WWII

Question 1

Appeasement

Answer 1

The policy of Great Britain and France to give in to demands in order to maintain peace in Europe.

Question 2

How Axis Expansion caused the war?

Answer 2

Germany, Japan, and Italy took over countries/ territories without being punished. Lack of punishment gave the Axis countries the courage to start a war and made them more powerful.

Question 3

The Role of the Allies in causing WWII

Answer 3

Allies let the Axis powers build up their militaries and expand their territories without punishment because of appeasement. Allies did not prepare for battle, so when the war started, they could not stop it. The U.S. had a policy of isolationism which allowed Axis powers to gain power because the U.S. did not get involved.

Question 4

Nonaggression Pact

Answer 4

A mutual promise between the Soviet Union and Germany that they would not attack one another and they would divide Poland

Question 5

Blitzkrieg

Answer 5

“Lightning war” - a form of warfare in which surprise attacks from fast-moving airplanes followed by massive attacks with infantry forces - Hitler’s idea

Question 6

What caused Great Britain and France to finally declare war on Germany?

Answer 6

Hilter invaded Poland

Question 7

Name the Allies

Answer 7

Great Britain, France, U.S. Soviet Union

Question 8

Name the Axis Powers

Answer 8

Japan, Italy, Germany

Question 9

Rescue at Dunkirk

Answer 9

Allied troops trapped by Germans at Dunkirk. British Royal Navy and civilians in private boats rescued 338,000 Allied Troops

Question 10

Details of Battle of Britain

Answer 10

German Luftwaffe attacked England. Won by the British because of the Royal Air Force. Important because it showed that Hitler could be defeated in battle

Question 11

Name of the German Air Force

Answer 11

Luftwaffe

Question 12

Name two technologies that made British successful in the Battle of Britain

Answer 12

Radar- the RAF knew when the Germans were going to attack, how many there were, and from what direction
The Enigma Machine- the Germans’code machine that had been smuggled into Britain, so the British could decode German messages

Question 13

Why did Mussolini attack Egypt?

Answer 13

in order to take control of the Suez Canal from Great Britain

Question 14

Erwin Rommel and the Afrika Korps

Answer 14

Known as the “Desert Fox” he successfully led the German Tank Corps in Africa until he was defeated by British and American Forces

Question 15

Atlantic Charter

Answer 15

a declaration issued in August 1941 by British prime minister Winston Churchill and U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt that showed their connection before the U.S. entered the war

Question 16

Details of Pearl Harbor

Answer 16

took place on December 7, 1941. Japan launched a surprise attack on the US Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor

Question 17

Turning points in the war in the Pacific

Answer 17

The battles of Coral Sea and Midway

Question 18

Island- hopping

Answer 18

US strategy of moving from one island to the next, capturing them and moving closer to Japan

Question 19

Holocaust

Answer 19

The main target was the Jews. Jews were sent to concentration camps or death camps, used as slave labor, used in medical experiments, or killed in gas chambers. 5-6 million Jews were killed. (2/3)

Question 20

Aryan

Answer 20

The group of people Hitler believed was the “master race” who created culture.

Question 21

Kristallnacht

Answer 21

The “Night of Broken Glass” where Jewish businesses, homes, and synagogues were destroyed by the Nazis. It prompted many Jews to leave Germany

Question 22

Ghettos

Answer 22

Prior to the Final Solution of the Holocaust, Jews were forced to live in ghettos: small closed communities with limited resources where Hitler hoped they would die of natural causes

Question 23

Final Solution

Answer 23

Hitler’s idea to eliminate the Jews by murdering them when life in the ghettos was too slow at eliminating them

Question 24

Genocide

Answer 24

The systematic killing of a group of people

Question 25

Battle of Stalingrad

Answer 25

The Germans were defeated by the Soviets because the Germans were frostbitten and starving, which allowed the Soviets to start pushing toward Germany

Question 26

D-Day

Answer 26

The Allied invasion of the beaches of Normandy, France on June 6, 1944, led to a break in the German front and gave the allies a foothold in France

Question 27

Battle of the Bulge

Answer 27

Germans move into the Ardennes (a forest) and broke through the American defenses. As the Germans pushed forward it caused a “bulge” in the Allied lines, but the Germans were eventually pushed back

Question 28

Kamikazes

Answer 28

Japanese suicide pilots that attempted to sink Allied ships by crash-diving bomb-filled planes into them

Question 29

Dropping the Atomic Bomb and Japan’s unconditional surrender

Answer 29

The US dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagaski and devastated both cities. The bombs killed tens of thousands instantly, leveled the cities, it was the most destructive weapon ever used in warfare, and forced the Japanese to realize they could not fight against such a weapon.