world war ii - pt 2 Flashcards
Fighting in Russia
Red Army suffered defeats
Russians adopted scorched earth policy - destroyed anything of use to Germans as they retreated
October - rain - roads into sea of mud
Germans not prep for extreme temps + no winter clothing
Counter-attack - Moscow saved
Us enters the war
Japan attacked main US Pacific base @ Pearl Harbour
Japan wanted empire in Asia
USA - led President Roosevelt - entered war (against Jap + Germ.)
Major turning points in WW II
Battle of Stalingrad
Battle of El Alamein
Battle of Stalingrad
What happened When Involved Where Result
Battle of Stalingrad - what happened
Capture Stalingrad (Stalin’s name)
Red Army (General Zhukov) - counterattack
Nov 1942 - Operation Uranus - trapped Sixth Army (Gen. Paulus)
Battle of Stalingrad - when
Uranus - Nov 19, 1942
Surrender (Paulus) - Feb 1943
Battle of Stalingrad - involved
Sixth Army (Gen. Zhukov)
Red Army (Gen. Paulus)
Hitler + Stalin
Battle of Stalingrad - where
Stalingrad - south USSR
Battle of Stalingrad - results
Germans lost army of 300,000
Turning point
Confidence boost for Russians
Battle of El Alamein
What happened When Involved Where Results
Battle of El Alamein -What happened
Afrika Corps (Gen. Rommel) sent to N. Africa - help Italians
1942 - reached El Alamein in Egypt - advanced halted
British Eight Army (Gen. Bernard Montgomery) - prepared attack
October - attacked w/ Sherman Tanks + 200,000 men
Rommel defeated
Ameri + Brit troops landed in Algeria + Morocco
Germans retreated –> Tunisia
Battle of El Alamein -When
Oct 1942
Battle of El Alamein - involved
Afrika Corps (Gen. Rommel)
Brit. Eight Army (Gen. Bernard Montgomery)
American + British troops
Battle of El Alamein - where
El Alamein in Egypt
Battle of El Alamein - results
Rommel defeated
Germans retreated to Tunisia
The tide turns
May 1943 - Ger + Ita troops @ N. Africa surrender
Mussolini removed from power
Allies won war at sea - breaking of German codes
Eastern Front - Ger. launched offensive. Red Army won + Ger. retreat
D-Day
Operation Overlord (Allies) land at Normandy - organised secret
Deception operation - happen near Calais
Invasion force (Gen. Eisentower)
Five beaches - codenames Utah, Omaha, Juno, Gold, Sword
Special tanks (funnies) - destroy beach defences
June 6 1944
156,000 soldiers landed, 10,000 planes
Fighting difficult. Countryside - Allies destroyed Main German army
Paris liberated
Defeat of the Germans + Germany surrenders
Ger. put faith in new weapons - little impact
Soviet troops few hundred metres away - Hitler committed suicide
Succeeded by Admiral Donitz - surrendered to Allies
Why did Allies win the war?
1) Allies - more tanks, planes, artillery
2) Germany - too many enemies. Attacked by US + Brit in West, Sov. Un. in East
3) Too reliant on tactics - not prepared for harsh winter conditions
4) Allies radar - superior - cracked German codes
5) Tactical errors - eg. refusing surrender @ Stalingrad
6) Underestimated Sov Un strength + resilience of Brit. population
7) Mussolini’s fight for land in N. Africa failed - rescue by Hitler
8) Allies won victory in air - Luftwaffe fighting in air instead of protecting troops on ground
9) Entry of USA to war (Pearl Harbour) - moral boost + brought troops + arms
10) Churchill - British PM - experience defeating Ger + winning wars
11) Japs relied kamikaze pilots to fight US. Ran out of pilots.
12) Atomic bomb overwhelmed Japan - automatic surrender
The final solution
What happened How did Hitler deal with the Jews Where Who When Results
The final solution - what happened
Nazis decided to kill Europe’s jewish population (11 mil)
The final solution - How did Hitler deal with the Jews)
Jews moved from ghettos by train - extermination camps - Auschwitz, Mahdanek, Teblinka
Gassed in fake shower units (gas chambers)
- Zyklon B gas. Bodies burned
Able-bodied - worked until murdered/died of disease. Some prisoners - medical experiments
The final solution - where
Ghettos - Warsaw Ghetto
Extermination camps - Auschwitz, Majdanek, Treblinka
The final solution - who
Hitler
Jews in Europe, Roma (gypsies), Poles+ Russian war prisoners killed
Heinrich Himmler - in charge of FS policy
The final solution - when
1942
The final solution - results
6 mil. jews perished
1 mil died Auschwitz
After-war - Nazi leaders persecuted at Nuremberg
-Himmler, Goering, Goebbels committed suicide
invasion of Russia
Hitler - attack USSR
Assembled largest invasion force
- 3 mil soldiers, 4000 tanks
- separate armies - Army Groups North, Centre, South
Codenamed Operation Barbarossa
Russia - surprise
Why they decided to kill the Jews
Hitler hated Jews
Too expensive to keep them in camps
Allowed for lebensraum
War in the pacific
Pearl Harbour attack - Dec 1941 - war w/ USA + Britain
Turning point - Battle of Midway (June 1942)
US navy sank 4 Jap. aircraft carriers
The atomic bomb
Japan invasion - could result in hundreds of thousands of US soldier deaths
Another option - Operation Manhattan - scientists developed atomic bonbc
New US president - Harry Truman - decided to drop on Jap - surrender
Aug 1945 - dropped Hiroshima + Nagasaki - (destroyed)
Hiroshima - 90,000 killed instantly
Jap. surrendered - WWII over
Results of the war
E. Europe - communist + USSR controlled
Germany’s defeat - US + USSR most powerful. Period of tension - Cold War
Brit + France very weak, Large empires in Africa + Asia - decolonisation
Closer European cooperation - foundation of EEC
