World War II

Douglas MacArthur

(1880-1964), U.S. general. Commander of U.S. (later Allied) forces in the southwestern Pacific during World War II, he accepted Japan's surrender in 1945 and administered the ensuing Allied occupation.

Battle of Stalingrad

(1942) World War II battle between invading German forces and Soviet defenders for control of this Soviet city; each side sustained hundreds of thousands of casualties; Germany's defeat marked turning point in the war

D-Day

175000 Allied troops invading the beaches of Normandy; Also called Operation Overload. The early hours of the day were spent with airborne attacks to break up the German resistance. The beaches of Normandy (which were broken into 5 groups) were stormed by US, British, Canadian, Free French, and Polish forces.

Harry Truman

33rd President of the United States who became President after FDR's death from a stroke in April 1945. Led the U.S. to victory in WWII making the ultimate decision to use atomic weapons for the first time. Shaped U.S. foreign policy regarding the Soviet Union after the war.

Battle of Iwo Jima

A battle in February and March 1945 in which U.S. forces took Iwo Jima, a small but strategically important island off the Japanese coast. During the battle, an Associated Press photographer took a world-famous photograph of U.S. Marines raising the American flag on the summit of Mt. Suribachi; 18,000 Japanese casualties and 7,000 American casualties

Holocaust

A methodical plan orchestrated by Hitler to ensure German supremacy. It called for the elimination of Jews, non-conformists, homosexuals, non-Aryans, and mentally and physically disabled.

island-hopping (leapfrogging)

A military strategy used during World War II that involved selectively attacking specific enemy-held islands and bypassing others; the American navy attacked islands held by the Japanese in the Pacific Ocean. The capture of each successive island from the Japanese brought the American navy closer to an invasion of Japan.

Winston Churchill

A noted British statesman who led Britain throughout most of World War II and along with Roosevelt planned many allied campaigns. He predicted an iron curtain that would separate Communist Europe from the rest of the West.

Axis Powers

Alliance of Germany, Italy, and Japan during World War II.

Allied Powers

Alliance of Great Britain, Soviet Union, United States, and France during World War II.

Battle of Okinawa

April 1945 First Japanese Home island (only 340 miles from mainland Japan) to be invaded. Island of immense strategic value. Involving over 500,000 troops and over 1,200 ships. Battle showed Japanese determination to resist invasion. World War II victory for the Allied troops that resulted in the deaths of almost all of the 100,000 Japanese defenders; the battle claimed 12,000 American lives.

V-J Day

August 15, 1945, the day on which the Allied forces declared victory over Japan.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki

August 6, 1945, _____________ was almost completely destroyed by the first atomic bomb ever dropped on a populated area. Followed by the bombing of __________________, on August 9, this show of Allied strength hastened the surrender of Japan in World War II.

atomic bomb

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

Battle of the Bulge

December, 1944-January, 1945 - After recapturing France, the Allied advance became stalled along the German border. In the winter of 1944, Germany staged a massive counterattack in Belgium and Luxembourg which pushed a 30 mile "bulge" into the Allied lines. The Allies stopped the German advance and threw them back across the Rhine with heavy losses and this was Germany's last offensive of the war.

genocide

Deliberate extermination of a racial or cultural group

George Patton

Famous American General who fought in North Africa and Europe against Rommel in many tank battles.

Battle of Coral Sea

Fought on May 7-8 1942; Caused heavy losses on both sides; Japanese won a tactical victory because they sank US carrier Lexington; Americans claimed a strategic victory by stopping Japan's drive towards Australia

Final Solution

Hitler's program of systematically killing the entire Jewish people

V-E Day

May 8, 1945, the day the Allies won WWII in Europe when Germany surrendered after Hitler's suicide.

Manhattan project

Secret American program during World War II to develop an atomic bomb

kamikaze pilots

Suicide attacks by military aviators from the Empire of Japan against Allied naval vessels in the closing stages of the pacific campaign of World war II. It was designed to destroy warships.

Battle of Midway

U.S. naval victory over the Japanese fleet in June 1942, in which the Japanese lost four of their best aircraft carriers. It marked a turning point in World War II.

Dwight Eisenhower

United States general who supervised the invasion of Normandy, Casablanca and the defeat of Nazi Germany as Commander of the Allied Forces.

concentration camps

prison camps used under the rule of Hitler in Nazi Germany. Conditions were inhuman, and prisoners, mostly Jewish people, were generally starved or worked to death, or killed immediately.