World War II Vocabulary

Question 1

Kellogg-Briand Pact

Answer 1

A 1928 international agreement in which signatory states promised not to use war to resolve “disputes or conflicts of whatever nature or of whatever origin they may be, which may arise among them.

Question 2

Ethiopia

Answer 2

A rugged, landlocked country split by the Great Rift Valley, with archaeological finds dating back more than 3 million years, it’s a place of ancient culture.

Question 3

Appeasement

Answer 3

The action or process of appeasing.

Question 4

Axis Powers

Answer 4

A group of countries that opposed the Allied powers in World War II, including Germany, Italy, and Japan as well as Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, and Yugoslavia.

Question 5

Allied Powers

Answer 5

The victorious allied nations of World War I and World War II.

Question 6

Munich Conference

Answer 6

An agreement between Britain and Germany in 1938, under which Germany was allowed to extend its territory into parts of Czechoslovakia in which German-speaking peoples lived.

Question 7

Anti-comitern

Answer 7

An anti-communist pact concluded between Nazi Germany and the Empire of Japan (later to be joined by other, mainly fascist, governments) on November 25, 1936 and was directed against the Third (Communist) International.

Question 8

German-Soviet Non-aggressive Pact

Answer 8

Nonaggression pact between Germany and the Soviet Union that was concluded only a few days before the beginning of World War II.

Question 9

Sanction

Answer 9

A threatened penalty for disobeying a law or rule.

Question 10

Demilitarized

Answer 10

Remove all military forces from (an area).

Question 11

Winston Churchill

Answer 11

A British statesman who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955.

Question 12

Charles De Gaulle

Answer 12

A French general and statesman. He was the leader of Free France and the head of the Provisional Government of the French Republic.

Question 13

Pearl Harbor

Answer 13

A surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii Territory, on the morning of December 7, 1941.

Question 14

Sudetenland

Answer 14

The German name to refer to those northern, southern, and western areas of Czechoslovakia which were inhabited primarily by ethnic German speakers, specifically the border districts.

Question 15

Seige of Leningrad

Answer 15

A prolonged military blockade undertaken mainly by the German Army Group North against Leningrad, historically and currently known as Saint Petersburg.

Question 16

Battle of Stalingrad

Answer 16

A major battle of World War II in which Nazi Germany and its allies fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad in Southern Russia.

Question 17

Phony War

Answer 17

An eight-month period at the start of World War II, during which there were no major military land operations on the Western Front.

Question 18

Isolantionist

Answer 18

A policy of remaining apart from the affairs or interests of other groups, especially the political affairs of other countries.

Question 19

Battle of Britain

Answer 19

A military campaign of the Second World War, when the Royal Air Force defended the United Kingdom against the German Air Force attacks from the end of June 1940.

Question 20

Lend-lease Act

Answer 20

Congress authorized the sale, lease, transfer, or exchange of arms and supplies to ‘any country whose defense the president deems vital to the defense of the United States.

Question 21

VE Day

Answer 21

The public holiday celebrated on 8 May 1945 to mark the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Nazi Germany’s unconditional surrender of its armed forces.

Question 22

D-Day

Answer 22

The landing operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II.

Question 23

New order

Answer 23

The political order which Nazi Germany wanted to impose on the conquered areas under its dominion.

Question 24

Final Solution

Answer 24

The Nazi policy of exterminating European Jews. Introduced by Heinrich Himmler and administered by Adolf Eichmann, the policy resulted in the murder of 6 million Jews in concentration camps between 1941 and 1945.

Question 25

Holocaust

Answer 25

Destruction or slaughter on a mass scale, especially caused by fire or nuclear war.

Question 26

Auschwitz

Answer 26

ONE of the largest concentration camps from the Holocaust during World War Two.

Question 27

FDR

Answer 27

An American statesman and political leader who served as the 32nd President of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945.

Question 28

Douglas McArthur

Answer 28

An American five-star general and field marshal of the Philippine Army.

Question 29

Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

Answer 29

The 1943 act of Jewish resistance that arose within the Warsaw Ghetto in German-occupied Poland during World War II.

Question 30

Midway Highlands

Answer 30

Built as part of the fortification leading up to World War II.

Question 31

Genocide

Answer 31

The deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular ethnic group or nation.

Question 32

Poland

Answer 32

An eastern European country on the Baltic Sea known for its medieval architecture and Jewish heritage.

Question 33

United Nations

Answer 33

An intergovernmental organization to promote international co-operation.

Question 34

Kamikaze

Answer 34

A Japanese aircraft loaded with explosives and making a deliberate suicidal crash on an enemy target.

Question 35

Mobilization

Answer 35

The action of a country or its government preparing and organizing troops for active service.

Question 36

Island Hopping

Answer 36

Travel from one island to another, especially as a tourist in an area of small islands.

Question 37

Atomic Bomb

Answer 37

An explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or a combination of fission and fusion.

Question 38

Hiroshima

Answer 38

The United States, at the order of President Harry S. Truman, dropped nuclear weapons on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945, respectively, during the final stage of World War II.

Question 39

Nagasaki

Answer 39

The capital and the largest city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan.

Question 40

Bretton Woods Conference

Answer 40

The gathering of 730 delegates from all 44 Allied nations at the Mount Washington Hotel, situated in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, United States, to regulate the international monetary and financial order

Question 41

Truman Doctrine

Answer 41

An American foreign policy created to counter Soviet geopolitical expansion during the Cold War.

Question 42

VJ Day

Answer 42

The day on which the Empire of Japan surrendered in World War II, in effect ending the war.

Question 43

Concentration camp

Answer 43

A place where large numbers of people, especially political prisoners or members of persecuted minorities, are deliberately imprisoned in a relatively small area with inadequate facilities, sometimes to provide forced labor or to await mass execution.

Question 44

Nanjing

Answer 44

A city situated in the heartland of the lower Yangtze River region in China, which has long been a major centre of culture

Question 45

Atlantic Charter

Answer 45

A joint declaration released by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill on August 14, 1941 following a meeting of the two heads of state in Newfoundland.

Question 46

Operation Overload

Answer 46

The code name for the Battle of Normandy, the Allied operation that launched the successful invasion of German-occupied Western Europe during World War II.

Question 47

Nuremberg Trials

Answer 47

A series of military tribunals, held by the Allied forces after World War II, which were most notable for the prosecution of prominent members of the political, military, judicial and economic leadership

Question 48

Quilt India

Answer 48

Congress launched the Quit India Movement in August 1942, refusing to co-operate in any way with the government until independence was granted.