WWII

WW II Study Guide

1.  Who were the leaders of major countries? Josef Stalin, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Hideki Tojo and Emperor Hirohito, Winston Churchill,

2.  Who were the 3 Axis Powers? Japan, Germany, Italy

3.  Who were the major Allied Powers? U.S, Soviet Union, China, France, Great Britain

4.  What is a totalitarian government? a nation in which a single party controls the government and every aspect of people’s lives

5.  Important dates:  Start in Pacific, Europe, U.S. enters, D-Day, End of War In Europe WW2 began on September 1, 1939, the U.S joined on December 8, 1941, the Pacific joined WW2 in 1937, D-Day was June 6, 1944, End of war was on September 2, 1945

6.  Define kamikaze-  a Japanese suicide pilot

7.  Who were the Big 3?  Franklin D. Roosevelt, Josef Stalin, Winston Churchill (leaders of 3 of the Allied powers)

8.  Define Holocaust- when Jews in Germany were rounded up and sent to slave labor death camps

9.  What were the 3 Theaters of the War? Pacific, Atlantic/Europe, African

10.  Define Fascism-a political system based on militarism, extreme nationalism, and blind loyalty to the state and its leader

11.  Define Communism- an economic and political system based on the idea that social classes and the right to private property should be eliminated

12.  What event encouraged the rise of dictators? The Great Depression?

13.  What was the first Fascist country? Italy

14.  What country did Italy invade first? Ethiopia because it was the opening of the Red Sea

15.  Define appeasement- a policy of giving in to aggression in order to avoid war

16.  Explain the sequence of “appeasement” Germany moves troops into the Rhineland. Then they invade Austria. Germany wants Sudetenland but Great Britain and France say no, but the Munich Pact let Germany take sudetenland as long as they took no more land. Hitler took sudetenland but then broke the pact and took the rest of Czechoslovakia. Than worked with the USSR to invade Poland, starting WW2.

17.  What were the Neutrality Acts? Neutrality Act: Forbade the president from giving arms, loans, of assistance to any nation involved in war

Good Neighbor policy: Meant to strengthen ties with Latin America, US withdrew from Latin American affairs

18.  What was the Munich Pact? Great Britain and France let Germany occupy the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia, in exchange that Germany wouldn’t seek anymore territory

19.  What was the Nonaggression pact? It was a pact between USSR and Germany to not attack each other and, together, attack Czechoslovakia

20.  What factors caused there to be problems in USSR for Germany? The harsh Russian winter and the Soviets burned and destroyed all of their supplies once they had to flee.

21.  What 2 events caused WW II? Treaty of Versailles and Great Depression

22.  Explain the tactic used by Germany to take Poland quickly and swiftly. Blitzkrieg is quick and unexpected warfare

23.  Why did Germany feel the attack on Poland needed to be quick? By using the blitzkrieg method they would prevent larger countries from mobilizing against them and move on quickly to bigger goals

24.  How did the attack on Poland affect the rest of Europe? It causes France and Britain to declare war on Germany, WWII starts in Europe

25.  What was USSRs response to Germany’s attack on Poland? The USSR help Germany invade Poland, then it took Finland, Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia

26.  What did Germany and Japan have in common, which led to them starting war? Need for living space, feelings of superiority, military national governments
27.  What were the reasons for the tension between Japan and the United States? Japan invaded Indochina, a French colony when the U.S. supported the Allies but was still neutral, so the U.S. banned exports and sales to Japan

28.  Why did the culture of Japan change in the 1800s? The Japanese government realized they would have to modernize in order to be a successful world power. They built railroads, improved roads, built factories, produced modern weapons, and glorified the military.

29.  Why did FDR move the Pacific Fleet to from San Diego to Hawaii? Because Hawaii is closer to Japan and so the U.S. would have a presence in the Pacific and it was a show of force

30.  Why did Japan attack Pearl Harbor and when? The embargo on scrap metal, oil, iron made Japan mad, they attacked on December 7, 1941

31.  What policy was the United States trying to hold on to in order to stay out of 

        WW II?  Why? Isolationism because the U.S. didn’t want to invade into foreign affairs and there was no reason for them to get involved

32.  After Poland fell, Hitler set his sights on taking down which major Ally? France

33.  Which 2 major Allied countries held up the fighting until the U.S. got involved? Great Britain and USSR

34.  After the fall of France, where did troops retreat to?  How were they saved? They were trapped at Dunkirk and every available boat in Great Britain was used to save them

35.  Explain the Battle of Britain and its significance. Hitler orders an air raid on London trying to get Great Britain to surrender, but they don’t, so he gives up and turns to attack the USSR

36.  Explain the Battle of the Atlantic and its significance. The Battle of the Atlantic was when Germans blockaded Great Britain to stop food and materials from being sent there from North America. The Germans used packs of U-Boats to sink cargo ships. Convoy systems were able to stop the U-Boats by using sonar to destroy them. The U.S. also helped escort cargo ships to Great Britain, even though they weren’t at war with Germany then. It was significant because it helped the Allies win WWII because transporting supplies and troops in the Atlantic was necessary. 

37.  Explain Cash and Carry and why it failed. When the U.S. would trade with everyone, but the other countries would have to pay in cash and carry it themselves.

38.  Explain Lend Lease Aid and who it was extended to. The-Lend Lease law stated that the U.S. would lend/lease supplies to Great Britain and other Nazi-fighting nations. It was extended to China and Soviet Union afterwards

39.  Who were the Africa Corps?  Who led them?  What was their goal?  Why did

        Hitler help? The Afrika Korps were a group of German soldiers sent to fight in North Africa. They were led by Erwin Rommel and their goal was to defeat the British corps at El Alamein. Hitler sent them to help Italy gain African territory

40.  Why did Hitler decide to invade the USSR? Britain was not surrendering and he was losing a lot of bombers so he attacked the only other major power in Europe.

41.  What was Hitler’s big mistake? Attacking the USSR too close to winter, then not stopping/waiting winter out

42.  How did the weather have an effect on the invasion of USSR? The cold winter froze soldiers to death and made it difficult for guns to fire and tanks to move. This led to the Germans’ loss in the Battle of Stalingrad, and was a turning point of the war

43.  What is a turning point? When one side switches from defensive to offensive and vice versa

44.  What were the 2 turning points in Europe? Battle of Britain, Battle of Stalingrad

45.  Where did the U.S. first put ground troops and why? North Africa because if the U.S. occupied it they could control the Suez Canal and access oil from the Middle East and raw materials from Asia

46.  What was Mussolini’s goal for his country? To make the Roman empire great again and control the Mediterranean Sea

47.  What was Hitler’s goal for his country? To control Europe and create a master race

48.  What was the turning point in Africa? El Alamein

49.  Explain the fall of Italy (include Africa and Sicily).  Erwin Rommel was an Axis General fighting in Africa, and Germany was winning in Africa. Until at the Battle of Alamein in Egypt British and American Forces defeat Rommel's troops. Rommel surrenders and the Allies go on the offensive in Africa which was a big loss for Italy. Than in July 1943 Allied forces attack the island of Sicily off of Italy’s coast using ground troops, ships, and aircraft. They took the island and then started bombing Italy directly. On July 19th Allies bombed Rome for the first time. Soon after The Italians surrendered to the allies.

50.  What happened to Mussolini? The italian people voted him out of office, but when he still shoed up at his office he was arrested and imprisoned. He was then shot and killed on April 28th 1945 at age 61. People celebrated his death.

51.  How did Hitler respond to the fall of Italy?  How did this affect his success? Hitler had had plans to invade italy if it surrendered so when it did he launched Operation Axis, to invade and control italy so that the allies couldn’t occupy it.

52.  Why was the USSR upset with the United States and the Allies? 

53.  What was the goal of the Tehran conference?  Who was in attendance? 

54.  Explain the term “Arsenal for Democracy”.

55.  Why did D-Day take so long to plan?  What was the plan and purpose of D-Day?

56.  What was the date of D-Day? June 6, 1944

57.  What was the result of D-Day? The liberation of France

58. How did D-Day affect the fighting in the Soviet Union? What did Hitler do?

59.  After liberating Paris, the Allies set their sites on liberating what city? 

60.  What was Germany’s last offensive?  

61.  Which Allied country reached this German city first? 

62. What was Hitler’s response to the taking of the German capital?  Then what

        happened? 

63.  What was the Atlantic Charter? On August 1941, Roosevelt and Churchill make goals for when the war is over: the US and GB won’t use the war to get more territory

  The right of all people to choose their own government

  A new international organization that will be more useful than the League of Nations

64.  Once Germany fell, the U.S. could focus on Japan using which tactic? Island Hopping

65.  What was the first turning point of the Pacific theater? Battles of Coral Sea and Midway

66.  Who was the general responsible for the Philippines? Douglas MacArthur

67.  Explain why he had to leave, and where he went? He was called by FDR to go Australia to command U.S. troops there

68.  What happened to the American and Filipinos he left behind? Bataan death march - 70,000 soldiers are forced to walk 65 miles to prison camps, many die from starvation, disease, violence

69.  What was the second turning point in the Pacific? Midway

70.  What were the last 2 islands to be taken before the invasion of the Japanese

        mainland? Iwo Jima and Okinawa

71.  Why were these islands significant? 

72.  Why did the U.S. switch from bombing industrial cities in Japan to dropping the  

        Atomic Bomb? 

73.  On the Homefront, the U.S. passed the first _______Peacetime draft______ in history.

74.  Who was the general responsible for Africa and D-Day invasions? Dwight D. Eisenhower

75.  How did factories change in the U.S. during WW II? 

76.  How did life change for the following groups of people in the U.S.:  women,

        Japanese Americans, German Americans, Italian Americans, Mexican Americans

Women - had more access to jobs that were previously unavailable to them, better pay (equal to men)

Japanese Ame ricans - put in internment camps because Americans thought all Japanese people in America were spies

German+Italian Americans: Had curfews and travel restrictions, some were put in camps

Mexican Americans - called “braceros”, the US signs a treaty with Mexico so that they can hire braceros to work

77.  Explain war bonds and ration coupons. Citizens bought war bonds to help pay for the war, people had ration coupons that limited how much they could buy. This was to control inflation and to make sure that soldiers got enough supplies

78.  What 2 cities were the Atomic Bombs dropped on? Hiroshima, and Nagasaki

79.  Where were the Nazi war crime trials held? Nuremberg, Germany

80.  Explain Totalitarian state.  Which countries became them after WW I? A nation in which a single party controls the government and every aspect of people’s lives, Germany, Italy, USSR, Japan

81.  Explain the League of Nations and their reactions to Ethiopia and Japan invading

        China. They did nothing, of course!

82.  Why did the U.S. decide to take on Europe before Japan? If Great Britain fell, Europe would be almost impossible to seize back

83.  What were the Japanese Americans accused of which led to their internment, 

       and what did the U.S. actually find? Japanese Americans were accused for being possible spies that would help the Axis powers shell cities or military bases, however, there was not a single documented case of disloyalty by a Japanese American