U.S. History Chapter 22

Blitzkrieg

"Lighting war", fast-moving warfare used by German forces against Poland in 1939

Nazi-Soviet nonaggression pact

(1939) Agreement between Hitler and Stalin that said they would both invade Poland and not attack one another

War Production Board

(WPB) Government agency created (1942) during World War II to help factories shift from making consumer goods to making war materials

Battle of Leyte Gulf

1944 World War II naval battle between the United States and Japan. Largest naval engagement in history. Japanese navy was defeated.

Iwo Jima

A bloody and prolonged operation on the island of Iwo Jima in which American marines landed and defeated Japanese defenders

Flying Tigers

A group of pilots known as the American Volunteer group who fought joined the Chinese to fight the Japanese before America entered the war on a volunteer basis.

Neutrality Act of 1939

Act by congress that allowed warring nations to purchase weapons from the U.S on a "cash and carry" basis

Chester W. Nimitz

Admiral of the U.S. naval forces in the Pacific and brilliant strategist of the "island hopping" campaign (Midway & Battle of the Coral Sea)

Atlantic Charter

Agreement signed by President Franklin Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill in 1941 outlining the two nations' war aims

Operation Husky

Allied invasion of Sicily and Italy; 3,000 ships and landing craft landed in Italy; Successful capture up to Rome.

Lend-Lease Act

Allowed sales or loans of war materials to any country whose defense the president deems vital to the defense of the U.S; Congress was then able to appropriate 7$ billion to nations at war (amount was about 50$ billion by the time America entered the war).

Dwight D. Eisenhower

American General who began in North Africa and became the Commander of Allied forces in Europe.

Guadalcanal

August 7 1942 battle that began the long process of American island hopping towards Japan.

atomic bomb

Bomb that changed the world, ended WWII in Japan, created a nuclear arms race between U.S. and Soviet Union

Winston Churchill

Britain's new prime minister during WWII who pleaded for US aid (became prime minister right after the fall of France)

Bernard Montgomery

British General who cut off Rommel from advancing into Africa

Hiroshima

City in Japan, the first to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, on August 6, 1945. The bombing hastened the end of World War II.

Dunkirk

City in the northwest corner of France where the allied troops were trapped by the advancing Germany Army. 800 British ships, ranging from warships to fishing boats, crossed the channel from England to rescue over 300,000 British and French troops.

Operation Torch

Codename for allied invasion of North Africa from Novermber 1942 to September 1943

ghettos

Crowded unsanitary places that Jews were ordered (by Hitler) to be segregated in.

Wendell Willkie

Dark-horse Republican candidate who ran against President Franklin Roosevelt in 1941 and urged "preparedness" and not necessarily a war call. The race produced Roosevelt's narrowest victory.

Hirohito

Emporer of Japan during WWII

Wehrmacht (VEHR MACHT)

German Armed Forces

Sudetenland

Hitler claimed that this German inhabited Czechoslovakian area was the last territorial claim he had on Europe

kamikazes

In World War II, Japanese pilots who loaded their aircraft with bombs and crashed them into enemy ships

Hideki Tojo

Japan's prime minister and cruel military leader. Ordered attack on pearl harbor

Nagasaki

Japanese city in which the second atomic bomb was dropped (August 9, 1945).

D-day

June 6, 1944 - Greatest invasion in history; Led by Eisenhower, over a million troops (the largest invasion force in history) stormed the beaches at Normandy and began the process of re-taking France. The turning point of World War II in Europe.

Benito Mussolini

Known as "Il Duce," the Fascist dictator (1922-1943) of Italy during World War II.

Adolf Hitler

Leader of the Nazi Party and the Third Reich in Germany during World War II.

Yalta

Meeting between Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin to plan the post-war world

Fascism

Nationalistic, militaristic, totalitarian mass movement. A political philosophy that glorifies the state above the individual by emphasizing the need for a strong central government led by a dictatorial ruler (first established as the governing force in Italy in 1922)

Harry Truman

President of the US after Roosevelt's death; approved the use of the atomic bomb against Japan

rationing

Restricting the amount of food and other goods people may buy during wartime to assure adequate supplies for the military

Joseph Stalin

Russian leader (1924-1953) who succeeded Lenin as head of the Communist Party and created a totalitarian state by purging all opposition

beginning of WW II

September 1, 1939, when Germany invaded the Polish border

Okinawa

Site of important battle near Japanese mainland; last battle before atomic bombs; Allies won

Japanese attack of Pearl Harbor

Sunday, 7:53 a.m. December 7, 1941; 2 hour attack; Japanese damaged 3 battleships, seriously damaged 16 warships, and woke a sleeping giant.

Erwin Rommel

The Desert Fox. Commander of the Axis forces in North Africa.

appeasement

The idea that Britain could pacify Germany and make sure there was no war at any cost.

Casablanca

The meeting place of Roosevelt and Churchill where they decided to not give up the war effor until the Axis surrendered unconditionally

Holocaust

The organized killing of European Jews and others by the Nazis during WWII

Potsdam

The place at which the three allied leaders, Truman, Stalin, and Atlee, met to discuss the distribution of Germany and the ultimatum that they would issue to Japan demanding thier immediate surrender.

Battle of Midway

Turning point of WWII in the Pacific theater; U.S. naval victory over the Japanese fleet in June 1942, in which the Japanese lost four of their best aircraft carriers.

Douglas MacArthur

US general who served as chief of staff and commanded Allied forces in the South Pacific "Far East" during World War II

America First committees

Vocal committee of isolationist and militant pacifists; Charles Lindbergh was the leading spokesman

island hopping

WWII strategy of conquering only certain Pacific islands that were important to the Allied advance toward Japan

Battle of the Bulge

World War II battle in December 1944 between Germany and Allied troops that was the last German offensive in the West.

Rhineland

a region in Germany designated a demilitarized zone by the Treaty of Versailles; Hitler violated the treaty and sent German troops there in 1936

St. Lo

after intense street fighting on this street (St.Lo.), Allied forces broke out into the French country side for the push to Paris

Battle of Britain

an aerial battle fought in World War II in 1940 between the German Luftwaffe (air force), which carried out extensive bombing in Britain, and the British Royal Air Force, which offered successful resistance

Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis

in World War II the alliance of Germany and Italy in 1936 which later included Japan (alliance of the dictators)