World War II Flashcards
Hitler’s rise to power:
- Germany
- 1919 Nazi Party
- anti-communist
-became Chancellor in 1933
-anti-semetic
Mussolini’s rise to power:
- came into power because the people needed a leader
- lots of inflation and unemployment
- Hitler’s idol
- 1919 fascist party
Stalin’s rise to power:
- took over after Lenin in 1924
- communist
- 25 million (including military officers) killed
- we do NOT like him
Tojo’s rise to power:
made all decisions for Japan because Hirohito liked him and that is just what they do
Emporer Hirohito
- worshiped as a god
- people willing to die for him
- does nothing with the war
Appeasement
Chamberlain says “pinky promise you won’t do anything bad anymore” to Hitler; clearly does not work
Blitzkrieg
Sept. 1st, 1939
- violence from invading
- football play “Blitz” means send everyone forward
- full power ahead, every person coming into Poland
- named “Lightning War”
Battle of Britain
Britain wins!
- completely air battle
- air force “Luftwaffe” bomb Great Britain
Battle of Stalingrad
Aug. 23rd, 1942 - Feb. 2nd, 1943
- Nazi Germany & Allies vs Soviet Union
- single biggest and bloodiest battle in warfare
- was an air raid that turned into house-to-house combat
- marked the first time Germany admitted defeat
- Joseph Goebbels introduced “total war”; claim all resources and total destruction
- crushed German morale, boosted Soviet morale\
- people started to see Hitler’s defeat as inevitable
Eisenhower
Supreme Allied Commander of the European Theater
- makes plan to invade Normandy
- largest invasion force in history
- planned to go in May, ended up going in June (6-6-44)
D-Day
June 6, 1944
- also called Operation Overload (Overlord?)
- GB and Canada take 3 Normandy beaches, US takes 2
- goal was to overpower them with men
- Germany and France fortified their beaches
- 130-150,000 dead first couple days, half of them American
- by D+30, 3 million troops dead
Yalta Conference
Who are the Big 3?
FDR, Churchill, Stalin
- leaders meet to speak about the future of their nations post-war
V-E Day
Victory in Europe
- marked the end of WWII in Europe
Pearl Harbor
Dec. 7th, 1941
- Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor
- complete surprise
- part of reason why we joined the war
(her Blooket says we joined because of the Lusitania)
MacArthur
Supreme Allied Commander of the Pacific Theater
- “I shall return”
- very good general
Kamikaze
- pilots willing to go the full mile
- Japanese that will and did use their plane as the final shot in the war
- suicide flyers
Bataan Death March
- troops forced to march through their country, the Phillipines
- absolute tragedy
- march through harsh conditions without the right gear
-beheaded, killed, beaten
Navajo Code Talkers
Native American soldiers
- tasked with creating a code with their language as the basis
- a major cause of our success
- the enemy couldn’t decode our messages
Iwo Jima
- worst battle in Marine Corps history
- named after the sulfuric mountain on the island
- goal was to take Suribachi
Hiroshima
Aug. 6th, 1945
- “Little Boy”
- dropped at 8:15am
- Explodes at 2,000 ft. above ground
- we tried to warn the Japanese before it happened
- 15,000 tons (30 million lbs.) of TNT
Nagasaki
Aug. 9th, 1945
- “Fat Man”
- dropped at 11:51am
- created 200 mph winds
- 7,050 * F
The aftermath of nuclear bombs
- radiation affected people years after
- countries across the ocean were seeing and feeling the effects
- 12,000 people died on top of the 80,000 initial
- 5 days later, V-J day happened
V-J Day
Aug. 14, 1945
- Victory against Japan
- US celebrates our victory against them
Anti-semitism
hostility towards Jewish people; Hitler very big anti-semitist
