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G u i d e
t o
R e a d i n g
N o t e s
Following are possible answers for each section in the Reading Notes.
Section 2
Students should identify the correct locations on the
map for Section 2.
North Africa
• Hitler hoped to cut off the Allies’ oil from the Middle
East by securing North Africa for the Axis powers
and pushing the British out of Egypt.
• Hitler sent Field Marshal Erwin Rommel and the
Afrika Korps to join the Italian army in North Africa.
• By June 1942, Rommel had taken much of North
Africa and had driven deep into Egypt.
Poland
• Poles were treated with contempt by the Nazis.
• Jews in Poland were forced into ghettos.
• Thousands of Jews died from disease and starvation
in the Warsaw Ghetto.
• Six death camps were built in Poland.
• Italy surrendered to the Allies and soon declared war
on Germany.
• German forces remained in Italy and battled Allied
forces as they moved north.
Stalingrad
• Axis troops moved farther into Soviet territory.
• Hitler split his forces so they could seize the rest of
the Caucasus and also take Stalingrad.
• By mid-September, Axis troops had trapped a large
Soviet force inside of Stalingrad.
• The Soviet Red Army launched a counteroffensive
against the Nazi assault.
• The German troops were surrounded, but Hitler
insisted that they fight to their death.
• German troops surrendered to the Soviets.
• More than 200,000 German and 1 million Soviet
soldiers died in the Battle of Stalingrad.
• Death camps were equipped with gas chambers, in
which tens of thousands were killed each month.
Normandy
Soviet Union
• On D-Day, landing craft unloaded Allied troops on
the beaches of Normandy.
• The Nazis invaded the western part of the Soviet
Union.
• Operation Overlord called for an invasion of France.
• German gun batteries targeted the invading Allies.
• The Nazis used blitzkrieg tactics to overcome Soviet
troops.
• By the end of the first day, the Allies held 59 miles
of the Normandy coast.
• A large German force approached Moscow.
• From Normandy, Allied troops began a rapid sweep
across France and liberated Paris in August 1944.
• A Nazi force marched toward the oil-rich Caucasus.
Battle of the Bulge
Section 3
Students should identify the correct locations on the
map for Section 3.
• Hitler planned for his armies to burst through the
Allied lines in the Ardennes region of Belgium.
Southern Italy
• On December 16, 1944, eight German armored divi­sions smashed into the American forces, creating
a large bulge in the Allied line.
• The Allies used North Africa as a staging area to
invade the island of Sicily in southern Italy.
• Allied air support and the support of General Patton’s
Third Army forced the Germans to withdraw.
• The Allied assault met little opposition at first.
• The Battle of the Bulge was the last German
offensive on the western front.
• Italy’s political leaders voted to oust Mussolini and
restore the king and parliament.
© Teachers’ Curriculum Institute
Fighting World War II
1 G u i d e
t o
R e a d i n g
N o t e s
Section 4
Section 5
Students should identify the correct locations on the
map for Section 4.
Students should identify the correct locations on the
map for Section 5.
Philippines
Midway
• Under the command of General MacArthur,
Americans and Filipinos battled a fierce Japanese
onslaught.
• The Americans intercepted a coded Japanese message
telling of plans for a major offensive, most likely at
the U.S base at Midway.
• Roosevelt ordered MacArthur to leave the
Philippines, but MacArthur vowed to return.
• American planes demolished the enemy force.
• After the Japanese completed their conquest of the
Philippines, they rounded up approximately 70,000
American and Filipino prisoners and marched them
up the Bataan Peninsula to a prison camp.
• During the Bataan Death March, more than 7,000
American and Filipino prisoners died.
Tokyo
• On April 18, 1942, 16 American bombers bombed
Tokyo and other Japanese cities.
• The bombs did little damage to Japan, but the
surprise raids thrilled Americans and shocked the
Japanese.
• The Japanese responded by putting more resources
into defending the home islands.
Coral Sea
• After American code breakers learned that Japan was
moving to isolate Australia, the Americans sent a
small naval force to the Coral Sea.
• The Battle of the Coral Sea was fought entirely by
carrier-based aircraft.
• This was the first naval battle in history in which
the enemies’ warships never came within sight of
each other.
• Japanese aircraft sank two American carriers, while
American planes sank one Japanese carrier and
damaged the other two.
• Americans gained a strategic victory despite fairly
even losses.
© Teachers’ Curriculum Institute
• Japan never recovered from the loss of naval carriers
and so many of its experienced pilots.
• The Battle of Midway was Japan’s last offensive
action in the war.
Okinawa
• Knowing that Okinawa would give the Americans a
prime staging area for the invasion of Japan, Japanese
military leaders moved their best army units from
Japan and China to defend the island.
• The Allies launched a large amphibious invasion in
April 1945.
• The Japanese strongly resisted the American
invaders.
• Combat in Okinawa continued for two months and
claimed the lives of more than 100,000 American and
Japanese soldiers.
Hiroshima and Nagasaki
• On August 6, 1945 an American bomber dropped
an atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima, instantly
killing as many as 80,000 Japanese.
• Thousands of structures toppled and hundreds of fires
consumed the city as a result of the bombing.
• Three days later the United States dropped a second
atomic bomb on the city of Nagasaki, instantly killing
some 40,000 people.
• As a result of the bombing of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki, up to 250,000 people may have died from
burns, radiation poisoning, or cancer.
• The destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki brought a
Japanese surrender.
Fighting World War II
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