WWII – Quiz Review
Activities on the Home Front – WWII led the U.S. out of the Great Depression (17 million jobs created);
Women took over men’s jobs to help with the war effort; African-Americans pushed to fight
discrimination and NAACP membership grew; Japanese-Americans were relocated to Japanese Internment
camps; War bonds were issued by the government to finance military operations and other war expenditures;
Due to low supply of food and other resources, rationing was encouraged and supervised by the government
to help control inflation.
Atomic Bomb – A weapon that uses nuclear fission (splitting an atom) to release an enormous amount of
energy resulting in an explosion with the equivalent power of 1 to 500,000 tons of TNT. In addition to an
explosive power, atomic bombs also emit radiation which is deadly to all manners of life.
Atomic Bombs in Warfare – The only two atomic bombs that have been put to use in a war was the “Little
Boy” and “Fat Man” in an effort to quickly end the US-Japanese war, a war that would have cost millions of
American lives had it been fought traditionally. On August 5th, 1945, the uranium-based “Little Boy” was
dropped on Hiroshima. The successor to the “Little Boy” was the plutonium-based “Fat Man,” which was
dropped on Nagasaki three four days later. The radiation from the bombs continued to killing up to 250,000
Japanese civilians for many months to come. After the bombing of Nagasaki and the Soviet Union’s
declaration of war against Japan, Japan conceded from the war.
Blitzkrieg – Meaning “lightning war” in German, it is a method of warfare whereby the attacking force utilizes
a dense concentration of armored and mechanized infantry, in combination with close air support, to break
through the enemies’ line of defense using rapid and powerful attacks to dislocate enemy ranks and encircle
them before they can respond.
Cash and Carry Policy – A policy enacted by Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1939 that allowed the US to
remain neutral to the conflicts in Europe while selling non-war materials to European countries, given
that they provide their own transport ships and pay immediately in cash. This was of great benefit to Great
Britain, and paved the way for the Lend-Lease Act.
Dwight David Eisenhower – He was a five star U.S. general during World War II and served as Supreme
Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe.
Final Solution – Hitler believed that blond-haired, blue-eyed Aryans were the genetically-superior master race.
Hitler’s “Final Solution to the Jewish Question” was a plan for the extermination of the Jews during World
War II. The policy of deliberate genocide culminated in the Holocaust which killed 90 percent of Polish Jewry
and two-thirds the Jewish population of Europe.
Genocide – The act of intentionally killing all people belonging to a certain ethnic, national, racial or
religious group. The term is a combination of “genos” (race, people) and “cide” (to kill).
Harry Truman – Upon the death of Franklin Roosevelt, he became the US president on April 12th, 1945
during the final months of the war and made the decision to drop the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and
Nagasaki.
Island Hopping – United States strategy used to gain military bases and secure the many small islands in
the Pacific.
Leaders of the Allied Axis Powers – The chief Axis leaders were Adolf Hitler of Germany, Benito
Mussolini of Italy and Emperor Hirohito of the Japanese Empire.
Lend – Lease Act – United States program that supplied Free France, the United Kingdom, the Republic of
China, the USSR, and other allied nations with food, oil, and ‘material’ (military supplies) between 1941
and 1945.
Manhattan Project – A research and development project that produced the first nuclear weapons during
World War II.
Operation Overlord – The codename for the Battle of Normandy, it was an Allied operation that launched
the successful invasion of German-occupied Northern France during World War II. The operation commenced
with the Normandy landings (D-Day) on June 6th, 1944.
Operation Torch – The British-American invasion of French North Africa during the North African
Campaign which started on November 8th, 1942 to reduce the pressure of the German forces on the
Soviet Union’s troops by eliminating Axis powers from North Africa and thereby improving the naval control
of the Mediterranean Sea for the Allied forces.
Robert Oppenheimer – An American theoretical physicist that became among those who are called the
“father of the atomic bomb”.
Role of African Americans – During World War II, African American soldiers were regulated to either
construction units or support units. They drove trucks, constructed highways and performed menial labor tasks.
As the war progressed and manpower weakened, African Americans began serving more combat roles,
starting with the artillery and later the Tuskegee Airmen unit, which was the only fighter escort to not lose a
bomber to German fighters.
Role of Women – During World War II, 2.2 million women were working in war industries to participate
in the building of ships, aircraft, vehicles and weaponry. They also worked on farms, drove trucks,
provided logistic support for soldiers and entered professional areas of work that were previously reserved to
men. In addition, 400,000 US women served in support positions with the armed forces, such as applying as
nurses serving in the front lines.
Causes of WWII
Failure of the Treaty of Versailles – One of the peace treaties at the end of World War I that ended the state
of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It included a War Guilt clause that forced Germany to take
the blame for all of the loss and damages incurred as a result of the war, forcing Germany to disarm, pay $33
billion USD in damages, and concede territories to Britain and France. The treaty, however, was not
enforceable.
Appeasement – Appeasement is the act of making concessions to an enemy power in order to avoid
conflict. At the Munich Conference of 1938, England and France gave in to some of Hitler’s demands in
the hopes that we will not take more.
Nationalism – Germany wanted to prove their superiority and get revenge for the Treaty of Versailles.
Italy wanted to return to the glory days of Rome when Italy was powerful. Japan wanted to establish
dominance in Asia.
Militarism – Policy of maintaining a large military establishment with the view that military efficiency is
the supreme ideal of a state. It is a key element in imperialism and expansionism. Germany sought a
program of expansionism to restore the “rightful” boundaries of historic Germany to form the “Third Reich”
(Third Empire). Italy invaded Ethiopia as it sought to create a New Roman Empire. Japan harbored
expansionist desires towards Korea, Manchuria, and the Republic of China
Alliances – The Allied Powers contained Great Britain and France (later Soviet Union and United
States), whereas the Axis Powers contained Germany, Italy and Japan. Both of these alliances were
secretive and uncooperative towards each other.
Isolationism & Pacifism – The US avoided involvement in the European conflicts, and Europe wanted to
avoid another war so that they could continue to recover from World War I.
League of Nations – The League of Nations was an international organization founded after World War I to
prevent future wars, but it did not have the military strength to back up the demands that it wanted to
enforce on the Axis Powers, whose aggression was growing.
Turning Points & Major Battles
The Battle of Britain – From July 10th, 1940 to October 31st, 1940, the Battle of Britain was the first major
campaign to be fought entirely by air forces, including the first use of radar. The primary objective of Germany
was to force Britain to agree to a peace settlement. German Luftwaffe targeted the Royal Air Force Fighter
Command, but as the battle progressed they also began to target factories involved in aircraft production and
ground infrastructure. Eventually, they also began attacking areas of political significance and using terror
bombing strategies – large-scale night attacks known as The Blitz. Germany failed to win the battle, despite
outnumbering Britain, suffering major setbacks.
Pearl Harbor – A naval base on Oahu, Hawaii that was surprise attacked by the Japanese Empire on
December 7th, 1941 and served as the immediate cause of the United States’ entry into World War II.
The Battle of Midway – Six months after the attack on Pearl Harbor from June 4th to 7th, 1942, the United
States decisively defeated an attacking fleet of the Imperial Japanese Navy near Midway Atoll, inflicting
devastating damage on the Japanese fleet. American codebreakers were able to determine when Japan
was going to initiate the attack and prepare a counter-ambush of their own. The battle is considered a
turning point in the Pacific War.
The Battle of Stalingrad – On August 23rd, 1942, to February 2nd, 1943, a major battle on the Eastern Front of
World War II was fought in which Nazi Germany and its allies fought the Soviet Union for control of the
city of Stalingrad in Southern Russia. It is regarded as one of the single largest and bloodiest battles in the
history of warfare with 2 million wounded, killed or captured. The heavy losses for Germany made it the most
strategically decisive battle of the entire war. The Battle of Stalingrad was a turning point in the war for the
Allied Forces.
D-Day – On June 6th, 1944, the Allied invasion of Normandy became the largest seaborne invasion in
history, with the goal of the liberation of northwestern Europe from Nazi control.
The Battle of the Bulge – On December 16th, 1944 through January 25th, 1945, Germany launched a major
offensive campaign through the densely forested Ardennes region, which was the largest and bloodiest
battle fought by the United States in World War II. While the United States suffered major casualties by taking
the brunt of the attack, Germany ended up losing a large majority of their armored forces on the western
front and subsequently most of their Luftwaffe aircraft.
The Battle of Iwo Jima – From February 19th through March 26th of 1945, 110,000 US Marines landed on
and eventually captured the island of Iwo Jima from the Imperial Japanese Army which was defended by
21,000 Japanese soldiers. Japan suffered three times the amount of casualties compared to the US.
The Battle of Okinawa – From April 1st to June 22nd of 1945, Codenamed Operation Iceberg, it was the
largest and bloodiest amphibious assault fought during the Pacific War. After a long campaign of island
hopping, the Allies were approaching Japan, and planned to use Okinawa as a base for air operations
on the planned invasion of the Japanese mainland. Due to the severity of the campaign, it was ultimately
decided to use atomic bombs.