WWII

Question 1

Appeasement

Answer 1

Great Britain’s policy that stated that if European states satisfied the reasonable demands of dissatisfied powers, stability and peace would be restored in Europe

Question 2

Winston Churchill

Answer 2

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during the majority of WWII

Question 3

Allied Powers

Answer 3

France, Poland, the United Kingdom, and late the United States

Question 4

Axis Powers

Answer 4

Germany, Italy, and Japan

Question 5

Total War

Answer 5

The complete mobilization of fully available resources and population.

Question 6

“Operation Barbarossa”

Answer 6

June 22, 1941 (Germany), Hitler invades the USSR; Hitler wanted the utter destruction of the Soviet Union, planned on taking 3 months, used the Three Pronged Attack

◦Went from the north, the south, and the east

Question 7

Pearl Harbor

Answer 7

A surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941. The attack was intended as a preventive action in order to keep the U.S. Pacific Fleet from interfering with military actions the Empire of Japan was planning against overseas territories of the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and the United States.

Question 8

D-Day

Answer 8

“Operation Overlord”; when Allied troops landed in France in attempts to free mainland Europe from Nazi control on June 6th, 1944

Question 9

Unconditional Surrender

Answer 9

Absolute, unqualified surrender

Question 10

Atomic Bombs (Hiroshima, Nagasaki)

Answer 10

conducted by the United States during the final stages of World War II in 1945. These two events represent the only use of nuclear weapons in war to date

Question 11

Antisemitism

Answer 11

Suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage.

Question 12

Holocaust

Answer 12

A massive killing, usually refers to the widespread murders lead by Hitler and the Nazi party specifically targeted at the Jews

Question 13

Final Solution

Answer 13

Hitler’s plan for the physical extermination of the Jewish people

Question 14

Concentration Camps

Answer 14

Camps at which the prisoners of the Nazi’s were kept, usually awaiting death, or if they passed the health examine, the captives would be put to work as laborers or manufacturers

Question 15

Munich Conference

Answer 15

A conference in which the French, the British, the Italians, and the Germans came to an agreement that satisfied Hitler’s demands as the leader of Germany

Question 16

Non-Aggression Pact

Answer 16

The Germany and Soviet Union treaty in which Hitler was granted the right to invade Poland

Question 17

Luftwaffe

Answer 17

The German air force

Question 18

Vichy France

Answer 18

An authoritarian regime led by Marshal Henri Pétain set-up over the country

Question 19

The Blitz (Blitzkrieg)

Answer 19

A “lightening quick” military offense used by the Germans

Question 20

Lend-Lease

Answer 20

Program by which the U.S. lent large amounts of military equipment ($50 million worth of trucks, planes, and arms) to Great Britain and the Soviet Union; ended U.S. neutrality

Question 21

Mukden Incident

Answer 21

An “incident” carried out by Japanese soldiers, in which an attack on a railway near the Japanese city of Mukden was completed with the Japanese disguised as Chinese soldiers; later used as an excuse for the Japanese forces to attack/seize Manchuria (northeastern China which was home to many natural resources)

Question 22

Asia for the Asiatic

Answer 22

The slogan used by the Japanese during their conquest of Southeast Asia; many Japanese sincerely believed that their government meant liberation of the Southeastern Asians from European colonial rule

Question 23

Tehran Conference

Answer 23

a strategy meeting about WWII held between Joseph Stalin, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Winston Churchill from 28 November to 1 December 1943; decided upon Operation Overlord (D-Day)

Question 24

Yalta Conference

Answer 24

February 1945; “Big Three” meet to discuss/finalize plans for post war Europe. Made these decisions:

1) To form a United Nations organization Germany was to be divided up among the allies.
2) USSR would enter Berlin first.
3) Poland, and much of Eastern Europe would come under Soviet influence.

Question 25

Potsdam Conference

Answer 25

The meeting of the heads of government of the USA, USSR, and Great Britain, following the unconditional surrender of Germany; took place from July 17 to August 2, 1945. The purpose of the conference was the implementation of decisions reached previously at the Yalta Conference.

Question 26

Rommel

Answer 26

Lead the Afrika Korps to break through the British defenses in Egypt and advance toward Alexandria

Question 27

Beer Hall Putsch

Answer 27

An attempted uprising against the German Reichstag by the Nazi party in 1923; Hitler was put into jail for an attempted overthrow of the government

Question 28

Mein Kampf

Answer 28

“My Struggle”; Hitler’s book which he wrote while in jail, described his beliefs in social Darwinism, extreme nationalism, antisemitism, and the Theory of Lebensraum
Reichstag: the German parliament

Question 29

Reichstag

Answer 29

The German parliament

Question 30

Kristallnacht

Answer 30

“Night of shattered glass”; a violent anti-Jewish movement in which synagogues were burned, 7,000 Jewish businesses were destroyed, and around 30,000 Jewish mean were sent to concentration camps, aside from the about 100 Jews killed

Question 31

Treaty of Versailles

Answer 31

• Limited the size of Germany’s armed forces
◦Army could only be 100,000 men strong
◦No Air Force or Navy
• Demilitarized zone on Germany’s western boarder (The Rhineland)
◦France builds the Maginot Line- a permanent trench that would protect the French from
Germany
• Germany and Austria are not allowed to unite

Question 32

Enabling Act of 1933

Answer 32

Gave German government power to ignore constitution while it “fixed” Germany’s problems; gave legal basis for Hitler’s later acts, parliamentary coup, Hindenburg dies in 1934, Hitler sole ruler of Germany

Question 33

Island Hopping

Answer 33

Island hopping was a strategy used in the Pacific theater whereby selected islands were secured by allied forces (usually the marines). Usually, these islands would have some strategic value which helped to move the fight closer to Japan

Question 34

Atlantic Charter

Answer 34

a pivotal policy statement first issued in August 1941 that early in World War II defined the Allied goals for the post-war world; stated the ideal goals of the war: no territorial aggrandizement; no territorial changes made against the wishes of the people; restoration of self-government to those deprived of it; free access to raw materials; reduction of trade restrictions; global cooperation to secure better economic and social conditions for all; freedom from fear and want; freedom of the seas; and abandonment of the use of force, as well as disarmament of aggressor nations

Question 35

Battle of Britain

Answer 35

the name given to the Second World War air campaign waged by the German Air Force (Luftwaffe) against the United Kingdom during the summer and autumn of 1940. The objective of the campaign was to gain air superiority over the Royal Air Force (RAF),

Question 36

Battle of Midway

Answer 36

regarded as the most important naval battle of the Pacific Campaign of World War II; the United States Navy decisively defeated an Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) attack against Midway Atoll, inflicting irreparable damage on the Japanese fleet

Question 37

Battle of the Bulge

Answer 37

a major German offensive (die Ardennenoffensive) launched through the densely forested Ardennes mountain region of Wallonia in Belgium, and France and Luxembourg on the Western Front towards the end of World War II

Question 38

Blackshirts

Answer 38

Fascist paramilitary groups in Italy during the period immediately following World War I and until the end of World War II. Organized by Benito Mussolini as the military tool of his political movement

Question 39

Democracy

Answer 39

a form of government in which all citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives

Question 40

FDR

Answer 40

a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic depression and total war

Question 41

Genocide

Answer 41

“the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group”

Question 42

Battle of Iwo Jima

Answer 42

a major battle in which the United States Armed Forces fought for and captured the island of Iwo Jima from the Japanese Empire.

Question 43

Kamikaze

Answer 43

suicide attacks by military aviators from the Empire of Japan against Allied naval vessels in the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of World War II, designed to destroy warships more effectively than was possible with conventional attacks

Question 44

Lebensraum

Answer 44

Hitler’s “living space” theory, served as the motivation for the expansionist policies of Nazi Germany, aiming to provide extra space for the growth of the German population, for a Greater Germany

Question 45

Siege of Leningrad

Answer 45

a prolonged military operation undertaken by the German Army Group North against Leningrad; one of the longest and most destructive sieges in history and overwhelmingly the most costly in terms of casualties

Question 46

Nuremburg Trials

Answer 46

a series of military tribunals, held by the Allied forces of World War II, most notable for the prosecution of prominent members of the political, military, and economic leadership of the Nazi Germany

Question 47

Battle of Okinawa

Answer 47

the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific War of World War II

Question 48

SS

Answer 48

a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party

Question 49

Battle of Stalingrad

Answer 49

a major and decisive battle of World War II in which Nazi Germany and its allies fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad in the southwestern Soviet Union

Question 50

Nuremburg Laws

Answer 50

antisemitic laws in Nazi Germany introduced at the annual Nuremberg Rally of the Nazi Party