World War 2 Events/Turning Points/Themes

Kamikaze

A Japanese aircraft loaded with explosives and making a deliberate suicidal crash on an enemy target.

Pearl Harbor

A major United States naval base in Hawaii that was attacked without warning by the Japanese air force with great loss of American lives and ships.

Battle of Stalingrad

A major turning point occurred in the Soviet Union. After their lightning advance in 1941, the Germans were stalled outside Moscow and Leningrad. In 1942, Hitler launched a new offensive. This time, he aimed for the rich oil fields of the south. His troops, however, got only as far as Stalingrad. The Battle of Stalingrad was one of the costliest of the war. Hitler was determined to capture Stalin's namesake city, and Stalin was equally determined to defend it. The battle began when the Germans surrounded the city. As winter closed in, a bitter street-by-street, house-by-house struggle raged. A German officer wrote that soldiers fought for two weeks for a single building. Corpses "are strewn in the cellars, on the landings and the staircases," he said. In November, the Soviets encircled their attackers. Trapped, without food or ammunition and with no hope of rescue, the German commander finally surrendered in January 1943. After the Battle of Stalingrad, the Red Army took the offensive and drove the invaders out of the Soviet Union entirely. Hitler's forces suffered irreplaceable losses of both troops and equipment. By early 1944, Soviet troops were advancing into Eastern Europe.

Battle of the Bulge

After freeing France, Allied forces battled toward Germany. As their armies advanced into Belgium in December, Germany launched a massive counterattack. At the bloody Battle of the Bulge, which lasted more than a month, both sides took terrible losses. The Germans were unable to break through. The battle delayed the Anglo-American advance from the west, but only for six weeks.

Battle of Guadalcanal

Allied forces, predominantly United States (US) Marines, landed on the islands of Guadalcanal, Tulagi, and Florida in the southern Solomon Islands, with the objective of denying their use by the Japanese to threaten Allied supply and communication routes between the US, Australia, and New Zealand. The Allies also intended to use Guadalcanal and Tulagi as bases to support a campaign to eventually capture or neutralize the major Japanese base at Rabaul on New Britain. The Allies overwhelmed the outnumbered Japanese defenders, who had occupied the islands since May 1942, and captured Tulagi and Florida, as well as an airfield (later named Henderson Field) that was under construction on Guadalcanal. Powerful American naval forces supported the landings. The Allied powers soundly defeated them.

Munich Conference

An agreement between Britain and Germany in 1938, under which Germany was allowed to extend its territory into parts of Czechoslovakia in which German-speaking peoples lived.

Siege of Leningrad

Here Germany tried to capture a major city named after one of Russia's greatest leaders. The siege went on for two year and many Russians starved to death. Luckily, aided by the British, the Russian's were able to stop Germany from taking the city.

Italian Invasion of Ethiopia

In 1935, the League of Nations was faced with another crucial test. Benito Mussolini, the Fascist leader of Italy, had adopted Adolf Hitler's plans to expand German territories by acquiring all territories it considered German. Mussolini followed this policy when he invaded Ethiopia the African country situated on the horn of Africa. Mussolini claimed that his policies of expansion were not different from that of other colonial powers in Africa.

Operation Barbarossa

Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Nazi Germany's World War II invasion of the Soviet Union, which began on 22 June 1941.

Atlantic Charter

Roosevelt met secretly with Churchill on a warship in the Atlantic in August 1941. The two leaders issued this Charter, which set goals for the war—"the final destruction of the Nazi tyranny"—and for the postwar world. They pledged to support "the right of all peoples to choose the form of government under which they will live" and called for a "permanent system of general security."

Battle of Iwo Jima

The Battle of Iwo Jima was a major battle in which the U.S. Marines landed on and eventually captured the island of Iwo Jima from the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II.

Battle of Midway

The Battle of Midway was a decisive naval battle in the Pacific Theater of World War II. The United States Navy decisively defeated an attacking fleet of the Imperial Japanese Navy near Midway Atoll, inflicting devastating damage on the Japanese fleet that proved irreparable. Military historian John Keegan called it "the most stunning and decisive blow in the history of naval warfare."

Battle of the Atlantic

The Battle of the Atlantic was the longest continuous military campaign in World War II, running from 1939 to the defeat of Germany in 1945. At its core was the Allied naval blockade of Germany, announced the day after the declaration of war, and Germany's subsequent counter-blockade. It was at its height from mid-1940 through to the end of 1943. The Battle of the Atlantic pitted U-boats and other warships of the German navy and aircraft of the Luftwaffe (German Air Force) against the Royal Canadian Navy, Royal Navy, the United States Navy, and Allied merchant shipping. It was one of the dominating factors throughout the whole war

Battle of the Coral Sea

The Battle of the Coral Sea, fought during 4-8 May 1942, was a major naval battle in the Pacific Theater of World War II between the Imperial Japanese Navy and naval and air forces from the United States and Australia. The battle was the first action in which aircraft carriers engaged each other, as well as the first in which neither side's ships sighted or fired directly upon the other.

Combined Bomber Offensive

The Combined Bomber Offensive was an Anglo-American offensive of strategic bombing during World War II in Europe. The primary portion of the CBO was against Luftwaffe targets which was the highest priority.

Invasion of Poland

The Invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign, or the 1939 Defensive War in Poland, and alternatively the Poland Campaign or Fall Weiss in Germany, was a joint invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, the Free City of Danzig, the Soviet Union, and a small Slovak contingent, that marked the beginning of World War II in Europe. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week after the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, while the Soviet invasion commenced on 17 September following the Molotov-Togo agreement that terminated the Russian and Japanese hostilities in the east on 16 September. The campaign ended on 6 October with Germany and the Soviet Union dividing and annexing the whole of Poland under the terms of the German-Soviet Frontier Treaty.

Japanese Invasion of Manchuria

The Japanese invasion of Manchuria began on September 18, 1931, when the Kwantung Army of the Empire of Japan invaded Manchuria immediately following the Mukden Incident. The Japanese established a puppet state called Manchukuo, and their occupation lasted until the end of World War II.

Second Sino-Japanese War

The Second Sino-Japanese War (July 7, 1937 - September 9, 1945) was a military conflict fought primarily between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan from 1937 to 1945.China fought Japan, with some economic help from Germany, the Soviet Union and the United States. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the war would merge into the greater conflict of World War II as a major front of what is broadly known as the Pacific War. It accounted for the majority of civilian and military casualties in the Pacific War, with anywhere between 10 and 25 million Chinese civilians and over 4 million Chinese and Japanese military personnel dying from war-related violence, famine, and other causes.

D-Day (Normandy Invasion)

The Western Allies of World War II launched the largest amphibious invasion in history when they assaulted Normandy, located on the northern coast of France. The invaders were able to establish a beachhead as part of Operation Overlord after a successful "D-Day," the first day of the invasion. This contributed to the Allied victory on the Western Front.

Yalta Conference

The Yalta Conference was a meeting of British prime minister Winston Churchill, Soviet premier Joseph Stalin, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt early in February 1945 as World War II was winding down.

Battle of Okinawa

The battle of Okinawa, also known as Operation Iceberg, was the largest amphibious landing in the Pacific theater of World War II. The Americans tried to take the island of Okinawa in order to make a blow in the Japanese. It also resulted in the largest casualties with over 100,000 Japanese casualties and 50,000 casualties for the Allies. The US wins the bloody battle.

Manhattan Project

The code name for the effort to develop atomic bombs for the United States during World War II.

Genocide

The deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular ethnic group or nation.

Battle of the Alamein

The was a battle of the Western Desert Campaign of the Second World War, fought in Egypt between Axis forces of the Panzer Army Africa commanded by Field Marshal Erwin Rommel nicknamed "The Desert Fox" and Allied forces of the Eighth Army, commanded by General Claude Auchinleck. The British prevented a second advance by the Axis forces into Egypt.

Blitzkrieg

These types of tactics used advanced technology to overwhelm enemy forces. First, airplanes bombed a region, then fast moving ground troops moved in to surround the enemy forces.

Battle of Britain

This battle was a combat of the Second World War, when the Royal Air Force defended the United Kingdom against the German Air Force attacks. By preventing the Luftwaffe's air superiority over UK, the British forced Adolf Hitler to postpone and eventually cancel Operation Sea Lion, a proposed amphibious and airborne invasion of Britain.

Western Desert Campaign (Desert War)

This campaign took place in the Western Desert of Egypt and Libya and was a theatre in the North African Campaign. It was an allied victory.

Tunisia Campaign

This campaign/battle was a series of battles that took place in Tunisia during the North African Campaign of the Second World War, between Axis and Allied forces. The battle opened with initial success by the German and Italian forces but the massive supply and numerical superiority of the Allies, led to the decisive defeat of the Axis.

Strategic bombing

This is a military strategy used in a total war with the goal of defeating the enemy by destroying their morale or their economic ability to produce and transport materiel to the theatres of military operations, or both.

Appeasement

This is a political term in which a country tries to avoid war with another country even if the other country is violating the law.

Nazi-Soviet Non-Agression Pact

This is an agreement between Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia that gets signed to ensure peace between them.

Battle of Moscow

This is the name given by Soviet historians to two periods of strategically significant fighting on a 600 miles sector of the Eastern Front during World War II. It took place between October 1941 and January 1942. The Soviet defensive effort frustrated Hitler's attack on a major Russian capital of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the largest Soviet city. This was one of the primary military and political objectives for Axis forces in their invasion of the Soviet Union. The soviets had a decisive win and this helped with putting a stop to Operation Barbarossa.

Germany annexes the Sudetenland

This land is part of Czechoslovakia and Hitler threatened to annex them and even though France and Britain protested, they were unwilling to go to war because of Appeasement. After gaining the land, Hitler broke his promises and took the rest of Czechoslovakia.

Lebensraum

This was Hitler's term of speech that said that Germany must expand to gain ________________, or living space, for its people.

General Edwin Rommel

This was Hitlers most trusted and valued Generals. He was known as the desert fox and he earned the respect of both his own troops and his enemies.

Vichy

This was a capital of the puppet state held by the Germans in Northern France.

The Casablanca Conference

This was a conference held in a city in French Morocco. It was made to plan the Allied European strategy for the next phase of World War II. In attendance were United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

Dunkirk

This was a desperate attempt by the British as they tried to retreat and pick up soldiers from two beaches on the English channel. The British sent all naval vessels into the two beaches to pick 300,000 soldiers up. It was a miracle.

Rape of Nanjing

This was a mass killing and ravaging of Chinese citizens and capitulated soldiers by soldiers of the Japanese Imperial Army after its seizure of Nanjing, China. The whole city was captured and either tortured,killed, or raped.

Marshal Plan

This was a massive aid package for food and economic assistance sent to Europe by America to help rebuild after WWII.

Maginot Line

This was a zone of heavy defensive fortifications erected by France along its eastern border in the years preceding World War II, but outflanked in 1940 when the German army attacked through Belgium.

Bataan Death March

This was because Japanese had gained control of the Philippines. They killed several hundred American soldiers and some 10,000 Filipino soldiers during the 68-mile march.

Balkan Campaign

This was the Italian's successful invasion of Greece. This way the Axis powers got both Greece and Yugoslavia under their empire.

Anschluss

This was the Nazi propaganda term for the annexing of Austria into Nazi Germany.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Two bombs the Little boy and the Fat man that were bombed on these two cities, leveling Japan.

V-E Day

Victory in Europe Day, generally known as V-E Day, VE Day or simply V Day was the public holiday celebrated on 8 May 1945 to mark the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Nazi Germany's unconditional surrender of its armed forces.

Island Hopping

What the Americans did to the Japanese in order to stop the Japanese from attacking them. They would travel from island to island trying to take over.

Invasion of Italy

With North Africa under their control, the Allies were able to cross the Mediterranean into Italy. In July 1943, a combined British and American army landed first in Sicily and then in southern Italy. They defeated the Italian forces there in about a month. After the defeats, the Italians over- threw Mussolini and signed an armistice, but fighting did not end.