World+War+II

World War II Wiki - Amanda Cefaratti


 * Key People:**
 * 1)  Neville Chamberlain: the prime minister of Britain from 1937 to 1940, who used the policy of appeasement as an unsuccessful attempt to prevent Hitler from taking anything more than the Rhineland and the Sudetenland.
 * 2) ===== Winston Churchill: the prime minister of Britain for the majority of the war, he had a major roll in creating the "Allied Powers", which included the USSR and the USA. =====
 * 3) =====  Dwight D. Eisenhower: a US arm general who was the commander of the Allied forces in Europe, best known for "Operation Overlord". He later severed two terms as President of the USA.  =====
 * 4) Hirohito: emperor of Japan during and after the war, though after Japan's defeat he was mostly a figurehead.
 * 5) Adolf Hitler: chancellor of Germany from 1933 until his death in 1945 . Hitler was the leader of the Nazi Party, the majority political party in Germany, and is best known for his proclamations in //Mein Kampf//, where he spoke of the extermination of the Jews and his dreams of a dominant Arian race. In 1945, right before Germany's surrender to the Allied forces, Hitler committed suicide in his bunker in Berlin.
 * 6) Benito Mussolini: the f ascist prime minister of Italy who ruled from 1922 until his murder in 1945. Hitler idolized Mussolini's totalitarianism and they became partners in the Axis forces during the war.
 * 7) Erwin Rommel: a general of the Axis forces, he was known as the "Desert Fox" because of his famous knack for tank warfare in Northern Africa.
 * 8) ===== Franklin Delano Roosevelt: President of the Untied States for most of the war, Roosevelt, along with Churchill and Stalin led the Allies to victory for the majority of WWII until his death in 1945 months before the war was over. =====
 * 9) Joseph Stalin: leader of the Communist Party in the USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics). His leadership, though questionable in the beginning did eventually force the Germans to retreat back from the boarders. Stalin's alliance with the other Allied powers only existed because of a mutual hatred of fascism. "the enemy of my enemy is my friend".
 * 10) Harry S Truman: Vice President of the USA for the majority of the war until Roosevelt's death, where he became President. Truman is most famous for his decision to drop the atomic bombs on Japan in 1945.

**Key Terms:**
 * 1) Allies: mainly consisted of the United States, Great Britain, France, the Soviet Union and China; but Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Ethiopia, Greece, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zeland, Norway, the Union of South Africa and Yugoslavia together fought the fascist regimes of the Axis powers.
 * 2) Axis: Mainly consisting of Germany, Italy and Japan, the Axis powers were looking to spread this fascist ideas and policies to create longstanding empires. Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Finland, Iraq, and Thailand were also major participants for the cause.
 * 3) Appeasement to yield the belligerent demands of a nation, group or person at the expense of justice or other principles.
 * 4) Blitzkrieg: German for "lightning warfare", a swift intensive military attack using tanks, air crafts and designed to defeat the opposition quickly.
 * 5) Gestapo: the German state secret police during the Nazi regime, organized in 1933 and notorious for its brutal methods and operations.
 * 6) Luftwaffe: the German air force
 * 7) Manhattan Project: The operation of developing the first atomic bomb.
 * 8) Operation Barbarossa: Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union. Though Hitler did not achieve his goal, the Soviets took a serious blow in casualties.
 * 9) Operation Overlord:The code name for "D-Day"
 * 10) Fascism: a governmental system led by a dictator having complete power, forcibly suppressing opposition and criticism, regimenting all industry, commerce, etc., and emphasizing an aggressive nationalism and often racism.
 * 11) Communism: an anti-capitalistic theory or system of social organization based on the holding of all property in common, actual ownership being ascribed to the community as a whole or to the state.
 * 12) Final Solution: Nazi Germany's plan and execution of the systematic genocide of European Jews during World War II, resulting in the most deadly phase of the Holocaust.
 * 13) Scapegoat:a person or group made to bear the blame for others or to suffer in their place.
 * 14) Island Hopping: taking control of small islands to slowly gain a path to a larger goal


 * Key Events:**
 * 1) Battle of Britain:British air-forces fought of the German bombings from summer 1940 until spring 1941
 * 2) Munich Conference: The Allies called Hitler to Munich, asking him not to take anymore land if he was allowed to keep the Rhineland and the Sudetenland. Hitler agreed but later broke the agreement when he marched his army into the rest of Czechoslovakia
 * 3) Battle of Coral Sea: the Allies successfully protected the last US naval base between Japan and Australia. The battle caused heavy losses to both sides and was the first battle fought entirely by air-based planes.
 * 4) Battle of El-Alamine: British defeat the Germans causing a general retreat and Allied control of North Africa
 * 5) Battle of Guadalcanal: US Marines fought brutally for the Solomon Islands as part of the "island hopping strategy"
 * 6) Battle of Iwo Jima: the US Marines took the island of Iwo Jima in March of 1945; an important victory because of its close proximity to the coast of Japan
 * 7) Battle of Midway: the turning point in the war in the Pacific; a three day battle that disables Japan's naval fleet
 * 8) Battle of Okinawa: US invades the island of Okinawa, creating the bloodiest and largest battle in the Pacific because of the unheard of amount of civilians that were killed.
 * 9) Battle of Stalingrad: a brutal 5 month battle between the Soviets and the Germans. The battle included bloody raids and bombing by the German Luftwaffe, and street fighting. Despite Hitler's orders, the Germans finally surrendered to the Red Army in 1943
 * 10) D-Day: June 6th 1944 The Allied invasion on Normandy, France using the "element of surprise" to catch the Germans, who currently occupied France off-guard by opening a "second front" and coming at them from both sides.
 * 11) V-E Day: May 8th 1945 the Allies declare victory in Europe
 * 12) V-J Day: August 15th 1945 the Allies declare victory over Japan
 * 13) Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki: both atomic bombs caused massive civilian deaths obliterating most of the cities. This along with the USSR's declaration of war on Japan ultimately caused their surrender.


 * Summary:** Though capitalism and communism have nothing in common, the United States and the Soviet Union were able to put their differences aside long enough for the defeat of fascism and to put rowdy countries back in their place. Germany and Italy both took hard hits from World War I, which is why it was so easy for Mussolini and Hitler to take power. Japan was too anxious to invade Manchuria and all of the appeasement that went on before the start of WWII caused the final breakout of a world-wide event to erupt.

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US. Maries raise the flag on top of Mount Suribachi D-Day invasion on Normandy