Turning points of WW2

• Appeasement 


  British and French policy of giving into demands to avoid conflict
• Nazis beliefs that helped lead war


  Wanted to unite or German speakers

  Wanted the cancellation of the treaty of Versailles

  Wanted to lebensraum or living space
• Examples of appeasement


  Germany allowed to remilitarise

  No challenge in Germany militarised the Rhineland

  The Anschluss: Germany allowed to unite with Austria

  Occupation of the Sudetenland (part of Czechoslovakia)
• Why did war break out?

  Nazi invasion of Poland resulted in the British and French declaring war
• Axis powers


  Alliance of fascist countries, Germany, Italy and Japan
• Allied powers


  British Empire, Russia (USSR), and USA
• Blitzkrieg


  Lightning War, German term for fast moving Allowed the Nazis to defeat the French and British
• Dunkirk


  Coastal town, where British and french armies were forced to evacuate by the Nazis
• Reasons Dunkirk can be seen as an Allied defeat


  Victory for the germans allowed to occupy France

  The British and French left behind equipment and lost huge numbers in wounded and prisoners
• Reasons Dunkirk can be seen as an Allied victory


  Over 30,000 Allied troops rescued

  British media reported heroic spirit of the rescue

  Birth of the Dunkirk spirit. A country coming together in a time of adversity
• Battle of Britain


  Fought in the sky is over southern England between the RAF Royal Air Force and Luftwaffe German Air Force
• Operation sea lion


  Nazi plan to invade Britain

  First stage of the plan was to defeat the RAF
• Consequences of the Battle of Britain


  British victory

  Prevented the German invasion of Britain

  Nazis changed tactics and started the bombing of cities (the blitz)
• Operation, Barbarossa


  The Nazi invasion of the USSR Russia

  Nazis invaded to gain land and resources
• Stalingrad


  Russian city that suffered a brutal siege by the Germans

  Huge casualties on both sides, but eventually Germans defeated
• Scorched earth policy


  The Russians retreated and burnt all supplies to starve the German army
• Reasons the invasion of the USSR was important


  Nazi had to fight on two fronts

  German army lost huge numbers in fighting the Russians

  Churchill said it “tore the heart out“ of the Germans

  Gave the USA and Britain time to prepare for operation overlord
• US policies before 1941


  Isolationism - US policy of avoiding involvement in world affairs

  Lend lease - US policy of supplying Britain and USSR before 1941
• Pearl Harbor


  US military base on island of Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean Ocean
• Reasons for the attack Pearl Harbor


  The Japanese wanted to secure their empire in the far east

  The USA was enforcing an embargo against Japan

  Japanese though a surprised attack would remove the US threat
• Consequences of Pearl Harbor


  Brought the powerful US into the war on the allies side

  Main US involvement was the D-Day invasions leading to the defeat of Nazi Germany
• End of World War II in Europe


  D-Day invasion led to German surrender in May 1945

  8 may VE (victory in Europe)day
• Continued war with Japan


  Japanese refused to surrender in May 1945

  US forces had captured the islands of Iwo Jima and Okinawa with heavy casualties on both sides
• Manhattan Project


  Code name for the US development of the atomic bomb

  Atom bomb was used against the Japanese at Hiroshima and Nagasaki to force Japanese surrender
• USA, in USSR relations, 1945


  USA followed the political system of capitalism

  USSR followed a rival political system of communism

  USA and USSR superpowers at the end of World War II

  The dropping of the atom bomb could have been the US demonstrating their military strength