Review for years 1941-1945

• Outbreak of war: what were Hitler’s war aims in 1939?
• Impact of Nazi-Soviet pact of 1939
(division of Eastern Europe, etc.)
• Allied response to invasion of Poland.
• Russo-Finnish war/Scandinavian interlude

• Western Offensive, May 1940
• Battle for Britain: A turning point?
• Italy’s parallel war (October, 1940):
Mussolini an asset or liability?
• Balkan conflict (April, 1941): What is the significance of this phase of the war?
• North African campaign, 1941-1943

• Britain stands alone: Battle of Britain (a turning point?); US/British relations up to
1941.
• Operation Barbarossa: What was it and how did it change the course of the war?

• Internal developments: Creating (colonizing) a
“New Europe” (e.g., Vichy France, Occupied former Yugoslavia, etc.)
• Life behind the lines: Women at War; importance of industrial productivity.
• The Holocaust and crimes against humanity.
• Role of resistance movements and intelligence
(Enigma, Ultra, SOE).

• 1941 -- U.S. enters the war
• 1942-43 -- Battle of Stalingrad (Kursk, etc.)
• 1942-43 -- North African campaign/Italy defeated
• Opening a second front: Invasion of Italy,
Operation Overlord and Bagration.

• War-time conferences (Casablanca,
Teheran, Yalta, Moscow meeting 1944)
• Events: Warsaw uprising of 1944.
• Manhattan project
• Role of personalities: Hitler, Mussolini,
Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin, etc.
• Moral issues raised by war: Crimes against humanity, bombing missions, etc.

• Defeating Germany: Significance of final battles (Arnhem, Bulge, Berlin)
• Europe transformed: origins of Cold War