WW2 Flashcards
(37 cards)
1
Q
Causes of WW2
A
- Adolf Hitler
- First world war
- Bad peace
2
Q
The treaty of Versailles (came out of WW1)
A
- Standard: treaty was bad piece of work, achieved none of good that it might have achieved and achieved lots of bad
- Needlessly strict – to much on Germany – financial ruin – opened door for national socialism
o Made it possible for nazis to take over - Wasn’t treaty itself – how treaty was used after been signed
o Hwo the great powers misused it
o Ink was barley dry befire great powers argued over what it meant - Britain and France couldn’t agree on how strict to be w Germany
o Britain lenient
o France strict
o Germany couldn’t please both
o Finally U.S persuaded for opinion and reluctantly and agreed w Britain
Didn’t smooth things over
Britain and France wanted deal on what they owe U.S U.S said no - German gov cam up w way to reduce money it was gonna pay create inflation so value would drop and real cost of paying debts reduce
o Didn’t recognize onece u start inflation hard to control
o Currency becaome valueless
o That’s what opens door for nazis - War guilt clause – Article 231
o Assign financial responsibly
o Reason
o Legitimization
o CAUSING – makes Germany liable to pay for everything including military build up by great powers before the war ramps up cost enormously
o RESPONSIBILTY financial responsibility translated to german, not direct translation “shault” meaning guilty translator provided by german gov provided moral part - Stab in the back theory
o Myth: argues that Germany did not suffer military defeat but betrayed by civilians in Germany socialist and Jews signed treaty, accepted humiliation
o Allows German military to remain unstained
3
Q
Collective security
A
- Creation of legue of nations international gov keep world at peace
- Great powers as police, restraining smaller nations and each other
- Inspired idea for its time
- Nothing wrong w treaty , problem w great powers
- Emporer Hirohito lumped in w dictator but not acc dictator
- Mossalini Italy
o Turned to socialism
o 1921; INVITED TO join Italy coaltion gov so he wouldn’t force his way in
o March on rome 2022 sent blackshirts to rome
o Mossalini was invited to form gov by king mossalini never looked back
o 1924 made himself supreme leader (il duce) democary irrelvent almost unlimted power revolutionary nationalism (“make Italy great again”)
4
Q
Barbrossa: Invasion of Russia
A
- Race war
- one ideolgy cant survive w out the other - must destroy the other
5
Q
Joesph Stalin
A
- Premier of Soviet Union
- 5”4 and consious of height
- Psyco history - suggest brain disorder
- refused priosner exchange for his son
- On 17 September 1939, the Soviet Union invaded Poland from the east, 16 days after Nazi Germany invaded Poland from the west
- Stalin decided Poland is not enough, - take baltics and Finland
6
Q
Barborossa: The plan
A
- non agression treaty between Germany and Russia gonna be broken (just between who moves first)
- Under the codename Operation “Barbarossa,” Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941. This was the largest German military operation of World War II.
- 2 stage operation
- Stalin undertaken purge of army – included some of best genrals (wanted to take out people who are not dedicates communists)
o Added people who were dedicated communists but not as competent
o Added communist watchdogs (poltical conesar)
o Soilders were memorizing communist slogans rather than military training
-
7
Q
Barborossa: Soviet Union
A
- Almost no communications equipment
- Railway network was old
- Military stuck in past
8
Q
Barborossa: The Campaign
A
- nazi invasion began – Russians caught by surprise even tho everyone told them they were going to be attacked RIGHT DOWN TO HOUR
- stalin didn’t belive anything , thought he was safe
- only prep was moving most of units into front lines, making them vunrable magnified weakness in them
- German divsions rolled right past Russians
- 100 of thousands captured in first few weeks
- Advanced continues till Russians reached Moscow
- Winter set in Russia coukd fight in cold brought divisons from Russia found it warm
- Germans could not fight well in cold
- Late 1941, Russia worked out lots of problems
- Soviets getting numbers into battlefield, men and women
- Women not rare in soviet army
- Gender discrimination seen as evil in Marxist and communist ideology
o Women closer to equality in soviet union then most other places in world
o Soviet women not turned away
9
Q
Barborossa: The blunders
A
- Hitler inflated sense of understanding of miltray operations (magic pipline of miltray blah blah)
- In reality it was no where as good as his poltical intuition
- Moscow – need to defend capital desrroy soviet army in field
o Best possible plan
o Hitler disagreed
o He decided they should advance across whole front
o Wasting time and resources
o Few weeks later hitler decided he was wrong - Descion that stopped nazis from achving descive result in 1941
- Cost Germany real chance to defeat Russia
- Ideological blunder: outgrowth of nazis fixation on race
o Inilation
o Pop of Russia needed to be exterminated
o Ukrain civillans welcome german invaders
o Realized people not intrested in being ruled by stalin/ Russia
Wanted intependance
Sympathetic to germans
The Holodomor – blamed stalin
Germans treated as liberators
Could have been powerful base of support for nazis
But to nazis they were worse then human could not eb delt with - Killing squads
- No german would be convicted to crimes against soviet
- Geneva convention
o Some laws for warfare (civillans, prisoners)
o Germany signed
o Russia didn’t sign so nazis ignored in east
Russian civillans completely unprotected
o Followed in west
o Slaugether on appaling proprtions - Stalin decided to take advantage of nazis ideological blunder
o After assult on civillan pop, messages from conasars changed from communist ideology to nationalism
o Holy mother Russia In danger
o “for the motherland”
o More people understood this idea
o Russian society would fight for every farm, village building
o Bought more stringent coundtermeasures from nazis - Became war w out mercy
- Public hangings
- “Campaign of incredibky nasty”
10
Q
Secret Wars: Underground Armies
A
- Parts in history where wars were underground (Gorilla fighting)
- Britsh gov starts to think about this and tries to organize underground armies that were forming (Train them, control them)
- “set europe a blaze” winston chruchhill
11
Q
Secret wars: set europe a blaze
A
- Special operations executive: intended to take on specfic tasks in occupied countries
- main task was to organize underground armies
- SOE JOb: conduct espionage, sabotage, and reconnaissance in occupied Europe against the Axis powers, especially Nazi Germany
- the SOE operates all around the world seprate reactions for each occupied country (some more sucessful than others)
France was the main battle ground ( seprate sections- F section)
12
Q
Secret Wars: F section
A
- A special division of British intelligence, called F-Section, or French Section, strictly devoted to aiding the resistance groups
- train + equip britsh personnel
- Parachute into france
- head was not a miltray person
(easy to teach someone to be a secret agent, hard to teach them to be french)
all sorts of Jobs not many miltray/ inteligence people
13
Q
Kevin Macallister (f section)
A
- From guelph
- Bright - didnt put in max effort - drove teachers crazy
- got by on personality to UofT to study law
- became a sucess - won every academic prize
- regarded as “brillant” and “best mind in century”
- Rhodes scholarship - law at oxford - more intrested in IR
- married french women and lived there, got out b4 german invasion
14
Q
Frank Pickersgill (f section)
A
- Mantoba - Uoft Masters in Classics - Phd in Paris - Became journalist
- determined to travel difficult places
- in france when germans invaded - interned - escaped
- came back to britan and met Kevin Mcallister
- both him and kevin genrally not suited to milatay (bad eyesight/balence)
- Both knew France well
- Ideal Candidates for SOE
- they did traning camp together and were together everyday (to learn to be secet agents)
- learned to lie steal and kill
- Parachuted into occupied france in 1942
15
Q
Physcian mystery
A
Frank and kevins job was to join a network called physcian
- Physcian covers most f north france
- covered by Francis Sutil
- physican was already infultrated by Nazi SD (intelligence agency) but they didnt know
- SD started with least important and moved in, did this carefully to get to the central command structure
- when kevin and frank parachuted was when SD decided to strike
- they were taken to a prison in Paris
-they were there for weeks and then moved to civillan prison
- they were eventually sent to bokenbault, put on death block and hung and creamated (normandy invasion - SD wants to cover tracks - important people sent to concentration camps)
- story wasnt known till end pf war @ time no one understood what was happening
16
Q
Maurice Southgate
A
- Southgate was regarded by Maurice Buckmaster, head of SOE’s French Section, as one of his best agents
- he was very boring (avg height, avg weight, avg hair colour)
Lesson: Mundane is important and best trait 4 spies - he was very forgettable despite his sucess no books written on him
- so much written on flashy people w little impact
17
Q
Arthur Harris head of Raf
A
- Aim of bombing: destroy civillan morale
- Being burned of ur home was a morale kill
- Destroy german morale destroy residential areas
- Area bombing new aim was dehousing
- Harris proposed that this was how to win war
- Secret in his openion was force and consistency (every night w big aircrafts)
18
Q
Operation Millennium, Koln 1942
A
- Butcher Harris
- Bomber Harris
- Cocnsitency: cant bomb city than leave it alone (you have to hit it night after night after night)
- Force + concsitency = victory
- Bombing becomes science
- Operation gamora deminstartes this (Hamburg July 1943)
19
Q
Morality
A
- Harris being obsessed with cities worked against them
- For part of war allies had no way to strike back in support of soviet union against Germany?
- Some german sectors prosudced more? bombings didn’t work but how much more woud they have expaneded without the bombing
- Did bombing speed up defeat of Nazi Germany?
- “ oh ofc Germany was gonna be defeated so this was wrong” – hindsight
- Didn’t look so simple it 42 or 43
- Whether it worked is different matter
o U.S strategic bombing sector
o Using vast amounts of data and intreviews
o Americans concluded that did have sig impact
o Followed by nazis aggreging
o What saved nazi Germany is that americans kept changing target - Brute force agrment – allies won even tho soilders and genrals weren’t as good as Germany
o Allies had more material resources - Bristh tanks inferior but their wayyy more
- Limit less supply or arms and amunation
- Can argue that germans didn’t have that resource due to startgeic army – making it hard for production and transportation – where significance of startgeic bombing was felt (one way too look at it – cant be proved)
20
Q
Allied powers
A
- Britan
- US
- Soviet Union
did not share common political aims, and did not always agree on how the war should be fought. - France
21
Q
Axis powers
A
Japan and Germany
22
Q
Genocide
A
Geno (greeK) = race, cide (latin)= killing
- coined by lenkin
- first recognized by by intl law 1996
“Any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
Killing members of the group;
Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
(United Nations Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect)
in the UN Defenition
- cultural destruction doesnt count
- dispersing doesnt count
- has to be proven intent and target specfically ethical, national, racial or relgious group
23
Q
Holocaust (term)
A
-greek = sacrafice by fire
- was called extermnation during war
- some jews prefer the term “shoah” (hebrew)= complete and utter destruction and usally just applied to jews in eur
24
Q
War on Jews
A
- rooted in nazis understanding of race
25
SS Ahnenerbe
- organization set up by nazi police to prove history of aryan race
- historians, archologists , ranks and wierdos
Basic premise: aryan race began somewhere in frozen northland, migrated south and than founded other civillzations
- went to middle east, central asia looking for blonde blue eyed people who may be racially related to orginals
26
eichmann himmler
- dull + colourless
- unpleasant person
- liked having other kids punished as a child
- not very bright but had an amazing capcity for detail (perf for nazi era)
- a conference of Nazi high officials was convened to organize the logistics of what the Nazis called the “final solution to the Jewish question.” Eichmann was to coordinate the details; thus, although it was not yet generally known that the “final solution” was mass execution, Eichmann had in effect been named chief executioner. Thereupon he organized the identification, assembly, and transportation of Jews from all over occupied Europe to their final destinations at Auschwitz and other extermination camps in German-occupied Poland.
- he was a master of deatil which allowed him to plan an extermanation of so many people
Book: Eichman in Jeurselum
- made point that he wasnt a monster or demon
- said he was utterly unremarkable - and not capable of advanced emotion
- he didnt feel remorse because he was just too simple
- "banlity of evil" basically he was small of mind w little abilty
27
Functionalists on Nazis
- rise of nazis was an evolutionary process and genocide was the chosen option after other things were tried
28
Internationalists
from beggining destruction of jews was apart of hitlers national socialism (was the plan from the start)
29
the process of the holocaust
- hitler and eichmann mean everything was very calculated
- everything appeared legitamate and legal
- nazis moved slow
- strated w boycott of jew businesses (to test to see if anyone protested before moving forward) no one did
- than jewish laws (no interaction w non jews, no public places, no property, if they left they had to leave all assets etc)
- very calculated and slow
-Kristallnacht
- poland jews put in ghettos
nazis bagan to expell jews to polond to create a resvoir of slave laboue
- turned people to things
- wanasse conferance final solution adopted
30
Kristallnacht (The Night of Broken Glass)
hattered glass that littered the streets after the vandalism and destruction of Jewish-owned businesses, synagogues, and homes.
- police told not to intervene unless aryan property or business was in danger
- jews rounded up to concentration camps
- nazi gov expressed regeret bc looked bas on intl stage
- jews fired for damage and told to cleanup
31
Wanasse conferance
conference of Nazi high officials was convened to organize the logistics of what the Nazis called the “final solution to the Jewish question.” Eichmann was to coordinate the details; thus, although it was not yet generally known that the “final solution” was mass execution, Eichmann had in effect been named chief executioner.
32
Other victims
Classfied as genocide:
- Jahovas witnesses - refusing to accept
- poles - lines up w nazis plans for poland
- roma/gypsys - declared as enemies of state - habitual criminals and racial enemies
Not classfied as genocide
- mentally physically diables- cost to much "genetically deffective"
- Poltical prioners - socialists and communists
- gays and lesbians
does the idea of genocide provide hierarchy of suffering? or is it useful?
33
The atlantic wall (VE and VJ day)
- long and extensive series of postions
- Italy was never more than a side show
- real decisive campaign was northwest europe
- was supposed to be may 1943, the revised date was may 1944
- invasion couldnt begin till they had ships to land so many people on beach (Higgins boat and landing ship tank)
Location:
- dependant on limits of allied air cover (had to land somewhere with air cover)
- pas de calais was too obvious
- Normandy was most sutible choice w suitable beaches
Decsion:
- 5 beach landing at Normandy
Happened on June 6 1944 (D DAY)
34
How campaign of normandy landings was sucessful
- unified command, esienhower was a great manager
- brutal force theory (overwelming superiorty)
plus 3 unusal factors
1.) approach to tech innovation
basically difficult problems and simple solutions
- Diffrent tanks for diffrent things
- concrete blocks to land
- opearion fortitude: allies made dummy everything to confuse on where it would happen
35
Normandy landings WW2 (D DAY)
- largest anphibian force in history
- greatest sucess was juno beach (CAD beach)
- first day was a sucess
- as reniforcents poured on D=1 (secound day) became clar it woild be difficult for nazis
- have to push nazis from both sides
36
Warsaw uprising
- people of warsaw tried to liberate themselves in Oct 1944
- biggest underground army uprising
- resistance crushed, city demolished everyone left either executed or sent to GER for death
- example of ideolgy taking away from war on ground
- ger held vast numbers of prisoners of war
- some camp allied airman escaped through underground tunnel and this was a big deal for nazis
- Hitler overreacted as he thought they would start an uprising and 50 were executed
- doesnt seem like that much but nazis had wierd thinking and it bothered them more than holocaust
- rift in high command
- operation valkyerie - some involved in execution of escapees switched sides and joins hitler opps
- this was not princepal it was self preseravation
37
Iorgau april 1945
- 2 sides meet
- hitker shot himself- uncondital surrender (they only thing allies would accept)
- actual surrender a week later (formality)
