WWII Flashcards
Spanish Civil war
Long standing regime:
-coalition of landowners,army ,catholic church
-Opposition form workers etc , King abdicated, Republic established
-Public opinion shifting from left to right depending on their newest violent plans
Popular Front
-Coalition of socialists,communists,anarchists
-Country divided into:
Republicans (left) Nationalists (right)
-Socialists -Church
-communists -army
-anyone who supported -Falange(Spain’s
existing republic fascist group)
-Civil war ended with Nationalists (Franco) governing
Foreign Intervention
-fascists helping fascists
Britain:
-Non-interventionist
-still hoped to gain support from Italy in possible anti-German agreement
France:
- Non-interventionist
- Leon Blum, socialist leader feared fascists in own country starting a civil war
Soviet Union:
-Of non-fascist powers,USSR only one to send support to Republican gov
Germany:
- Sent Luftwaffe to support Nationalists
- Hitler’s generals eager to use Spain as a lab to test newly improved tanks ,planes +give men battle experience
Italy:
- Mussolini sent troops to Spain
- Believed involvement , another step in expansion of Italian influence
- Partly because of mutual involvement in Spain, Italy +Germany came out as Axis powers
International Brigades:
-Citizens of B,F, Canada etc participated on side of Republicans
Impact of European Affairs
- Hitler learned democracies unwilling to use force to resist right-wing movements
- Stalin realized that if G attacked USSR, B+F wouldn’t help, influenced his decision to sign Nazi-Soviet non-aggression pact
- Britain changing mind, now supported rearmament
Stresa Front
- Hitler announced reintroduction of conscription
- Breach of treaty of Versailles
- F,B,Italy in Stresa(Italy) to condemn Hitler’s action
- France assigned treaty of mutual assistance with USSR
Japan in Depression
- Only Indepedndent Asian country with own empire
- finiance minister policy of big spending which renewed Japan
- War of conquest (Manchuria)
- Event increase power and prestige of army in Japan
- Japanese coveted French,British,Dutch colonies
- Invaded China, declared New Order which promised a gov for common people
Japan +USA
-China received aid from USA
-This annoyed Japs , USA justified with Open Door Policy (free trade)
Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere
-Japs invited other countries of SE Asia to join them
-Attempt to create an empire at little cost
USA actions
-Froze Japanese assets in America, July 1941
-Oct 1941 USA cut off Japs oil supply
- Without oil Japs had to take Dutch East Indies
-American navy had to be eliminated in order for Japs to carry out plan for empire in Pacific
-7 Dec 1941, Attack on Pearl Harbour
-8 Dec 1941, US+Britian declare war on Japan
-Germany declares war on USA
Nazi Foreign policy
-Repudiation of Versailles
cancel reparations
increase armed forces
formation of Luftwaffe
compulsary military service
reoccupation of RhinelandAppeasement
-Approach to foreign relations which attempts to maintain peace by making concessions to aggressor to prevent war
Reasons for Appreasment
- B argued that Hitler merely correcting what never should have happened (treaty)
- WWI so brutal
- B thought a strengthened G was good for trade and offsetting Russian/French influence
- Saw Hitler as block against communism
- Balance of power essential
- none of items on Hitler’s ‘hit list’ were vital to B interests
- Didn’t understand Hitler was master of deciet
Rhineland Crisis
- While Europe busy with Italy+Ethiopia, Hitler reoccupied demilitarized Rhineland
- Offered to join league and years of peace
- France unwilling to act alone when B refused idea of retaliation
- France now on defensive
- Hitler learnt that he could get away with bluff
Anschluss Crisis
-1936, Hitler signed Austro-German treaty declaring Austria a German state
Annexation
-Hitler gave Schuschnigg (Chancellor) ultimatum
must take pressure off Nazi Party
make leader of Nazi party (Seyss-Inquart)
minister of interior, who controlled police
-Schuschnigg needed public support to resist Hitler,plebiscite on Austrian independence
-Hitler said it violated ultimatum, resign turn gov over to Seyss or face invasion
-S resigned, Seyss Inquart in power, made Austria a part of Germany
Significance:
-No more Austria
-People+resources added to Germany
-gave Hitler common border with Italy +Influence in Balkans
Czechoslovakian Crisis
- Interest in Sudetenland (had Germans, Czech minerals +fortresses
- Wanted dismemberment of Czech state give Hitler path to East
- Benes (Czech PM) saw Hitler as agressor
- France had alliance with Czech , didnt want war
Munich Crisis
- Benes offered Sudetens everything they demanded
- Actually wanted annexation
- Chamberlain met Hitler,agreed to taking over Sudetenland
- B+F put pressure on Czechs to accept inevitable, Benes resists
Munich Conference/Pact
-Hitler delayed occupation until 10 Oct
-F+B agreed , gave them time to pressure Benes
-Benes replaced by Emil Hacha
-March 1939 Czechoslovakia became German protectorate
Significance:
-Hitler lost credibility
-appeasement finished
-movement to rearm began
-future negotiations with Hitler backed with force
-proved Hitler was aggressor
-Chamberlain gave Poland a public Guarantee
Nazi-Soviet Pact
- Stalin convinced would have to go it alone against Hitler
- 1939 agreed not fight each other
- secretly agreed to carve up Poland
Poland
- Hitler tried to convince B+F his claims in Polish corridor were legitimate (rejected)
- 1 sept 1939 Hitler sent Blitzkrieg against Poland
- 3 sept B+F declared war on G after trying to convince Hitler to withdraw from Poland
Blitzkrieg
- ‘Lightening war’
1. Airplanes: - led attack to knock out key positions and create havoc amoungst enemy forces
2. Panzer: - Tanks smash through front
3. Paratroopers: - Drop behind lines
4. Motorized infantry: - trucks etc consolidate new position and map enemy resistance
5. Infantry: - throughout,air force continue to support Armour on ground
Phony war / Sitzkrieg
- Lack of action of Western Front until April 1940
- B+F preparing for war
- Hitler breaks ice with invasion of Norway
Norway Landings
- B hoped to tighten blockade of Germany , landed in Norway seize port where Swedish iron shipped to Germany
- B knew Norway’s heavy water (extra H+ molecule) easier to make H bomb, didn’t want Germany to find out
- Hitler got there first, Norway surrendered
- Hitler set up puppet gov headed by leader of Norwegian Nazi party who helped Hitler into Norway Vidkun Quisling (Traitor)
Dunkirk-Operation Dynamo
-Plan to lift trapped B+F forces from beaches of Dunkirk
-340,000 troops evacuation by British navy
-commercial boats brought men back to ships
-tanks,guns left behind
Significance:
-Moral victory for Allies
-Best of British forces saved
- *Hitlers Mistake!
- did not send in tanks to Dunkirk, wanted tanks in Paris instead
- sends in Luftwaffe but heavy fog
Geneva conventions
-Geneva=place where league of nations is
-wrote rules about fighting war
no gas/chemical weapons
warn when going to attack
Fall of France
- French forces in disarray
- Blitzkrieg effective
- France surrendered 22 June 1940
Why so fast?
- Maginot line =useless
- French deployed tanks badly
- French air force no match for Luftwaffe in quality
- internal division of France-fascists+communists both opposed war
Terms of surrender:
- Northern France +Atlantic ports occupied
- army demobilized
- Southern France (Vichy France) allowed semi-independent gov, no real independence
Marshall Petain:
- ran Vichy gov
- Began to collaborate with Nazis-became embarrassment to french after
Charles De Gaulle
- French general escaped to Britain
- Leader of free French fighting group in Britain
Britain:
-Sank french fleet to prevent it falling to Axis powers, sore spot for French in future
Battle of Britain
- July-Sept 1940
- Luftwaffe vs RAF for control over skies above Britain +English channel
- necessary step for G before invasion of British Isles (Operation Sea lion)
- RAF outnumbered 3:1 , but maintained good kill ratio
Spitfire:
- British fighter plane
- superior maneuverability
Radar:
- advantage for Britain
- could detect German bomber +fighter squadrons while they were still over channel
- Intercept them before they got to their targets
Enigma:
- British possessed German cipher Machine
- enabled Britain to receive and decode German messages
- *Hitler’s mistake!
- German bomber got lost, accidentally bombed civilians in London
- Churchill ordered retaliatory strike on Berlin
- Hitler enrage, ordered Luftwaffe to turn away from strategic attack on airfields to bombing London (Blitz)
- Gave RAF a chance to rest and rebuild
London Blitz
-Hitler hoped to break will of British, did opposite became more determined “we can take it” =motto
-43,685 citizens killed,
-end of Sept 1940, Hitler indefinitely postponed invasion of British
Significance:
-First time Hitler denied a conquest
-Setback meant war would be long, which was advantage to B once USA added
- Allies had a place to launch re-invasion of Europe
-RAF won battle of skies and prevented invasion
Eastern Front 1939-1941
-casualties,large battles,men point to fact that war in east main event
Winter War
- Russia tried to bully Finland into parting with territories
- Finns refused,Russia invaded
- signed peace treaty 1940
Barbarossa Goals
- Attack on Soviet Union
- Lebenstraum,conquest of largest country
- Hitler envied ‘breadbasket of Europe” (Ukraine)
- Hitler need oil-fuel
- destroy communism
Initial attack of Soviet Union
- Most of soviet airforce destroyed on ground
- Red army suffered from lack of experiences leadership due to Stalin’s purges
- Stalin invoked scorched earth policy, USSR traded territory from time
- retreating forces +civilians destroyed everything they left behind
- Before winter Nazi’s laid seige to Leningrad
- *Hitler’s mistake
- Created a two-front war
North Africa
-Strategic theater because :
Suez canal:Vital British shipping connection
to/from Middle East
Oil: Needed due to highly mechanized +highly
mobile nature of conflict
General Erwin Rommel
- desert fox
- assumed command of German Africa Korps
General Bernard Montgomery
- Monty
- Assumed command of British forces in North Africa
El Alamein 1942
-close to Suez
-Montgomery defeat Rommel and German/Italian retreat across Africa began
Significance:
-Suez canal remained in Allied hands
-Hitler denied access to oil of Middle east
-proved to allies Hitlers best forces can be defeated
- *Hitlers mistake
- sent troops to help Italy, meant that by conquering more , had to leave troops to establish Nazi rule, making army smaller and smaller
- Hitler denied Rommel more troops, he had asked for to conquer British troops, Hitler wanted/needed Russian invasion
- Allied win at El Alamein means no fuel for Germany
General Dwight Eisenhower
- Allies led by American Eisenhower landed in Morocco
- Eisenhower advancing from West-Operation Torch-Montgomery from East
Battle of Atlantic
-At first Hitler sinking Allied ships faster than they were building them
-radar and convoy systems changed that
Significance:
-Without a safe route for North American goods to reach Europe, US would do the Allies little good
Eastern Front 1942-1945
- Russian winter ground mechanized warfare to a Holt
- tanks +airplanes immobilized
- Hitler miscalculated length of time his troops would be in Soviet Union, They only had summer clothes and provisions
- *Hitlers mistake!
- 6th army wanted to dig in for winter, Hitler kept going, many froze to death
- Russians attacked at most vulnerable
Battle of Stalingrad
-1 Sept 1942, Hitlers forces took large sections of Stalingrad
-Had to take each street and each building
-casualties heave on both sides
-Red army strike back, Hitler ordered to fight to death and not retreat
-promised air support never arrived
-German troops surrendered
Significance:
-Hitler lost some of best units
-denied access to Caucasus fields
-Germany now forced onto defensive
-Began road to liberation
- *Hitlers mistake!
- Instead of going South to oil fields Hitler wanted to defeat Stalingrad first (Named after Stalin,ego thing)
Italian Campaign
-Stalin wanted a 2nd front in France but allies wanted all other sources of trouble from Germans eliminated first.(North Africa , Italy)
Sicily
- amphibious attack, Italians offered weak resistance
- now clear for a similar landing on Italian mainland
Partisans
-dedicated soldiers fighting for a cause who were not soldiers in regular army of country
Significance:
- Prerequisite step for liberation of Europe
- Occupied German troops,making them unavailable for defence of France
D-day- (Operation Overlord) June 6,1944
-Dwight Eisenhower made supreme cammander of Allied forces preparing for D-day
-5 beaches:
Utah+Ohama-America
Gold +Sword-British
Juno-Canada
-French resistance (undeground ant-Nazi organization) assisted attacking Allies
-25 Aug, Allied forces and Charles De Gaulle marched into Paris
- *Hitler’s mistake
- Kept reserve tanks on high ground during D-day and allowed allies to get on high ground.
- Hitler didnt trust generals after Rommel’s betrayal
Operation Market Garden
- Allies suffer a setback
- Dropped 3 airborne divisions behind German lines in Holland , only to have them land in midst of a tank division
Battle of the Bulge
-Germans launched one last offensive ,found a weak spot in Allied Front in Ardenned
V-1 or Buzz-bombs
- Last ditch effort with ‘revenge weapons’
- unmanned flying bombs,radio controlled drone plane
- possible to shoot them down
V2
-Ballistic missile (rocket) flew at supersonic speeds and terrorized London population
Dresden
- Allies launched raid on Dresden
- hoper to rush Germany into surrender
- Fire-bombing raide , killed over 100,000 Germans
Taking Berlin
- Eisenhower let Russians take Berlin, while he took Ruhr valley (Industrial Heartland)
- Germany military cut in two
- 30 April ,Hitler committed suicide
Tripartite
- Japan+Italy
- Each country promised to to support others if attacked by any new enemy (USA)
- Many small states decided to ensure German Protection from encroaching Russia by joining pact
Roosevelt-Japanese
- Japanese threatened colonies of western Imperialist powers it South-East Asia (Americans in Philippines)
- FDR froze all Jap cash + property in USA and tightened economic sanctions
- Placed embargo on oil as well as other materials
- USA sent aid to China
- Pearl Harbour , 7 Dec 1941
Doolittle Raid
- First military strike
- Bomber mission over Japan
2 most defining Battles
Battle of Coral Sea 1942
- Planes vs planes (supported by carriers)\
- try to destroy each others carriers
- setback for Japs , prevented them from taking port from which they could have bombed Australia
Battle of Midway 1942
- Turning point for pacific
- American fleet defeated Japanese fleet by sinking four of the Japanese aircraft carriers as well as one heavy cruiser
- Naval aviation (carriers) most important element of combat in Pacific
- US had Japanese code
Island Hopping
- Instead of taking each piece of land conquered, Americans decided to take strategic islands in order to get closer to main islands of Japan
- Saved much fighting and casualties
Battle of Leyte Gulf 1944
- Largest naval battle in history of war at sea
- prerequisite to retaking Philippines
- pit virtually whole American pacific fleet against what was left of Jap fleet
Kamikaze
- Suicicide missions,crash planes (with bombs) into American ships
- uses less fuel can fly further (only going one way)
Final stage
Iwo Jima and Okinawa
- islands Americans fought on
- had to fight against troops who would rather commit suicide than surrender, meant that had to fight until last Jap soldier was killed
- Americans began bombing Tokyo (urge Japan to surrender)
Manhattan Project
- US funded,secret expensive project to determine if it were possible to create atomic bomb
- tested at Los Alamos,New Mexico
Hiroshima 6 Aug 1945
- little boy
- Military planners informed Truman, he could expect another 1-1.5 million casualties and another 12-18 months of fighting to take Japan
- Enola gay (plane name)
- 100,000 people destroyed
- 8 Aug, soviets declared war on Japan
Nagasaki 9 Aug 1945
- Fat man
- 40,000 dead
- documents signed 2 Sept
General Douglas MacArthur
- supreme commander of Allied powers (SCAP)
- under his military gov, Japan was to be demilitarized and democratized
Suzukis peace party
- PM
- Tried secretly to interest America in a peace to avoid unconditional surrender and would pressure position of Jap empire
Holocaust
Einsatzgruppen
-special forces of SS,created to deal with undesirables of occupied countries
Wannsee conference
-1942,put finishing touches on final solution
Heydrich
-in charge of Holocaust
Nuremburg trials
- First time leaders legally charged other leaders for immoral actions during a war
- Nazi leaders+ most criminal generals tried for crimes against peace and crimes against humanity
Wartime conferences
Newfoundland 1941
-Roosevelt +Churchill
-discuss war aims,
Atlantic charter:model for UN (14 points of WWII)
Casablanca 1943
- US+B
- agreed Germany should be forced to surrender unconditionally
- intended as a message to Stalin, reassuring him that US+B wont make deal with G and leave USSR
Quebec1943
- US+B
- discuss progress of A bomb
Cairo
-us+B +Chiang (Chinese leader) met for talks on Eastern war
Main conferences
Tehran 1943 -first of big 3 conferences (USSR,US,B) -Polish frontiers formed by: Curzon line: -line between German Poland + Russian Poland -Russia got her side 2nd front Soviets agreed to participate in Pacific war
Yalta 1945 -most important (big 3) Europe -formalized zones for dividing Germany Morgenthou Plan-Germany divided into 4 states -agreed to Nuremburg trials -Stalin promise to enter Pacific war -approved principle of disarming Germany -Stalin promise free elections for Soviet liberated Europe UN Dumbarton Oaks-organized plan for UN -Agreed to San Francisco meeting to draft a UN charter
Potsdam 1945
-Roosevelt replaced by Truman
-Churchill replaced by Clement Attlee
-approved steps to disarm Germany
Dismantle war industries
Reparations
Denazification
Trial of war criminals
-defined Allied Control Council which was to govern Germany
UNO
-General Assembly,all members equal voting rights
-security council with power to decide whether UNO should intervene
-council 5 permanent members
Soviet Union
US
Britain
France
China
-each have power to veto
World bank + monetary fund
- lend money to countries whose economies were in poor shape and whose currencies might suddenly have to be devalued
- aim to prevent repeats of wild fluctuations in international exchange rates
- bank lend money for re-building war-torn Europe and economic development of worlds poorer nations
Eastern Independence
People Republics
-Soviet dominated communist republics whose leader took orders from Moscow and whose industries were reorganized so that USSR could take lions share if goods she needed
Marshall Tito
- Led communist partisans , set up revolutionary army of National Liberation (Churchill encouraged +supplied movement to harass Germans)
- Tito’s 200,00 Yugoslavian partisans kept 8 German divisions occupied
- After soviet liberation Tito refused to accept Stalin’s orders or to allow Yugoslavian industry to serve Russian needs
- Tito became an Independent communist state
Decolonizaion in Asia
- Nationalists resisting Japan
- not about to let Allies come back
- could become more powerful and independent because ‘masters’ busy
Indonesia
- Sukarno (President) armed themselves withe weapons
- Dutch came back, fought nationalists no help from US
- Dutch gave up, country became centralized republic
Indo-china
- Japs harassed by new movement, Vietminh
- French offered Vietminh could have self-gov in north Vietnam state within French controlled federation of Indo-china
- not good enough fighting
India
-Congress party refused to cooperate in British war effort , turned down a new scheme of eventual self-gov and Dominion status (didn’t trust B to keep promise)
-congress party mounted campaign of civil disobedience
Lord Mountbatten
-appointed as viceroy to prepare for transfer of authority (B-Indian)
Civil war
-Muslims killed Sikhs lest in New Pakistan
-Hindus and Sikhs massacred Muslims in India
Kashmir
-border state with Hindu ruler and concentrations of both Hindus and Muslims
-Forcibly partitioned between 2 countries(India/Pakistan)
