World War 2 Flashcards
Date: Invasion of France
1940
Date: Declaration of War on USA, Operation Barbarossa
1941
Date: Stalingrad
1943
Date: D-Day
1944
How many countries under German control by end of 1940
9 (France, Poland, Belgium, Netherlands, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Denmark, Norway)
General gist of ww2
1939-1 Nazis v. successful
1941-3 Nazis become unsuccessful (Defeated in North Africa, USA enters, Stalingrad)
-1944-5 Destruction of Germany
Failure of Stalingrad 1943
Resulted in Loss of 300,000 men (entire 6th army)
Germany inefficiency statistic
In 1940 Britain spent half as much as Germany on War production but produced
- 50% more aircraft
- 11x more armoured cards
- Nearly as many tanks
Why was USA entering war significant?
World’s largest economy at the time
Brought (over course of war) 16 million armed forces personnel
Germany now fighting both world’s largest economies (USA and USSR) and same time
Rations Bread
Bread 10kg (per month) 1939, by 1945 3.6 kg/month
Rations meat + bonuses
500 grammes a week 1939, down to 300g in 1942
At christmas every German got an extra 200g of meat rationed
Goebbel’s total war speech
in 1943, resulted in closure of 9000 buisnesses
Ration fact
Until 1944, rations were in excess of calorific requirement
Allied bombing statistics (6)
305,000 Germans died from allied bombing
- 59% of Dresden and 33% of Berlin was destroyed
- 2 million homes drestroyed
- 650,000 bombs dropped on Germany in 1944 compared with 9,000 on Britain
- Hamburg 75% destroyed (especially after the summer of 1943)
- Cologne (61% destroyed)
Why did Germans fight until the end? (5)
- Scared of what Jews might do in revenge if Germany lost
- Many didn’t want another Versailles treaty
- Many leading Nazis guilty of War Crimes, would be heavily punished by Allies
- Soldiers scared of consequences for flagging/not being committed
- Some soldiers did buy into the propaganda of defending themselves against an ‘inferior race’/ridding world of Bolshevism
How many Germans were court-martialed and sentenced to death in ww2
15,000 Germany soldiers sentenced to death by Germany compared with 18 in ww1
suicide statistic
In 1945, 7000 suicides were reported in Berlin
Gist of rations
Germans never exposed to shortages, queuing and inflation that existed in ww1
captured airmen statistic
Only 1% of captured (by German people) airmen were killed or lynched (by the Germany people), not much hostility felt towards them in Germany
German military deaths statistic
2/3 of all German servicemen who were killed in ww2 died in 1944-5
Fall in output per head 1939-40?
12.5%
Number of workers in the workforce in 1940 compared to 1939?
3.5 million fewer in 1940 than in 1939
Number of workers that Fritz Sauckel brought in to the workforce in february 1942?
The 1942 compulsory labour decree brought in 2.5 million new workers
Number of foreign workers in Germany by the end of 1942?
2.5 million
Speer successes? (4)
- Ammunition production rose by 97%
- Tank production rose by 25%
- German war production trebeled between 1942 and 1944
- Productivity per worker increased by 60% in munitions
Increase in Iron Ore supplies 1940-1943 to conquering of countries?
- 1940: 13.4million tons
- 1943: 20.2 million tons
Women in workforce facts? (4)
-Between 1939 and 1944 only 200,000 extra women entered the workforce
-1939: 14.6 million women in employment
-1941: 14.2 million women in employment
-1944: 14.9 million women in employment
CONFLICT BETWEEN IDEOLOGY AND PRACTICALITY
Nazi war propaganda? (4)
- Film: “The Adventures of Baron Munchausen” (1943)
“Kolberg “(1945) which cost 80.5 million Reichmarks to make.
-Only 30 out of 400 cinemas in Berlin remained due to Gobbel’s Total War
-The propaganda ministry sold 32.5 million copies of the Nazi party ‘Word Of the Week’
-In 1940 40million theatre tickets were sold
Examples of Soviet War atrocities
- Katyn Massacre 1940 (8,000 dead)
- Nemmensdorf Massacre 1944
- Mass rapes in 1945, especially in liberation of Poland
date: Hitler’s order to deport German jews to Eastern Europe?
1941
Gauleiter example for feudal chaotic state in final solution ?
- Albert Forster Gauleiter of Danzig-West Prussia took Hitler’s order to deport German jews literally.
- Artur Greiser Gauleiter of Wartherland began an extermination programme
Number of Jews exterminated by Gaswagon in 1941 in Chelmo, Poland?
100,000
Date Wansee Conference?
January 1942
Number of Jews dead at Sobibar by late 1942?
300,000
Date Hilter speech calling for “annhiliation of the Jewish Race”?
January 1939
Date Hitler order to Himmler to make eastern Europe free of Jews?
June 1942
Number of jews exterminated in Treblinka ?
800,000
Number of jewish inhabitants in the Warsaw Ghetto in 1939?
over 400,000
Date Madagascar plan?
1940
Number of jews the Einsatzgruppen killed in eastern europe follwing hitler’s authorisation?
800,000
Number of Elderweiss pirate leaders hung in Cologne in 1944?
12
Stauffenburg bomb plot?
1944
Number of generals executed after failed bomb plot?
22
Percentage of german women raped by Russian soldiers in 1945?
20%
Number of extra men that speer mobilised in 1944?
1 million
Robert Limpert story?
Tried to resist the government but was caught multiple times. He was hung in 1945 as ordinary citizens did nothing to help
Date Operation Flash?
March 1943
Conservative Opposition facts?
- Goerdeler Group created in 1941 by Carl Goerdeler, tried to build democratic links with the allies
- Kreisau Circle created in 1941 linked with the bomb plot
Bavarian Crucifix crisis?
- April 1941
- Adolf Wagner the Gauleiter of Munich and Upper bavaria tried to take away all crucifixes from schools and replace with swastikas, faced lots of resistence… had to put the crucifixes back
Date: Galen attacked Nazi T4 programme?
August 1941
Number of Communist Resistence cells in Berlin in 1941?
89
Names of splinter groups of communist resistance?
- Red Patrol
- Socialsit front
When was the leader of the communist resistance WIlhelm Knockel arrested?
1943
