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August 14, 1941 - Newfoundland
Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill met on a battleship to discuss what they believed to be common hopes for a better future. This consisted of acting in the interest of all people and preserving the right for said people to choose their own governnment. They would also act to restore sovereignty to those nations who'd lost it along with their government. This was somewhat of an awkward agreement as two of the three "big three" leaders had no intention in following these principles. Moreover, Roosevelt expressed at this time to Churchill that he would find an "incident" to enter the war - which would be Pearl Harbor. |
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June 1940 – April 1941
After the German Army defeated French at Dunkirk, they sought out Britain. Hitler attempted to form a German-British alliance, but Churchill refused. In July of 1940 Hitler planned an invasion of Britain for September 15. He sent the Luftwaffe to destroy air & naval forces. Germany made the mistake of focusing bombing on cities - which was unsuccessful. The RAF was stronger than they thought/ Hitler hadn't achieved any of his objectives so he decided to scrap the idea and focus mainly on the Soviet Union. If the RAF hadn't been successful, Operation Sealion would have been executed and Germany could've won the war. |
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August 1942 to February 1943
By 1942, Japan had control of vast territory due to their "miraculous six months" of ruthess conquest after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Japan looked to new naval bases in New-Guinea where it could attack Australia. The tide of the war turned though. The Battle of Coral Sea in May 1942 and the Battle of Midway in Jule, however, stopped this from happening. The naval forces divided the Pacific into three regions under Admiral Nimitz, Admiral Halsey, and General Douglas MacArthur. They planned to use island hopping in order to achieve allied victory. Nimitz was in charge of the central Pacific islands. He launched his attack on the Solomon islands in August 1942. The battle lasted six months and was costly despite allied victory. |
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February 19 – March 26, 1945
Also, Operation Detachment. The U.S. took 216 of the Japanese as prisoners and the other 18,000 were either missing or killed. This was basically a continuation of the Battle of Coral Sea. |
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July 5 - August 23, 1943
In late 1942 & early 1943, Operation Torch was sucessful in North Africa and the Germans failed to capture Stalingrad. Hitler told the Germans despite being captured by the Red Army, to keep fighting. The Germans were supposed to win the Battle of Kursk but Soviet intelligence warned the Red Army. After this, the Germans were constantly on the defensive. This is also known as the largest tank battle of the war. |
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April - June 1945
Often called the Typhoon of Steel because of the amount of weaponry, ships, and steel. This was the bloodiest battle of the Pacific, and the last major battle of the war. More died here than Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It was a series of island hops that was intended to reach mainland Japan codenamed Operation Downfall. This battle changed the allied Pacific strategy along with the development of the atomic bomb. |
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July 17, 1942 - February 2,1943
Between the Nazis and the Soviets. This was in winter of 1942 after the Russians were recovering from German Blitzkrieg. The armies were pretty evenly matched. Whatever the Germans captured by day, the Russians recaptured at night. After a well-planned counter-offensive and a bitter Russian winter, the Germans surrendered. |
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Dec. 16, 1944 – Jan. 16, 1945
The last German offensive mounted on the Western Front. Bulge refers to the bulge put in the allied line of advancement. The goal was to split the allied line in two, capture Antwerp, Belgium, and then surround the allied armies. The idea was to force the allies into negotiating a peace treaty. Under Dwight D. Eisenhower, Hitler called off the offensive January 7, 1945. This put the axis at a disadvantage for the remainder of the war. Germany lost a large portion of their military and much of their air force was destroyed. |
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May 4–8, 1942
Naval battle fought between Japan and the joint forces of the U.S. and Australia. It began after the Japanese invaded Port Moresby in New Guinea codenamed Operation Mo. Thanks to American intelligence the allies knew about it ahead of time. This was the first major naval battle and resulted in a Japanese defeat. |
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| Lightning warfare - this was an offensive battle tactic used by the Germans in WWII. The goal was to break through enemy lines. This tactic allowed Germany to defeat Poland in one month, along with the fact that Britain and France never came to Poland's aid (Phony War). |
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| Division commander in early WWII before the Germans encircled allied forces at Dunkirk and France negotiated an armistice. De Gaulle fled to Britain to develop his political career and led the Free French movement. |
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| 1942 - The general who tried to keep the Japanese from advancing on the Bataan peninsula of the Phillipines. Eventually he was forced to pull out and retreated until a boat came to rescue him. MacArthur was kicked out of the military for publicly criticizing Truman because he didn't support the use of the atomic bomb. |
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24 May to 4 June 1940
Using blitzkrieg tactics, the Germans forced French & British troops to Dunkirk. Then Hitler gave a halt order which allowed allied forces to organize a rescue. They evacuated 340,000 troops to safety in England. This made Hitler believe that the Germans could defeat Britain so he wanted to execute Operation Sealion. |
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| Responsible for Operation Overlord and the American commander on the European front. |
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June – July 1942
Axis and allied forces chased each other over North African desert for years. The tide turned in the allies' favor at the Battle of El Alamein in 1942. General Montgomery who was pushed out of Libya and back to El Alamein spent months building up men and amor before launching an attack on Rommel. Because Rommel drove the allies out of Libya, the axis used all their food and supples and ammunition so they could advance no further. This allowed for an allied invasion known as Operation Torch to attack Rommel's army from behind. This was a major allied victory and a turning point in the war. |
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| The Germans and Japanese used complex codes throughout the war. Without the development of the Ultra, which decoded the Enigma's messages, the war would have played out differently. |
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| Patton conducted the Western task force during Operation Torch. Eisenhower put in charge of the FUSAG, a fictional army, that was part of Operation Fortitude, a plan of deception in order to execute Operation Overlord. The Germans believed that FUSAG was going to invade at Calais, and not Normandy. |
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| Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere |
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| The GEACS was a combination of Japan, Manchukuo (Manchuria), China, and other small nations in Asia including Korea. It was created in order to eliminate American and European influence. This all began with the takeover of Manchuria that showed the ineffectiveness of the League of Nations. |
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| Truman succeeded Roosevelt in April 1945. Truman was very unprepared for the presidency. Truman's presidency is remembered mostly for his decision to drop the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. |
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| The Showa Emperor. He reigned from December 25, 1926 until his death in 1989. Before World War II, Japan invaded Manchuria in 1931 and then invaded the rest of China in 1937, which was known as the Second Sino-Japanese War. |
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| Tojo was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army and the 40th Prime Minister of Japan. Making his way up the ladder, on October 18, 1941 he was appointed Army Minister. |
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| Yamamoto was a Naval Marshal General and commander in chief of the Combined Fleet during WWII. In the Imperial Japanese Navy, Yamamoto undertook many of its changes and reorganizations, especially its development of naval aviation. He was commander-in-chief during the early years of the Pacific War and was responsible for the major battles such as Pearl Harbor. |
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Hiroshima and Nagasaki were Japanese cities that were destroyed by the atom bombs developed by the United States. The first atomic bomb (Little Boy) was dropped on Hiroshima August 6, 1945 – and three days later Fat Man was dropped on Nagasaki.
The use of the bomb was – and still is – extremely controversial. Norman Rich outlines a number of reasons why this was so; American leaders knew that the use of the bomb wasn’t necessary to win the war; they could have continued mass bombings via “conventional weapons” or set up naval blockades to cut off the food supply to the Japanese – whose vitality depended on imports. They could have waited until the entry of the Red Army – or they could have carried out the plan to attack the home islands. One such opponent of using the bomb was general Douglas MacArthur who publicly criticized Truman’s decision to use the bomb.
However, when Harry S Truman found out that the atom bomb was fully operational at the Potsdam conference, the overriding decision was to end the war as quickly as possible and to save American lives. This news meant that the last island hop was unnecessary. Historians, however, still question why the decision was made to bomb Nagasaki only three days later, when the Japanese had no chance to fully absorb the effects of Hiroshima. |
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| The concept of Island Hopping was coined during World War II to describe the Allied attack and hope to gain control of Japan. Instead of going after mainland Japan first, the Allies, mostly made up of American troops, engaged in a series of battles on smaller islands in the Pacific. This strategy by the Allies was called leapfrogging |
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| A massive fortification that was created on France's German border, starting at the Ardennes Forest and spanning across Alsace & Lorraine. IT was created in the 1930's to prevent another German offensive from invading France. However, blitzkrieg destroyed it which split the French border by going around the Maginot Line forcing the French soldiers to Dunkirk sparking the idea of Operation Sealion. |
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| Neutrality Laws / Lend-Lease Act |
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| 1935, '36, '37, & '39 neutrality laws forbade the sale of arms to countries involved in war. These laws were staunchly defended by isolationists. The U.S. then allowed Britain to purchase on a cash-carry basis which eventually led to the Lend-Lease Act of 1941 that extended aid to the Soviets. |
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1945-1949
The trials were to punish war criminals and end wars of aggression. There were 12 trials and the first indicted 22 major war criminals. |
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August 15- September 1944
Also known as Operation Dragon. This was decided upon at the Teheran Conference. It was coupled with the cross-channel invasion (Operation Overlord). Operation Anvil was an invasion through southern France intended to divert the Germans' focus from Normandy alone.
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June 22, 1941
Code name for German invasion of Russia. This was the largest military offensive in history. Germany was unsuccessful and only gained territory in the Ukraine. |
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June 6, 1944
The greatest amphibious attack in history. This was a cross-channel invasion of France to open a second front in Europe. Also known as D-day. By September of 1944, the allies had driven Germany out of France. Operation Fortitude was the deception plan that allowed this to work. |
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| This was Hitler's plan to invade Britain through France. Hitler offered to make peace with Churchill first, who refused. July 16th, 1940, Hitler ordered the Luftwaffe to defeat the RAF before he could begin Operation Sea Lion. This was later known as the Battle of Britain. The RAF was successful and this forced Hitler to recalculate. |
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August 1944
This involved the RAF and U.S. Air Force in which they bombed many German cities in 1944-45. Some of which included: Dresden, Hamburg, Frankfurt and Berlin. This was intended to destroy German morale. |
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November 8–16, 1942
After allies defeated Rommel at El Alamein, they invaded French Algeria and Morocco. They fought for a day and Vichy France organized cease-fire. This was significant for Russia because Stalin had been begging for another front to relieve some of the fighting on the Eastern Front. |
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December 7, 1941
Hawaii, the Japanese were infuriated by the U.S. Neutrality Laws and Lend-Lease Act and their decision to stop selling them oil. In September 1940, the Tripartite Axis Pact was signed. |
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October 1939 – March 1940
Months following German invasion of Poland and preceding Battle of France. |
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| Polish Guarantee / Invasion of Poland |
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September 1, 1939
Britain and France swore they would wage war if Germany attacked Poland. They wanted to preserve Poland's indepenced. Two days later, September 3, Britain and France declared war on Germany. |
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| Russo-Finnish War / Winter War |
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30 November 1939 – 13 March 1940
The Finns refused to cede territory to Stalin. They pleaded to the League of Nations who expelled Russia. Most of the Russians were inexperienced fighters due to Stalin's Great Purge in 1937 so they had difficulty fighting the Finns. The war ended when Finland and Russia signed the Moscow Peace Treaty which gave them 30% of economic assets and 11% of pre-war territory. |
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October 23-26 1944
Biggest naval battle of WWII. There were actually four separate battles:
-Battle of Surigao Straight
-Battle of Cape Engano
-Battle of Sibuayan Sea
-Battle of Samor
The U.S. was victorious so this allowed them to continue island hopping.
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| This was between German U-boats and British ships, and later U.S. The goal was to stop British trade and for access to sea routes. |
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September 27, 1940
Germany, Italy and Japan.
Later joined by: Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Croatia and Manchukuo (Manchuria) |
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| Winston Churchill was the Prime Minister of Britain during almost the entire portion of WWII. He was not re-elected and replaced by Attle shortly before the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Churchill was included in the Big Three (Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin). Churchill was included in many conferences such as the Mission to Moscow, Teheran, Yalta, Cairo, and Quebec. |
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| Essential social and political objectives described by Pres. FDR in his State of the Union message in January 1941: freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom from want, and freedom from fear of physical aggression |
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Technique used by a company that has become the target of a takeover attempt to make itself unattractive to the acquirer.
The Soviet Union used this as a tactic against the German advancement. |
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Six months after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and about a month after the Battle of Coral Sea, the American Navy spoiled the Japanese’s attempt at conquering Midway Atoll. Japan was intending to eliminate the U.S. as a power from the Pacific region. This is why the Battle of Midway is considered one of, if not the, most important battle in the Pacific. The U.S. was able to deliver a crippling blow because of the American code breakers who intercepted a signal and became aware of the date and location of the so-called ambush. This weakened the Japanese Imperial Navy and allowed future victories for the U.S. to arise known as Island Hopping. |
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| British military commander Bernard Law Montgomery was the Allied hero during World War II who beat Germany's Erwin Rommel in the battle for North Africa (1942-43). |
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