WW2 Review

What were US and German goals and strategies after Pearl Harbor?

What were US and German goals and strategies after Pearl Harbor?

Germany:

Goals- Complete control of ALL of Europe, North Africa, and West Africa immediately

Strategy- Keep playing offensive, Invade North Africa to gain oil, Indave USSR, Finish invasion of Great Britain

Tactics- Blitzkrieg (Lightning War), INtensify Bombings, Democratize enemy civilians, Eliminate all “Inferior” races ,Create a superior weapon (nuclear bomb)

US:

Goals- Cush Great Britain, Unconditional Surrender

Strategy- (3 Pronged Attack)

1. South Italy (USA/Britain)

2. East Poland (USSR)

3. West France (Britain/ USA)

Tactics- Air Power to destroy production of war goods and morale, Amphibious invasions in France and Italy, Ground assault moves as a wave across Europe, Fight in smaller groups, Control only locations of value (bridges etc.)

What were US and Japan goals and strategies after Pearl Harbor?

US:

Goals- Crush Tokyo/Unconditional Surrender

Strategy- Island hopping ( capture key locations to move US closer to Tokyo)

Tactics- Amphibious assaults, Perseverance

Japan:

Goals-Control ALL of Asia

Strategy- Occupy ALL locations/fight anywhere, Intimidate the enemy

Tactics- Defend islands with land, sea, and air power, Kamikaze

Stalingrad (1942)

• Germans attack Soviets at Southern Russian city of Stalingrad

• Surrounded Soviets persists for 5 months before Germans retreated

• 1.1 million Soviet deaths

  • End of German advance to the east

Operation Torch (1942)

• 1st American Invasion

• Allies invade Morocco and Algeria to trap Nazi’s

• Nazi kicked out of North Africa by May 1943

D-Day (06-06-1944)

• Allies need to get a foothold back in mainland Europe

• Largest military invasion in US history

• Gen Dwight D. Eisenhower (Supreme Allied Commander)

• Phantom Army

• Omaha and Utah beaches in Normandy, France

• High Seas, Fog, Rocky Cliffs, Miscommunication, Chaos

• Casualties

• Nazi- 320,000 (30,000 killed)

• US- 135,000 (29,000) killed)

• Britain- 65000 (11000 killed)

Battle of the Bulge ( 12-(16-27)- 1944)

• Germans made their last major effort to fight back and keep allies out of Germany

• Germans broke the allied line in the Ardennes Forest in Belgium

• 76,000 Allied casualties needed to crush the Bulge

Berlin (04-16-1945)

• American lets Soviets enter Berlin first

• 200,000 Soviets died

• US and Russians meet in Berlin to Celebrate

• Hitler commits Suicide?

Why was Island hopping better than Japan’s strategy?

Island hopping is trying to control what you can get in order to make it to your goal location, Japan was just trying to take anything they could have

Pacific Theatre Battle-

Hiroshima- US used 1st atomic bomb, killed 120000 Japans, No surrender

Compare European and Pacific Theatre

US goal for both was unconditional surrender, and to destroy a specific location, and the goals for the opposite side was to control EVERYTHING

Manhattan Project

a code for the secret research to build an atomic bomb from Uranium

Total War

Everyone in the country has some kind of involvement in war

What is rationing?

Cutting back on your spending and the amount of food you are consuming to help our troops

In what ways was sacrificed on the homefront important during WW2?

The small sacrifices people made at home greatly helped people fighting in the war. Simple things like food rationing kept the people fighting in the war fed

How was the homefront in WW2 different than the homefront in Iraq?

The war in Iraq was not a total war, everyone in the country was not involved

Why was the roll of women required to change in WW2? How did it continue after the war?

Men went overseas to fight, but materials and resources were still needed, so women had to step up and begin working a mans job. Women then had a new feeling of independence that even when the war was over would still be there

What did american children do to help with the war efforts?

Collected scrap metal, bought war bonds, collected milk weed

Stereotype

a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing.

Anti-Semitism

Hatred of Jews

Genocide

the deliberate killing of a large number of people from a particular nation or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that nation or group.