Unit 7: Topic 7 - Conducting World War II Flashcards
British Indian Army
Due to India being a colony of Britain, their army fought alongside the Allies. They contributed the biggest army in the war with 2.5 million men. Although some of the army was sent to fight in North Africa, most of it fought against Japan in Southeast Asia.
Nanjing Massacre
This event occurred during the Sino-Japanese War that preceded World War II. After capturing the city of Nanjing, the capital of Nationalist China, Japanese soldiers killed and raped hundreds of thousands of Chinese citizens and decimated the city. The army looted and burned the surrounding towns and the city, destroying more than a third of the buildings.
Pearl Harbor
U.S. naval base on Oahu Island, Hawaii that received a surprise aerial attack by Japan on December 7, 1941, that precipitated the entry of the United States into World War II. By mid-1941 the U.S. had severed all economic relations with Japan and the Japanese believed that once the U.S. Pacific Fleet was neutralized, all Southeast Asia would be open for conquest. American naval presence was severely weakened in the Pacific in the short-term, but three aircraft carriers were not present during the attack and American opinion immediately shifted to favoring war against Japan and the other Axis Powers.
Firebombing
A new concept of warfare, firebombing consisted of damaging a target with a fire that would be released from a bomb, rather than the bomb explosion itself. This was typically conducted by aerial forces. It was used to destroy people and industry alike, either targeting cities or factories. The Allies used this technique on German cities of Hamburg and Dresden, causing around 75000 deaths, as well as Tokyo.
Hiroshima & Nagasaki
These two Japanese cities were bombed by the United States with atomic bombs. They were the first and last instance of usage of atomic bombs. This not only ended the war, but also created tremendous fear about the destructiveness of a future war fought with nuclear weapons.
Winston Churchill
The British Prime Minister during World War II. He termed the months of German bombing on British cities as Britain’s “finest hour”.
Douglas Macarthur
The US general who led the Allied Forces in the Pacific during World War II, using the island-hopping strategy.
Dwight Eisenhower
The US general who led the amphibious invasion of France, known as D-Day. He would later become president of the US during the Cold War.
Hirohito
Emperor of Japan from 1926-1989. It is unclear how much influence Hirohito had during Japan’s militaristic age from the 1930s to 1945. Some claimed he opposed joining the Axis powers but was constrained by the increasingly dominant militarists in his country, while others claimed he was actively involved in Japan’s expansionist policies. Nonetheless, in August 1945, he made a national radio broadcast announcing Japan’s acceptance of the Allies’ terms of surrender.
J. Robert Oppenheimer
American theoretical physicist and director of the Manhattan Project that led the development of the atomic bomb at Los Alamos Laboratory in New Mexico, succeeding on July 16, 1945. Oppenheimer resigned his post two months after its use on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August, 1945 and later was accused, and ultimately pardoned decades later, of having associated with communists in the past, leading to him losing his post at the Atomic Energy Commission as well as his federal security clearance.
Enola Gay
The name of the B-29 bomber used by the U.S. on August 6, 1945, to drop an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, the first time used on an enemy target. The aircraft was named after the mother of pilot Paul Warfield TIbbets, Jr.
Vichy
After France saw Germany’s rapid success in Europe, and after the Germans approached Paris, the French government fled and created a new regime based in the city of Vichy. Germany already took direct control of the northern two-thirds of the country.
Lend-Lease Act
Passed on March 11, 1941, this act set up a system that would allow the United States to lend or lease war supplies to any nation deemed “vital to the defense of the United States.” The Lend-Lease Act satisfied Great Britain’s deep need for supplies while allowing the United States to prepare for war while remaining officially neutral.
Battle of Britain
The successful defense of Great Britain against unremitting and destructive air raids conducted by the German air force (Luftwaffe) from July through September 1940, after the fall of France. Victory for the Luftwaffe in the air battle would have exposed Great Britain to invasion by the German army, which was then in control of the ports of France only a few miles away across the English Channel. In the event, the battle was won by the Royal Air Force (RAF) Fighter Command, whose victory not only blocked the possibility of invasion but also created the conditions for Great Britain’s survival, for the extension of the war, and for the eventual defeat of Nazi Germany.
Siege of Leningrad
A battle between the Nazis and the Soviets defending the city of Leningrad. The Nazis suffered from the harsh Russian winter and retreated. It lasted three years and led to deaths of numerous Soviet men, women, and children.
