World War II Terms, People, and Places

Terms Blitzkreig – Lightning War – Strike fast and hard – Technique used by the Germans to conquer much of Europe

Terms Kamakaze Strategy used by Japanese fighter pilots to take out ships Suicide bombers

Terms Island hopping Used by the American forces in the Pacific Allies did not try to capture every island held by the Japanese Went after islands that were not as securely held in order to establish bases to attack Japan

Terms Holocaust Refers to the mass murder of 6 million Jews by Nazis

Terms Battle of Britain Relentless bombing of mostly London by the Germans through much of the war Enforced blackouts Children were sent to live in the country

Terms Code Talkers People who used the Navajo language to communicate in the Pacific Japanese couldn’t crack the code because it wasn’t a code; it is a language

Terms Manhattan Project Code name for the building of the atomic bomb Alamogordo, New Mexico

Terms The Four Freedoms Set out by Franklin D. Roosevelt Freedom of Speech Freedom of Religion Freedom from Want Freedom from Fear

Terms Democracy The people make all the decisions – Not very practical with a lot of people

Terms Republic A government where people are picked to represent the people If those people are elected, then it is called a democratic republic The United States is a democratic republic

Terms Anarchy No one is in charge

Terms Dictatorship A government that tells people what to do A dictatorship could be either benevolent or malevolent depending on the circumstances Monarchy – one ruler Oligarchy – more than one

Terms Fascist – looks to the past (ultra-conservative) – Nazi Germany Communist – looks to the future (ultra-liberal) – The USSR

Terms After WWII the world divided into two major factions led by superpowers – Communist or Iron Curtain countries led by the Soviet Union (USSR) – Free World countries led by the United States

Terms The Marshal Plan A plan to rebuild war-torn Europe

Terms United Nations Organization set up after the war to provide a way to solve disputes peacefully.

People Adolf Hitler Leader of Germany, part of the Axis Called Der Furher

People Benito Mussolini Leader of Italy, part of the Axis Called Il Duce

People Tojo Leader of Japan, third member of the Axis

People Rosie the Riveter She was an advertising symbol for women working in defense ministries

People Neville Chamberlain Prime Minister of Great Britain during the 1930s Believed that by giving Hitler what he wanted, called appeasement, war could be averted.

People Winston Churchill Prime Minister of Britain, one of the Allied countries, during World War II

People Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) President of the United States, an Allied country, during the Depression and WWII Was elected to an unprecedented 4 terms

People Josef Stalin Leader of the Soviet Union, which became one of the Allies after Hitler violated the nonaggression pact he had made with Stalin

People Charles de Gaulle General of France, exiled to and allied with Britain during WWII.

People Dwight Eisenhower Supreme Allied Commander in Europe American, became President in the 1950s

Places Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima, Okinawa, Midway were all sites of major battles in the Pacific

Places Normandy The site of D-Day, June 6, 1944 which marked the Allied invasion of France

Places Hiroshima and Nagasaki Atomic bombs were dropped on these Japanese cities Americans believed it was necessary to save American lives due to the ferocity of fighting on outlying islands. They believed attacking the homeland would be worse.

Places Yalta Site on the sea in Russia where Stalin, Roosevelt, and Churchill met to plan what would happen to Europe at the end of the war