Untitled Flashcards Set

Study Guide: World War II

European Theater 

Change in Warfare/Tactics: Return to Mobile Warfare vs WWI Trenches

• Improved tanks

• Airpower

• Radio

• Blitzkrieg

• Trucks

• No gas

The Invasion of Poland (Blitzkrieg) and Phoney War

• The Non-Aggression Pact included how Hitler and Stalin would split Eastern Europe 

Sept 1, 1939: The German Luftwaffe rained bombs and tanks raced across the Polish countryside 

Sept 3: Britain and France declared war on Germany

• There was no action for the next 8 months, gets called the “Phoney War” or “Sitzkrieg”

Sept 17: Stalin sent troops to occupy eastern Poland

• Also sent troops to Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Finland 

Western Campaign

May 1940, Hitler had annexed Denmark, Norway, Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxemburg

• Allied troops sat on the Maginot Line waiting for a German attack

June 22, 1940: Germany occupied northern France and established a puppet government in the 

South (Vichy)

• French General Charles de Gaulle set up a government in exile (England) 

Battle of Britain (The Blitz)

Summer 1940: Luftwaffe began bombing GB hoping to decrease moral

• They fought back using the radar and enigma machine

North Africa

September 1940: Mussolini targeted British-controlled Egypt 

June, 1942: Allies lost North Africa 

• Hitler began planning an attack on the Soviet Union

• Had to invade the Balkans first, fell by April 1941

Operation Barbarossa - Hilter Invades the Soviet Union

June 22, 1941: Germany surprise attacked the Soviet Union, launching a 3 pronged attack called Operation Barbarossa which went against neutrality

• Northern: Leningrad Central: Moscow Southern: Stalingrad

• Soviet forces were not prepared and followed the scorched-earth policy

• Germans were not prepared for winter, but Hitler sent an order of “No Retreat!”

US Involvement

The early Nazi victories started to change isolation thinking in the US

• FDR asked to increase spending for national defense 

• Congress passed the Selective Training and Service Act

1 million drafted, could only serve in the Western Hemisphere

• “The Great Arsenal of Democracy”

March 1941: Lend-Lease Act

• The US began aiding Stalin, “enemy of my enemy is my friend”

• Hitler sent out “wolf packs” to hunt Allied ships

August 14, 1941: Churchill and FDR met aboard the USS Augusta

Churchill wanted military commitment but FDR could not ask Congress for a declaration of war

Pearl Harbor

December 7, 1941: Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in Hawaii

• US military leaders knew that an attack would come, but did not know when or where 

• Japanese sunk/damaged 19 ships, 2,300 Americans killed, 1,100 wounded 

December 8: FDR requested a declaration of war against Japan from Congress

European Theater (After Pearl Harbor)

Allies War Plans

December 22, 1941: Churchill and FDR decided to attack in Europe which posed a bigger threat

• US and Soviets wanted to invade France → British doubtful

• Decided on blockades, strategic bombings, and “closing the ring”

Battle of the Atlantic

• Hitler order submarine raids against ships along the US east coast

• Goal was to prevent food and war materials from reaching Britain and Soviets 

• Seven months in, Germany had sank 681 ships 

• Allies responded by organizing in convoys to travel together for protection and airplanes with radar 

North Africa Campaign

October 1942: Allies regrouped to take back North Africa 

• Dwight D. Eisenhower (US) and Bernard Montgomery (British) vs. Erwin Rommel (AKA Desert Fox, Germany)

August 23, 1942: Germans began nightly bombing attacks in Stalingrad 

• Hope to capture oil fields 

November: Soviets trap Germans and cut off supplies 

• Allows Soviets to push westward

Turning the Tides in the Soviet Union

May 1944: Commanded by Dwight D. Eisenhower 

June 6, 1944: British American, French, & Canadian troops fought along a beach in Normandy

In late July,  Allies broke German defenses

In September, the Allies liberated France, Belgium, and Luxembourg 

Closing the Ring in Europe

• Churchill favored invading Italy before France 

July 10, 1943: Allied forces landed on Sicily 

September 3: Italy surrendered 

• Germany took control of Northern Italy and put Mussolini back in power 

TEHRAN CONFERENCE: In November, 1943, the allied forces met and agreed that within the next 6 months they would invade France. Churchill and FDR wanted a free Europe postwar, but Stalin did not agree.

JULY 20 PLOT: German resistance made an effort to assassinate Hitler using a briefcase bomb, the failed attempt resulted in German Officials murdering over 5,000 resistance members

Victory in Europe

• Allies approached Germany from the West and Soviets approached from the East

December 1944: Battle of the Bulge, Allies push Germany back

February 1945; The British and US bombed Dresden

• Unlikely spot for attack, minimal defenses compared to other cities

• Home to many refugees, casualties estimate 35,000 - 135,000

German Surrender

April 25 1945 Berlin was surrounded by Allied Troops

• Hitler retreated to an underground bunker

April 30: Hitler and his Wife committed suicide

May 7: Eisenhower accepted the surrender of the Third Reich

May 8th Surrender was officially signed in Berlin

• War was still going on in the Pacific though

Pacific Theater

Japanese Expansion

July 1941: Japan entered French Indochina, and the US protested this by cutting off trade

November 5: Hideki Tojo (military leader of Japan) ordered the navy to be ready to attack the US 

December 7: Pearl Harbor 

December: Japanese forces invaded the Philippines 

March 11: Douglas MacArthur ordered to leave, pledging “I shall return”

Stopping the Japanese

1. Coral Sea

2. Midway

Island Hopping

Goal: to get allies as close to Japan as possible by taking islands and cutting off supply lines

• Successful plan developed by Douglass MacArthur and Chester Nimitz stopping Japanese expansion in the Pacific

• Allies continued to move closer to Japan, but Japan refused to surrender 

Kamikazes: Japanese suicide piolets ordered to crash dive into Allied ships

Ex. Guadalcanal, Leyte Gulf, Iwo Jima, Okinawa  

Navajo Code Talkers

• Native Americans who used their language to send secret messages on the battlefield 

• Used 26 Navajo terms to spell out words, created 411 military terms 

Wo-la-chee = ant = “A”

Besh-lo = iron fish

• Considered classified work until 1968 in case the code was needed again

Manhattan Project: The Atomic Bomb

• J. Robert Oppenhemier developed the atomic bomb with the help of 600,000 Americans 

Few knew its purpose

Even Truman didn’t know about it until he became president 

July 16, 1945: Test bomb was detonated in the desert of Alamogordo, NM

July 25: Truman ordered the military to make final plans for dropping two bombs

Japanese Surrender

Allies were left with two options:

• Invade by Land, could cost up to half a million lives

• Drop atomic bond and bring the war to an end faster (President Truman warned the Japanese about the bomb, no answer)

August 6: the Enola Gay released Little Boy over Hiroshima (important military center)

August 9: Second bomb, Fat Man, was dropped on Nagasaki

September 2: Japanese surrendered to General Douglas MacArthur

The Homefront

FDR Reelection

1940: FDR broke tradition and ran for a third term 

• Won with 55% of the popular vote

1944: with the war still going on, FDR ran for a fourth term

• Won with 53% of pop vote

• Party leaders were concerned with his declining health so put Harry Truman on the ticket 

April 12, 1945: FDR died from a brain hemorrhage 

Opposition to War

• Charles Lindbergh became the leading member of America First Committee

• Jeanette Rankin: Sole member of Congress to vote against declaration of war

“As a women I can’t go to war and I refuse to send anyone else”

Women in WWII

• Mothers were left to raise their children alone

“Latchkey Children”

Teenagers drifted into juvenile delinquency

• Huge increase in marriage before soldiers were sent off to war

1944: GI Bill of Rights was passed to provide education, job training, and loan guarantees for vets buying homes or starting businesses 

• Towns with defense industries saw huge increases in migration

Government involvement

Minority Groups in WWII: Japanese American

• 127,00 lived in US, most on West Coast 

⅔ Nisei (2nd gen., citizens)

• 150,000 lived in Hawaii 

⅓ Hawaii’s population 

• Paranoia began after Pearl Harbor 

• Newspapers increased anti-japanese feeling 

Internment Camps

February 19, 1942: FDR signed EO 9066 removing all Japanese from CA, AZ, or WA

Why? Said to be necessary for national security

Supreme Court: 

• Yasui vs US and Hirabayashi vs US: upheld curfews against citizens 

• Korematsu v. US: evacuating was justified based on “military necessity” 

• Ex Parte Endo: government couldn’t detain a citizen who was “concededly loyal” to the US

December 17, 1944: EO 9066 rescinded, J-A could return to the West Coast in January

Reparations: 

1965: Congress authorized 38 million to compensate those who lost property

1988: Reagan signed a bill promising $20,000 to every Japanese American sent to camps

Checks were sent out in 1990

Wartime Industries

Scientific Advancements

GI Bill of Rights

EUROPEAN AND PACIFIC THEATRE BATTLES

Heer - army

Kreigsmarine - navy

Luftwaffe - airforce