Deck 46: World War II

Question 1

The League of Nations' course of action against aggressive,militaristic powers turned out to be mainly

A) military.
B) diplomatic.
C) economic.
D) moral.
E) sociopolitical.

Answer 1

moral.

Question 2

During the Spanish Civil War,the Western democracies

A) supported the loyalists.
B) intervened against Soviet interference.
C) pushed both sides to stop fighting.
D) assisted the Nationalists.
E) remained neutral.

Answer 2

remained neutral.

Question 3

Explain the concept of collective security and the reasons for its failure in World War II.

Answer 3

Answers would include a discussion of the weakness of the League of Nations,examples with Italy,Japan and finally Germany in the Rhineland,Austria and Sudentenland,and the Munich Appeasement.

Question 4

"Peace in our time" (1938)lasted about

A) two years.
B) two months.
C) one year.
D) six months.
E) ten weeks.

Question 5

Because of the Non-Aggression Pact,

A) many foreign Communist Party members resigned.
B) the Soviets entered the Second World War.
C) Austria's government was captured by Nazis.
D) the United States threatened intervention.
E) None of the options are correct.

Question 6

Elaborate on the three phases of the war and theaters.

Question 7

The Little Entente allied France with

A) Austria, Greece, and Bulgaria.
B) Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary.
C) Czechoslovakia, Romania, and Poland.
D) Poland, Russia, and Britain.
E) Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Austria.

Question 8

Discuss the significance of the atomic bomb and the beginnings of the Cold War.

Question 9

The Battle of Britain

A) brought tremendous mental confusion to the British.
B) was fought entirely in the air.
C) allowed Hitler to begin an invasion of the island.
D) had little or no impact on the British.
E) was on the verge of success until Churchill replaced Chamberlain as Prime Minister.

Question 10

In making the decision to use the atomic bomb on Japan,the United States dealt with all of these situations EXCEPT

A) The Japanese had throughout the war shown fierce resistance and determination.
B) Some analysts suggested American casualties during an invasion of Japan might rise to 200,000.
C) Some who were against dropping the bombs believed that the Japanese were on the verge of surrendering.
D) The Japanese had already fought very bloody battles trying to hang on to other islands.
E) None of the options are correct.

Question 11

By the date of the Pearl Harbor attack,

A) America was mediating between Germany and the Allies.
B) America had the industrial capacity to win the war.
C) Roosevelt was attempting to move away from involvement.
D) most Americans were already urging Congress to declare war on Germany.
E) the United States had agreed to cease supplying Britain.

Question 12

One ostensible reason for the Spanish Civil War was the military's fear of

A) the country's new republic.
B) a fascist takeover.
C) communism.
D) Mussolini.
E) a return to monarchy.

Question 13

Appeasement of Hitler,1938-39,was ardently practiced by

A) Neville Chamberlain of Great Britain.
B) Anthony Eden of Great Britain.
C) Vittorio Orlando of Italy.
D) Winston Churchill of Great Britain.
E) Charles de Gaulle of France.

Question 14

The Non-Aggression Pact

A) assured Hitler control of the Sudetenland.
B) handed Danzig to the Nazis.
C) divided Eastern Europe between Nazis and Soviets.
D) established an Eastern European cease-fire.
E) assured Chamberlain of Hitler's good intentions.

Question 15

Describe the foreign policy decisions during and after World War II.

Question 16

Discuss the role of Japan in World War II.Was Japan secondary to Germany?

Question 17

Winston Churchill first became a public figure when he

A) became the leader of the British government.
B) was elected to Parliament.
C) was a journalist in Africa.
D) was a navy minister in World War Il.
E) spoke out against Chamberlain's support of Hitler.

Question 18

In 1944,General Douglas MacArthur

A) urged the use of the atom bomb on Japan.
B) moderated a meeting of the British, Soviets, and Americans.
C) liberated the Philippines.
D) led the successful Battle of the Coral Sea.
E) was relieved of command in the Pacific.

Question 19

Discuss the course of World War II from the German perspective.How did they justify their actions and succeed initially?

Question 20

The Second Front in World War II began with

A) an evacuation from the beaches at Dunkirk.
B) the success of the Soviet Union in repelling Germany.
C) the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
D) the defeat of the Germans in Italy.
E) an invasion across the English Channel on D-Day.

Question 21

The most important and strategic city in the Russian theater proved to be

A) Moscow.
B) Stalingrad.
C) Leningrad.
D) St. Petersburg.
E) Port Arthur.

Question 22

The Soviet Union and the United States were at odds over many things during the post-World War II era,but the issue that led to the most dramatic confrontation between the two occurred when

A) the United States introduced a new currency, the deutsche mark, into West Germany, thus financially separating East Germany from West Germany, to East Germany's detriment.
B) Stalin attempted to get the Allies to leave West Berlin in 1948 by imposing a blockade that denied ground access to the city, and the Americans had to carry out a long-running airlift of supplies.
C) the Soviet Union began in late 1945 to impose satellite governments throughout the countries of eastern Europe.
D) the Soviets accused, with reason, the Allies of refusing to honor wartime commitments to share West German resources with them, to serve as war reparations.
E) the West chose to ignore earlier plans to hunt down Nazis and bring them to justice, choosing instead to build up German protections in hopes of keeping communism from spreading.

Question 23

One of the earliest of Hitler's violations of the Versailles Treaty was the creation of the powerful ____________________,or German ____________________.

Question 24

It appears the most decisive factor the Allies winning World War II was which of the following?

A) Popular support
B) Industrial production
C) Party leadership
D) Military strategy
E) Ideology

Question 25

Blitzkrieg refers to

A) the German SS.
B) German military strategy.
C) the Germany legislature.
D) the code word for German intelligence.
E) None of the options are correct.

Question 26

Operation Barbarossa

A) was the code name for the attack on Russia by the Germans.
B) pitted Hitler and Mussolini on one side against all of the Allied forces, at the Marne River in 1944.
C) was the name given for the invasion of Sicily as the Allies moved to take Italy in 1943.
D) stood for Hitler's planned invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1939.
E) was Hitler's plan to tear down the Maginot Line as he invaded France and captured Paris.

Question 27

France held out hope for a long time that,if push came to shove,

A) the Maginot Line would protect them from Germany.
B) Germany could not succeed in any aggressive action against them without Austria's support, and since Anschluss was forbidden, all would be well.
C) Mussolini would rein Hitler in and come on board with France.
D) the United States would intervene with economic sanctions and halt German aggression in its tracks.
E) Britain would come to the support of the beleaguered Czech government when Hitler made his bid for domination there.

Question 28

Moscow supported and sent aid to the ____________________ in Spain,which was battling Franco's forces.

Question 29

When Hitler renounced the provisions of the Versailles Treaty and announced that he was enlarging his army and creating an air force,the reaction in Britain and France was

A) an attempt to get the League of Nations to halt his actions at any cost.
B) leaders of the two countries exhausted all means to get the Soviet Union to enter into an alliance with them as they had done before the First World War.
C) both France and Britain murmured through diplomatic channels that they heartily disapproved.
D) the events went almost unnoticed, since the Spanish Civil War was still raging.
E) the two countries demanded that he halt his military buildup, but since Hitler knew they planned to do nothing, he continued unopposed.

Question 30

A chief reason for Britain's prolonged appeasement of Hitler was that

A) the British government wanted a counterweight to France on the Continent.
B) he was seen by some leaders as an anticommunist bulwark.
C) the British government of the late 1930s was strongly pro-German.
D) he was seen as a way to tame the eastern European troublemakers.
E) the United States urged Britain to stay out of any dangerous situations.

Question 31

By the terms of the Little Entente,____________________ undertook mutual protection against Germany,by joining with three Eastern European states.

Question 32

World War II was a watershed in history in several ways,one of them being that

A) most countries in Western Europe were damaged heavily by the fighting and took decades to recover.
B) even all of the war's winners felt like losers when the war was over.
C) a war was fought in two completely different parts of the world for the first time in history.
D) the United States agreed to a negotiated treaty with Japan after stating that there would be no negotiations.
E) more people died in World War II, perhaps as many as 30 million, than had died in any other disaster in recorded history, and a huge number of those killed were civilians.

Question 33

In Spain's Civil War that began in 1936,

A) Hitler and Mussolini sent enough arms and advisers to make the difference, leading Franco and his forces to victory.
B) France joined in to help the Spanish Loyalists by creating a Popular Front movement.
C) most of the Western democracies sided with the Catholic Church, the peasants, and most of the middle classes.
D) Sweden and Switzerland refused to get involved, but Portugal sent troops to support the Loyalists.
E) volunteers from around the world went to Spain to fight with the Loyalists, but United States citizens held to the government's official stance of neutrality.

Question 34

Most of the deaths during World War II occurred in which of the following?

A) Germany
B) France
C) Pacific Front
D) the United States
E) Eastern Front

Question 35

The focal point of the Yalta conference among the Allied leaders in 1945 was

A) the future of Japan.
B) the postwar political arrangements in Eastern Europe.
C) the details of a peace treaty with Germany.
D) the signing of a peace treaty with Italy.
E) a plan to liberate the Jews in occupied Poland.

Question 36

When Hitler's war machine rolled into Poland on September 1,1939,

A) France and Britain declared war on Germany, and the two sides immediately gathered their forces and took the field, hoping to finish the other side off before Christmas.
B) the Soviet Union reluctantly joined with France and Britain, although Stalin had reservations about working with the two again.
C) Poland fell to the Germans very quickly, and Stalin's troops entered Poland from the east and occupied that part of the country.
D) the United States tried to broker a peace between France and Britain on one side, and the Germans on the other, but they were not successful.
E) Britain determined that it would try to stay neutral until and unless Hitler tried to invade England.

Question 37

Anschluss refers to which of the following?

A) Italy breaking its alliance with the French and beginning to gravitate toward Germany.
B) German aggressive actions toward the British.
C) German invasion of Norway.
D) Polish concentration camps.
E) Union of Austria and Germany.

Question 38

The Battle of the Coral Sea

A) led to the liberation of the Philippines from Japanese control, making it possible for General MacArthur to have a strategic location from which to command the Pacific fleet.
B) stopped any thoughts the Japanese had of taking India, despite the fact that the Japanese government suggested that it would liberate India if Britain lost the war.
C) led to Japan's capture of all of Southeast Asia.
D) halted Japan's march southward through the Pacific toward Australia, effectively turning the tide of the war.
E) was one of the deadliest Pacific conflicts for the United States, temporarily making Americans fear that the war there might not be won.

Question 39

Italy's brutal,unprovoked attack upon ____________________ in 1935 clearly demonstrated the deficiencies of the League of Nations.

Question 40

The turning point of the war in Europe came when

A) the Russians held the city of Stalingrad and pushed the Germans back, putting them on the defensive.
B) the liberation of France in 1944 after the landing at Normandy on June 6, 1944.
C) the Germans and Italians were driven out of North Africa in mid-1943.
D) the Allies landed in southern Italy in 1943.
E) Mussolini fell from power in Italy, leaving Hitler to make decisions alone.

Question 41

Preparing for war,Hitler reoccupied the ____________________ in 1936,and in 1938 he announced ____________________ with Austria.

Question 42

The chief American architect of the victory over Japan in the Pacific was General ____________________.

Question 43

To end World War II,the United States dropped bombs on ____________________ and ____________________,Japanese cities.

Question 44

At the Munich Conference of 1938,____________________ and ____________________ joined with Italy in allowing Hitler to annex the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia.

Question 45

The failure of Germany's air force in the ____________________ in 1940 prevented the invasion of what was,at the time,the last remaining Allied Power.

Question 46

The codename ____________________ denoted the German attack on Russia.