World War 2

Blitzkrieg

A military tactic used by Nazi Germany in World War II, characterized by swift, coordinated attacks using tanks, motorized infantry, and air support to overwhelm the enemy.

Panzer(s)

Armoured fighting tanks used by the German Army.

Luftwaffe

The German Air Force before and during World War 2, was disbanded after the defeat of Nazi Germany in May 1945.

Hermann Goering

Hermann Wilhelm Goering was a German Nazi politician, aviator, military leader, and convicted war criminal. He was one of the most powerful figures in the Nazi Party, which governed Germany from 1933 to 1945, and was the leader of the Luftwaffe.

Wehrmacht

The Wehrmacht were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer, the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe.

Invasion of Poland

The Invasion of Poland, which began on September 1, 1939, marked the start of World War II, initiated by Nazi Germany's attack on Poland, followed by the Soviet Union's invasion from the east on September 17. 

Phony War

The period of relatively little military activity in Europe following the start of World War II in September 1939, lasting until the German invasion of France in May 1940.

Russo-Finnish War, 1939-1940

The Winter War was a war between the Soviet Union and Finland. It began with a Soviet invasion of Finland on 30 November 1939, three months after the outbreak of World War II, and ended three and a half months later with the Moscow Peace Treaty on 13 March 1940.

Winton Churchill

A British statesman, military officer, and writer who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955.

Dunkirk (Operation Dynamo)

Operation Dynamo, the codename for the evacuation of Allied soldiers from Dunkirk in 1940, involved the rescue of over 338,000 troops, a feat often referred to as the "Miracle of Dunkirk". 

Vichy France

Was a French rump state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II, established after the French capitulation after the defeat against Germany. It was named after its seat of government, the city of Vichy.

Charles DeGaulle

A French general and statesman who led the Free French Forces against Nazi Germany in World War II and chaired the Provisional Government of the French Republic from 1944 to 1946 to restore democracy in France.

Battle of Britain

The Battle of Britain, a pivotal WW2 air campaign, saw the Royal Air Force (RAF) successfully defend the United Kingdom against the Luftwaffe's (German Air Force) attacks from July to October 1940, preventing a German invasion.

Radar

This revolutionary new technology of radio-based detection and tracking was used by both the Allies and Axis powers in World War 2.

The Blitz

The "Blitz" refers to the sustained aerial bombing campaign by the Luftwaffe (German Air Force) against British cities from September 1940 to May 1941, a period of intense terror and damage, especially in London.

Erwin Rommel (Desert Fox)

A German Generalfeldmarschall during World War II. He served in the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany, as well as in the Reichswehr of the Weimar Republic, and the army of Imperial Germany.

Afrika Korps

The German Africa Corps, commonly known as Afrika Korps, was the German expeditionary force in Africa during the North African campaign of World War II.

Enigma

The Enigma machine was a cipher device used by Nazi Germany to encrypt military communications during World War II, and its code was eventually cracked by Allied cryptographers, notably at Bletchley Park, using machines like the Bombe, which played a crucial role in the war's outcome. 

Battle of El Alamein

The Battles of El Alamein, a pivotal turning point in the North African campaign of World War II, consisted of two major engagements fought in 1942 near the Egyptian railway halt of El Alamein: the First Battle (July 1-27) and the Second Battle (October 23 - November 11), with the latter being a decisive Allied victory. 

Bernard Montgomery

Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery, nicknamed "Monty," was a prominent British commander in World War II, known for his victories in North Africa, the invasion of Italy, and the Battle of Normandy, ultimately leading the Allies to victory in the war. 

Battle of the Atlantic

The Battle of the Atlantic, the longest campaign of World War II, was a naval struggle for control of the Atlantic sea routes, fought between the Allies and the Axis powers, primarily Germany, from 1939 to 1945.

Convoys

During World War II, Allied nations relied heavily on convoys of merchant ships, escorted by warships, to transport vital supplies across the Atlantic and to the Soviet Union, facing constant threats from German U-boats and other Axis forces.  

U-Boats

A formidable naval force, sinking thousands of Allied ships and causing significant damage to the Allied war effort, particularly during the Battle of the Atlantic.

Sonar

Initially developed in the 1920s, became crucial for detecting and tracking German U-boats, with British ASDIC technology being shared with the United States, leading to the development of various sonar systems and tactics.

Operation Barbarossa

Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Nazi Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union, launched on June 22, 1941, marking a crucial turning point in World War II and the largest military operation in history.

Scorched Earth Policy

A scorched-earth policy is a military strategy of destroying everything that allows an enemy military force to be able to fight a war, including the deprivation and destruction of water, food, humans, animals, plants and any kind of tools and infrastructure.

Siege of Leningrad

The siege of Leningrad was a military blockade undertaken by the Axis powers against the city of Leningrad (present-day Saint Petersburg) in the Soviet Union on the Eastern Front of World War II from 1941 to 1944. Leningrad, the country's second largest city, was besieged by Germany and Finland for 872 days, but never captured.

Battle of Attrition

A military strategy where one side aims to wear down the enemy through sustained losses in personnel and resources, ultimately leading to their collapse or exhaustion. 

Battle of Kursk

The Battle of Kursk was a major World War II Eastern Front battle between the forces of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union near Kursk in southwestern Russia during the summer of 1943, resulting in a Soviet victory.

Italian Campaign

A major military undertaking during World War II, involved Allied forces invading and conquering Italy, starting with the invasion of Sicily in July 1943 and culminating in the German surrender in May 1945. 

Wartime Conference

During World War II, key Allied wartime conferences included the Tehran, Yalta, and Potsdam Conferences, where the "Big Three" (US, UK, and Soviet Union) leaders met to discuss military strategy, post-war Europe, and diplomatic compromises.

Tehran Conference, 1943

The Tehran Conference, held in November-December 1943, was a crucial meeting between U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin, where they coordinated their military strategy against Nazi Germany and Japan, and discussed the post-war world order. 

Yalta Conference, 1945

The Yalta Conference, held in February 1945, was a meeting between U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin to discuss the postwar reorganization of Europe and the Pacific, including the treatment of Germany, the formation of the United Nations, and Soviet entry into the war against Japan.

Potsdam Conference, 1945

The Potsdam Conference, held from July 17 to August 2, 1945, in Potsdam, Germany, saw the leaders of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union (the "Big Three") meet to discuss the post-World War II world, including the fate of Germany, Poland, and the final destruction of Japanese military power, and to lay the groundwork for the Cold War.

Sphere of Influence

Regions where a major power exerted significant political, economic, and military influence, often at the expense of the sovereignty of other nations within that area.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served more than two terms.

Dwight Eisenhower

Dwight David Eisenhower, also known by his nickname Ike, was the 34th President of the United States, serving from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, he was Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe and achieved the five-star rank as General of the Army.

Operation Overlord

Operation Overlord, also known as D-Day, was the codename for the Allied invasion of Normandy in June 1944, a pivotal event in World War II that launched the liberation of Western Europe from Nazi occupation.

Normandy

The Normandy landings, also known as D-Day, were the largest seaborne invasion in history, launching on June 6, 1944, as part of Operation Overlord, and involved Allied forces landing on the beaches of Normandy, France, to liberate Nazi-occupied Western Europe.

Mulberry Harbours

The Mulberry harbours were two temporary portable harbours developed by the British Admiralty and War Office during the Second World War to facilitate the rapid offloading of cargo onto beaches during the Allied invasion of Normandy in June 1944.

Operation Market Garden

Operation Market Garden, a daring but ultimately failed Allied airborne operation during World War II, aimed to seize key bridges in the Netherlands to create a path for an advance into Germany, but it was hampered by logistical issues and German resistance.

V1(2) Rockets

During World War II, Germany developed and deployed the V-1 and V-2 rockets, known as "revenge weapons" intended to terrorize British civilians and undermine their morale, with the V-1 being a pulsejet-powered cruise missile and the V-2 a liquid-fueled ballistic missile.

Battle of the Bulge

The Battle of the Bulge, also known as the Ardennes Offensive, was the last major German offensive on the Western Front during World War II, taking place from December 16, 1944, to January 25, 1945, in the Ardennes region of Belgium and Luxembourg.

Warsaw Uprising

The Warsaw Uprising, a major World War II operation by the Polish underground resistance (Home Army) to liberate Warsaw from German occupation, began on August 1, 1944, and lasted until October 2, 1944.

Berlin, 1945

The Western Allies stopped their air attacks on 16 April 1945. The Soviet Union continued the air war to support the ground offensive in Berlin. On 2 May 1945, the Berlin garrison surrendered to the Soviet army. The human cost of the battle of Berlin had been enormous.

VE Day (Victory in Europe)

VE Day, or Victory in Europe Day, commemorates the formal acceptance of Germany's unconditional surrender by the Allies on May 8, 1945, marking the end of World War II in Europe.

Final Solution

The Final Solution or the Final Solution to the Jewish Question refers to a plan orchestrated by the Nazi regime of Germany during World War II for the genocide of individuals they defined as Jews.

Heinrich Himmler

A German Nazi politician who was the 4th Reichsführer of the Schutzstaffel, a leading member of the German Nazi Party, and one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany. He is primarily known for being one of the main architects of the Holocaust.

Genocide

Genocide is the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group, with the intent to destroy that group, and can involve mass murder, starvation, forced deportation, and political, economic, and biological subjugation.

Einsatzgruppen

Einsatzgruppen were Schutzstaffel paramilitary death squads of Nazi Germany that were responsible for mass murder, primarily by shooting, during World War II in German-occupied Europe.

Warsaw Ghetto

The Warsaw Ghetto was the largest of the Nazi ghettos during World War II and the Holocaust. It was established in November 1940 by the German authorities within the new General Government territory of occupied Poland.

Auschwitz (concentration/death camps)

Auschwitz or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland during World War II and the Holocaust.

Holocaust

The Holocaust, known in Hebrew as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe, around two-thirds of Europe's Jewish population.

Nuremberg Trials

A series of trials held by the Allies after World War II in Nuremberg, Germany, to prosecute high-ranking Nazi officials for war crimes, crimes against peace, and crimes against humanity.