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World War II Study Guide
World War II Why?
- WWII 1939 -1945 …………………USA INVOLVEMENT 1941-1945
-Four Reasons for WWII1-Treaty of Versailles
a) Germany lost land to surrounding nations
b) Reduced size of military
c) War Reparations
2-World-Wide Depression
a) The Depression made Germany’s debt even worse
b) Desperate people turn to desperate leaders.
-Rise of Totalitarian Regimes- In a Totalitarian country, individual rights are not viewed as important as the
needs of the nation.
- Fascism: A government based on Militarism, racism & nationalism, with strong
support from the business community. Bottom line is that the nation is supreme
over the individual.
3- Hitler’s Leadership
a) Hitler provided scapegoats for Germany’s problems (foreigners, communists
Jews, Romanians{gypsies} mentally ill, homosexuals)
b) Kristallnacht - vandalism & destruction of Jewish property & synagogues
4-Policy of Appeasement Appeasement{Return to calm}: give dictators what they want and hope that they
won’t want anything else.
a) Begins with Japan’s invasion of Manchuria, the Italian invasion of Ethiopia,
and continues with Hitler.
b) England and France gave Hitler what he wanted to avoid war!
c) Not one country stopped Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini, because they
wanted to avoid conflict
-Major acts of opposition to wara. Washington Conference - Limits on the size of a country's navies.
b. Kellogg-Briand pact - condemned war as a way to solving conflicts.
-Guns beats sticks• Mussolini set out to prove to the world just how powerful Italy and its army was.
• Italy invades Ethiopia. Mussolini’s army, using modern weapons, attacks and
defeats the Ethiopian army. The Ethiopian army fights back with spears and bows
and arrows
-What Hitler wanted:
 Return of German Speaking Lands - “Lebensraum”
 Austria - Peacefully Annexed in 1938
 Sudetenland - (now part of Czech Republic) .
 Hitler then invades the rest of Czechoslovakia.
 In the next year, Hitler invades: Denmark, Norway and Netherlands
WWII Begins
*The Four basic causes of World War II: Treaty of Versailles, The Great Depression, Hitler’s
leadership and the policy of Appeasement.
-Spanish Civil war- 1928, 62 nations signed the Kellogg-Briand Pact, it outlawed WAR.
- Benito Mussolini of Italy and Adolf Hitler of Germany both gained power during a time when
people grew Disillusioned with their governments{Great Depression}.
- They both increased their power with Propaganda and Fear.
- In 1936, the Spanish republic fought against right-wing Spanish fascists led by General Francisco
Franco.
- Britain and France declared their neutrality and convinced other European powers to do the same.
- Both Mussolini and Hitler agreed to a military pact {Rome-Berlin Axis} and intervened in the
war. They sent war supplies, troops, and airplanes to crush Republican forces.
- Not one country stopped them, Appeasement {Return to calm}, because they wanted to avoid
conflict.
-WWII Begins- August 23, 1939 The Nazi-Soviet Pact, which stated Germany, would not invade Russia and
Russia gave Blessing for the invasion of Poland(Russia takes a piece of Poland too).
- The German invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939 is the most common date in the West for
the start of World War II.
- Britain and France had pledge to support Poland, they immediately declare war on Germany.
- 1940 Germany invades Norway, Denmark, Belgium, and Holland, France.
- Hitler Invades Russia and France –
- The French spent millions constructing a series of fortifications along the border between France
and Germany.
- Known as the Maginot line, it was a beehive of concrete bunkers, heavy gun emplacements, and
underground barracks.
- The Germans invaded France and went around the French Maginot Line and the French army was
caught off guard and defeated.
- 1940, Dunkirk evacuation- Germany trapped 400,000 British and French soldiers. Eventually
330,000 escape to Great Britain, using every boat possible.
- The word Blitz comes from the German word blitzkrieg which means Lightning war
- 1941 Germany attacks Russia{Operation Barbarossa}. (Germany thought it would be a
potentially easy victory, they misjudged Russia’s Winters ! )
- Russia declares war on Germany and joins the Allies
-Lend-Lease Act- The United States still refused to get involved in the war – 1941 about 80% Americans against
war- but President Roosevelt made provisions just in case we joined the war effort.
- Congress did pass the 1941 Lend-Lease Act that stated we could trade materials to countries
fighting against the Axis{Germany, Italy, and Japan} powers.
Date
America Enters the WWII
-Isolationism- Isolationism{uninvolved} was the American sentiment - the United States at first declined to enter the
war, limiting itself to giving supplies and weapons to Britain, China, and the Soviet Union.
- Many Americans thought we should stay out of the war.
- President Franklin Roosevelt promised to keep us neutral, but he prepared for an attack just in case:
a) Men 21 to 39 had to register with the 1st peacetime draft.
b) Started making war time supplies
BUT!
- Japan had decided on War with America Secretly several months before.
-Japan-
The lack of Raw Materials{Coal and Iron} in Japan led them to invade Manchuria in 1931 and
other parts of China in 1937.
- In 1940 Italy, Germany, and Japan formed the Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis. The stated purpose of this
alliance was to stop communism. The truth is that Mussolini, Hitler, and the military leaders in Japan
wanted an excuse to take more foreign territory.
- In response to Japan’s conquests America started an Embargo{Refusal to trade} of American Oil,
Iron and other raw materials to Japan.
- Japan felt America was a problem for their Plan to Dominate Asia.
- Oct 1941 General Hideki ToJo and Emperor Hirohito sent officials to America to Negotiate better
relations.
-Pearl Harbor- Dec & 1941 at 7:50am, Japan attacked American naval base Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
- Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto completed a success attack on Pearl Harbor:
1) “Tora! Tora! Tora(Tiger) was the Attack Signal.
2) 8 battleships damaged & 5 sunk
3) 3 cruisers, 3 destroyers and 3 smaller boats destroyed.
4) 188 aircraft’s destroyed.
5) 2,335 servicemen and 68 civilians killed.
6) 1,104 died on the USS Arizona alone.
7) Japan lost 27 planes and five midget submarines & 96 men.
 America’s 4 Aircraft Carriers were spared, because they weren’t there. The USS Enterprise was
returning from Wake Island, where it had just delivered some aircraft. The USS Lexington was
ferrying aircraft to Midway, and the USS Saratoga and USS Colorado were undergoing repairs.
 Admiral Kimmel and General Short of Pearl Harbor were both court-martialed for dereliction of duty.
-A Day that will live in Infamy- President Roosevelt calls Dec 7, “ a date which will live in infamy…”
- Dec 8th 1941 Congress declares War on Japan!
- Germany did not want America to get involved and had advised against an attack.
- After the attack Yamamoto said, “ I fear that we have awakened a sleeping giant”.
- News spread fast and a huge influx of young men volunteer for the arm forces.
- Almost overnight, Planes, ships, guns, tanks, ammunition, and wartime supplies were produced in
record time and in record number.
The War in Europe

The Allies leaders: Great Britain- Winston Churchill … America- Franklin Roosevelt…. Soviet Union
- Joseph Stalin.
 The Axis Leaders: Italy Benito Mussolini … Germany - Adolph Hitler
Japan - General Hideki ToJo and Emperor Hirohito
- Fighting occurred across the Atlantic Ocean, around eastern and western Europe, in North Africa and
the Middle East.
-England Stands Alone- The May 12th 1940 fall of France left the British Empire to standalone. The British Prime Minister,
Neville Chamberlain, resigned during the battle and was replaced by Winston Churchill.
- The Battle of Britain, initially had the German Luftwaffe concentrate on destroying Britain from the
ground and in the air using the Blitzkrieg Tactic from autumn 1940 until spring 1941.
- Luftwaffe, "air weapon" is the Air Force of Germany.
- Blitzkrieg, “lightning war", which employed mobile forces attacking with speed and surprise to
prevent an enemy from organizing a coherent defense.
- The word Blitz comes from the German word blitzkrieg which means lighting war
- “we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and
in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender” - Winston Churchill.
Tides of the War The Battles of Leningrad & Stalingrad - Hitler had given orders to German generals that they were not
to retreat from the Russians. Soviet civilians and soldiers fought with determination and after
2½
years Germany concedes. Around 500,000 German soldier’s deaths ….Over a million Russian
Deaths…
 In North Africa, the German General Erwin Rommel and his troops had scored many victories.
Rommel, nicknamed the “Desert Fox”.
 Summer of 1942, British General Bernard Montgomery and Allied troops stopped the Germans at El
Alamein, Egypt and forced them to retreat across the desert. In May 1943, Allied troops forced the
German and Italian forces to surrender.
-New Hope for the Allies- After Dec 11th 1941 the “Big Three”, America, England, Russia form Alliance.
- American General Dwight Eisenhower is put in charge of all European Allied forces.
 Turning point in Europe - June 6 1944, The Battle of Normandy {D-Day}allows the allies to liberate
France and Belgium and put Germany on the run.
 Dec 16, 1944. The Battle of the Bulge, Germany drove back and surrounded some American units
in Belgium. The Allied forces were eventually successful in driving back Germany, in what turned out
to be their last major advance of the war. The battle officially ended on January 27, 1945.
 April, 1945 Mussolini, having been rescued by German paratroopers from his prison, tried to
flee Italy to Switzerland with a German anti-air battalion. However, he was recognized and was
executed, along with his mistress, and their bodies were strung up in Milan and kicked
around in the streets
- V-E Day- April 1945 the Russian and American troops link up in Germany.
- On April 30, 1945, Adolf Hitler, with his wife of one day, Eva Braun, both committed suicide.
- The new German President, 7 days later, surrenders unconditionally.
- Victory in Europe{V-E Day} May 8th 1945 officially the war ends in Europe.
War in the Pacific
-Fighting in the Pacific- Severe damage was done to the American Pacific Fleet, although the Aircraft Carriers
escaped as they were at sea, but America quickly recovered.
- By the spring of 1942, Japan controlled over 4,500miles of the Pacific Ocean area.
- Japan took Burma, Hong Kong Thailand and Philippines. Thousands of Americans had died in
the Bataan Death March after the loss of the Philippines.
- April 1942 the U.S. Air Force bombed key Japanese cities led by Captain Jimmy Doolittle.
-Turning point-
U.S. adopted an Island Hopping strategy to defeat the Japanese.
US and Allied submarines and aircraft also attacked Japanese merchant shipping, depriving
Japanese industry of the raw materials she had gone to war to obtain. The effectiveness of this
stranglehold increased as the U.S. captured islands closer to the Japanese mainland.
- The US and Australian forces under General Douglas MacArthur and Chester William
Nimitz, Commander in Chief of Pacific Fleet, began to attack captured territories.
- Turning Point in the Pacific - June 1942, U.S. Navy prevented the invasion of Midway
Island, thus destroying four Japanese carriers, which Japanese industry could not replace.
-The Allies Fight Back- Japanese soldiers were expected to Die in defense of the homeland, taking 10 enemy soldiers
in the process.
- The Japanese leaders were not going to surrender. Japanese pilots known as kamikazes
“Divine Wind” volunteered for suicide missions, crashing their airplanes into Allied ships and
bases.
- May 1942, Battle of the Coral Sea, the United States Navy stopped Japan from invading
Australia
- August 1942 United States Marines assaulted Guadalcanal Island. Months of a long and bloody
battle with high casualties on both sides, Allied forces captured Guadalcanal.
- The most Brutal Battle was Iwo Jima:
a) Japanese soldiers fought to the death, over 21,800 defenders, only 200 were
taken prisoner.
b) Allied forces suffered 26,000 casualties, with nearly 7,000 dead.
-Yalta Conference – Feb 1945- November 1944 Roosevelt wins a 4th term with Harry Truman as his running mate
- They made an agreement that there would only be an unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany.
- Stalin agreed to enter the fight aginst the empire of Japan with in 90days after Germany’s defeat.
- Settle postwar issues concerning fate of Germany and the world.
- President Roosevelt Dies- Roosevelt didn’t see the end of WWII{Died before Germany surrendered}.
- Died April 12, 1945 – He had a stroke.
- Vice President Harry S. Truman becomes the new Preseident #33
Date
Little Boy and Fat Man
- The Allies Capturing islands such as Iwo Jima, Okinawa
and Guadalcanal brought them closer to Japan’s homeland and within
range for naval and air attacks.
- Even though Tokyo was being firebombed, Japan would not surrender.
-Atomic Bombs- President Roosevelt started the “Manhattan Project,” a code name for
the atomic bomb project, on the advice of Albert Einstein.
- It was run by Dr. Robert Oppenheimer.
- On August 6, 1945, an Atomic bomb, the "Little Boy", was dropped
from the B-29 "Enola Gay" and destroyed Hiroshima.
a) Killed about 100,000 (estimated population of 1,136,684)
b) Japan still refused to give up!
- On August 8, 1945 the Soviet Union declared war on Japan, as had been
agreed to at Yalta Conference, and launched a large-scale invasion of
Japanese occupied Manchuria (operation August Storm).
- On August 9, in Nagasaki, another atomic bomb, "Fat Man" was
dropped by the B-29 "Bock's Car".
a) Many warships used by the Japanese Navy during the war
were built in its factories there.
b) Killed about 70,000 (estimated population of 418,901)
-The Blasts- Temperature at center of blasts was 100mil degrees.
- People who were vaporized left their Shadows on buildings & sidewalks.
- Many people had their Skin Peel off and their hair fall out.
- 12 captured U.S navy pilots died in the blast.
- President Truman said he used the bombs to, “Shorten the agony of
war, in order to save young American lives”.
- It was estimated 6mil men needed and 1mil would die attacking Japan.
- V-J Day- The Japanese surrendered on 14 August 1945, signing official surrender
papers on 2 September 1945 aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay.
- Their Emperor was allowed to remain as a symbolic figurehead.
- General Douglas MacArthur was put in charge of Japanese government.
Date:
WWII Comes to an End
-Potsdam Conference- Allied leaders Meet in July 1945.
- Churchill (UK), Truman (US) and Stalin (USSR).
- Decide to bring top Nazi’s to trial for war crimes.
-The Nuremberg War Trials- An international tribunal (23 nations) tried
Nazi war criminals.
- For the first-time leaders of a nation are
held responsible.
-Indictments:
 Conspiracy to Wage Aggressive War.
 Waging Aggressive War, or "Crimes Against Peace”
 War Crimes.
 Crimes against Humanity.
- 10,000 Germans were convicted of war crimes
- 175 convicted
- 22 Nazi defendants were tried.
- 12 were hanged
- 250 death sentences
- Those Nazi’s who escaped are still being hunted today.
-WWII changed the world- War Ends
- Atomic Age Begins
- Jets, Computers, and Rockets Invented
- Radar and Sonar
- Penicillin, Sulfa, and Antibiotics
- Imperialism and Colonialism End
- USA & USSR emerge as Superpowers
- Cold War Begins
- American baby-boom