World War II (Chapter 4)

Blitzkrieg

(German for 'lightning war') A form of warfare used by the Germans with troops in vehicles, such as tanks, made quick surprise strikes with support from airplanes.

March on Rome

1922: Mussolini became frustrated that he could not achieve victory in the elections, and threatened to overthrow the Italian government during this infamous action. He gathered with his quasi-military group, the Blackshirts, composed of 26,000 soldiers, on the outskirts of Rome and demanded that the Italian government be turned over. Rather than risk a civil war, King Emmanuel handed Mussolini the government.

The National Resource Mobilization Act

1940: was a statute of the Parliament of Canada that was passed to provide for better planning of a much greater Canadian war effort

St. Louis Incident

937 Jews traveled by boat to Cuba with the goal of escaping NAZI Germany. The Cuban, American and Canadian governments did not accept the landing permits held by the Jews and the boat was forced to turn back to Europe and face WWII.

U boat

A German submarine used in World War 1 and World War 2.

Auschwitz

A death camp run by the NAZI's that killed over one million people. Millions of other people were executed in the same manner at other sites due to their beliefs, race or sexual orientation.

Totalitarianism

A dictatorship with total control of their populations. Aspects: One leader with absolute power, only one ideology allowed, secret police were used in extreme ways to instill terror amongst the people, allowed no dissent (opposition) and the citizens were denied human rights, censorship and propaganda were common tools used for control, left with only freedom of thought, and couldn't express it.

Propaganda

A form of communication aimed towards influencing the attitude of a population toward some cause or position. It can be mainly achieved by media.

Ghettos

A ghetto is a part of a city in which members of a minority group live They were designated areas in a city where Jews were compelled to live. During World War II, these were set up across Nazi-occupied Europe by the Nazi regime in order to confine and segregate Jews.

Convoy

A group of ships or vehicles traveling together, typically accompanied by armed troops, warships, or other vehicles for protection.

Custodian of Allies Act

A law allowing the possessions of Japanese Canadians to be sold without their permission. This law was passed in 1943

island hopping

A military strategy enforced by the Allies in the Pacific War against Japan and the Axis Powers during WWII. The idea was to bypass heavily fortified Japanese positions and instead concentrate the limited Allied resources on strategically important islands that were not well defended but capable of supporting the drive to the main islands of Japan.

The Blitz

A period of time when Hitler organized daylight bombing and raids on the city of London, England.

Scapegoat

A person or group made to take the blame for others or to suffer in their place.

Manhattan Project

A research and development project that produced the first atomic bombs during World War II. It was led by the United States with the support of the United Kingdom and Canada.

Enabling Act

A statute empowering a person or body to take certain action, especially to make regulations, rules, or orders. This gave Hitler a control of the German Riechstag (Government).

Pearl Harbor

A surprise air force attack by the Japanese on the US naval base in Hawaii. Japanese wanted to make sure the Americans stayed out of Japan's military business in southeast Asia. This attack led to USA's entry into the war.

Inflation

A sustained increase of the general price of goods and services over a period of time. Pre WWII Germany experienced hyperinflation, causing the country's currency to be worth very little.

Plebiscite

A vote on a single issue: in WWII this vote was on conscription.

War Supply Board (WSB)

Agency of the United States government that supervised war production during WWII. President Roosevelt established it with executive order.

RCAF - Women's Division

An official women's branch of the air force in WWII.

Canadian Women's Army Corps (CWAC)

An official women's branch of the army that was non-combatant. Most women served as mechanics, cooks, nurses, etc in WWII.

V.J. day (Victory Japan)

August 15, 1945. The day the Allies marked victory over Japan in World War II.

Conscription

Being forced to join the army and fight for your country during wartime.

Evacuation of Dunkirk

British and French troops became trapped on the French beaches of Dunkirk after Germany overwhelmed Belgium. 900 ships were sent from England and rescued 340,000 soldiers. Important 'moral victory' for the Allies because it saved these troops so they could live to fight other battles.

Final Solution

By 1941, Hitler's obsession with the complete annihilation of the Jewish race took on a horrible reality through this plan. Hitler ordered that all Jews in NAZI-occupied Europe be rounded up and sent to extermination camps to be killed en masse in gas chambers.

Battle of Hong Kong

Canadian troops first battle in the Pacific. This was a very quick failure and after 17 days, the Canadian forces were defeated by the Japanese with many soldiers being injured, killed or taken as POWs (Prisoners of War).

British Commonwealth Air Training Plan

Massive military training program created by the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, during WW2. It is one of the single largest aviation training programs in history and was responsible for training nearly half the pilots, navigators, bomb aimers, air gunners, wireless operators and flight engineers who served with the army forces of these countries.

WRENS

Members of the women's navel service. Many served as mechanics, welders, assigned to coastal defences.

Blackshirts

Mussolini's military support in the March on Rome: over 26,000 soldiers supported him.

Kristallnacht

Night of Broken Glass - November 1938: Attacks on Jews, Synagogues, and Jewish owned businesses. Marks the begging of the Holocaust.

Nazi-Soviet Pact

On August 23, 1939, representatives of the Soviet Union met with the Germany and signed an agreement that guaranteed the two countries would not attack each other. Both countries knew that the peace would last long but they were hoping to gain time.

Vandoos

One of Canada's famous infantry regiments: mostly French-Canadian soldiers and based in Quebec, is officially called "Le Royale 22ieme Regiment du Canada". "Twenty-two" in French is "Vingt-Deuxieme". During the First World War English Canadian soldiers couldn't pronounce the complicated French numbers correctly, so began calling the regiment the "Van Doos". For the past century the name has stuck.

5 Year Plans

Plans introduced by Stalin to allow for the government to have complete control over the Soviet economy. Under these plans, Stalin got rid of private property, all farmland had become public and farmers were workers for the state. Also, Stalin invested in the construction of heavy industry such as the steel and coal industries in order to completely modernize the Soviet Economy.

Camp X

Special training school on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario, Canada, run by the British during World War 2.

British Royal Air Force (RAF)

This airforce fought the German airforce, 'Luftwaffe', in the air over Britain. British were outnumbered in the battle of Britain 3:1 but they had much better planes and used radar and eventually won the Battle of Britain.

Weimar Republic

This is the name for the German democracy that followed WWI. They thought this would help Germany in the peacemaking process; however, it ended up being a very weak form of government.

Enemy aliens

This term refers to groups of Canadians whose ancestry was one of the enemy countries.

V.E. (Victory Europe) Day

This was announced when the last German troops surrendered. May 8, 1945.

Night of the Long Knives

June 1934: Hitler had about 1,000 people murdered. The victims of this attack were people with anti-nazi beliefs.

Battle of Midway

June 1942: this battle effectively destroyed Japan's naval strength when the Americans destroyed four of its aircraft carriers. Japan's navy never recovered from its mauling in this battle and it was on the defensive until their eventual defeat and the end of WWII.

Operation Barbarossa

June 22nd - December 5th, 1941: code name for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II. It was the largest invasion in the history of warfare with about four million soldiers of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a 2,900 km front.

Interment camps

Large groups of Japanese-Canadian people were relocated to these areas and held in confinement without trial.

Nuremburg Laws

Laws that were set forth between 1933 and 1939 enacting unjust measures against Jews. These laws said: - Jews had to wear the Star of David at all times - Jews lost their professional careers and their property - Jews could not mingle with the German population - Jews lost their citizenship.

Adolf Hitler

Leader of the NAZI party. Chancellor of Germany from 1933 - 1945. Considered the leader of the holocaust and was a major persecutor of non-aryans. His philosophies were extreme as was his leadership style. He was a Fascist leader and led Germany and the world into World War Two.

Battle of Stalingrad

Major battle of World War II in which Nazi Germany and its allies fought the Soviet Union for for control of a city (now Volgograd) in the south-western Soviet Union.

Juno Beach

Codename for the beach that the Canadians were assigned to capture on D-Day. It was one of five targets for the Allies. Over 5,000 Canadian were killed on the shores of Normandy.

Battle of El Alamein

Consisted of two battles in 1942. Occurred in North Africa in Egypt. This was Nazi Germany's attempt at taking over the southern hemisphere.

Fuhrer

Direct German translation for the leader. What Hitler was called after he achieved complete power.

Phony War

Everyone expected Germany to attack Western Europe in the winter of 1939-1940, but bad weather prevented this from happening. The allied troops and Canadian Soldiers waited apprehensively for the attack.

NAZI

German Socialist Workers Party: held power in Germany leading into WWII and was led by Hitler.

Gestapo

German secret police that could do anything to benefit the Fuhrer.

Nuremberg Laws

Harsh and unjust restrictions placed against the Jews between the years 1933-39. These laws included: dress code requirements (Jews had to wear a yellow Star of David); loss of property, profession and citizenship; and Jews could not interact with Germans.

Anti-semitism

Hatred toward Jews.

Benito Mussolini

He was the Italian who formed a political party called Fascisti. He threatened to overthrow the Italian government during the March of Rome. As well he is known for forming the Blackshirts, a quasi-military group who acted as his political goons. His goal was to lead the country into a war of imperial conquest.

Holocaust

Hitler's attempt to exterminate all of the Jewish people in Europe during WWII. Approximately 6 million Jews were killed.

Italian Campaign

Important military effort for Canada: More than 93,000 Canadians, along with their allies from Great Britain, France and the United States, played a vital role. They pushed from the south to the north of Italy over a 20-month period, Canadians faced difficult battles against some of the German army's best troops. Canadian casualties totalled more than 26,000, nearly 6,000 of which were fatal.

Dieppe

In 1942, Canadian troops attempted to take back a beach in northern France from the Germans. Although it was a complete failure and many soldiers were killed or taken as POWs (Prisoners of War), they learned important lessons for the eventual success at Normandy: that the Allies would need more air and naval support to be successful.

Operation Overlord

The Allied invasion of German-held Europe. Over one year in preparation and was one of the most complicated military operations ever. 14,000 Canadian soldiers, 100 ships, and 36 bomber squadrons for the Royal Canadian Air Force. Also known as D-Day. Allowed the Allies to get a foothold in Europe and start pushing back the Germans.

Lend Lease Act

The U.S. allowed loaned materials to allied countries without having to pay up front. This concerned the Canadian government because there was the possibility no Allied countries would purchase their supplies.

Luftwaffe

The generic German term for Air Force.

Genocide

The systematic extermination of a religious or racial group. Jewish communities were herded into railcars and shipped to concentration camps spread across the German-occupied territories.

Nagasaki and Hiroshima

The two cities in Japan on which atomic bombs were dropped by the American military to end WWII.

Battle of Britain

WWII air campaign waged by the German Air Force against the United Kingdom during the summer and autumn of 1940.

Overproduction

When huge supplies of manufactured goods were stockpiled. Many unsold goods caused the factory owners to panic, panic caused the workers to slow down what they were doing

Sonar

Works in water much like radar works in the air, but instead of using radio waves sonar uses sound. The sound would bounce off of the enemy submarines, alerting the Allies to their presence.

Prisoner of War (POW)

a person who has been captured and imprisoned by the enemy in war.