Chronicles: Chapter 16 - World War Two: Causes, course and consequences | Quizlet

Allied powers

Countries that fought together against the Axis powers, led by Britain, France, the Soviet Union and the United States.

Anschluss

The political union of Austria with Germany in 1938.

Atlantic Wall

German line of defence stretching along the coast of Northern France.

Atomic bomb

A nuclear weapon that the United States used against Japan at Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.

Axis powers

Countries that fought together against the Allied powers, led by Germany, Italy and Japan.

Battle of Britain

A major air battle fought between the British Royal Air Force and the German Luftwaffe that took place over the English Channel and southern England. It was Hitler’s first defeat.

Battle of Stalingrad

A major land battle between the armies of German and the USSR in 1942 and 1943. The Soviet victory pushed German forces into a defensive retreat.

Blitzkrieg

‘Lightning war’; a fast and intense method of attack designed to take the enemy by surprise in warfare.

D-Day

The day in which the Allied invasion of Normandy, codenamed Operation Neptune, began, 6 June 1944.

Lebensraum

The Nazis wanted to control large parts of eastern Europe in order to create ‘living space’ for Germans.

Luftwaffe planes

Messerschmitt, Stuka and Heinkel bombers.

Maginot Line

A line of concrete forts and weapons built by France to defend its eastern border with Germany.

Nazi-Soviet Pact

A ten-year non-aggression pact between Nazi Germany and the USSR, signed in 1939.

Operation Barbarossa

Codename for the German invasion of the USSR launched in 1941.

Operation Dynamo

Codename for the rescue at Dunkirk.

Pearl Harbor

On 7 December 1941, aircrafts from six Japanese carriers attacked the US naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. The attack led to the US declaring war on Japan.

Phoney War

An eight-month period at the beginning of World War Two when little fighting took place.

Policy of appeasement

Giving in to Hitler’s demands to avoid war with Germany.

RAF planes

Spitfire and Hurricane fighters.

Scorched earth

A tactic of destroying anything that might be useful to the enemy, including crops, roads and bridges.

Siegfried Line

A German line of defence against France.

United Nations

An international body set up in 1945, the UN aims to develop and maintain friendly relations between countries.

V-E Day

Victory in Europe Day, 8 May 1945.

V-J Day

Victory in Japan Day, 15 August 1945.

Vichy France

Name given to the French ‘puppet’ government that collaborated with the Nazis in the south of France.

War of attrition

The continuous process of wearing down an opponent in the hope that they lose the will to fight.

Yalta Conference

A meeting between the ‘Big Three’ leaders – Winston Churchill (Britain), Joseph Stalin (Soviet Union) and Franklin D. Roosevelt (United States) – to discuss the future of postwar Germany and Europe.