World War II

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World War II Page 7

by Reg Grant


  SOE Acronym for the Special Operations Executive, an organization set up by Britain in 1940 to send secret agents into enemy-occupied Europe.

  SS Acronym for Schutzstaffeln, an elite unit in the Nazi party, which also had its own armed troops—the Waffen SS.

  theater of war A geographical area in which part of a war is fought—for example, “the Mediterranean theater.”

  unconditional surrender The policy of the Allies, who decided that there would be no peace negotiations with their enemies; the enemy countries could not ask for any special conditions for their surrender.

  Vichy France After Germany’s defeat of France in June 1940, the French government that cooperated with Nazi Germany moved from Paris to the town of Vichy. The area of southern France that this government ruled, called Vichy France, was aligned with Nazi Germany.

  Wehrmacht The German armed forces.

  wolf packs Groups of German submarines hunting together for ships to sink in the Atlantic.

  STATISTICS CONCERNING COMBATANT NATIONS

  Casualties

  Australia

  A total of 9,572 military dead, excluding the war against Japan, including:

  A total of 27,073 military dead, including the war against Japan.

  Britain

  Canada

  France

  Germany

  Italy

  An estimated 150,000 army dead (including fighting for Allies); 50,000 naval and air deaths; perhaps 100,000 civilians died as partisans, in bombing, or after being deported

  India (including present-day Pakistan and Bangladesh)

  Total: 36,092 killed, mostly fighting against Japan.

  New Zealand

  South Africa

  War deaths: total about 9,000, including Air Force deaths: 2,227

  Soviet Union

  military killed: total: 8,668,400

  (including 3.3 million who died as prisoners of war)

  Civilians killed: 17 million (lowest estimate)

  United States of America

  Total U.S. dead (all theaters of war):

  Other European Death Tolls (estimates)

  FURTHER INFORMATION

  RECOMMENDED BOOKS

  The following books look at World War II and focus on the war in Europe:

  Adams, Simon. Eyewitness World War II. DK Publishing, 2000.

  Ambrose, Stephen E. Citizen Soldiers: The U.S. Army from the Normandy Beaches to the Bulge to the Surrender of Germany, June 7, 1944—May 7, 1945. Simon and Schuster, 1997.

  Anflick, Charles. Teen Partisans and Resisters Who Fought Nazi Tyranny. Rosen Publishing Group, 1999.

  Gottfried, Ted. The Great Fatherland War: The Soviet Union in World War II. Milbrook Press, 2003.

  Panchyk, Richard. World War II for Kids: A History with 21 Activities. Chicago Review Press, 2002.

  Patterson, Don. Scramble! Tales of the RAF. Hindsight Limited, 1999.

  Schomp, Virginia. World War II. Benchmark, 2003

  Stein, R. Conrad. World War II in Europe. Enslow, 2003.

  Verhoeven, Ryan, and Ruud Van der Rol. Anne Frank Beyond the Diary: A Photographic Remembrance. Puffin, 1995.

  Warren, Andrea. Surviving Hitler: A Boy in the Nazi Death Camps. HarperCollins Publishers, 2002.

  RECOMMENDED VIDEOS

  The following videos are available on VHS or DVD:

  World War II: When Lions Roared (1994)

  The Air Power Collection (2002):

  Volume 1: The Nazi War Machine

  Volume 2: Allied Victory

  People’s Century: the Saga of World War II

  Series (1999): Master Race: Nazism

  Overtakes Germany

  World War II: The Leaders—Vol. 2 (1998)

  Total War: World War II and the Home Front (1999)

  RECOMMENDED WEBSITES

  The Internet offers a vast archive of material both on the war in general and on every aspect of it. Starting points on the web might be:

  www.historyplace.com/worldwar2

  www.worldwar-2.net

  World War historylacusd.edu/gen/ww2_links.html

  Note to parents and teachers

  Every effort has been made by the publishers to ensure that these web sites are suitable for children; that they are of the highest educational value; and that they contain no inappropriate or offensive material. However, because of the nature of the Internet, it is impossible to guarantee that the contents of these sites will not be altered. We strongly advise that a responsible adult supervise Internet access.

  PLACES TO VISIT

  Among places to visit connected to the war in Europe, top of the list must be the Normandy beaches. Apart from the beaches themselves, Normandy is dotted with World War II cemeteries and museums. Some U.S. museums partly or totally devoted to the war are:

  The Naval Historical Center, Washington Naval Yard, Washington, D.C. 20374 (www.history.navy.mil)

  The National World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C. (www.wwiimemorial.com)

  U.S. Air Force Museum, Dayton, Ohio (www.wpafb.af.mil/museum/index.htm)

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  The author, Reg Grant, studied history at the University of Oxford and is the author of more than a dozen books on modern history. He specializes in the history of the twentieth century. His book The Holocaust (1997) was shortlisted for the Times Educational Supplement’s Senior Information Book Award.

  INDEX

  Numbers in bold refer to captions to pictures or, where indicated, to maps.

  Abyssinia 19

  invasion of 4

  Afrika Korps 20

  air cover of Atlantic shipping 16 map

  airborne troops 8, 10, 12, 19, 21, 41, 41, 43

  Alam Halfa 20

  Albania 6, 20

  Alexander, Field Marshal Sir Harold 52

  Allied supply lines 16

  Anschluss 4, 5

  Antwerp, capture of 42, 44

  Anzio, landings at 37, 37

  Ardennes armored offensive 44, 44, 45, 45 map, 46

  armored divisions 10, 25, 42

  Army Group Center 26, 39

  North and South 26

  Arnhem 43, 43

  Aryan race 31

  Atlantic, Battle of 16, 16 map

  Atlantic Charter 16, 17

  Atlantic convoy 17

  Austria 4, 49

  Axis alliance 4, 18

  forces, May 1943 surrender in Africa of 23

  B-24 Liberator bombers 35

  Badoglio, Marshal Pietro 36

  Bagration, Operation 39

  Baku oil fields 28

  Baltic states 9

  Barbarossa, Operation 24, 25

  Bastogne 46

  Battle of Britain 14, 14 map, 15, 15

  Belgium 12, 13, 44, 45 map, 46

  invasion of 12

  Belorussia 39

  Berlin 47, 48, 49

  blockade of 50

  capture of 48, 48 map

  Wall 51

  Bessarabia 9

  Blitz, the 15

  Blitzkrieg 10, 12

  Bomber bases, U.S. in Africa 34 map

  Bombing offensive against

  Germany 34

  raids 15, 35

  strategic targets in Germany 34 map, 35

  Bradley, General Omar 52

  Britain 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22, 28, 36

  British Expeditionary Force (BEF) 8, 10, 12

  Brussels 42

  Budapest 39, 47

  Bulge, Battle of the 44, 45, 45, 45 map, 46

  Caen 41

  Calais 41

  Cape Matapan, battle of 19

  Caucasus Mountains 29, 30

  oil fields 29

  Chamberlain, Neville 4, 6, 11

  Cherbourg 41, 40 map, 43 map

  Churchill, Winston 9, 11, 12, 13, 16, 16, 36, 37, 46, 52

  Clark, General Mark 52

  collaborators 31

  Communism 50

  communist 6, 24, 32, 50


  concentration camps (see also death camps) 31, 32, 32, 33 map, 46

  Dachau 32, 46, 47

  Buchenwald 46

  convoy routes 16 map

  convoys 16

  Cossack cavalry 27

  Crete 20, 21

  German invasion of 20, 20 map, 21

  Crimea 39

  Croatia 21

  Czechoslovakia 4, 6, 49, 50

  D-Day 41

  landings 40, 40 map, 41

  Danzig (Gdansk) 6, 6

  Death camps (see also concentration camps) 32, 33

  Auschwitz 32, 32, 33

  Belzec camp 32

  Chelmno camp 32

  Majdanik camp 32

  sites of Nazi 33 map

  Sobibor camp 32

  Treblinka 32

  de Gaulle, General Charles 18, 42, 43, 52

  Denmark 10, 11

  invasion of 11 map

  occupation of 11

  depth charges 17

  Dieppe landing 34

  Dnieper River 38

  Doenitz, Admiral Karl 52

  Dowding, Sir Hugh 15, 52

  Dresden, bombing of 35

  Dunkirk 12, 13, 13

  evacuation from 13 map

  troops evacuated from 12

  East Germany 50

  Eastern Front 25, 27, 38, 41

  Egypt 18, 19, 22

  Eighth Army 22, 22, 23

  Eisenhower, General Dwight D. 23, 36, 41, 41, 48, 53

  El Alamein, battle of 22, 22, 23

  Estonia 9

  Europe, extent of German

  control in 1942, 30 map

  postwar political alignment of 51 map

  Falaise Gap 42

  Final Solution, the 32

  Finland 9

  Soviet invasion of 9, 9 map

  Finnish soldiers 8

  Finnish-Soviet War 9 map

  food shortages 30

  France 4, 8, 9, 10, 13, 18, 19

  invasion of 41

  liberation of 43, 43 map

  Franco, General Francisco 4, 18

  Free French movement 18

  French North Africa, U.S. invasion of 22

  French Resistance 31, 42

  Gdansk (Danzig) 6

  German

  advance into Belgium and

  France 13 map

  artillery 28

  firing squad 31

  naval codes cracked 17

  offensive in Soviet Union in 1942, 29 map

  prisoners 29, 47

  refugees 50

  Sixth Army 28

  troops in Russia 24

  Germans, entering Paris 13

  Germany 4, 5, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 24, 25, 30, 31, 32, 33 map, 36, 37, 38, 43, 44, 49

  Allied advance toward 43 map

  Allied advance into 46 map

  Soviet advance into 46 map, 48 map

  territories occupied by Germany, 1935–38, 5 map

  territory occupied by 1942 30 map

  war declaration against 8

  Gibraltar 18, 19

  Goebbels, Joseph 33

  Goering, Reich Marshal

  Hermann 53

  Gold beach 40, 41

  Greater German Reich, the 30 map

  Greece 21

  invasion of 19, 20, 20 map

  Guderian, General Heinz 12, 53

  Gustav Line 36, 37

  gypsy people 31, 32

  Hamburg bombing 34

  RAF raid on 35

  Harris, Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur 53

  Hitler, Adolf 4, 4, 5, 6, 6, 7, 12, 13, 17, 18, 21, 23, 24, 24, 26, 28, 32, 33, 41, 45, 47, 48, 53

  assassination plot 44

  suicide of 48

  Hitler Youth 47

  Hoepner, General Erich 24

  Holocaust, the 32

  Hungary 25, 39, 47, 50

  Illustrious, HMS 18, 19

  Iron Curtain 50, 51

  Italian army, defeat in North Africa 18

  Italian troops 19

  Italy 4, 6, 18, 19, 20, 20 map, 22, 23, 25, 32, 34 map, 35, 48, 49, 50

  Allied invasion of 36, 37, 37 map

  “Jewish problem,” the 32

  Jews 6, 32, 32, 33, 33 map

  Jodl, General Alfred 48

  Junkers Ju-87 (Stuka) 10

  Juno beach 40, 41

  Katyusha multiple rocket launchers 38

  Kesselring, Field Marshal Albert 36

  Kiev 26

  capture by Red Army 38

  Kursk 38, 39 map

  Ladoga, Lake 26, 27

  Latvia 9

  Lebensraum (living space) 6

  Lend-Lease program 16

  Leningrad 26, 27

  front 26

  siege of 25, 25 map, 26, 26, 26 map, 39

  Libya 18, 19, 19, 20

  Lithuania 6, 9

  London 15, 45

  Luftwaffe 7, 13, 14, 15, 19, 21

  Maginot Line 10

  Maleme 21

  Malta 18, 19, 20, 21

  Mannerheim Line 9

  Manstein, General Erich von 12, 53

  Market-Garden, Operation 42, 43

  Marshall, General George 54

  Marshall Plan 50, 54

  massacres of civilians 21

  Mediterranean 18, 18, 19, 20 map, 21, 23 map, 30, 30 map, 34 map, 35, 42, 43 map

  war zone 5 map, 19 map

  Memel 6, 6 map

  Mers-el-Kébir 18

  Mihailovic, Colonel Draza 32

  Minsk 26

  Molotov, Vyacheslav 7

  Monte Cassino 36

  Montgomery, General Bernard 22, 22, 41, 42, 43, 47, 54

  Moscow 25, 26, 39

  Mulberry harbors 41

  Murmansk 16 map, 28

  Mussolini, Benito 4, 18, 19, 36, 48, 54

  Narvik 10, 11

  NATO 50, 51 map

  Nazi New Order 31, 32

  Nazis 31, 32, 32, 39, 42, 48

  Nazi-Soviet Pact 7, 24

  Netherlands, 10, 12, 43

  night fighters 15

  Normandy 40, 41

  breakout from 42, 43

  campaign 43, 43 map

  North Africa 18, 19, 20, 22, 23, 35, 36

  Allied invasion of 23 map

  North African campaign 22, 23, 23 map

  North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) 50, 51 map

  Norway 10, 11, 30, 31

  invasion of by Germany 11, 11 map

  Norwegian campaign 1940, 10

  Nuremberg war crimes trials 50, 50

  occupation zones 49, 50

  Office of Strategic Services (OSS) 33

  Omaha beach 40, 40 map, 41

  Oslo 11

  Overlord, Operation 41

  P-51 Mustang fighter 35

  panzers 12, 13, 36, 41

  parachute troops 20

  partisan groups 32

  Patton, General George 42, 46, 47, 54

  Paulus, Field Marshal Friedrich 28

  Pearl Harbor 17

  Pétain, Marshal Philippe 13, 31

  “Phony War” 10

  Ploesti oil fields 34, 35

  Poland, invasion of 4, 6, 6, 6 map, 7

  Death camps in 32

  postwar borders of 49

  resistance groups in 32

  Soviet advance into 39, 39

  Potsdam Conference 49

  Prague 6

  prisoners of war 31

  Provence, Allied landings in 42

  Quisling, Vidkun 31

  radar 14, 15

  RAF (Royal Air Force) 12, 14, 15, 34, 34, 41

  Reichstag building, Berlin 49

  Remagen bridge 47

  resistance movements 32

  Rhine crossings 46 map, 47

  Rhineland, the 4

  Ribbentrop, Joachim von 7

  Roma people 31

  Romania 9, 25, 34 map, 35, 39, 50

  Rommel, General Erwin 20, 22, 23, 54

  Roosevelt, President Franklin D. 15, 16, 16, 17, 36, 46, 48, 55


  Rotterdam 12

  Royal Navy 11, 12, 18, 19

  Rundstedt, Field Marshal Gerd von 44

  Saarland 5

  Salerno landing 36

  Sea Lion Operation 13, 14 map

  “Second Front” 36

  Sedan 13

  Sicily 20

  Allied invasion of 36, 36, 37 map

  Sinti (gypsy) people 31

  slave labor 31, 33, 33 map

  Slavs 24, 31, 32, 33

  Smolensk 25 map, 26

  Spanish Civil War 7

  Soviet

  advances in 1943–34, 39 map

  offensive 1942–43, 38

  territory occupied by 1943–44 39 map

  troops in Poland 38

  Soviet Union 6, 6 map, 7, 8, 9, 16, 21, 25, 28, 30, 30, 32, 36, 50, 51 map

  counteroffensive in 1942 29 map

  German invasion of 25, 25 map

  German offensive in 1942 29 map

  Special Operations Executive (SOE), 33

  Stalin, Josef 6, 9, 24, 25, 27, 28, 38, 46, 50, 55

  Stalingrad 28, 29, 29, 38

  battle of 28, 28, 29 map

  losses at 29

  strategic bombing offensive against Germany 34 map

  Stuka dive-bomber 7, 10

  Sudetenland 4, 6

  Suez Canal 18, 22

  Sword beach 40, 41

  Swordfish biplanes 18, 19

  Taranto 18, 19

  Tito, Josip Broz 32, 50, 55

  Torch, Operation 22

  Torgau 48, 49

  Tripoli 20

  Truman, President Harry S. 48, 50

  Tunisia 23

  U-boats 16, 17, 17

  Ukraine 26, 39

  United States 15, 16, 17, 22, 28, 36, 50, 51

  United States Army Air Force (USAAF) 34, 35

  U.S. daylight bombing raids 34

  USSR(see also Soviet Union) 51

  Utah beach 40, 41

  V-1, V-2 rockets 45, 45

  Versailles, Treaty of 4, 5

  Vichy 13, 18, 19, 30, 31, 42

  Vienna 4, 5

  Vistula, River 39, 45

  Warsaw 8, 39

  Pact members 51 map

  Uprising 32, 39

  Wehrmacht 31

  West Germany 50

  Western Front 31

  Winter War, the, 1939–40, 8

  Yalta Conference 46

  Yugoslavia 20, 21, 32, 39, 49

  German invasion of 20, 20 map, 21

  Zhukov, Marshal Georgi 48, 48, 55

 

 

 


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