WWII: Course

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1Summary 重點摘要

WWII (1939–1945) was even more total: Blitzkrieg swept Europe, Germany invaded the USSR in 1941; Pearl Harbor brought the US in; D-Day 1944 turned the tide; 1945 saw Germany's surrender and the atomic bombs forcing Japan's — the war ended.

2Vocabulary cards Vocabulary

3Step by step Steps

1. Early phase (1939–41)The Axis advanced on every front at first: Germany's Blitzkrieg — armoured thrusts coordinated with air power — crushed Poland, then took Denmark, Norway and the Low Countries in turn, and France surrendered in June 1940. In the Battle of Britain the Royal Air Force held the skies and the invasion was shelved; in June 1941 Germany turned on the Soviet Union, stretching its front drastically.
2. Globalised (1941)On 7 December 1941 Japan struck the American naval base at Pearl Harbor, crippling the Pacific Fleet; the United States declared war the next day, and Germany and Italy declared war on America in turn. The fighting now stretched from Europe and North Africa to the Pacific and East Asia; China, America, Britain and the Soviet Union stood together against the Axis, and the war became truly worldwide — the largest conflict in human history.
3. Turning points (1942–43)Between 1942 and 1943 all three theatres turned at once: at Stalingrad Germany's Sixth Army surrendered in full, the strategic defeat from which the eastern front never recovered; at Midway American carrier aircraft sank four Japanese fleet carriers and seized the initiative in the Pacific; and at El Alamein in North Africa the British Eighth Army broke Rommel's advance. From then on the Axis was on the defensive everywhere.
4. Counter-offensive (1944–45)On D-Day, 6 June 1944, the Allies landed in Normandy, opened the western front, liberated France and closed on Germany; in the east the Red Army advanced step by step. In April 1945 Soviet forces stormed Berlin, and Germany surrendered on 8 May; in August atomic bombs fell on Hiroshima and Nagasaki while the Soviet Union entered the war against Japan, which announced surrender on 15 August and signed the instrument on 2 September.
5. CostThe Second World War was the deadliest and most destructive war in history: some sixty million people died, including the six million Jews systematically murdered in the Holocaust; cities across Europe and Asia lay in ruins, economies were broken, and tens of millions were left homeless. The horror of the war drove the post-war rebuilding of human rights and international order — the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights were born of it.
6. Turning point in the PacificThe Battle of Midway in June 1942 turned the Pacific war: forewarned by broken Japanese codes, the American fleet lay in ambush and sank four Japanese aircraft carriers in a single battle; Japan lost the cream of its naval aviators and never again mounted a large-scale offensive. The initiative in the Pacific passed to the United States, whose forces advanced island by island toward the Japanese home islands.
7. The end in Europe and AsiaThe war in Europe ended under squeeze from east and west: after D-Day in June 1944 the western Allies crossed the Rhine, while Soviet forces drove in from the east and encircled Berlin in April 1945; Hitler took his own life as the city fell, and Germany surrendered unconditionally on 8 May. In Asia the atomic bombs and the Soviet entry brought Japan's surrender, signed in Tokyo Bay on 2 September, and the world war was over.

4Diagrams Diagrams

5Worked example Example

6Common mistakes Mistakes

7Quick check Quick check

8Recap Recap

• 1939–41 German sweep; 1941 US enters
• 1942–43 turns: Stalingrad + Midway
• 1945: Germany (May) + Japan (Aug) surrender; 60m dead
• Blitzkrieg = fast armoured and air assault; France fell in 1940
• D-Day (6 June 1944) opened the counter-attack; atomic bombs forced Japan's surrender