Name______________________________________ Date____________ Period______

World War II Classwork

Directions: Read the following article and answer the questions on the back in complete sentences.

The Battle of Britain/ The Blitz 1940-1941

After Germany conquered France, it set up airbases in France and began bombing the major cities in England every night. This began the Battle of Britain which was also known as The Blitz. Germans targeted the factories making England's tanks, airplanes and supplies, but civilians were under constant threat, too. At this time, the USA was officially neutral, but shipped millions of tons of food and equipment to help England. Germany's U-boats (submarines) did their best to stop this by sinking any foreign ships they could.

Hitler and Stalin

Hitler and Stalin had signed a non-aggression pact, and became allies in 1939. The leaders did not agree politically, but agreed that the results of World War I were not favorable for their countries. They also did not want to worry about fighting each other while being at war with so many other countries.

In 1941 Hitler violated pact and attacked the USSR by surprise. This created a new front in the war known as the Eastern Front. This was a terrible decision for Hitler as Germany suffered 80% of its military casualties on the Eastern Front. Stalin joined the Allied Powers.

The Soviets used their climate and geography to defeat the Nazis like they had to defeat Napoleon 100 years earlier. The battles in Russia were long and incredibly bloody; 4 million German soldiers and 10 million Russian soldiers were killed (In all of WWI only 9.5 million soldiers were killed in total). The War on the Eastern front was devastating for anyone near it, too.

It is estimated that 20 million Russian civilians were killed at the Eastern front, and another 25 million were homeless because of destruction to cities and villages.

Hitler believed he was a military genius and insisted on continuing the war with the Soviet Union, even when it was obvious Germany could not win. When his generals disagreed with him, Hitler would fire them and replace them with yes-men and fanatic Nazis who would do anything Hitler said. This cost Germany millions of soldiers, as well as a large amount of valuable supplies.

The end of American Neutrality

Like during World War I, America remained neutral during the beginning of the war. Americans secretly supplied Britain with food and equipment during the Battle of Britain, but did not send troops. This changed, however, when Japan attacked the United States naval fleet. The entire Pacific fleet of the US Navy had been stationed at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. During the

early morning of December 7th, 1941 Japanese bombers attacked the US fleet by surprise. US sailors were unprepared at first and suffered heavy losses. During the same attack, the Japanese also seized all British holdings in the Pacific. The United States responded by declaring war on Japan and her allies Germany and Italy. America joined the Allied Powers.

Once America was officially in the war, the country turned its focus to the war effort. Like World War I, WWII was a total war. Americans

had food and materials rationed, young men were drafted into service, and industries converted to producing weapons, ammunition, tanks, planes, boats, and submarines.

Allies in Italy

While Germany had expanded its Reich into France, Poland and Czechoslovakia, Mussolini and Italy had tried to rebuild the glory of the Roman Empire and expanded into North Africa and the Middle East in 1940. Allied forces invaded Italian-occupied Africa in 1943 and quickly pushed the Axis armies back up to Italy. Eventually, the Allies pushed the Axis out of Africa entirely and were able to make it to Sicily, an island off the coast of Italy.

When major Italian cities like Rome were bombed, the Italians lost patience and faith in Mussolini and imprisoned him. He was freed by Hitler and put back in charge of Italy, but never regained any real power – the Italian armies were commanded by German generals. The Italian people had also learned to not believe in Mussolini’s propaganda and stopped supporting him.

Mussolini tried to escape from Italy with the retreating German army before being captured by the Allies. He was instead captured by an angry mob of Italians who executed him and displayed his body in a gas station. The Italian army surrendered a few days later on 5/2/1945.

D-Day and V-E Day

On June 6th, 1944 the US staged a massive invasion of France to begin to liberate France from Germany, known as D-Day. In a bold move, Allied forces landed at German-occupied beaches in Northern France and took them over in fierce combat. The Allies were able to take the beaches and set up a base to control European operations. Slowly, the Allies began working through Northern France toward Germany.

At the same time, the USSR moved in from the East. Hitler’s military was weakened from several military blunders and were being driven back to Germany both from the USSR and from Italy. Germany was obviously losing.

Rather than give up, Hitler insisted the Germans fight to the last man, and destroy every bridge, railroad, and road left in Germany rather than let the Allies use them. At this time, many of Hitler’s generals knew the war was lost and refused this order.

As the Allies and Soviets surrounded Berlin, Hitler committed suicide on 4/30/1945.Germany surrendered unconditionally on May 7th, 1945. With Both Italy and Germany defeated, this became known as V-E day, short for Victory in Europe.

Answer SIX of following Questions in complete sentences.

1. What was the Battle of Britain? How did Germany prepare for this?

2. Why did the United States enter WW2 with Japan?

3. Why did the US declare war on Italy and Germany? How is this similar to WWI?

4. What was Italy’s goal in WW2?

5. How did Italy lose the war?

6. Why was Hitler’s attack on the USSR a surprise?

7. Germany had superior equipment, how did the Soviets defeat them? How is this similar to another figure from history?

8. How did the Allies approach Germany? (From what Three directions?)

9. What was D-Day? What was the goal?

10.What did Hitler order the Germans to do as the war ended? Why do you think this order was ignored?

Choose ONE of the following tasks. Answer in at least 5 complete sentences.

Imagine you are Adolph Hitler on April 30th, 1945. The war is nearly over and Germany is losing. Your grand vision of a Nazi-ruled world is a disaster. You choose to commit suicide rather than be captured. Write a one paragraph letter detailing why you have made this decision.

Imagine you are Joseph Stalin. You are politically opposed to Hitler’s National Socialism and the Capitalist Democracy of the Allied Powers. You’ve made an agreement with Hitler to not fight each other. Write a journal entry for the day Hitler attacks your forces. Explain what you think happened and why you will join the Allied Powers.