend and Lease Act

U.S. lends weapons to allies — kind of opposite of Cash and Carry

Pearl Harbor

December 7, 1941

Operation Barabrosa

hitler wanted to take over the Soviet Union, but failed because of the harsh Russian Winter

Casablanca

Winston Churchill and FDR (stalin wasn’t there)

discussed how to take back France from germany (Britain wanted to go from southern Italy up, U.S. wanted to go top down)

operation Mincemeat

tricked the Germans that the allies were going to invade Greece, but in reality it was Sicily (threw a body with information off the coast of Spain)

Battle of El Alamein

countries fought for the Suez canal in North Africa — Erwin Rommel and Bernard Montgomery

D-Day

June 6, 1944 — paratroopers landed at night, and boats landed on shore the next day on 5 beaches in Normandy (they chose Normandy because it was less obvious than dunkirk)

Canadian troops wee there too

50% of soldiers died on Omaha in the first hour

Allies try to take Paris

5 beaches of D day

Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, Sword

Allied Liberation

Liberation day in France

operation market garden

Allied attempt to liberate the netherlands — failed b/c paratroopers landed in the daytime

battle of the bulge

December 1944-January 1945 — Hitler’s last major offensive (allied troops surrounded German troops)

yalta Conference

Stalin, Churchill, and FDR discuss what is going to happen in Eastern Europe now

V-E day

May 8, 1945 — Hitler commits suicide 10 days after his birthday that year

Pearl Harbor

December 7, 1941 — Japan bombed a naval base on Oahu — U.S. joins the war now

Executive order 9066

allowed Japanese Americans to be put in internment camps on the west coast — they were scared of traitors

how the U.S. ends the war in the pacific (three options)

1. negotiate peace w japan

2. invasion

3. bomb

Wannsee Conference

1942 — German government discussed how to address the “Jewish Question”

Battle of Guadalcanal

1942 — first allied land offensive in japan

battle of stalingrad

1942 — Soviet forces defeated germany in russia

Operation paperclip

secret program where German scientists, engineers, and technicians were recruited to work for the U.S. after WWII (cold war beginnings)

operation overlord

codename for the battle of d-day (1944)

Nuremberg Trials

1945 — prosecuted German military for war crimes

liberation of france

august 25, 1944

potsdam conference

divided Germany/Berlin into four occupation zones

invasion of poland

sept 1, 1939

S.S. St Louis

a German ship that carried German refugees fleeing Germany to Cuba, Canada, and the U.S. but was rejected by all and had to go back

Fall of France

1940 — rapid blitzkreig invasion defeated them in 6 weeks

V-J Day

August 15, 1945

battle of okinawa

1945 — last final major assault in the pacific theater

battle of Monte Cassino

a battle where Germans turned a monastery into a fort

battle of Midway

turning point in the pacific — U.S. sunk 4 Japanese aircraft carriers

Beer Hall Putsch

a failed coup to take over weimer germany

rosie the riveter

encouraged/ represented women working in factories — women began to work and produce for the U.S. in WWII

Battle of Coral Sea

first naval battle that did not use ships, but aircraft on them — allied victory

kristallnacht

1938 — night of broken glass

discriminatory antisemitic policies — foreshadowed the holocaust

Non-Agression Pact

1939—a 10 year non-aggression treaty between Germany and Soviet union

reichstag fire

1933 — german Parliament building burned down — rise of Hitler and Nazi dictatorship

Doolittle Raid

1942 — bombing of Tokyo after Pearl Harbor

Battle of Iwo Jima

1945 — took the island of Iwo Jima

Navajo code talkers

natives made unbreakable communication code based on the Navajo language

Gestapo

secret police force in Nazi germany

Bataan Death March

war crime that forcibly transfered allied prisoners of war by the Japanese in 1942

Berchesgaden

Nazi retreat place

maginot line

280 mile long concrete and steel fortification that failed to protect france

operation sealion

germany’s aborted plan to invade GB

Phillip Petain

leader of Vishy France that was convicted of treason and betrayed the french people

Mussolini

facist leader in Italy

Francisco Franco

leader of Spain that backed Germany

Hideki Tojo

Prime minister of Japan for most of WWII

Neville Chamberlain

prime minister from 1937-1940 — gave Hitler the Sudetenland

George Patton

U.S. general in the European theater

Douglas Macarthur

U.S. general during WWII in the Pacific theater