WWII TEST

Attack on Pearl Harbor

Japan is nervous about boats/ships in Hawaii; Us finds out about their plan to invade southeast asia; United states puts an embargo on all exports to japan and freezes assets (japan is a bit scared without oil); The first wave comes from the east and second from the west; Marine and army base were targeted; Their main goal was battleship row; The US had no idea it was coming; While the US is being attacked, Japan was also attacking Malaya, Hong King, wake island, and midway island

Japan’s 2 mistakes

They didn't target the oilfields; Don't get aircraft carriers that are out at sea

Doolittle Raid

Dolittle gets a group of piolets together; Goes and gets an aircraft carrier; Goes and bombs Tokyo; Had to take off early because they were spotted; It was the first successful Japan Island attack ever; Hurts Japan's moral/psychological damage

Battle of Coral Sea

Prevented a Japanese attack on Australia; Would have cut off the supply lines to it; 2 enemy dont see eachother; On paper, Japan won the battle by sinking the US aircraft carrier but otherwise it was a tie. Overall, US wins because it keeps Australia safe

Admiral Yamamoto

Japanese mastermist; Studied at naval war college and harvard; Planned and led Pearl Harbor

General Hedeki Tojo

Prime Minister of Japan; Supporter of militarism and expansion

Battle of Midway

Japan wants to take over midway islands; Us knows that an attack is coming (a bit unclear on which island → learned that salt water thing was broken and they talked about it); Japan sends 4

Island hopping

US strategy to avoid Japanese fortified islands; Capture islands closer to Japan; Cut off Japanese supply lines

General Douglas MacArthur

Led US Army forces in the Pacific

Admiral Chester Nimitz

Commander in chief of the US fleet (everything ocean)

Mariana Islands

Allowed for direct bombing of Japan; Important base for bombers

Guadalcanal

First major offensive against Japan; Long fight; Important turning point

Battle of Leyte Gulf

Philippines port; Biggest battle in the pacific; Largest naval battle in history; First time Japanese used kamakaze; Japanese lost 80,000 and 1,000 surrendered; Importance: opened up plans for an attack on japanese home island

Firebombing of Tokyo

General Curtis Lemay came with bombs with napalm that will cause fires; very controversial due to civilian cost; The winds were strong and fire would grow intensely; Killed more than 80,000 people and destroyed 250,000 buildings

Battle of Iwo Jima

Small volcano island off the coast of japan; Iwo jima → accurate bombs on japan; Break will of people →army→country; Cause destruction; IwoJima is heavily defended; Heavy losses on both sides

Navajo Code Talkers

Used Navajo language for secure communication; The code was never broken

Ronson or zippo tanks

tank meets flame thrower

Battle of Okinawa

Southern most island of japan; Hiding in caves, bunkers, fox holes; Massive casualties; Bloodiest battle in the west; Army, navy, marines were involved; Largest amphibious assault ever

Manhattan Project

Led by Oppenheimer

Atomic Bomb drops

Made bombs with split of an atom which causes atomic reaction; Cost the US $2 million to make; 100,000 people working on it; Japan might face complete destruction if they don't surrender; If they do, it saves a lot of american and japanese lives; Dropped the first bomb on Hiroshima and the second one on Nagasaki

Hiroshima

August 6th; Kills 130,000 people instantly and those from radiation sickness

Nagasaki

August 9th; 70,000 deaths from japan

VJ Day

Japan then surrendered on August 14th

Battle of Britain

Last remaining power in europe; Britain has a large navy; US can liberate europe with some where to prep → britain; Luftwaffe vs. RAF; Churchill → “we shall never surrender”

The Blitz

OPERATION SEA LION; Luftwaffe targets airfields and air targets; Huge portion of london was destroyed; Targeted cities and civilians; British used radars and codebreaking to resist against Nazi

Battle of the Atlantic

Most important; If they lose this, they lose the war; Naval Battle; Longest continuous military campaign; Axis targeted allied shipping; Using wolf pack strategy

Tizard Mission

Intelligence exchanged for production; Magnetron #12; Atomic bomb

Enigma Code

German encryption

Operation Barbarossa

Nazi Russian Nonaggression Pack; Shared poland; Nazis went against this pact and attacked unprepared soviet union; Things do not go well for Soviet Union; Stalin uses scorched earth policy as they retreat

Siege of Leningrad

Circle around and starve people; Lasted about 2+ years

Battle of Stalingrad

Germany wanted the oilfiends because they would be set then for the rest of war but they had to go through Stalingrad to get them; Embarrassing to the soviets because of the name STALINgrad; Luftwaffe starts with bombing raids; “Defend the city to the end”

Operation Torch

Allied invasion of North Africa; Created a two front war (russia and africa)

General Rommel

Desert Fox

Battle of El Alamein

Montgomery launch attack on Rommel; Half of rommels 100,000 man army was killed, wounded so 50,000 or taken prisoner

General Eisenhower

Controlled the entire eastern front of the war; Title: Supreme Allied Commander

Operation Husky

Allied forces invade Sicily/southern Italy; Germans retreat back to mountains and take Mussolini with them; Italian overthrow Mussolini

Anzio and fall of Rome

Allies make an amphibious turning maneuver

Operation Overlord

Allied forces ready to open a second front in Europe; Invasion of Normandy; June 6th, 1944; Original plan was going to invade on June 5th but they couldn't because they had bad weather; Was a big deal; Lots of things went to (fail, france); Goal was to break german lines → advance to paris → force germans to retreat

D

Day

Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery

Incharge of stuff on the ground; Reports to eisenhower; (not incharge of ocean/sea)

Operation Fortitude

Plan to throw off Nazi; Build fake equipment (tanks, guns, and more…); Also used fake radio signals; Success that Germans THINK invasion will be at Calais

French Resistance

Name: Maquis; Tried to help the allies by blowing up bridges and stuff; The germans find out and get back at them and go killing them

Atlantic Wall

Giant fortification that ran from Norway to Spain; Consisted of barbed wire, bunkers, landmines and more

Omaha and Utah Beaches

82nd and 101st airborne divisions went first (paratroopers); Then @ 6:30 utah and omaha went un under General Bradley; Utah went relatively easy because it was less defended

Cherbourg

Goal was to capture during D

Battle of the Bulge

US and British forces advance on Germany from West, Soviets from East; German forces would drive through a weak spot in the allied lines and capture Antwerp, Belgium; Germans have early success but they are forced to retreat → failure; End of german offensive

VE Day

Victory in Europe Day!

Yalta Conference

Meet with Soviet Union (Stalin), United States (FDR) and Britain (Churchill); Soviets gain territory; End hitler; Enter war against Japan; split Germany up; Britain portion; US portion; Soviet portion; French Portion; Create United Nations

Potsdam Conference

Allies meet up and discuss what is next for the war with Japan and post war stuff; Churchill was voted out from office midway through the meeting; FDR died in April → Harry Truman steps in/was VP so he is now incharge

Destroyers for bases deal

Us traded destroyers to Britain; Received military base rights

Four Freedoms

Freedom of speech; Freedom of religion; Freedom from want; Freedom from fear

Lend Lease act

Supplied allies with weapons and goods; “Arsenal of Democracy”

Atlantic Charter

FDR and Churchill agreement; Set postwar goals

Rosie the Riveter

Symbol of women working in factories

Japanese internment camps

Over 110,000 Japanese Americans imprisoned on the west coast

Korematsu vs US

Supreme Court upheld internment camps; Later acknowledge as unjust

Executive Order 9066

Authorized internment camps

Propaganda

Posters, films, slogans; Encouraged support for war by rationing

Executive Order 8802

Defense plants resisted hiring black people; But civil groups threatened to have 100,000 black people march to DC to protest; FDR yielded to the groups demand and issues executive order prohibiting discrimination in defense jobs or government