WWII European Theatre Flashcards

Nuremburg Laws (1935)

• Jews lost basic rights.
  • Mixed marriages forbidden.
  • Mandatory Jewish badge.
  • No freedom of speech.
  • Restrictions on public services and spaces.
  • Banned from voting, judging, writing.

Nazi Persecution

• Jehovah's Witnesses: persecuted for loyalty to God over Hitler.
• Slavic Nations: attacked to increase Germany's "lebensraum."
• Black People: sterilized to prevent "impure" offspring.
• T4 Euthanasia Program: exterminated disabled and incurably ill.
• Homosexuals and Gypsies: deemed impure, sent to camps; homosexuality illegal.

World War II: European Theatre (1939-1945)

• Axis Powers: Germany, Italy, Japan.
• Allied Powers: Great Britain, France, Soviet Union (from June 1941), United States (from Dec. 1941).

Events Leading to War

• 1933: Hitler becomes Chancellor.
• 1934: Hitler becomes Führer.
• 1935: Hitler violates Treaty of Versailles by rearming.
• 1935-1939: International relations worsen.
  • 1935: Italy invades Ethiopia.
• 1936: Spanish Civil War, German invasion of Rhineland, Germany-Italy & Germany-Japan cooperation.
• 1937: Japan invades China.
• 1938: Germany invades Austria (Anschluss) and Sudetenland (Czechoslovakia); Munich Agreement.
• 1939:
  • Germany invades Czechoslovakia, Italy invades Albania.
  • Germany and USSR sign Non-Aggression Pact with secret division of Poland.
  • Germany invades Poland.
  • Britain and France issue ultimatum, then declare war (September 3, 1939).
  • USA remains neutral but supplies Britain.
  • Battle of the Atlantic begins.
• 1939: "Phoney War" - quiet period in Western Europe.

1940 Overview

• Rationing starts in the UK.
• German "Blitzkrieg" overwhelms Belgium, Holland, France, Denmark, and Norway.
• Churchill becomes Prime Minister of Britain.
• British Expeditionary Force evacuated from Dunkirk.
• British victory in Battle of Britain forces Hitler to postpone invasion.
  • Blitzkrieg: German tactic with fast tanks and air superiority.

Evacuation of Dunkirk (May 26 - June 4, 1940)

• British, Belgian, and French troops evacuated from Dunkirk.
• Over 338,000 troops rescued using various craft.

Fall of France

• France signs armistice with Germany.
• Vichy government controls Paris; Germany controls the rest.
• Charles de Gaulle flees to England, leads Free French.

Battle for Britain (1940)

• Hitler aims for air superiority to invade Britain.
• Fought solely in the air, July-September.
• Britain's radar and strategic decisions led to victory.

The Blitz (1940-1945)

• Bombing of British cities.
• Underground Tube used as bomb shelters.
• 40,000 civilian lives lost.

Summary 1941: The War Goes Global

• Hitler begins Operation Barbarossa (invasion of Russia).
• Allies take Tobruk in North Africa.
• Japan attacks Pearl Harbor; US enters the war.
• Germany invades Greece and Yugoslavia.

1941 Operation Barbarossa (Invasion of USSR)

• June 1941: Operation Barbarossa began, initial swift advance.
• December: Soviets counterattacked; Eastern Front stagnated.
• The bitter Russian winter crippled the Germans.

Europe 1941 Bombing Raids

• The Blitz Intensified in England.
• German bombing of British cathedral cities continued.
• The first thousand-bomber British air raids on Cologne were carried out.

Summary 1942

• First Americans arrive in England.
• Singapore fell to the Japanese in February - around 25,000 prisoners taken.
• In North Africa Field Marshal Erwin Rommel's Afrika Korps began their counter-offensive, capturing Tobruk in June.
• American naval victory at Battle of Midway, in June, marks turning point in Pacific War.
• Mass murder of Jewish people at Auschwitz began.

1942 The Tide Turns

• News of mass murders of Jewish people by the Nazis reached the Allies. US pledged to avenge these crimes.
• British forces under Montgomery gained the initiative in North Africa at El Alamein.
• Russian forces counterattacked at Stalingrad.

Summary 1943

• German surrender in February at Stalingrad marked Germany's first major defeat.
• Allied victory in North Africa enabled invasion of Italy to be launched.
• Italy surrendered, but Germany took over the battle.
• Battle continued to rage in the Atlantic, and one four-day period in March saw 27 merchant vessels sunk by German U-boats.

European Theatre: The Battle of the Atlantic Ends

• Enormous losses on the German U-boats: a combination of long-range aircraft and the codebreakers at Bletchley.
• Towards the end of May Admiral Dönitz withdrew the German fleet from the contended areas - the Battle of the Atlantic was effectively over.

1943 Italy (Axis Power) in trouble; Germans move into Italy

• In mid-May German and Italian forces in North Africa surrendered to the Allies
• Tunisia used as a springboard to invade Sicily in July.
• By the end of the July Mussolini had fallen, and in September the Italians surrendered to the Allies, prompting a German invasion into northern Italy.
• Mussolini was rescued by a German task force and established a fascist republic in the north.
• German troops also engaged the Allies in the south - the fight through Italy was to prove slow and costly.

1943 Allied Assault on Germany Intensified.

• The Russian advance on the Eastern Front gathered pace, recapturing cities from Germany.
• Allied bombers began to attack German cities in enormous daylight air raids.
• The opening of the Second Front in Europe, long discussed and always postponed, was being prepared for the following year.

Summary 1944

• Allies land in Central Italy
• Soviet offensive gathers pace in Eastern Europe.
• D Day: The Allied invasion of France. Paris is liberated in August.
• Guam liberated by the US.
• Okinawa, and Iwo Jima bombed.

1944 Liberation of Italy and the D-Day Landings.

• The Allied advance in Italy continued with landings in central Italy (Anzio), in January.
• Only at the end of May did the Germans retreat from Anzio. Rome was liberated in June, the day before the Allies' 'Operation Overlord', now known as the D-Day landings.