WWII Exam III
Terms
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Landser
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WWII Soldier
- Auftragstaktik
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- Mission Type Tactics
- military commander gives their subordinate leaders a clearly defined goal
- the forces needed to accomplish that goal within a time limit
- frees higher leadership from tactical details
- forward cont
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Rasputitsa
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- twice a year, the roads in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine become impassable
- so mudy and marshy
- halted Blitzkreig cuz it stops tanks
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total war
- war involving military, social and economic sectors of a society
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Giulio Dohuet
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- 1921 book
- bombers were the key to the victory of future wars
- Air Marshall Arthur Harris
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- "Bomber"
- February 1942
- 1000 plane raids on Dresden, Hamburg, Berlin
- Two ways to strategically bomb
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- saturation
- precision
- Type of bombing used by US in the daytime
- precision
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Type of bombing used by GB at night
- saturation
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Workhorses of Strategic bombing
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- B-17
- B-24
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nickname of B-17
- Flying Fortress
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nickname for B-24
- Liberator
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name of formation B-17s flew in
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combat box
- What did B-17s develop as a result of?
- Washington Naval Treaty
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1000 plane raid on Hamburg
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- July 1943
- firestorm created
- 80% infrastructure destroyed
- 30,000 civs killed
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P51 Mustang
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- March 1944
- range beyond Berlin and back
- begins to affect Luftwaffe
- bombing of Dresden
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- Feb 1945
- Churchill's orders
- warning for Stalin
- incendiaries used
- incendiaries
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bombs that start fires
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why does strategic bombing end in March of 1945?
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there is nothing left to bomb
- Operation Torch
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- North Africa
- seizure of 3 major ports
- no withdrawal from Hitler
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3 ports to be seized in Operation Torch
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- Casablanca
- Oran
- Algiers
- Commander of US army in Opn Torch
- Patton
- What is the end goal of Opn Torch?
- Tunis
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German Field Marshall at Opn Torch
- Kesserling
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Kasserine Pass
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- Baptism of fire for US troops
- Rommel's counterattack
- US Artillery saves them
- Rommel asks Hitler for withdrawal
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Date of Axis Surrender in North Africa
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May 13, 1943
- Lessons learned in N Africa
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- Artillery given increased firepower
- bigger guns on tanks
- increased training for troops
- M-1 Garand Rifle (semi-automatic) implemented
- Piper-cup (spotter plane)
- Bazooka developed to fight Ger Panzers
- Sicily Invasion
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- GB and US
- Straits of Messina
- bad weather
- paratroopers first time out
- heavy casualties
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Allied landing on Italian mainland
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- GB - Toronto -headed for Foggia
- US - Salerno - headed for Naples
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Gustav Line
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- Kesserling
- above Naples
- Monte Cassino anchor (monastery) bombed
- Allies drop in behind
- Slow Ger w/d from Italy
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Conditions that must be met before Normandy
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- SU had to hold out
- Battle for the Atlantic has to be won
- Neutralize Luftwaffe
- Two sites initially chosen for French invasion
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- Pas de Calais
- Normandy
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Advantages of Normandy
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- shelter from weather/tides
- more rural
- port of Cherbourg
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Big 3
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- Stalin
- Churchill
- FDR
- Operation agreed upon by Big 3 at Tehren meeting
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Operation Overlord
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Operation Overlord
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- cross-channel invasion
- seals military alliance between Big 3
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US Army Chief of Staff at Opn Overlord
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George C Marshall
- Original date for D-Day
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June 5 1944
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Reasons for delay of D-Day
- weather
- Fortress Europa
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- Atlantic Wall
- 15,000 strong points to be constructed
- once allied invasion happens, everything should be focused on pushing them back into the water
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German Commander in Chief on the Western Front
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von Runstadt
- Who was in charge of the defenses of the Atlantic Wall?
- Rommel
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Opn Fortitude
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- Rouse to fake out Germans
- John has a long mustache
- pretended to invade Pas de Calais
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ways French Resistance assisted with Normandy
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- cut phone lines
- derailed trains
- got German officers drunk
- 3 Stages to invading France
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- Break-in
- Build Up
- Break Out
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Break-in phase
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landing and consolidation of beach
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Build Up Phase
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- expand beach head
- increase # of troops on the beach
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Break Out phase
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- punch hole through Geman defenses
- breakout in 2 directions: ger and paris
- head of the Japanese Ruling family
- shogun
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way of the warrrior - code of the
- bushido
- Jap warrior class abolished during the 1870s
- Samurai
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nickname for Break-in phase
- Neptune
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type of boats used as landing craft at Normandy
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Higgins Boats
- Why were the allied troops able to assemble in the the channel?
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No luftwaffe
- Omaha Beach
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- Gers very strong, but slacked
- Allied pushed them back
- end of break-in, beginning of buildup
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Factors to success at Normandy
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- German slow/hesitant reaction
- Allied AF
- French Resistance assistance
- ULTRA
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Falais
- area where Ger troops were trapped at Normandy - Hitler wouldnt let them withdraw
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Battle of the Bulge
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- Hitler's last chance
- Ardennes
- Dec 16, 1944
- Bastogne
- bad weather
- weakened Ger morale
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US name for the Front at Battle of the Bulge
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Sky Line Drive
- US tanks
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Sherman tanks
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German Tanks
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- panzers
- tiger
- panther
- Kursk
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- Ger and SU
- largest tank battle ever
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Katyn Massacre
- 1000s of Polish POWs murdered by SU
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Warsaw uprising
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- Summer 44
- red army encourages anti-nazi uprising
- doesnt help
- eliminates anti bolsheviks in Poland
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Remagen Bridge
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only bridge on the Rhine not completely destroyed - allowed Allies to get into Germany
- Where did allied and soviet forces link up in Germany?
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Elba river
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VE Day
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May 7, 1945
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Two areas of operation in the Pacific Theater
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- Central Pac - Nimitz
- South Pac - MacArthur
- secondary fronts in Pac War
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- China - India - Burma - Stillwell
- SE Asia - Mountbatten
- First lsland attacked by the allies in the island hopping campaign
- Tarawa
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Disadvantages for the invader (US Marine)
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- w/d difficult
- have to bring all supplies
- need air superiority
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Okinawa
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- Spring 1945
- Kamikazes
- Ernie Pyle
- Simon Bolivar Buckner
- Manhattan Project
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- Einstein
- splitting the atom
- Los Alamos, NM
- Trinity Site
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Operation Olympuc
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- B-29 Super Fortress
- Curtis LeMay
- incendiaries
- Potsdam Conference
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- Truman, Stalin, Attlee
- alliance starts to crack
- sites chosen for nukes
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VJ Day
- Sept 1945
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Yalta Conference
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- Big 3
- divides Germany
- spheres of influence
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war crimes
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- Nuremberg Trials
- Tojo & Yamashita executed
- Emperor spared