WWII Flashcards
The impact of the great depression on Germany:
*MONEY IS WORTHLESS
> Early 1920 hyperinflation wiped out value of currency
> unable to pay reparations
1929: stock market crash and the beginning of the Great Depression
1932: 6 million Germans unemployed
- HITLER USES ECONOMIC CRISIS TO HIS ADVANTAGE.
- promise of restoration of industry, national pride and as a world leader
> portrayed communists and Jews as enemies within causing hardship for the German people.
The impact of the Treaty of Versailles and the ‘stab in the back’ theory:
- ALLIES PUNISHED GERMANY
- RESTRICTED MILITARY to 100 000 volunteers, no air force, limited navy and no manufacture of arms
- LOST ALL OVERSEAS COLONIES, territory given to Poland, provinces of Alsace and Lorraine returned to France
- RHINELAND OCCUPIED BY ALLIES for 15 years (the industrial area of Germany)
- Hitler and Nazis able to INSTILL FEAR THAT GERMANY WAS VULNERABLE TO HER ENEMIES
- Many Germans bitterly resented the harsh terms of the Treaty and its humiliating clause blaming Germany for the war.
- The ‘stab in the back’ myth: Germany was betrayed by the ‘November Criminals’, the democratic socialists who created the republic, signed the armistice and accepted the treaty.
The rise of extremist right-wing political systems:
*RIGHT WING OF PARTIES, IDEOLOGIES AND INDIVIDUALS WHOSE POLITICAL BELIEFS RANGE FROM CONSERVATIVE TO FASCIST
> German right-wingers reacted with the ‘stab in the back’ myth
The Allies’ policy of Appeasement and how Hitler took advantage of this:
*APPEASEMENT IS MAKING CONCESSIONS TO AVOID CONFLICT
> allies were unwilling to risk another war
> Allies compromise with Hitler until it is too late
MARCH 1935: Hitler has air force and conscription
JUNE 1935: Hitler has navy 35% of Britain’s
MARCH 1936: Britain and France don’t act when Germany invaded Rhineland
MARCH 1939: Don’t act when Germany invade the Sudetenland
1 SEPTEMBER 1939: Allies responded with military action when Germany invaded Poland
*Hitler took advantage of appeasement by gradually building trust and gaining privelages
Hitler’s grand plans for the German people:
The basic idea of Nazi ideology:
*Germany must gain Lubensraum (living room) for its expanding population by taking land from non ‘pure-blooded’ Germanic peoples
Hitler’s use of the Weimar Republic political system to move up ranks:
*THE DEMOCRATIC SYSTEM OF OF GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY FROM 1919 TO EARLY 1933, SO CALLED BECAUSE ITS CONSTITUTION WAS WRITTEN IN THE CITY OF WEIMAR.
> Hitler and Nazis able to blame leaders of the Weimar Republic for “selling out” Germany, weakened the government and appealed to national pride.
The Enabling Act and the power it gave Hitler:
> The Enabling Act of the 23rd of March 1933 gave Hitler dictatorial powers and gave his government the power to make laws and change the Constitution as it wished.
why we were exposed in 1941 to the Japanese threat:
*Australia’s fears:
-Japanese rapid expansion south
-Australian army/navy/air force >most posted in Africa/Europe
> garrison POW in Singapore
-Australia unprepared because they were relying in the British in Singapore
> fall of significant ally bases in the Asia Pacific Region (Pearl Harbour, Philippines, Singapore)
> Direct attack on Darwin
John Curtin is Prime Minister in 1942
Robert Menzies P.M. at start of war
TIMELINE:
JULY 1941: Japanese occupation of French Indochina
7 DEC 1941: Japanese planes struck Pearl Harbour
8 DEC 1941: Roosevelt declared war on Japan
8 DEC 1941: Japanese invaded Malaya
Who became our closest ally at this time and why:
- The U.S. our closest ally
- became ally because the U.S. forces needed a base from which to direct operations against the Japanese in the South-West Pacific
- Curtin government was grateful to become the base because it assured Australia’s security at a time when Britain could not do so
The Darwin bombing and other attacks on Australia:
- 19 FEB 1942: Darwin hit in two Japanese air raids
- 90 bomber with fighter escorts
- 243 people were killed
- Many more air raids followed throughout 1942 and 1943
- Japanese captured Australian forces on Java, Ambon and Timor in February
- 1 JUNE 1942: two Japanese midget submarines sunk in Sydney Harbour
CONSCRIPTION
- introducing limited conscription for overseas service- one of the hardest decisions made by the government
- The Militia Bill was passed on 3 FEB 1943, enabled the government to send conscripts to any area within the SOUTH-WEST PACIFIC ZONE
RATIONING
- controlling the distribution of something when supplies are low
- introduced in Australia in 1942
- ration money and tickets useless without each other
- people had to put their names on lists if they wanted household goods e.g. lamps, irons, radios
- Petrol was rationed
- go without or use imagination: recycled clothing, drawn stockings, maidenhair fern tea
CENSORSHIP
- government controls and restrictions on the free flow of information in the media
- The Australian Government censored TV during WWII. This especially happened after the bombing of Darwin to avoid panic.
TOTAL WAR
- total war means that everyone on the whole country is included in the war
- in WWII, Australia was on a total war footing (army, community)
COASTWATCHERS
- small groups of well-trained soldiers stationed along Australia’s coastline
- They were to monitor and Japanese ships undetected
- The Japanese were never seen
VOLUNTEER DEFENCE CORPS
- citizens feared sabotage on public utilities (water supplies, transport systems)
- VDC to keep law and order, protect public utilities and prevent ‘subversive’ activities
- many volunteers became air-raid wardens
INTERNMENT CAMPS
- to be put in prison for political or military reasons, either real or perceived
- In Australia; German, Italian and Japanese descendants were targeted
The Kokoda Campaign
THE KOKODA TRACK: steep and muddy trail from Port Moresby through the Owen Stanley Range
-Japanese planned to capture Port Moresby by two land attacks.
> wanted a stronger hold over their fortress at Rabaul
- Port Moresby vital for defence of Australia. If Japanese had control they could dominate the Coral Sea and bomb Queenslans.
- The 39th Battalion and Papua Infantry Brigade sent to protect Port Moresby
- Went from January to November 1942
- On 2 November the Australians regained Kokoda
How prisoners of the Japanese were treated and why:
- Japanese had little respect for their prisoners
- starving and sick men were forced to work for twelve or more hours/day
- Women in camps treated brutally
- Thousands of POWs and conscripted Asians were forced to build the Burma-Thailand railway.
DEATH MARCHES:
JAN 1945: 470 Sandakan POWs forced to march 260km to Ranau
MAY 1945: another death March of 500 POWs
1 AUG 1945: remaining Sandakan POWs at Ranau shot
Japanese expansion south:
JULY 1941: occupation of French Indochina
7 DEC 1941: Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour
8 DEC 1941: Japanese invaded Malaya
15 FEB 1942: Fall of Singapore
MAY 1942: Battle of the Coral Sea
JUNE 1942: Battle of Midway
PEARL HARBOUR
- 7 December 1941
- preemptive attack on naval base, America established there
- aim to delay American entry into the war
- brings America out of their isolationism and into the war
- Roosevelt declared war on the 8 December 1941
MALAYA
- 8 December 1941
- invaded Malaya and attacked other British, Dutch and US colonies in Asia
SINGAPORE:
- fell on the 15th February 1942
- defence poorly organised
- Singapore’s defenders, including 15 000 Australians, became POWs
CORAL SEA
- May 1942
- first turning point in the war!!
- US aircraft carrier force prevented Japanese from taking Port Moresby by sea
