Deck 26: World War Ii

Question 1

Why did Stalin stop Soviet troops from coming to the aid of the Warsaw Uprising in 1944?

A)He wanted the Polish government in exile to be weak in order to make the Soviet occupation of Poland easier.
B)He told his generals that the uprising was being led by kulaks and therefore was anti-revolutionary.
C)He had to divert units south to stop a German advance through the Ukraine.
D)The United States asked him to stop so resources could be diverted for D-Day.
E)Winter was approaching and Soviet tanks had to be retrofitted for the advance into Germany.

Answer 1

He wanted the Polish government in exile to be weak in order to make the Soviet occupation of Poland easier.

Question 2

After conquering France in June 1940,Germany divided the nation into an occupied zone and a free zone with its capital at what town?

A)Marseille
B)Vichy
C)Lyon
D)Weimar
E)Verdun

Answer 2

Vichy

Question 3

What best describes the Maginot Line?

A)a line of soldiers positioned along the English channel to defend against German aggression
B)a line of bunker-like fortifications built by France that ran from Switzerland to the Belgian frontier
C)a German battle tactic which involved organizing soldiers in long lines
D)an alliance between France,Belgium,and Spain
E)Chamberlain's plan to strike and defeat Germany quickly

Answer 3

a line of bunker-like fortifications built by France that ran from Switzerland to the Belgian frontier

Question 4

Which nation destroyed the French fleet at Mersel-Kébir in July 1940 and why?

A)Germany,as it saw a chance to destroy French naval power
B)Italy,to clear the way for an invasion of North Africa
C)Germany,to prevent the French fleet from falling into British hands
D)Britain,to get revenge on France for its surrender
E)Britain,to prevent the French fleet from falling into German hands

Question 5

Who replaced Neville Chamberlain as the prime minister of the United Kingdom following Germany's occupation of Denmark and victory in Norway?

A)Clement Attlee
B)Winston Churchill
C)John Maynard Keynes
D)Wallis Simpson
E)David Lloyd George

Question 6

Hitler signed a nonaggression pact with what nation in August 1939,clearing the way for his invasion of Poland?

A)the United Kingdom
B)the United States
C)France
D)Czechoslovakia
E)the Soviet Union

Question 7

Why did allied governments do little to publicize the disappearance of hundreds of thousands of Jews?

A)They planned to get justice after the war and thought it would be easier if there were less media attention.
B)Newspapers and radios were shut down during the war.
C)They wanted to wait for more evidence before doing anything.
D)They thought calls to aid Jews directly might distract from the war effort.
E)The media remained independent during the war,so there was little the governments could do.

Question 8

What were the German Einsatzgruppen?

A)mobile killing units that carried out the initial massacres of Jews
B)commando units that led the Blitzkrieg in 1940
C)advanced tanks used in World War II
D)commissars appointed to military units that ensured soldiers followed Nazi edicts
E)special units trained for desert warfare in North Africa

Question 9

At the 1938 Munich conference,the United Kingdom and France agreed to partition what nation in order to appease Hitler?

A)Czechoslovakia
B)Austria
C)Poland
D)Hungary
E)Switzerland

Question 10

The concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau became the biggest site for what new German policy in 1942?

A)preparations for the invasion of the Soviet Union
B)a shift of resources from civilian consumption to war production
C)the training of collaborators for conquered European nations
D)assembly-line-like murders of Jews
E)the expropriation of property from defeated nations

Question 11

Which European nation was the first combatant to face total war due to bombing of its capital by enemy aircraft?

A)Germany
B)France
C)Italy
D)Britain
E)the Soviet Union

Question 12

The head of the collaborationist French government,Marshal Pétain,worked together with the Nazis for what reason?

A)He wanted Germany to defeat France's old enemy,the United Kingdom.
B)He shared the Nazis' anti-Semitic and anti-Marxist attitudes.
C)He hoped to again command troops in the field.
D)He thought the French people deserved to suffer for their defeat.
E)He thought he could attain additional territory for France through collaboration.

Question 13

What was Hitler's response to the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941?

A)He feared the war was lost because the United States had declared war on Germany.
B)He attempted to forge a temporary truce with the Soviet Union to move his forces west.
C)He contacted Franklin Roosevelt to ask for an end to hostilities between Germany and the United States.
D)He closed several concentration camps,fearing the American reaction.
E)He declared war on the United States,thinking the American public would not support American forces fighting in Europe.

Question 14

What name,meaning "lightning war," was given to Germany's motorized warfare tactics?

A)Wehrmacht
B)Weserübung
C)Barbarossa
D)Blitzkrieg
E)Drang nach Osten

Question 15

Which nation used the "Enigma" machine to decipher intercepted enemy code?

A)Germany
B)France
C)Britain
D)the United States
E)the Soviet Union

Question 16

Why did the Nazis keep some Jews alive in ghettos and concentration camps?

A)They thought some Jews were better than others and did not deserve to be killed.
B)They needed some Jews to work as slave laborers.
C)They hoped some Jews would collaborate and could move out of Europe after the war.
D)They planned to train a Jewish commando unit for use against the Soviet Union.
E)The surviving Jews were to be part of a Nazi racial breeding program.

Question 17

After quickly defeating France in mid-1940,Germany next planned for an invasion of what nation,which would begin with an aerial battle lasting several months?

A)Britain
B)the Netherlands
C)the Soviet Union
D)Greece
E)Finland

Question 18

What non-European nation joined Germany and Italy in the "Axis"?

A)China
B)the United States
C)South Africa
D)Canada
E)Japan

Question 19

What nation did Germany annex in the 1938 Anschluss,explicitly violating the Treaty of Versailles?

A)Austria
B)Czechoslovakia
C)Hungary
D)Luxembourg
E)Poland

Question 20

By what name was Josip Broz,the commander of anti-Nazi partisans in Yugoslavia,better known?

A)Ustasa
B)Chetnik
C)Tito
D)De Gaulle
E)Moulin

Question 21

The D-Day landings,which opened a new front in the war,took place in what region?

A)Languedoc
B)Sicily
C)Brittany
D)Normandy
E)Calais

Question 22

Why did both Italy and Japan ally with Germany in 1936? How and why did the French Vichy government collaborate with the Germans?

Question 23

What general became the leader of Free French forces following the creation of the collaborationist regime?

A)Ferdinand Foch
B)Charles de Gaulle
C)Philippe Pétain
D)Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque
E)Jean de Lattre de Tassigny

Question 24

The United States dropped the first atomic bomb on what Japanese city in August 1945?

A)Tokyo
B)Nagasaki
C)Osaka
D)Hiroshima
E)Sapporo

Question 25

Which battle,which ended in February 1943,was the great turning point of the war in Europe?

A)Stalingrad
B)D-Day
C)Battle of the Bulge
D)Kursk
E)Warsaw

Question 26

What was a priority of Franklin Roosevelt at the Yalta Conference?

A)to ensure free elections in Eastern Europe after the war
B)to divide Germany into capitalist and communist countries
C)to ensure Soviet participation in the United Nations
D)to defeat Germany more quickly than previously planned
E)to get international approval for his use of an atomic bomb

Question 27

What were the priorities of U.S.President Franklin Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin at the Yalta Conference?