Goal 10.02 (Part 1): Identify military, political, and diplomatic turning points of the war and determine their significance to the outcome and aftermath of the conflict.

  1. The Invasion of ______
  2. September 1, 1939
  3. German forces invaded from the west, while ______invaded from the east
  4. The attack forced Britain and France to honor their alliance with Poland and declare war on Germany
  5. By the end of September, however, Poland had been conquered
  6. The Soviets also moved against Finland and the Baltic States (Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia)
  7. New German military tactic of “______”
  8. During the invasion of Poland, the Germans debuted a new military tactic
  9. Blitzkrieg, or "Lightning War,” German tactic of striking with tremendous speed and force, with the intention of knocking out your enemy before they can react to your attack
  10. Germany’s Next Moves
  11. To secure their northern border, Germany invaded both Norway and Denmark, winning easy victories in the spring of 1940
  12. By late spring, Hitler turned his attention west and invaded Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands in preparation for attacking ______
  13. US responded by helping Britain via the Destroyers for Bases Deal
  14. Spring 1940: US agreed to trade 50 surplus destroyers (small warships) to Britain, who needed them to protect shipping, in exchange for allowing the US to build naval bases in British-controlled territories
  15. Britain Stands Alone Against the Axis Powers
  16. The Miracle at ______
  17. May 27 – June 3, 1940
  18. Allied forces had moved into Belgium to meet the German advance, but quickly found themselves cut-off and surrounded
  19. Allied forces raced to reach the port of Dunkirk on the English Channel, their only means of escaping defeat & capture
  20. The British were able to safely evacuate over 300,000 men to England by using every available ship in Great Britain, but were forced to abandon all of their heavy equipment
  21. The Fall of France
  22. The evacuation of Allied troops across the English Channel left France undefended
  23. Germans took Paris on June 13th and the French government formally surrendered on June 22nd, 1940
  24. Winston ______(1874 – 1965)
  25. Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1940-45 & 1951-55
  26. Although Britain now stood alone against Germany, they remained defiant, with Churchill vowing “… we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender”
  27. The Battle of ______
  28. To be able to invade Britain, Germany would first need to destroy the Royal Air Force (RAF) and soften beachhead defenses through aerial bombing
  29. From June to October of 1940, an air battle was waged between the RAF and the Luftwaffe (German Air Force)
  30. Despite being outnumbered, the British managed to win the air battle, forcing Hitler to abandon his plans to invade Britain
  31. “Never in the field of human conflict have so many owed so much to so few.” - Churchill
  32. The Blitz
  33. Sept. 1940 – May 1941
  34. Sustained bombing campaign by Germany against major British cities, targeting British civilians
  35. London was bombed 57 nights in a row
  36. 43,000 civilians killed
  37. German objective was to instill fear in the British people in hopes that they would sue for peace; instead the British grew more determined to win the war
  38. British retaliated with fire-bombing raids on German cities
  39. US Relief Efforts
  40. The ______Act of 1941
  41. US declared that it would loan or rent (since it couldn’t sell due to the Neutrality Acts) weapons to nations considered “vital to the defense of the US”
  42. US went on to send $40 billion in weapons to Allies over the course of WWII
  43. The Hemispheric Defense Zone
  44. To help protect British shipping, FDR declared the entire Western Atlantic to be part of the Western Hemisphere and thereby under the protection of the US per the ______
  45. FDR then ordered the US Navy to patrol this part of the Atlantic, leading to several deadly encounters between US destroyers and German U-boats
  46. The ______Charter
  47. August 1941
  48. FDR met with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to lay out a post-war plan for economic prosperity
  49. Many question whether or not this is where FDR promised Churchill that he would find a way to get the American people to support the US entering the war
  50. The Axis Continues to Strike
  51. In the Mediterranean and North Africa
  52. In the ______: Italian and German forces seized control of most of the Balkan peninsula by late 1941, but still had to deal with partisan uprisings, especially in Greece & Yugoslavia, throughout the war
  53. In North Africa: Axis forces fought mostly British troops in back-and-forth battles throughout most of 1940, 1941, & 1942; Germany’s inability to decisively win on the “Southern Front” of the war would prove costly
  54. Operation ______
  55. In June 1941, Germany broke the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and attacked the Soviet Union
  56. Stalin was not prepared for the German attack and the Wehrmacht (German Army) had made deep advances into Soviet territory by December
  57. Soviet forces resorted to a “______” campaign, burning everything of use to the Germans as they retreated across the Ukraine
  58. Finally, the harsh Russian winter stalled the Germans, buying the Soviets time to regroup and stop the German advances
  59. Siege of ______
  60. Sept. 1941 – Jan. 1944
  61. Hitler was obsessed with capturing the Soviet city of Leningrad due both to its symbolical importance as the “City of Lenin” (Lenin had led the Bolshevik Revolution) and its military importance as a naval port on the North Sea
  62. 1.5 million Soviets died during the siege, mostly from starvation and disease; the population resorted to eating sawdust, boiled leather, rats, pets, horses, and, eventually, each other!
  63. Battle of ______
  64. July 1942 – February 1943
  65. Bloodiest battle in history
  66. 1.5 million killed
  67. Vicious urban warfare as the Germans and Soviets fought street by street, building by building for control of the city
  68. Soviets eventually encircled the German army, which was forced to surrender en masse
  69. 500,000 Germans captured, but few of them survived being imprisoned in the brutal Soviet ______(prison camps)
  70. The ______Conference
  71. Jan. 20, 1942
  72. Nazi leaders met to determine the “final solution of the Jewish question”
  73. Formalized the process for rounding up and exterminating the Jewish population of Europe through the use of ______camps
  74. The ______
  75. By the time the war was over, more than 12 million people had died in the concentration camps, about half of them Jews
  76. The other half were a mix of other groups the Nazi’s considered “undesirable”: Gypsies, Poles, Russians, uncooperative Catholic priests, homosexuals, the mentally ill, & the physically or mentally handicapped
  77. Japan Takes Advantage
  78. 1940 - 41: As war raged in Europe, Japan occupied French Indochina (Vietnam, Laos, & Cambodia) and positioned itself to threaten British colonies and the US-controlled Philippines
  79. US responded with a trade ______against Japan
  80. In response, US cut off Japan’s access to critical war materials such as steel and oil (both of which Japan bought almost entirely from America) to put pressure on Japan to make peace with China and Britain
  81. Japan considered this an act of war and began to plan an attack on US military facilities in Hawaii and the Philippines
  82. The US Enters the War
  83. Japanese attack on ______
  84. December 7, 1941
  85. Japan launched a surprise attack against US naval base in Hawaii
  86. 4 battleships destroyed, 4 more seriously damaged, but Japan failed to destroy US aircraft carriers
  87. Support vessels and facilities suffered massive damage
  88. 2403 Americans killed, 1178 wounded
  89. Japanese lost only 29 aircraft and 65 men
  90. US Declares War
  91. Dec. 8, 1941: US and Britain declared war against Japan
  92. Dec. 11, 1941: Germany and Italy declared war against the US, believing that by helping Japan against the US, Japan would help them against the Soviets
  93. Japan Keeps Rolling
  94. Japan immediately launched successful attacks against US colonies at Guam and the Philippines and British colonies of Malaya, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Singapore, as well as the independent nation of Thailand
  95. Japan in the ______-
  96. US forces in the Philippines were forced to surrender by May 1942
  97. US Gen. Douglas ______was ordered to evacuate to Australia, but vowed “I shall return”
  98. Japanese forced prisoners to march 65 miles in tropical heat without food, water, or medical care, and while enduring physical abuse, to a prison camp – about 18,000 of the 78,000 prisoners died on this “______Death March”
  99. The ______Raid
  100. April 18, 1942
  101. American bombers, under the command of Col. James Doolittle, mounted a daring mission to launch from aircraft carrier to bomb Tokyo in retaliation for Pearl Harbor
  102. Mainly a public relations move to improve morale; bombings did no major damage
  103. The Battle of ______
  104. May 4 – 8, 1942
  105. US Navy had broken Japanese codes and learned of Japan’s intention to seize New Guinea as a step towards attacking Australia
  106. US sent 2 aircraft carriers to intercept the Japanese in the Coral Sea
  107. First naval battle in history fought entirely with aircraft
  108. U.S. lost an aircraft carrier, but prevented the Japanese invasion
  109. The Battle of ______
  110. June 4 – 7, 1942
  111. Japanese attack on U.S. island of Midway was intercepted and turned back
  112. 4 Japanese aircraft carriers were sunk, a loss from which Japan would never recover
  113. Japan would not be able to mount any offensive attacks for the remainder of the war – they would now have to try to defend what they held from US invasion