Second World War Key Words

Question 1

Nazis

Answer 1

This political party was elected to power in Germany in 1933. Their leader, Adolf Hitler, quickly turned Germany into a dictatorship. The Nazis’ aim was to make Germany strong again, so they invaded and took over most of Europe. Their invasion of Poland in September 1939 started WWII.

Question 2

Dunkirk

Answer 2

By May 1940, the Nazis had pushed the British forces to the port of Dunkirk. Thousands of men were killed on the beaches waiting for boats to save them. Fishing boats, ferries and tug boats helped the British navy rescue nearly 350,000 British soldiers. Thousands of pounds worth of military equipment, e.g. tanks, were left stranded in Dunkirk by June 1940.

Question 3

Operation Sea Lion

Answer 3

This was the Nazi code name for the planned invasion of Britain in 1940.

Question 4

Battle of Britain

Answer 4

The first step of Operation Sea Lion (the Nazi invasion of Britain in 1940) was the destruction of the British RAF. Battles raged over the south east of Britain as the Luftwaffe and RAF engaged in ‘dog fights’ and the Nazis bombed airfields. The invasion was called off when the Nazis realised that they would not break through and they turned their attention to the USSR in 1941.

Question 5

Radar

Answer 5

Radar was first used in war in 1940. It allowed the RAF to detect the attacking Luftwaffe and get organised to fight back. It was vital to the British surviving the Battle of Britain.

Question 6

Luftwaffe

Answer 6

This was the aerial warfare branch of the German military in WWII. Their most famous fighter plane was the Messerschmitt and their famous bomber was the Junkers. The Luftwaffe was vital to the German tactic of lightning warfare (Blitzkrieg) that allowed them to invade and conquer countries like Poland.

Question 7

RAF

Answer 7

The Royal Airforce was the aerial warfare branch of the British military. It was started the end of WWI (1918) but made a name for itself in the Battle of Britain. The most famous fighter was the Spitfire and the most famous bomber was the Lancaster.

Question 8

Blitz

Answer 8

The Nazis started massive bombing attacks against British cities, factories, ports, railways in an attempt to destroy the support for the war and force the British to surrender. London was bombed for 56/57 nights in September 1940. Millions of homes were destroyed and more than 40,000 civilians were killed in the Blitz.

Question 9

Spitfire

Answer 9

This is a single seat fighter plane used by the RAF in WWII. It was vital to the RAF not losing the Battle of Britain, as the Spitfire was fast enough to engage the German Messerschmitt fighters.

Question 10

Infrastructure

Answer 10

This is a word used to describe the important structures that support a country’s economy and daily life, for example factories, ports, electricity power plants, railways etc. The Nazis targeted these in their bombing campaigns.

Question 11

Barbarossa

Answer 11

This was the code name for the Nazi invasion of the USSR (Soviet Union) which started in June 1941. The Nazis were hoping that the invasion would be over quickly, however as a result of the brave efforts of the Soviet army and Soviet policies such as scorched earth (burning all of the crops so that the Nazis couldn’t use them) the Nazis got stuck in Russia. The Nazis were unprepared for the cold Russian winter of 1942 and found it difficult to supply their forces so far from Germany.

Question 12

El Alamein

Answer 12

The Nazis were attempting to invade British controlled Egypt. This was the location of the first large scale tank battle between the Nazis commanded by General Rommel and the British commanded by General Montgomery in July 1942. The British won and this was the first major defeat of the Nazis in the war.

Question 13

Panzer

Answer 13

This is the name given to the German tanks. The Nazi Panzer divisions were incredibly quick and were vital to the tactic of Blitzkreig that allowed the Nazis to invade and conquer countries such as Poland.

Question 14

Stalingrad

Answer 14

The battle of Stalingrad was one of the largest in WWII. The Nazis wanted to seize Stalingrad because it was the largest city in southern Russia and was named after the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. The battle lasted from 1942 to 1943. Nearly 2 million people died. The people of Stalingrad managed to hold off the Nazis and the Soviet army eventually defeated the Germans. This was the first failure in the war admitted by Hitler.

Question 15

D Day Landings

Answer 15

This was the planned invasion of Nazi occupied Europe by the Britain and their allies (Canada and the USA). It started Tuesday 6th June 1944. It was the largest seaborne invasion in history, with thousands of boats landing on 5 beaches (Gold, Juno, Omaha, Utah, Sword) along the Normandy beaches of northern France and thousands of soldiers parachuted behind enemy lines. This was the first step towards pushing the Nazis out of Western Europe.

Question 16

Amphibious Landing Craft

Answer 16

These were used to move thousands of soldiers and their equipment across the English Channel to land on the Normandy beaches in the D Day Landings of June 1944.

Question 17

Battle of Midway

Answer 17

This was a vital battle between the Americans and the Japanese in June 1942, six months after the Japanese launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in the state of Hawaii. The battle occurred on an island in the Pacific and the Americans badly damaged the Japanese navy.

Question 18

Hiroshima

Answer 18

In August 1945, the Americans decided to drop the newly invented atomic bomb on this large Japanese industrial city. The bomb was nicknamed Little Boy and a second bomb called Fat Man was dropped on Nagasaki three days later. Hundreds of thousands of people were killed and Japan surrendered.

Question 19

Which country did Hitler invade in September 1939, triggering the Second World War?

Answer 19

Poland