WWII Term Definitions

Invasion of Poland: occur in 1939. Around the start of WWII. Arranged by German Nazis. AKA September Campaign or the 1939 Defensive War.

Blitzkrieg: The Lighting War. Military force of a mechanized force. Concentration on attacking a small section of the enemy front.

Nazi-soviet Nonaggression Pact: Hitler’s & Stalin’s agreement to divide Poland. Both men did not trust one another but the two signed it nevertheless. Hitler eventually turned his back on the agreement and invades Poland.

Tripartite Pact: Also known as the Three-Power Pact, Axis Pact, Three- Way Pact or the Tripartite Treaty. Signed in Berlin, September 1940. Involves countries such as Japan, Germany and Italy. Entering a military allicance and founding WWII. Went against the allied powers.

Anti Comintern Pact: Between Nazi Germany and Japan's Empire. Eventually joined by other countries. They were not in favor of the Communist International and Soviet Union.

Operation Barbarossa: Name of Germany’s plan to invade the Soviet Union in WWII. Over 4.5 million troops of Axis Powers invaded the USSR. Named after Emporer Frederick Barbarossa. Lasted for nearly a year. Conquest of European part of the Soviet Union, also known as the A-A line.


Winston Churchill: british politician, lead the UK during WWII. Prime minister fromt the years 1940-1945. Help Britain defeat Axis powers. Against german rearment.

Atlantic Charter: blueprint for world after the end of WWII. Internation treatments are modeled after the Atlantic Charter. Created by Sir Alexander Codagan at the Atlantic Conference.

Pearl Harbor: Harbor in O'ahu Hawaii. It is a United States Navy base Since Japan didn't formally declare war, the U.S. changed from being an isolationist country to one that would be directly involved in wars. 2,400 Americans were killed in the attack while only 65 Japanese were wounded and killed.

D-Day: This is also known as the Normandy Landings, during WWII. The landings started in June of 1944. This is the day in which an attack operation was initiated. The Allies created a stronghold in Normandy with the help of the Free French.

Hiroshima & Nagasaki: During WWII, it served as the headquarters for the Second Army and the Chugoku Army as well as having large deposits of weapons. Hiroshima was the target of a U.S. nuclear bomb that killed 90,000-140,000 people. Nagasaki was the second city to get bombed by the U.S. in 1945 with 73,000 deaths.

Stalingrad: A city and administrative center in Rusia. The city was the place of the Battle of Stalingrad during WWII. The city was destroyed but was rebuilt after Germany left the land.

Midway: The Battle of Midway was a major naval battle, It is even said to be the most important of the Pacific Campaign in WWII. The United States Navy defeated Imperial Japanese Navy attack Midway Atoll. This made damage on the Japanese carrier force and seizing the strategic initiative. This Japanese operations, was aimed to eliminate the United States as a strategic Pacific power. This gave Japan a free hand in establishing its Greater East Asia Co- Prosperity Sphere. They hoped another defeat would force the United States to negotiate an end to the Pacific War.

Robert Oppenheimer: American physicist and professor of physics at Berkley. He is known as a scientific director of the Manhattan Project: the WWII effort to develop the first nuclear weapons at the secret Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. He is known as the "The Father of the Atomic Bomb."

Yalta Conference: Also known as the Crimea COnferece. Wartime meeting between the U.S, Soviet Union, and United Kingdom. Created to reestablish the nations conquered by Germany

F.D.R: Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He was the 32nd President of the United States. He was the central figure in a time of wartime and worldwide crisis. He is the only U.S president to have served more than two terms. Around the time of the war he practiced internment of Italians, Germans, and Japanese people without trial. He allowed the dropping of nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Dwight D. Eisenhower: The 34th President of the United States from 1953- 1961and a general in the United States Army. He led the invasions of France & Germany. First commander of NATO. Believed that nuclear weapons were a top issue for the U.S.

NATO: The North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A military alliance establishment by signing the North Atlantic Treaty. The NATO headquarters are located in Brussels, Belgium. military alliance that calls for collective defense, or a mutual defense in the event of an attack from an outside party.

Warsaw Pact: A pact of communist states in Central/Eastern Europe. Signed at Warsaw in 1955 as a reaction to West Germany joining NATO. Similar to NATO because they are a political consultative committee.