Contents
Top Ten Things You Should Know about WWII
Introduction
Part One: Setting the Stage
1 Prelude to War
Hitler’s Rise to Power
Germany in Disarray
Fascism Takes Hold of Italy
Japanese Aggression
American Isolationism
Isolationism Following the First World War
2 Fanning the Flames
Germany Rearms
Hitler Takes Austria
Czechoslovakia Divided and Conquered
Hitler Pushes East
Hitler Takes Denmark and Norway
The Fall of France
Mussolini Joins the Fray
The Axis Expands
Japan Extends Its Military Might
3 The United States Enters the War
The Attack on Pearl Harbor
A Well-Planned Attack
Pearl Harbor Investigations
The American Response
Hawaii under Martial Law
The American Internment Camps
Part Two: The Major Battles
4 Europe
The Battle of the Atlantic
The Battle of Britain
Germany’s Soviet Campaign
The Italian Campaign
The Normandy Invasion
The Battle of the Bulge
The Soviet Offensive
5 North Africa
Egypt
Germany Enters the African War
Great Britain Reorganizes
The Northwest Africa Campaign
The North African Assault
Allied Forces Work Together
6 The Pacific
The Battle of the Coral Sea
Wake Island
Midway
The Philippines
The Battle of Guadalcanal
The Battle of Iwo Jima
The Battle of Okinawa
Part Three: The Major Players
7 The Political Leaders
Adolf Hitler
Benito Mussolini
Winston Churchill
Emperor Hirohito
Hideki Tojo
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Charles de Gaulle
Joseph Stalin
Harry S Truman
8 The Military Leaders
Isoroku Yamamoto
Erwin Rommel
Dwight Eisenhower
Bernard Montgomery
George Patton
Douglas MacArthur
Chester Nimitz
Masaharu Homma
Karl Dönitz
George Marshall
William Halsey
9 Other Prominent Figures
Adolf Eichmann
Joseph Goebbels
Heinrich Himmler
Rudolf Hess
Eleanor Roosevelt
Chiang Kai-shek
Marshal Philippe Pétain
Henry L. Stimson
Anne Frank
Oskar Schindler
Part Four: On the Battlefront
10 Ground Weapons
Personal Guns
Artillery
Antiaircraft Weapons
Tanks
Land Mines
Other Land Weapons
11 Air Weapons
Bombers
Bombs
Fighter Planes
Gliders
Guided Missiles and Rockets
Airships
12 Weapons and Vessels at Sea
Aircraft Carriers
Battleships
Destroyers
Submarines
Other Sea Weapons
Liberty Ships
13 The Horrors of War
Battlefield Conditions
Casualties
Suffer the Children
Prisoners of War
Battlefield Injuries and Medicine
14 The Axis Giants Fall
Germany Surrenders
Japan Surrenders
Part Five: Nazism and the Holocaust
15 German Anti-Semitism
The Need for a Scapegoat
Legislated Genocide
Jews in German-Occupied Lands
The Final Solution
Concentration Camps
Secrets and Propaganda
16 The War Crimes Trials
The Nuremberg Trials
Nazi Loyalists
Trial Results
The Tokyo Trials
The Doctors’ Trial
Part Six: America During the War Years
17 Life at Home
Hard Times on the Home Soil
Rationing
War Bonds
The Role of Propaganda
18 The Roles of Women During the War
Women Called to Morale Duty
The USO
Women at Work
Women at War
19 The War in the Media—During and After
On the Big Screen
Animation
Chronicling the War
The Influence of Comic Art
20 Rebuilding the World
The Yalta Conference
Brief Friends
The United Nations
The Postwar Pacific
Korea
Vietnam
Appendix A: Resources
Appendix B: The Holocaust in Numbers
Appendix C: World War II Timeline
Appendix D: Awards and Decorations