Unit 10: World War Two

Question 1

How the War in Europe began

Answer 1

began when Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939

Question 2

Axis Powers

Answer 2

in September 1940, the Fascist countries Germany, Italy, and Japan signed the Tripartite Pact and became the Axis Powers

Question 3

Why the Soviets joined the Allied Powers

Answer 3

in August 1939, Germany had signed a non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union, so the German Army could avoid fighting two-front war. However, when the German Army was successful in the west, they turned on USSR. So when the Germans invaded the USSR in June 1941, the Soviets joined the Allied Powers

Question 4

How the War in Pacific began

Answer 4

began when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 & then took over much of Southeast Asia. The Japanese Army had already invaded Manchuria in September 1931 & committed the Rape of Nanking in December 1937. The Japanese controlled Korea since 1910, and they eventually took over all of East Asia (almost a 1/4 of the world) except Thailand & most of China.

Question 5

How did the US support the Allies before they declared war on the Axis Powers

Answer 5

they supported the Allies with the Flying Tigers (sending supplies on planes to China) & the Lend-Lease Act (sending supplies on ships to Britain)

Question 6

“Four Policemen”

Answer 6

(led the Allied Powers) US President Franklin Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin, & Chinese Premier Chiang Kai-Shek

Question 7

Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers (SCAP) in Europe

Answer 7

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Question 8

SCAP in Pacific

Answer 8

Douglas MacArthur

Question 9

key army & navy leaders

Answer 9

US General George Patton fought German General Erwin Rommel in N. Africa; US Admiral Chester Nimitz fought Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto in the South Pacific

Question 10

blitzkrieg & kamikaze

Answer 10

Early in WWII, Germany’s blitzkrieg (“lightening war”) strategy devastated most European armies, and later, Japan’s kamikaze (“divine wind”) strategy was a last ditch effort to keep the Americans from invading the home islands

Question 11

D-Day/Normandy Invasion

Answer 11

Eisenhower was responsible for the June 6, 1944 D-Day/Normandy Invasion to free France

Question 12

Iwo JIma

Answer 12

the greatest image of American tenacity is the photo/statue of the 1945 flag-raising at Iwo Jima

Question 13

defeats & evacuations for the Allies

Answer 13

the Battle of Dunkirk (5/40 in France) and Corregidor (4/42 in the Philippines)

Question 14

victories & turning points for the Allies

Answer 14

the Battle of Stalingrad (11/42 in the USSR), El Alamein (11/42 in North Africa), and Midway (6/42 in the Pacific)

Question 15

final charges & defeats for the Axis Powers

Answer 15

the Battle of Bulge (1/45 in Belgium, France, & Germany) and Okinawa (4/45 in southern Japan)

Question 16

Victory in Europe (V-E Day)

Answer 16

announced on May 8, 1945 when Soviets captured Berlin

Question 17

Victory in Japan (V-J Day)

Answer 17

After Roosevelt died in April 1945, Truman reviewed Robert Oppenheimer’s Manhattan Project and ordered the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 8/6 & 8/9; Japan surrendered on the USS Missouri on September 2, 1945

Question 18

the Holocaust

Answer 18

the systematic murder of six million Jews & five million others deemed undesirable by the Nazis; Genocide did not happen in America during WWII, but Roosevelt did order the internment of 110,000 Japanese Americans

Question 19

4 particularly memorable groups of minority soldiers

Answer 19

Tuskegee Airmen, Navajo Codetalkers, the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, & the Women’s Army Corps (WAC)

Question 20

Rosie the Riveter

Answer 20

during the early 40s, 1 in 3 factory workers were female

Question 21

helps the Allied leaders strategize for an end to WWII and recovery in the postwar era

Answer 21

the 1941 Atlantic Charter & the 1945 Yalta and Potsdam Conferences

Question 22

war criminals

Answer 22

violators of the rules of the Geneva Convention; were punished (Nazis at the Nuremberg Trials)

Question 23

Universal Declaration on Human Rights

Answer 23

written by Eleanor Roosevelt; in 1948 the UN adopted this

Question 24

casualties of WWII

Answer 24

20 million soldiers, 40 million civilians, and 400,000 Americans died in WWII