World War 2
About this set
Created by:
gracetownsend on April 28, 2012
Subjects:
Log in to favorite or report as inappropriate.
Order by
63 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 Maginot Line | Line of defense built by France to protect against German invasion. Stretched from Belgium to Switzerland.200 miles long, but with a 50 mile gap they thought was protected. |
| appeasement | granting concessions to maintain peace |
| Luftwaffe | the German airforce |
| blitzkrieg | "lighting war", type of fast-moving warfare used by German to take the enemy by surprise;used against Poland in 1939 |
| R.A.F | Britain's Royal Air Force |
| blitz | a series of air raids |
| kamikazes | Japanese suicide pilots |
| ghettos | Sections of towns and cities in which Jews were forced to live with terrible conditions. |
| genocide | deliberate extermination of a racial or cultural group |
| Francisco France | Spanish general who led the right wing nationalists and battled for control of Spain. |
| Winston Churchill | Prime Minister of Great Britain during WWII |
| Adolf Hitler | This dictator was the leader of the Nazi Party. He believed that strong leadership was required to save Germanic society aka Aryan people, wanted the "master race" |
| Benito Mussolini | Fascist dictator of Italy who joined Germany in the Axis pact and allied with Germany in World War II. He was overthrown in 1943 when the Allies invaded Italy. |
| Joseph Stalin | Communist dictator of the Soviet Union |
| Charles de Gaulle | French general and statesman who became very popular during WWII as the leader of the Free French forces in exile. Was worried about the penetration of the Maginot Line. |
| Rosie the Rivetor | famous propaganda used to encourage women to work in the factories while the men were at war |
| Franklin D. Roosevelt | President of the US during Great Depression and World War II. |
| Erwin Rommel | Nazi commander of the Afrika Korps applied blitzkrieg tactics in the desert and so was nicknamed the 'Desert Fox'(worked for Hitler) |
| General Bernard Montgomery | British General; stopped Rommel's advance in the Battle of El Alamein |
| Dwight D. Eisenhower | "Supreme" leader of the Allied forces in Europe during WW2, and leader of troops in Africa. |
| General George Patton | famous American general in WWII took part in D-Day. |
| Harry Truman | U.S. president, who succeeded Franklin D. Roosevelt upon Roosevelt's death in April 1945. He led the country through the last few months of World War II, is best known for making the controversial decision to use two atomic bombs against Japan in August 1945. |
| Spanish Civil War | a civil war in Spain that happened after years of social and economic chaos after the king abdictated and Spain became a republic,many reforms were made. |
| Neville Chamberlain | Prime Minister of Great Britain from. Famous for appeasing Hitler at the Munich Conference; this is when he said that he had ensured "peace in our time."(trusted Hitler's promises) |
| Allies | Great Britain, Soviet Union, US and France |
| Axis of WWII | Germany, Italy and Japan |
| Munich Conference | Conference at which European leaders(British,French&Italian) attempted to appease Hitler by turning over the Sudetenland to him in exchange for promise that Germany would not expand Germany's territory any further and to be peaceful. |
| Hermann Goering | German; head of the Luftwaffe, formed the Condor Legion and used this in the Spanish Civil War for military practice. |
| Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact | Agreement between Hitler and Stalin that said they would both not attack one another, stay neutral if the other became involved in war, create a European sphere of influence, and they would both invade Poland. |
| Japan's pearl harbor quote | "awoken a sleeping giant" |
| Battle of Ardennes | was a major German offensive, launched through the densely forested Ardennes mountain region of France in Belgium. |
| Dunkirk | a French port city where in World War II ,300,000 Allied troops had to be evacuated from the beaches in a desperate retreat under enemy fire by the Germans over a period of nine days. |
| Vichy government | new French government formed that was pretty much an acceptance of defeat, formed by Henri Petain, it was ruled by the Nazis who were progressively taking over Europe |
| Manhattan Project | code name for the secret United States project set up in 1942 to develop atomic bombs for use in World War II |
| Nurembourg Trials | Trials of Nazis in which the concept of "crimes against humanity" were put to justice. |
| Spanish Civil War | A conflict after Spain became a republic that resulted in the installation of fascist dictator Francisco Franco as ruler of Spain; Franco's forces(nationalists) and left-wing loyalists |
| Churchill quote | before Germany attacked Britain: has "nothing to offer but blood,toil,tears, and sweat." |
| Battle of Britain | the prolonged bombardment of British cities by the German Luftwaffe during World War II and the aerial combat that accompanied it;fights of air supremacy; mainly in London(57 nights)*British victory |
| Churchill quote RAF | "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few" |
| Neutrality Acts | Originally designed to avoid American involvement in World War II by preventing loans to those countries taking part in the conflict; they were later modified in 1939 to allow aid to Great Britain and other Allied nations. |
| cash and carry policy | a program in which Great Britain traded cash for desperately need supplies from America; helped Britain and kept America neutral |
| lend lease act | Allowed America to lend or lease arms or other supplies to nations considered "vital to the defense of the United States." |
| scorched earth policy | Russia did this when they were being invaded by Germany to pevent them from gaining anything off their land |
| 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.(6 million Jews killed plus 6 million other 'unwanted' groups) |
| The Final Solution | The Nazi cover-up name for the plan to annihilate all of the Jews |
| Nazi concentration camps | Auschwitz(Poland) and Dachau(southern Germany) |
| Pearl Harbor | Naval base in Hawaii attacked by Japanese aircraft on December 7, 1941. The sinking of much of the U.S. Pacific Fleet brought the United States into World War II.(attacked because US stopped oil trade with them and Japan believed they posed a threat to their expansion) |
| Japanese internment camps | The forcible relocation of approximately 110,000 Japanese Americans to housing facilities called "War Relocation Camps", in the wake of Imperial Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor. |
| Pearl Harbor quote | "a date which will live in infamy" said by Franklin D. Roosevelt |
| Pearl Harbor aftermath | Arizona, Utah, California, West Virginia and Oklahoma; sank or disabled 19 ships and 188 planes. Killed over 2,400 and wounded 1,100 |
| General Douglas MacArthur | He was one of the most-known American military leaders of WWII |
| Battle of Stalingrad | Battle of World War II, in which German forces were defeated in their attempt to capture the city of Stalingrad(very imp. cause it was named after Stalin) in the Soviet Union thanks to harsh winter and a Soviet counterattack; turning point of war in Eastern Europe |
| Mussolini's downfall | After Allies invasion of Sicily, King Victor fired Mussolini and had him arrested; then he was shot later by resistance fighters. |
| Hitler's downfall | committed suicide in an underground bunker in Berlin after Germany's surrender. |
| Pacific battles | land, sea, and air battles for control of the island of Japan; island hopping to reach Japan;Allies won this. |
| D-Day | June 6, 1944 - Led by Eisenhower, over a million troops (the largest invasion force in history) sailed across English channel to the beaches at Normandy,France and began the process of re-taking France. The turning point of World War II.(Germans eventually retreated) |
| Battle of the Bulge | WWII battle in which German forces launched a final counterattack in the west creating a bulge in Allied troops, but Allies stormed Germany's defense barrier(Rhine River)(end of Germans in war) |
| V-E Day | May 1945; victory in Europe Day when the Germans surrendered(war was OVER) |
| Yalta | Meeting in Soviet Union between Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin to plan the post-war world. They agreed to wage war on Japan, to divide Germany into 4 equal parts, to hold free elections for the liberated countries, form the United Nations, etc. |
| Potsdam | the place at which the three allied leaders, Harry Truman, Stalin, and Atlee, met to discuss the distribution of Germany and the ultimatum that they would issue to Japan demanding thier immediate surrender. |
| V-J Day | "Victory over Japan day" is the celebration of the Surrender of Japan, which was initially announced on August 15, 1945 |
| Hiroshima/Nagasaki | Two Japanese cities on which the U.S. dropped the atomic bombs to end World War II.Used to end war with Japan quickly and to impress Soviets. 200,000 Japanese died and they finally surrendered. |
| WWII effects | Soviet Union:22 million Germany:8 million Japan:2 million U.S:300,000 55 million all together and countries were destroyed |
First Time Here?
Welcome to Quizlet, a fun, free place to study. Try these flashcards, find others to study, or make your own.
Set Champions
Scatter Champion
21.6 secs by golferboy97
Space Race Champion
1,550 points by gracetownsend