1 - World War II Overview Flashcards
What were the key battles??
France and Poland invasion
Operation Barbossa
Stalingrad
d-day
battle of britain
What was the Invasion of
Poland??
September 1 - 1939 - Poland
66,000 killed
16,000 Germans
2000 tanks + 1000 planes
What was the invasion France??
May 10 - 1940 - France
Blitzkreig tactics
90,000 French soldiers were killed, 150,000 civilians
27,000 Germans
Won in 6 weeks
Why was it so significant to germany??
Feeds Hitler Myth
Lebensraum
No more humiliation
What was Operation Barbossa??
German invasion of Russia
It was inevitable due to Hitlers “master race and racial domination”
22nd June 1941 - Over 1.5 million soldiers, 1500 tanks + 1000 planes.
Over 1.1 million soldiers, 4000 tanks, 2000 planes
What is stalingrad??
Mid 1942 - Vital stratigic and Propganda victory for germany if they won - bombed the life out of it
By Nov they controlled 90% - Street fighting.
Oil fields and Stalin
What was Operation Uranus??
General Zhukov planned Operation
Uranus to breakthrough the
under-equipped German flanks and
encircle the entire 6th army.
The attack was commenced on the 19th November 1942, 20th in the South.
330,000 encircled
Stats for Operation Barbossa??
German soldiers – 1 million
German casualties – 250,000
German hostages – 100000 of
which 6000 returned
80% of German military lives lost were on eastern front - 4/5 deaths
What was D-Day and what was the impact??
On June 6th 1944 allied forces launched a naval, air and land assault on Nazi occupied France.
A huge victory for the Allies (USA, UK, France & Canada)
An allied army now had a foothold in Nazi-occupied France and they would not be pushed out for the rest of the war.
D-Day meant that when the USSR would invade Nazi territory in the same month, the Nazis were surrounded by enemies and fighting a war on two fronts therefore weakening their defence overall, leaving the Nazis in an even worse position than they already were.
What was the battle of britain and the outcome??
The Battle began in July 1940 and ended in October, it resulted in the deaths of 23,000 civilians and 1,600 - 2,500 british.
The RAF was outnumbered by the Luftwaffe (led by Goring) and they aimed to destroy the RAF and its key infrastructure being, Airfields, factories, and radar stations.
The victory preserved Britain as a base of operations for allied forces, which would later launch the D-Day invasions in 1944
1 - air v air german air already weak due to scananvia + france campagins
2 - Blitz - civilian targets now let RAF fix airfields
3 - Bomb britain into submission
