World War Two

Question 1

What were the first two ways that Hitler broke the Treaty of Versailles? What was the Allied response?

Answer 1

• He remilitarized Germany
• Stopped payments to the Allies from WWI
• Nothing`

Question 2

How did Hitler take over Austria?

Answer 2

Using threats of invasions to protect Germans from “mistreatment”

Question 3

How did Hitler gain control of the Sudetenland?

Answer 3

Using threats of invasions to protect Germans from “mistreatment.” The Allies met Hitler and agreed not to stop him if he invaded.

Question 4

What was the Munich Conference?

Answer 4

The meeting in Germany in which the French and English agreed to not intervene in Czechoslovakia as long as Hitler promised not to take anything else

Question 5

What was appeasement, and how did it help Hitler be able to take over Europe so quickly?

Answer 5

Giving in to a threat in order to avoid war. It gave Hitler the ability to take over countries that were smaller without anyone stopping him. It also gave him time to build his massive military before the Allies joined.

Question 6

Who were the Axis power? What did they have in common?

Answer 6

Germany, Italy, Japan. They were all fascist dictatorships, that had agreed to expand their empires through war

Question 7

Why was the United States not participating in world affairs?

Answer 7

We had passed laws saying we couldn’t get involved. This was meant to keep us from getting into another war

Question 8

What was the Non-Aggression Pact?

Answer 8

Agreement between Russia and Germany not to attack each other

Question 9

What reasons were the for both Russia and Germany to sign the Pact?

Answer 9

• German wouldn’t get a 2-front war, and Russia wouldn’t have any war at all
• They secretly agreed to invade Poland together to regain territory lost in WWI

Question 10

What is odd about Hitler and Stalin signing the pact?

Answer 10

Stalin and Hitler hated each other

Question 11

What was the first country the Nazis took over by force?

Answer 11

Poland

Question 12

What does Blitzkrieg mean, and how does it work?

Answer 12

Means “lightning war.” Attacking with planes, followed by tanks, followed by troops at the same time, without warning.

Question 13

What happened at Dunkirk?

Answer 13

The Allied troops were surrounded on a beach, but Hitler allowed them to be rescued by the British Navy and civilians in boats and taken to England. They would later be part of the D-Day invasion.

Question 14

Why was it a positive for the Allies?

Answer 14

It allowed us to save the troops, who participated in the D-Day invasion a few years later.

Question 15

How was it also a disaster for them?

Answer 15

They lost all their supplies and weapons. It also basically gave France to Hitler.

Question 16

Why didn’t Hitler invade Britain?

Answer 16

It is an island, and transporting an entire army by boat was suicide because the British Navy was so good

Question 17

It is an island, and transporting an entire army by boat was suicide because the British Navy was so good

Answer 17

Bombing them into surrender during the “Battle of Britain”

Question 18

What technology helped to save the British?

Answer 18

Radar

Question 19

Who broke the Non-Aggression Pact?

Answer 19

Germany

Question 20

What is Pearl Harbor? When was it attacked?

Answer 20

• It is a navy base in Hawaii

- December 7, 1941

Question 21

Why did the Japanese attack us?

Answer 21

They knew we would join anyway, and would beat them. This was an attempt to take us out of the war early before we got fully prepared for a war

Question 22

What was the real target for the Japanese? Were they successful?

Answer 22

Aircraft carriers. No

Question 23

As we were rebuilding our navy, what was Japan doing?

Answer 23

Quickly expanding its empires

Question 24

What are three reasons that Stalingrad had strategic value?

Answer 24

• It sits on the only river into Moscow, so it is important as a way to choke off transportation
• It is near massive oil fields
• It is a large industrial center full of factories making war goods

Question 25

Why did it become symbolic?

Answer 25

It was named after Stalin, so it was important for propaganda

Question 26

Who ends up with control of the city?

Answer 26

Germany

Question 27

What is the Russian response?

Answer 27

To surround the city and starve the Germans

Question 28

What battle saw the most people killed in history?

Answer 28

Stalingrad

Question 29

How many troops did the Allies pull together to reinvade France, and where did they put them?

Answer 29

• 3.5 million

- England

Question 30

When and what is D-day

Answer 30

June6, 1944. It was the day the Allied countries launched an invasion on the beaches of Northern France.

Question 31

Why was the landing in France a big problem for Hitler?

Answer 31

It was the beginning of another front of the war, when he was already losing to Russia

Question 32

How did Hitler deal with the loss?

Answer 32

committed suicide

Question 33

What is island hopping?

Answer 33

The method the US used to get to Japan. We would skip over less important islands, and cut of supplies to them

Question 34

Why did we not want to invade the Japanese home islands?

Answer 34

It would have been incredibly deadly

Question 35

What did we do instead?

Answer 35

Used atomic bombs against civilians in Hiroshima and Nagasaki to make them surrender

Question 36

How many were killed instantly? How many were killed in the following weeks from radiation poisoning?

Answer 36

100,000 and 300,000

Question 37

What problems did post-war Europe face?

Answer 37

Lack of homes, jobs, power, food, sanitation, medicine, transportation, etc.

Question 38

What was the purpose and result of the Nuremberg Trials?

Answer 38

To convict the Nazi leadership for their roles in the Holocaust and atrocities committed during the war

Question 39

How did the end of WWII set up future conflicts between the US and Russia?

Answer 39

Russia and the US were the only remaining powers. They wanted to use Europe as a buffer, and make them Communists. We wanted to use Europe as trade partners and make them capitalists and democratic.