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World War II Vocabulary
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1.
1941/1945: Years of United States involvement in World War II.
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Admiral Yamamoto: Japanese admiral that planned the sneak
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border. This was the only port that the Germans had not captured
and therefore it became the only hope for Britain and France to
evacuate their surviving troops by sea.
attack on Pearl Harbor.
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Adolf Hitler: Leader of Nazi Germany during World War II.
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Albert Einstein: In the early 1930s Albert Einstein was among
the Jews who left Nazi Germany. Einstein was a pacifist who
had opposed World War I; ironically he eventually would see his
scientific ideas applied to the creation of the most powerful
destructive weapon of the time, the atomic bomb.
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Enola Gay: The B29 bomber that dropped the first atomic bomb.
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Ernie Pyle: Famous reporter for Stars and Stripes; he was killed
in action on Okinawa
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Bataan Death March: Took place in the Philippines.
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Battle of the Bulge: The largest battle fought by the United
States Forces in World War II, American victory. Coach Croft's
father fought here.
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Benito Mussolini: One of Europe's first major dictators. In
1919, after World War I, Mussolini founded Italy's Fascist Party.
Known as Il Duce or "The Leader"
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ruled Italy 1922-1943, under the leadership of Mussolini.
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through most of World War II.
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General Dwight Eisenhower: The supreme allied commander
in Europe.
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General George Marshall: The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff fought the war from Washington D.C.
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General Mark Clark: General in charge of the Italian
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General Tojo: The military ruler of Japan
The Bock's Car: The B29 bomber that dropped the second
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Gestapo: The Nazi governments secret police
atomic bomb.
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Guadalcanal: First time the American forces land on an island
as "Old Blood and Guts."
Campaign during World War II.
occupied by the Japanese; Americans learn that Japanese will
not surrender.
Chester Nimitz: Top Admiral in the United States Navy during
Concentration Camps: Detention centers where Jews and
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D-Day/Operation Overlord: Codename for the Allied
December 7, 1941: The date that the Japanese bombed Pearl
Dr. Oppenheimer: The man in charge of the Manhattan
Project.
Harry S Truman: The American president that made the
decision to drop the atomic bomb. Truman became president
after Roosevelt died in office.
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Hermann Goering: Head of the German air force, called the
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Hiroshima: The city selected as the target for the first atomic
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Holocaust: Hitler's attempt to destroy the Jews in Europe
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Island Hopping: American strategy used to defeat Japan;
Luftwaffe.
Coral Sea: First naval battle ever fought using only airplanes;
Harbor.
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General Douglas MacArthur: The supreme Allied
commander in the Pacific.
bomb.
invasion of France.
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General Bernard Montgomery: Great Britain's best field
general.
Blitzkrieg: The Germans used a new type of warfare called
this American victory stopped Japanese expansion towards
Australia.
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Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR): President of the United States
General George Patton: America's best field general. Known
other "undesirables" were sent to either work as slave laborers
until they dropped dead from exhaustion, disease, or
malnutrition.
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Francisco Franco: led a rebellion in Spain, after the coalition
of Republicans, Socialists, and Communists had been elected.
World War II.
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Fascism: Refers to authoritarian political movement which
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blitzkrieg, or lightning war. Blitzkrieg used large number of
massed tanks to break through and rapidly encircle enemy
positions.
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Extermination Camps: These were added to many
concentration camps after the Conference discussing "the final
solution" to make extermination of Jews more efficient for the
Nazis.
The Battle of Britain: The air battle between Britain and
Germany that began in mid-August, 1940, and lasted into the fall
of 1940.
Erwin Rommel: Germany's best field commander. Known as
"The Desert Fox".
Axis-Powers: Together Germany, Italy, and Japan became
known as the Axis Powers, they did not formally become allies
until September 1940.
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Audie Murphy: Served in the European Theatre, is the most
decorated soldier in the history of the United States.
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Emperor Hirohito: The ruler of Japan during World War II.
The Atlantic Charter: It committed the two leaders to a postwar
world of democracy, non-aggression, free trade, economic
advancement, and freedom of the seas.
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Asian Americans: During World War II, the United States
government placed Japanese Americans in Internment Camps in
California.
Dunkirk: A small town in northern France near the Belgian
during World War II.
Americans would only attack islands that would allow us to build
bomber bases to attack Japan. The Allies followed a plan of
attacking some islands controlled by Japan and skipping others.
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Iwo Jima/Okinawa: Because of the heavy casualties suffered
on these islands the Americans believed that invading Japan
would be too costly, the decision is made to use the atomic bomb.
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rights away for all Jews living in Nazi territory.
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Joseph Stalin: The Soviet dictator led the USSR through World
June 6, 1944: The date of the Allied invasion of France.
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Kamikaze: Japanese suicide planes, one plane one ship.
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Korematsu v. United States: Supreme Court case that ruled
relocation of Japanese Americans was constitutional because it
was based on military urgency.
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Kristallnacht (night of broken glass): The anti-Jewish
violence that erupted throughout Germany and Austria on
November 9, 1938.
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Operation Barbarossa: The code name for the German
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Operation Torch: The code name for the American invasion of
invasion of the USSR.
North Africa.
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Pearl Harbor: The place where the Japanese tried to destroy
the United States Pacific Fleet in a sneak attack.
The Lend-Lease Act: The United States would be able to lend
or lease arms to any country considered "vital to the defense of
the United States." This act meant that the United States could
send weapons to Britain if Britain promised to return or pay rent
for them after the war.
The Nye Committee: Was responsible for documenting the
huge profits that arms factories had made during the war. The
report created the impression that these businesses influenced
the United States to go to war. The European refusal to repay
their loans and the Nye Committee's findings turned even more
Americans toward isolationism.
War II.
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The Nuremberg Laws: Laws set up by the Nazis that took
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Poland: After the Munich conference, Hitler turned his sights
on Poland. Poland had been given Danzig (even though 90% of
it had belonged to Germany) after World War I.
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Rhineland: Area west of the Rhine River in which Hitler
illegally sent troops.
Leyte Gulf: The victory in which the United States navy
destroyed most of what was left of the Japanese navy.
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Royal Air Force (R.A.F.): Britain's Air Force
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Luftwaffe: Germany's Air Force
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Selective Service and Training Act: First peacetime draft in
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Manchuria: Resource-rich province in northern China.
Japanese military leaders targeted this province to seize.
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Marshall Petain: The head of the Vichy Regime.
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Mein Kampf ("My Struggle"): Hitler's autobiography, in
which Hitler calls for the unification of all Germans under one
government. He claimed that Germans, particularly blond, blueeyed Germans, belonged to a "master-race" called Aryans. Gave
himself the title of the Führer or "leader."
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Nagasaki: The city selected as the target for the second atomic
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The Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact: Stalin agreed to the
nonaggression pact with Germany because he believed it was the
best way to protect the USSR, and if the treaty worked, Germany
would go to war against Britain and France, and the USSR would
be safe. The treaty also contained a secret deal that said Germany
and the USSR would split Poland between them.
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Neutrality Act of 1935: The act made it illegal for Americans to
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The Neutrality Act of 1939: Warring nations could buy
sell arms to any country at war.
weapons from the United States only if they paid cash and
carried the arms on their own ships.
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Neville Chamberlain: British prime minister who publicly
promised to support France, Britain's ally, against German
unification. Promised "a peace with honor...peace in our time."
Totalitarianism: is any political system in which a citizen is
totally subject to state authority in all aspects of day-to-day life.
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USS Indianapolis: Ship that delivered the atomic bomb to
Tinian Island and was sunk by a Japanese sub.
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USS Missouri: Ship on which the Japanese surrendered at the
end of World War II.
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V-E Day: Victory in Europe, May 8, 1945.
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V-J Day: Victory in Japan, September 2, 1945.
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Vichy Regime: The puppet government set up by Hitler in
bomb.
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Sudetenland: An area of Czechoslovakia with a large Germanspeaking population. Hitler announced German claims to this
area and the Czechs strongly resisted Germany's demands for the
Sudetenland.
The Munich Conference: On September 29, 1938, Britain and
France agreed to Hitler's demands, a policy that came to be
known as appeasement.
Stalingrad: The German defeat at this city was the turning point
of the war in Europe.
Midway: The United States victory here was the turning point of
the war in the Pacific.
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Manhattan Project: Code name for the development of the
atomic bomb.
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the United States.
Southern France.
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Vladimir Lenin: Leader of the Bolshevik Party in Russia.
Established the Communist government throughout the Russian
empire. In 1922, renamed these territories the Union of the Soviet
Socialist Republics (USSR).
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Winston Churchill: Prime minister of Britain, who replaced
Neville Chamberlain. Churchill rallied the British people to fight
against the Nazis.