Download WWII Packet

WORLD WAR II
Name ___________________
Act 1: The War in Europe
Act 3: The Holocaust
Act 2: The War in the Pacific
Act 4: Reshaping Europe after World War II
?
European Theater
Pacific Theater
The Holocaust
Post-WWII
-
Goals
Geographic Features
Weapons
Strategy
End
Goals
Geographic Features
Weapons
Strategy
End
Process
UN vs. NATO
1
BLITZKRIEG!
Directions: Read the red heading Early Axis Gains in Ch. 18 Section 2 from pages 473474. Complete the chart below.
Theater of War =
Campaign =
the entire land, sea, and air area that may become or is directly
involved in war operations.
A series of military operations undertaken to achieve a large-scale
objective during a war.
What were
Germany’s goals
in this campaign?
What was the
geography of this
theater of war?
What weapons
were most suited
for this battle?
What strategy was
used for this
operation?
2
CRUCIAL DECISIONS OF WORLD WAR II
1. Hitler – How should Germany defeat England?
2. Hitler – Should Germany invade the USSR?
3. Hirohito & Tojo – Should Japan attack the USA at Pearl Harbor?
4. Truman – Should the USA use the Atomic Bomb on Japan?
Introduction:
History is not inevitable. Different decisions at key times in history could have
drastically changed the world. Those decisions are magnified during wartime. All four
of the questions above could have been answered differently, possibly changing the
outcome of World War II.
Task:
Your group will investigate one of these questions each day. Each person in your group
will be responsible for researching a different part of the decision. Your group will take
part in a class discussion at the conclusion of each class.
Process:
1. Each student in the group will have a different role. Read the materials provided for
each role:
 Inside the mind of the leader
 Statistical comparisons – weapons, troops, etc
 Strategy and tactics 1
 Strategy and tactics 2
2. Discuss your findings in your small group. Decide on the best option available and
defend that option with details from your research.
3. Participate in the whole-class discussion.
Evaluation:
1. Your participation in each task
(research, small group, whole class) will
be graded.
2. Two quizzes will be administered
during these lessons; one covering the
European theater and one for the Pacific
theater. Each will ask you to describe
the following:
 National Goals
 Geography
 Weapons
 Strategy
3
Crucial Decision 1. - Hitler
How should Germany defeat England?
Step 1 – Read over the possible options available to Hitler and the Nazis:
 Avoid a two front war by negotiating a peace settlement with Britain in order to
focus on Germany’s real enemy, the USSR.
 Prepare for Operation Sea Lion, the full scale invasion of England across the
English Channel, by fighting an air war to defeat Britain’s Royal Air Force.
 Bomb major cities such as London in order to crush English morale and get them
to surrender.
 Create a naval blockade of England, starving the island nation from its resources
and forcing them to surrender.
Step 2 – Research using the handouts provided
Notes:
Step 3 – After a discussion in small groups, record your decision and back it with
evidence from your research.
4
Crucial Decision 2. - Hitler
Should Germany invade the USSR?
Step 1 – Read over the possible options available to Hitler and the Nazis:
 Launch a full scale invasion in June of 1941 against the USSR
 Wait until springtime of 1942 to launch a full scale invasion of the USSR
 Wait until Britain surrenders on the Western Front before launching an invasion
into the USSR on the Eastern Front.
 Continue to honor the Non-Aggression Pact that Hitler and Stalin signed in 1939.
Step 2 – Research using the handouts provided
Notes:
Step 3 – After a discussion in small groups, record your decision and back it with
evidence from your research.
5
Crucial Decision 3. - Japan
Should Japan attack Pearl Harbor?
Step 1 – Read over the possible options available to the Japanese.
 Launch a surprise attack against the US Naval Fleet stationed at Pearl Harbor.
 Work diplomatically to improve relations with the US and restore a trading
relationship.
 Continue the conquest of China and East Asia without an attack on the US.
 Launch an invasion of the USSR while they are occupied fighting Germany.
Step 2 – Research using the handouts provided
Notes:
Step 3 – After a discussion in small groups, record your decision and back it with
evidence from your research.
6
Island Hopping – The Defeat of Japan
Directions:
Read the handout in your group and answer the questions that follow.
What had to occur before
Allied forces could
concentrate solely on the
Pacific Front?
What had to occur before an
invasion of Japan could take
place? Why?
Why was China so important
to success in the war against
Japan?
Allied planners placed a
great deal of emphasis on
the lines of communication.
Why?
What were planners hoping
would happen once the
United States gained control
of the seas?
What were the primary
objectives of U.S. operations
for 1943-44?
Directions:
Use locations 18-36 on the clickable map to find the following locations
Hint
Hint
Place #
Place #
Operation Flintlock was the name
given to the invasion of these
islands.
By August 10, 1944 these two
islands, which were in striking
distance of the Japanese
mainland, were firmly in allied
hands.
Even though this was the only one
of the Solomon Islands that the
Japanese still controlled in August
of 1943, they had over 33,000
soldiers defending it.
This island would become a major
US base, as it was close enough
for US bombers to make raids
against Japanese cities.
During this battle, Japan lost nearly
all its remaining naval force.
U.S. forces decided to land on this
Mariana Island first so that it could
be used to invade the other two.
This 1944 battle is sometimes
called “The Great Marianas Turkey
Shoot.”
MacArthur knew that this battle
would be difficult as 250,000
Japanese soldiers controlled the
island. Therefore, he decided to
hold off his invasion until January
1945.
The first incendiary bombing raid
against this city destroyed more
than sixteen square miles.
Japan, in an effort to forestall an
attack against these islands,
formulated a plan to attack and
destroy the U.S. Carrier forces.
7
Crucial Decision 4. – President Truman
Should the USA drop Atomic Bombs on
Japan?
On the morning of 6 August 1945, an atomic bomb was
used in war for the first time. Normal life in the
crowded Japanese city of Hiroshima came to a sudden
and terrifying end when a US plane dropped an atomic
device on to the city. More than 70,000 people died and
many more were injured. The heat of the blast was so
intense that people at the center of the explosion were
simply vaporized. Many who survived the blast died
later from the radiation.
The president of the USA, Harry Truman, warned the
Japanese to surrender. When they did not, a second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki,
killing around 40,000 people and wounding 60,000.
Japan quickly surrendered. Truman had achieved his objective - the war in the Pacific
and World War 2 was ended. Thousands of soldiers on both sides, who would have died
if the fighting had continued, were saved. Notice was served to the world that the USA
was now an atomic power.
At the time, many people saw Truman’s decision to use atomic weapons as the right one.
With some Japanese leaders vowing to fight to the bitter end, only a long military
campaign or this atomic shock could have ended the war. There was little sympathy for
an enemy who had started the fight and had behaved cruelly in the countries they
occupied.
Later commentators have questioned whether dropping the bomb was the only option
open to Truman and whether an attack on unarmed civilians was the right decision to
take. What do you think?
Directions:
1. Visit the learningcurve.uk website
2. Read through the sources in #1 and complete the first chart.
3. Read through the sources in #’s 2 & 3 and complete your recommendation to
Truman.
8
Stage 1: Research
It is the end of July 1945. The USA has tried to use conventional bombing of Japanese
cities to force their surrender. You must decide how successful that has been. Use
evidence from the original sources on the firebombing of Tokyo and other cities to
support your argument.
Issue
Why were firebombs used
on Japanese cities in the
spring of 1945?
How much damage had
been done?
Evidence
How have the Japanese
responded?
How successful has the
bombing campaign been?
Why?
Does Japan look likely to
surrender?
What options are now
open to Japan?
What options are now
open to the USA?
Stage 2: Prepare your report
Use your research table and sources # 2 & 3 in the case studies to help you answer this
question.
Should President Truman authorize the use of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and
Nagasaki?
1. Is the atom bomb likely to work? What are the differences in conditions between the
test and the proposed attack on Japan?
2. Are Hiroshima and Nagasaki military targets or will the main casualties be civilians?
Could the bomb be used on an alternative target?
9
3. What effect will this attack have on the people living in Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
4. If conventional bombing that killed many thousands of Japanese civilians did not
make them surrender, why will the atomic bomb be different?
5. Will the Japanese surrender anyway, without the need to use atomic weapons?
6. How will the Japanese be defeated without using the atomic bomb? At what cost in
lives & resources?
7. Will it be a waste if the USA doesn’t use the weapon they have spent so much time
and money on?
8. Japanese soldiers have committed war crimes against prisoners of war and people
in occupied countries. Does that affect your decision about using the atomic bomb
on them?
9. The Japanese started the war by bombing Pearl Harbor. Do you think the American
people will mind if you use the atomic bomb on Japanese people?
10. What message will this send to the USSR, your ally in the war but soon to be your
rival when the war is over? What message will it send to the world?
11. What options can Truman take other than using the bomb on Hiroshima and
Nagasaki?
12. What is your final recommendation?
10
TIMELINE OF THE HOLOCAUST
Central Question: What were the different phases of the Holocaust?
Discrimination
in Germany
Mass Murder
in Eastern
Europe during
World War II
January 1st,
1933
March 20th,
1933
June 27th,
1935
September 14th,
1935
July 15th,
1936
March 12th,
1938
April 25th,
1938
May 15th,
1938
November 8th,
1939
July 24th,
1939
September 1st,
1939
October 8th,
1939
April 30th,
1940
May 20th,
1940
June 22nd,
1941
September 29th,
1941
January 20th,
1942
April 19th,
1943
August 30th,
1944
January 17th,
194
April 30th,
1945
11
A speech by World War II veteran Leon Bass
October 1981
In the final analysis, my friends, if we want to avoid another Holocaust, if we want to
make sure that this doesn’t happen again, we have a personal responsibility to do
something about it. I know it’s nice to say that you’re going to give a large sum of money
to the NAACP or you’re going to give a large sum of money to B’nai Brith. But that’s the
easy way out. The tough part of the program is when you walk out of here and you go
back to where you live and where you work. When you’re on the job and your boss tells
an anti-Semitic joke, do you laugh…? When you’re sitting around the bridge table and
somebody talks about the dirty niggers or the spics moving in down the street, do you sit
there quietly and never say anything?
If so, you are contributing to another Holocaust.
It was James Baldwin who said, “God gave man the rainbow sign/No more water, the fire
next time.” You are throwing fuel on that fire when you keep your mouth shut…. Trying
to love the unlovable is the challenge, my friends. When we ignore the disinherited, the
dispossessed, and the poor among us, we are contributing to another Holocaust... If we’re
going to survive, if we’re going to make this world a better place, when we leave here
we’ll take the message back with us. We’ll move out into the forefront where the battle
happens to be waging and that’s with the disinherited and the dispossessed. I would like
to remember again the words of James Baldwin who said,
“Either we love one another
Or the seas will engulf us
And the light will go out.”
From The Liberation of the Nazi Concentration Camps 1945: Eyewitness Accounts of the
Liberators (Washington, D.C.: United States Holocaust Memorial Council, 1987).
Write your reaction to Mr. Bass’ speech below. Specifically, do you agree with him?
12
A SECOND CHANCE AT PEACE
CREATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS
Directions: Read the handout on the United Nations and fill out the portions below.
Four Goals of the United Nations
1.
2.
3.
4.
The Preamble of the United Nations charter:
We the people of the United Nations . . .
13
ORIGINS OF THE COLD WAR
UNITED STATES
SOVIET UNION
Democratic Capitalism
Western Europe
Communism
Eastern Europe
14
NATO – A New Military Alliance
Directions:
Read the handouts provided in order to answer the questions below.
According to the
preamble of the North
Atlantic Treaty, what did
the signatories all have
in common, that might
serve as a basis for their
coming together?
What did this treaty
obligate its signatories to
do?
According to the terms of
the treaty, how could
additional nations be
added to the alliance?
Why did President
Truman believe that the
United States should
sign the North Atlantic
Treaty?
What did Senator Taft
fear would be the Soviet
Union’s reaction to the
alliance?
On what other grounds
did Senator Taft oppose
U.S. involvement in the
North Atlantic Treaty?
15
COLD WAR - CONFLICT OR COOPERATION?
Directions: Read Ch. 18 Sec. 5 beginning on page 489. For each event in the left hand
column, choose one or more of the following reasons:
1. An effort by the U.S. to spread their ideology
2. An effort by the USSR to spread their ideology
3. An effort at peaceful cooperation between the U.S. and USSR.
Then explain why this is true in the far right hand column.
EVENT
REASON 1, 2 or 3
EXPLANATION
The United States (& Britain & France) are
democracies based on limited government and
1. War
1
human rights. These nations wanted to show the
Crimes Trials
world that no governmental leaders are all
powerful and that all humans must follow certain
laws.
2. Allied
occupation of
Germany and
Japan
3. United
Nations
4. Truman
Doctrine
5. The
Marshall
Plan
6. Division of
Germany
7. Military
Alliances
16