World War II (1939-1945)

Dunkirk

As part of the Battle of France on the Western Front, the Battle of Dunkirk was the defense and evacuation of British and Allied forces in Europe from 26 May-4 June 1940. The Germans broke through the Netherlands and advanced westward before turning northward toward the English Channel, effectively flanking the Allies. Allied counterattacks failed to block the German spearhead, which threatened to capture the ports and trap the British and French forces before they could evacuate to Britain. However, the German army was given an order to halt for 3 days, giving the Allies enough time to evacuate and build a defensive line.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Assuming the Presidency at the depth of the Great Depression as our 32nd President, Franklin D. Roosevelt helped the American people regain faith in themselves. He broke the 2-term tradition when he was elected a 3rd and 4th time as the American people felt that they needed an experienced leader to lead them through WWII. Though the US had officially proclaimed neutrality, FDR aided the Allies through laws such as the Land-Lease Act. After Pearl Harbor, Roosevelt directed organization of the Nation's manpower and resources for global war.

appeasement

Britain and France, badly unprepared for another war, gave Hitler German-inhabited Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia to appease him and keep him from declaring war after he occupied Austria. This strategy failed badly as Hitler began making moves for more control.

Battle of Stalingrad

Nazi Germany and its allies fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad (now Volgograd) in the south-western Soviet Union. Marked by constant close quarters combat and direct assaults on civilians by air raids, it is often regarded as the single largest and bloodiest battle in the history of warfare. The heavy losses inflicted on Germany's army make it arguably the most strategically decisive battle of the whole war. It was a turning point in WWII-the German forces never regained the initiative in the East and withdrew a vast military force from the West to replace their losses.

tanks

Tanks were an important weapons system in World War II. Although tanks were the subject of widespread research in the inter-war years, production was limited to relatively small numbers in a few countries. However, during World War II most armies employed tanks, and production levels reached thousands each month. Tank usage, doctrine and production varied widely among the combatant nations. By war's end, a consensus was emerging regarding tank doctrine and design.

interventionism

proactive activity undertaken by country to manipulate econ. or society characterized US foreign policy after WWII -scared by fascism in Europe & Germany's aggression, wanted to contain communism -became global leader in security + econ/social issues

Lend-Lease Act

America passed a law agreeing to lend or lease weapons to the Allies in order the avoid the hassle of debt collection from WWI. This limitless supply of arms would theoretically help the Allies "finish the job and keep the war on their side of the Atlanic." When the war was over, the weapons or their equivalents would be returned to the US. The act also had an indirect effect on US factories, by charging them up for war production and helping the US economy out of its slump.

General Charles DeGaulle

De Gaulle was a French general, resistant, writer and statesman. He was the leader of Free France (1940-44) and the head of the Provisional Government of the French Republic (1944-46). At the beginning of the Second World War, he led an armoured division that inflicted several reverses on the invading German army. Refusing to accept his government's armistice with Nazi Germany in 1940, de Gaulle exhorted the French population to resist occupation and to continue the fight against Axis powers in his Appeal of 18 June.

General Eisenhower

Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States (1953-1961). He was a five-star general in the United States Army during World War II and served as Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe; he had responsibility for planning and supervising the invasion of North Africa in Operation Torch (1942-43) and the successful invasion of France and Germany (1944-45) from the Western Front.

atomic bombs

Early in 1940, after the invasion of Poland, Roosevelt was persuaded by American and exiled German scientists to prepare the atomic bomb. The US secretly developed the atomic bombs in an operation codenamed the Manhattan Project. When the US dropped the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan withdrew from the war.

Winston Churchill

He served as Britain's Prime Minister during WWII and inspired his people through radio broadcasts to fight against the German's air raids. He met with FDR multiple times during the war to discuss common problems. Winston Churchill's life was a trajectory of events leading to his stand against Adolph Hitler's threat to control Europe. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Churchill helped lead a successful Allied strategy with President Franklin D. Roosevelt and General Secretary Joseph Stalin during WWII to defeat the Axis powers and craft post-war peace. After the breakdown of the alliance, he alerted the West to the expansionist threat of Soviet Communism.

Neville Chamberlain

He served as British prime minister from 1937 to 1940, and is best known for his policy of "appeasement" toward Adolf Hitler's Germany. He signed the Munich Agreement in 1938, relinquishing a region of Czechoslovakia to the Nazis.

A. Philip Randolph

He was the black leader of The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (the 1st predominantly African American labor union). In the early Civil Rights Movement, Randolph led the March on Washington Movement, which convinced President Franklin D. Roosevelt to issue Executive Order 8802 in 1941, banning discrimination in the defense industries during World War II. The group then successfully pressured President Harry S. Truman to issue Executive Order 9981 in 1948, ending segregation in the armed services.

Joseph Stalin

He was the dictator of socialist USSR. Propaganda and a cult of personality labeled him as the "Father of Nations," "Brilliant Genius of Humanity," "Great Architect of Communism," etc. Forced labor, collective farms, and organized famines were used to forward his Five-Year Plan to rapidly industrialize Russia. He organized the Great Purge, where his Secret Police rounded up millions of suspected "enemies of the Soviet people" and imprisoned, exiled, or executed them. During the war, he signed a nonagression pact with Hitler, but when Germany betrayed Russia, Stalin joined with the Allies.

U-boats

Hitler entered the war with a formidable fleet of ultramodern submarines - ones that could remain underwater indefinitely and cruise at 17 knots when submerged. Hundreds of merchant ships were lost to the U-boats, but the Allies slowly turned the tide by strengthening their antisubmarine tactics by air patrol, radar, attacking submarine bases, and cracking the Germans' "Enigma" codes (which allowed them to pinpoint the locations of U-boats in the Alantic).

Poland

Hitler signed an nonaggression treaty with Stalin, so now he could continue with his plan to declare war on Poland and the Western democracies without fear of retaliation form the USSR. Then Hitler demanded that Poland return lands taken from Germany after WWI. The invasion of Poland by Germany in 1939 began WWII.

Yalta Conference

In Feb. 1945, the Big Three (Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin) met in Yalta to discuss WWII's end. Plans were made for the occupation of Germany. It was agreed that Poland, Bulgaria, and Romania should have free elections. Stalin eventually broke this agreement. The Big Three also announced plans for fashioning a new international peacekeeping organization (the UN). American casualties were expected to be high in the war against Japan, so Stalin agreed to attack Japan after the collapse of Germany. In return, the Soviets were given the southern half of Sakhalin Island, lost by Russia to Japan in 1905, and Japan's Kurile Islands. The Soviet Union was also given control over the railroads of China's Manchuria and special privileges in the two key seaports of that area, Dairen and Port Arthur. These concessions gave Stalin control over vital industrial centers of China. The agreements at the Yalta Conference were not really binding. The conference was more of a way for the Big Three to discuss general post-war plans.

neutrality

In the years after WWI, Americans quickly concluded that their country's participation in that war had been a disastrous mistake, one which should never be repeated again. The U.S. Congress responded to the Axis's militaristic buildups and gains by passing the Neutrality Acts, a series of laws banning arms sales and loans to countries at war, in the hope that this would remove any potential reason that the United States might have for entering a European conflict. FDR believed that the US should go to war, but knew that the American public was not yet ready, so he asked Congress to amend the neutrality laws to allow arms sales to the Allies and passed laws to aid the Allies in any way. Neutrality was finally broken after Pearl Harbor.

Battle of France

It was the successful German invasion of France and the Low Countries, beginning on 10 May 1940, defeating primarily French forces. The battle consisted of two main operations: the first, Fall Gelb (Case Yellow), German armoured units pushed through the Ardennes and then along the Somme valley to cut off and surround the Allied units that had advanced into Belgium. When British and adjacent French forces were pushed back to the sea by the highly mobile and well-organized German operation, the British government decided to evacuate the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) as well as several French divisions at Dunkirk in Operation Dynamo. After the withdrawal of the BEF, Germany launched a second operation, Fall Rot (Case Red), which was commenced on 5 June 1940. While the depleted French forces put up stiff initial resistance, German air superiority and armoured mobility overwhelmed the remaining French forces. German armour outflanked the Maginot Line and pushed deep into France with German forces arriving in an undefended Paris on 14 June. This caused a chaotic period of flight for the French government and effectively ended organized French military resistance. The fall of France left Great Britain to fight the Axis alone until the US and USSR came.

Pearl Harbor

Japanese airplanes bombed a US naval base on Dec. 7, 1941 in Pearl Harbor, HI, thus getting rid of their only obstacle in the Pacific. All 8 of the battleships were damaged or destroyed and about 3000 casualties were reported. This act of aggression finally pushed Congress into declaring war.

D-Day

The Allies launched a major, massive invasion at Normandy Beach to recapture France from the Axis. They were met w/ stiff resistance from the Germans, who had been misled by a feint into expecting an attack to fall farther north. The Allies gained control over the air and were able to block reinforcements by crippling the railroads and bombing gasoline plants. The Allied beachhead was barely clung to in the beginning, but eventually enlarged, consolidated, reinforced, and finally broke through the German defenses. The German defenders were forced to retreat as the Allies swept through on all sides. Paris was liberated with the help of the French "underground" on Aug. 1944. The Allies rolled irresistibly toward Germany, and the first important German city (Aachen) fell in Oct. 1944.

island hopping

The American strategy used in fighting vs. the Japanese in the Pacific. US forces bypassed Japanese posts on some islands, captured nearby islands, set up airfields on them, and then neutralized the enemy bases through heavy bombing. Japan's outposts would die out, deprived of essential supplies from Japan.

Battle of Britain

The Battle of Britain is the name given to the Second World War air campaign waged by the German Air Force against the United Kingdom during the summer and autumn of 1940. The Battle of Britain was the first major campaign to be fought entirely by air forces, and was also the largest and most sustained aerial bombing campaign to that date. The German objective was to gain air superiority over the Royal Air Force (RAF), especially Fighter Command. By preventing Germany from gaining air superiority, the British forced Hitler to postpone (and eventually cancel) Operation Sea Lion, a planned amphibious and airborne invasion of Britain. However, Germany continued bombing operations on Britain, known as The Blitz. This is considered the first major defeat of the Germans and a critical turning point in the war.

Chiang-Kai-Shiek

The Chinese Generalissimo Jiang Jieshi resisted the Japanese invaders with the help of a supply of US munitions. When the Japanese invaded Burma and cut the Burma road (the route in which the supplies had been brought over), American pilots were forced to deliver supplies via airplanes over the Himalayan Mtns.

blitzkrieg

The German phrase for "lightning war." It refers to the fighting style of German forces; attacking forces spearheaded by a dense concentration of armoured and motorized or mechanized infantry formations, and heavily backed up by close air support, forces a breakthrough into the enemy's line of defense through a series of short, fast, powerful attacks. Once in the enemy's territory, it proceeds to dislocate them using speed and surprise, and then encircle them. Blitzkrieg attempts to unbalance the enemy by making it difficult for them to respond effectively to the continuously changing front, and defeat them through a decisive battle of annihilation.

Red Army

The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army was the army and the air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, and after 1922 the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The army was established immediately after the 1917 October Revolution (Red October or Bolshevik Revolution); in which the Bolsheviks raised an army to oppose the military confederations of their adversaries, during the Russian Civil War. The Red Army is credited as being the decisive land force in the Allied victory in WWII. During operations on the Eastern Front, it defeated 75%-80% of the German land forces.

Axis

The alliance between Germany, Italy, and Japan to impose their militaristic might on the rest of the world.

Allies

The alliance of Britain and France against the Axis powers. The USSR and the US joined later.

El Alamein

There were two battles of El Alamein in World War II, both fought in 1942. The Battles occurred in North Africa in Egypt in and around an area named after a railway stop called El Alamein. The First Battle of El Alamein (1-27 July 1942) was a battle of the Western Desert Campaign fought on the northern coast of Egypt between Axis forces and Allied forces. The British prevented a second advance by the Axis forces into Egypt. Axis positions near El Alamein, only 66 mi from Alexandria, were dangerously close to the ports and cities of Egypt, the base facilities of the Commonwealth forces and the Suez Canal and the Axis forces were too far from their base at Tripoli in Libya, to remain at El Alamein indefinitely, which led both sides to accumulate supplies for more offensives, against the constraints of time and distance. At the battles of Battle of Alam el Halfa (30 August - 5 September) and the Second Battle of El Alamein (23 October-11 November), the Axis army was defeated and driven out of Egypt for good. This victory turned the tide in the North African Campaign and ended the Axis threat to Egypt, the Suez Canal, and of gaining access to the Middle Eastern and Persian oil fields via North Africa. From a psychological perspective, Second El Alamein revived the morale of the Allies, being the first major offensive against the Axis since the start of the European war in 1939 in which the Western Allies had achieved a decisive victory.

Potsdam Conference

This meeting between Truman, Stalin, and Clement Atlee (who had just replaced Churchill) took place Jul. 1945. Again, the future of E. Europe was discussed. It was also decided to hold war-crime trials for top Nazi leaders (the Nuremberg Trials). Truman believed that free elections should be held in all E. European countries while Stalin expressed his desire to have them as satellite countries instead.

Wernher von Braun

Von Braun was a German and later American aerospace engineer and space architect, but made his greatest contributions as an aerospace program manager. He was one of the leading figures in the development of rocket technology in Germany and the United States and is considered one of the "Fathers of Rocket Science". He was also a member of the Nazi Party and the SS. Braun was the central figure in the Nazis' rocket development program. After the war, he and selected members of his rocket team were taken to the United States as part of the secret Operation Paperclip (where over 1,500 German scientists, technicians, and engineers from Nazi Germany and other foreign countries were brought to the United States for employment in the aftermath of WWII). Braun worked on the United States Army's intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) program before his group was assimilated by NASA.

internment camps

imprisonment of people w/o trial; confine those persecuted or POWs w/in a country's boundaries Japanese Amer. sent to camps during WWII for being suspected as spies for Japanese enemy