Deck 45: World War II

Question 1

What was a major wartime accomplishment in the Pacific Theater that was part of a campaign in 1944 by General Douglas MacArthur and Admiral Chester Nimitz?

A)The use of the atomic bomb on the Japanese home islands.
B)The defensive victories in the island-hopping campaign that protected Australia.
C)The liberation of the Philippine Islands from Tokyo's forces.
D)The Navy and Marine Corps victory on Guadalcanal.
E)The U.S. Commanders convinced the Chinese to join the war effort against Japan.

Answer 1

The liberation of the Philippine Islands from Tokyo's forces.

Question 2

How long did the peace last regarding the proclamation by Neville Chamberlain in 1939 declaring "peace in our time"?

A)About a week.
B)Four years.
C)Three days.
D)Almost six months.
E)One year.

Answer 2

One year.

Question 3

The fo cal 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.

Answer 3

the postwar political arrangements in Eastern Europe.

Question 4

One o stensible 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 5

A c hief 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 6

The German term blitzkrieg refers to what new method of aggressive warfare?

A)Static defense.
B)Naval blockade.
C)Lightning war.
D)Aerial reconnaissance.
E)Linear warfare.

Question 7

What course did the Western democracies pursue during the Spanish Civil War?

A)They remained neutral.
B)They supported Spain.
C)They supported the Loyalists.
D)They supported the  Popular Front.
E)They supported the Nationalists.

Question 8

In maki ng the decision to use the atomic bomb on Japan, the United States dealt with all of these considerations 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 9

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 10

What were the main terms of the Nonaggression Pact of 1939 between Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler?

A)The Pact allowed for an armistice between the Germans and the Soviets on the Eastern Front.
B)The Pact divided up Eastern Europe between the National Socialists and the Soviets.
C)The Pact allowed the Soviet Union to pursue a war against Japan without German interference.
D)The Pact gave parts of Denmark to Germany in exchange for friendship toward the Soviets.
E)The Pact allowed Hitler to annex Austria without getting prior approval from the Soviets.

Question 11

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 12

Which countries comprised the alliance known as the Little Entente?

A)Spain, Germany, and France.
B)China, Japan, and Germany.
C)France, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Romania.
D)France, the United States, and England.
E)France, Greece, Austria, and Germany.

Question 13

The German attack code named Operation Barbarossa was an offensive against which country?

A)Fascist Italy.
B)Soviet Russia.
C)Great Britain.
D)Poland.
E)Switzerland.

Question 14

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 15

45 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 16

In June 1944, what began the part of World War II in Europe that was known as the Second Front?

A)The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
B)The German attacks on Soviet Russian territory.
C)The German attacks and later defeat on the Italian peninsula.
D)The attacks around Stalingrad marking the beginning of the Russian offensive.
E)The invasion across the English Channel by British, American, and Canadian forces.

Question 17

In Spa in'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 18

In 1 944, 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

The Sovi et 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 20

What was somewhat unique in warfare regarding the Battle of Britain?

A)It was fought entirely in the air and eventually was won by the British.
B)It allowed the British to test secret jet aircraft against the Germans.
C)It was fought entirely underwater by German and British submarines.
D)The British were able to stop the German invaders on the shores of England.
E)The Germans kept the British from invading their homeland by use of armored vehicles.

Question 21

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 22

In 1948-1949 the Western Allies defeated the Soviet blockade of ____________________ by airlifting food and vital supplies for eleven months.

Question 23

President Truman and the U.S. high command asserted that dropping the atomic bomb on Japan saved about ____________________ American lives.

Question 24

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

Question 25

The B attle 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 26

The c odename ____________________ denoted the German attack on Russia.

Question 27

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

Question 28

When Hitl er 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 29

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

Question 30

When Hitl er'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 31

The tu rning 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 32

Term for identification: Little Entente

Question 33

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 34

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

Question 35

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 36

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

Question 37

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

Question 38

In February 1945, the allied participants at the ____________________ agreed that free elections would be held in liberated areas as soon as possible, but the Soviets refused to honor the agreement.

Question 39

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 40

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 41

Term for identification: luftwaffe

Question 42

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

Question 43

Term for identification: Munich Agreements

Question 44

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

Question 45

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

Question 46

Term for identification: Neville Chamberlain

Question 47

Term for identification: Rhineland

Question 48

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

Question 49

Term for identification: Blitzkrieg

Question 50

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

Question 51

Term for identification: Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Question 52

Term for identification: Axis Pact

Question 53

Term for identification: General Francisco Franco

Question 54

Term for identification: Pearl Harbor, Hawaii