World War 2 (1939-1942)

Question 1

What were Blitzkrieg tactics?

Answer 1

“Lightning war” to prevent other nations getting involved and falling into a war of attrition

Question 2

What happened during the battle of france?

Answer 2

Hitler believed he was sufficiently prepared to launch an offensive against France. Used a diversionary attack on the Maginot Line to draw forces and trap them in a pincer movement in the Ardennes forest.

Question 3

Why was the Battle of France a success?

Answer 3

British and France forces were still using ww1 tactics

Question 4

Why did the evacuation of dunkirk happen?

Answer 4

British royal navy realised desperaion of situation in france and needed to evacuate and planned to do so by little ships.

Question 5

How many people were evacuated from Dunkirk?

Answer 5

They thought only 20-30,000 would be able to be evacuated however all 338,000 were evacuated.

Question 6

What was the significance of Dunkirk?

Answer 6

France left in a much weaker position and hitler would now turn to knock britain out

Question 7

What were the aims of the Battle of Britain?

Answer 7

Hitler hoped britain would sign a peace treaty however they refused

Question 8

What was operation sealion?

Answer 8

Germany’s codename for the invasion of britain

Question 9

What was it looking like numbers wise before operation sealion
?

Answer 9

Germans had massive numerical and experience advantage however lacked air superiority

Question 10

What were the three main reasosn for RAF victory?

Answer 10

1. Mannagement of Losses = britain forces were right there and could easily be replaced
2. Germany Tactical diadvantages = 10-15 mins of flying time before needing to refuel, luftwaffe was designed for blitzkrieg X large dogfights
3. British defensive systems = developed the dowding system whcih gave them a rough 4 min headstart

Question 11

What was operation barbarossa?

Answer 11

codename given for germany’s invasion of the soviet union

Question 12

What were Hitler’s aims of operation barbarossa?

Answer 12

He wanted living space for aryan germans

Question 13

Why was operation barbarossa successful at first?

Answer 13

Stalin had refused to believe a german attack was coming so he didn’t defensively prepare.

Question 14

How did Hitler plan Barbarossa
?

Answer 14

divided his army into three groups with each different objectives

Question 15

What were the early successes of Barbarossa?

Answer 15

Blitzkrieg tactics had worked taking cities (e.g kiev), russian had considerably higher casualties

Question 16

What was the final result of barbarossa?

Answer 16

It failed as all of the army groups had failed to achieve its objectives and were now stalled

Question 17

What were the reasons for the failure of barbarossa?

Answer 17

1. Hitler’s poor decisions = had no experience in ordering armies > told to delay when shouldn’t have
2. Russian weather = winter = extremely brutal -12.8 degrees caused frostbite
3. Russian resistance = russians determined to defend their nation to the death
4. Logistical challenges = b/c of rapid advance = hard to keep up with resources

Question 18

Why did Japan want to take Singapore?

Answer 18

to remove a potential British naval threat and provide them with a good position to launch future attacks

Question 19

What did Japan need to take control of first before taking singapore and how did they do this?

Answer 19

Malaya. They achieved this through stealing bycicles as well as equipment being superior and more modern

Question 20

Reasons for Japanese success in the Fall of Singapore

Answer 20

-Commonwealth forces had low morale due to other defeats
-no protection from RAF or royal navy
-forces were ordered to the north east of the island which was just a diversionary attack to the main attack at the north west = only took 1 week

Question 21

Significance of the Fall of Singapore

Answer 21

Britsh = 5000 soldiers killed and 80,000 wounded or captured
Japanese = nearly 2000 killed and 3000 wounded
Humiliation for British
Strained relationship between australia and british

Question 22

What had lead to Lenningrad?

Answer 22

During operation barbarossa, one of the goals had been to take lenningrad however failed so objectives shifted from take it to completely destroy it and wipe out population

Question 23

What were the conditions like during the seige of lenningrad?

Answer 23

• winter = -40 degrees
• during the winter, 100,000 people were dying per month of starvation
• by the end of the siege, 800,000 had died
  -rations of 250g a day for workers and 125g for children, elderly and unemployed

Question 24

Japanese treatment of POWs

Answer 24

It was the belief that surrender brought shame upon your family and your nation. They treated people who surrendered to them horribly. Death rate as a Japanese POW = 27% however other axis powers was 3.6%. Forced labour, inadequate food and medical lead to many deaths. e.g thai-burman railway where conditions were atrocious