World War II
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SOE Acronym for the Special Operations Executive, an organization set up by Britain in 1940 to send secret agents into enemy-occupied Europe.
SS Acronym for Schutzstaffeln, an elite unit in the Nazi party, which also had its own armed troops—the Waffen SS.
theater of war A geographical area in which part of a war is fought—for example, “the Mediterranean theater.”
unconditional surrender The policy of the Allies, who decided that there would be no peace negotiations with their enemies; the enemy countries could not ask for any special conditions for their surrender.
Vichy France After Germany’s defeat of France in June 1940, the French government that cooperated with Nazi Germany moved from Paris to the town of Vichy. The area of southern France that this government ruled, called Vichy France, was aligned with Nazi Germany.
Wehrmacht The German armed forces.
wolf packs Groups of German submarines hunting together for ships to sink in the Atlantic.
STATISTICS CONCERNING COMBATANT NATIONS
Casualties
Australia
A total of 9,572 military dead, excluding the war against Japan, including:
A total of 27,073 military dead, including the war against Japan.
Britain
Canada
France
Germany
Italy
An estimated 150,000 army dead (including fighting for Allies); 50,000 naval and air deaths; perhaps 100,000 civilians died as partisans, in bombing, or after being deported
India (including present-day Pakistan and Bangladesh)
Total: 36,092 killed, mostly fighting against Japan.
New Zealand
South Africa
War deaths: total about 9,000, including Air Force deaths: 2,227
Soviet Union
military killed: total: 8,668,400
(including 3.3 million who died as prisoners of war)
Civilians killed: 17 million (lowest estimate)
United States of America
Total U.S. dead (all theaters of war):
Other European Death Tolls (estimates)
FURTHER INFORMATION
RECOMMENDED BOOKS
The following books look at World War II and focus on the war in Europe:
Adams, Simon. Eyewitness World War II. DK Publishing, 2000.
Ambrose, Stephen E. Citizen Soldiers: The U.S. Army from the Normandy Beaches to the Bulge to the Surrender of Germany, June 7, 1944—May 7, 1945. Simon and Schuster, 1997.
Anflick, Charles. Teen Partisans and Resisters Who Fought Nazi Tyranny. Rosen Publishing Group, 1999.
Gottfried, Ted. The Great Fatherland War: The Soviet Union in World War II. Milbrook Press, 2003.
Panchyk, Richard. World War II for Kids: A History with 21 Activities. Chicago Review Press, 2002.
Patterson, Don. Scramble! Tales of the RAF. Hindsight Limited, 1999.
Schomp, Virginia. World War II. Benchmark, 2003
Stein, R. Conrad. World War II in Europe. Enslow, 2003.
Verhoeven, Ryan, and Ruud Van der Rol. Anne Frank Beyond the Diary: A Photographic Remembrance. Puffin, 1995.
Warren, Andrea. Surviving Hitler: A Boy in the Nazi Death Camps. HarperCollins Publishers, 2002.
RECOMMENDED VIDEOS
The following videos are available on VHS or DVD:
World War II: When Lions Roared (1994)
The Air Power Collection (2002):
Volume 1: The Nazi War Machine
Volume 2: Allied Victory
People’s Century: the Saga of World War II
Series (1999): Master Race: Nazism
Overtakes Germany
World War II: The Leaders—Vol. 2 (1998)
Total War: World War II and the Home Front (1999)
RECOMMENDED WEBSITES
The Internet offers a vast archive of material both on the war in general and on every aspect of it. Starting points on the web might be:
www.historyplace.com/worldwar2
www.worldwar-2.net
World War historylacusd.edu/gen/ww2_links.html
Note to parents and teachers
Every effort has been made by the publishers to ensure that these web sites are suitable for children; that they are of the highest educational value; and that they contain no inappropriate or offensive material. However, because of the nature of the Internet, it is impossible to guarantee that the contents of these sites will not be altered. We strongly advise that a responsible adult supervise Internet access.
PLACES TO VISIT
Among places to visit connected to the war in Europe, top of the list must be the Normandy beaches. Apart from the beaches themselves, Normandy is dotted with World War II cemeteries and museums. Some U.S. museums partly or totally devoted to the war are:
The Naval Historical Center, Washington Naval Yard, Washington, D.C. 20374 (www.history.navy.mil)
The National World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C. (www.wwiimemorial.com)
U.S. Air Force Museum, Dayton, Ohio (www.wpafb.af.mil/museum/index.htm)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
The author, Reg Grant, studied history at the University of Oxford and is the author of more than a dozen books on modern history. He specializes in the history of the twentieth century. His book The Holocaust (1997) was shortlisted for the Times Educational Supplement’s Senior Information Book Award.
INDEX
Numbers in bold refer to captions to pictures or, where indicated, to maps.
Abyssinia 19
invasion of 4
Afrika Korps 20
air cover of Atlantic shipping 16 map
airborne troops 8, 10, 12, 19, 21, 41, 41, 43
Alam Halfa 20
Albania 6, 20
Alexander, Field Marshal Sir Harold 52
Allied supply lines 16
Anschluss 4, 5
Antwerp, capture of 42, 44
Anzio, landings at 37, 37
Ardennes armored offensive 44, 44, 45, 45 map, 46
armored divisions 10, 25, 42
Army Group Center 26, 39
North and South 26
Arnhem 43, 43
Aryan race 31
Atlantic, Battle of 16, 16 map
Atlantic Charter 16, 17
Atlantic convoy 17
Austria 4, 49
Axis alliance 4, 18
forces, May 1943 surrender in Africa of 23
B-24 Liberator bombers 35
Badoglio, Marshal Pietro 36
Bagration, Operation 39
Baku oil fields 28
Baltic states 9
Barbarossa, Operation 24, 25
Bastogne 46
Battle of Britain 14, 14 map, 15, 15
Belgium 12, 13, 44, 45 map, 46
invasion of 12
Belorussia 39
Berlin 47, 48, 49
blockade of 50
capture of 48, 48 map
Wall 51
Bessarabia 9
Blitz, the 15
Blitzkrieg 10, 12
Bomber bases, U.S. in Africa 34 map
Bombing offensive against
Germany 34
raids 15, 35
strategic targets in Germany 34 map, 35
Bradley, General Omar 52
Britain 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22, 28, 36
British Expeditionary Force (BEF) 8, 10, 12
Brussels 42
Budapest 39, 47
Bulge, Battle of the 44, 45, 45, 45 map, 46
Caen 41
Calais 41
Cape Matapan, battle of 19
Caucasus Mountains 29, 30
oil fields 29
Chamberlain, Neville 4, 6, 11
Cherbourg 41, 40 map, 43 map
Churchill, Winston 9, 11, 12, 13, 16, 16, 36, 37, 46, 52
Clark, General Mark 52
collaborators 31
Communism 50
communist 6, 24, 32, 50
concentration camps (see also death camps) 31, 32, 32, 33 map, 46
Dachau 32, 46, 47
Buchenwald 46
convoy routes 16 map
convoys 16
Cossack cavalry 27
Crete 20, 21
German invasion of 20, 20 map, 21
Crimea 39
Croatia 21
Czechoslovakia 4, 6, 49, 50
D-Day 41
landings 40, 40 map, 41
Danzig (Gdansk) 6, 6
Death camps (see also concentration camps) 32, 33
Auschwitz 32, 32, 33
Belzec camp 32
Chelmno camp 32
Majdanik camp 32
sites of Nazi 33 map
Sobibor camp 32
Treblinka 32
de Gaulle, General Charles 18, 42, 43, 52
Denmark 10, 11
invasion of 11 map
occupation of 11
depth charges 17
Dieppe landing 34
Dnieper River 38
Doenitz, Admiral Karl 52
Dowding, Sir Hugh 15, 52
Dresden, bombing of 35
Dunkirk 12, 13, 13
evacuation from 13 map
troops evacuated from 12
East Germany 50
Eastern Front 25, 27, 38, 41
Egypt 18, 19, 22
Eighth Army 22, 22, 23
Eisenhower, General Dwight D. 23, 36, 41, 41, 48, 53
El Alamein, battle of 22, 22, 23
Estonia 9
Europe, extent of German
control in 1942, 30 map
postwar political alignment of 51 map
Falaise Gap 42
Final Solution, the 32
Finland 9
Soviet invasion of 9, 9 map
Finnish soldiers 8
Finnish-Soviet War 9 map
food shortages 30
France 4, 8, 9, 10, 13, 18, 19
invasion of 41
liberation of 43, 43 map
Franco, General Francisco 4, 18
Free French movement 18
French North Africa, U.S. invasion of 22
French Resistance 31, 42
Gdansk (Danzig) 6
German
advance into Belgium and
France 13 map
artillery 28
firing squad 31
naval codes cracked 17
offensive in Soviet Union in 1942, 29 map
prisoners 29, 47
refugees 50
Sixth Army 28
troops in Russia 24
Germans, entering Paris 13
Germany 4, 5, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 24, 25, 30, 31, 32, 33 map, 36, 37, 38, 43, 44, 49
Allied advance toward 43 map
Allied advance into 46 map
Soviet advance into 46 map, 48 map
territories occupied by Germany, 1935–38, 5 map
territory occupied by 1942 30 map
war declaration against 8
Gibraltar 18, 19
Goebbels, Joseph 33
Goering, Reich Marshal
Hermann 53
Gold beach 40, 41
Greater German Reich, the 30 map
Greece 21
invasion of 19, 20, 20 map
Guderian, General Heinz 12, 53
Gustav Line 36, 37
gypsy people 31, 32
Hamburg bombing 34
RAF raid on 35
Harris, Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur 53
Hitler, Adolf 4, 4, 5, 6, 6, 7, 12, 13, 17, 18, 21, 23, 24, 24, 26, 28, 32, 33, 41, 45, 47, 48, 53
assassination plot 44
suicide of 48
Hitler Youth 47
Hoepner, General Erich 24
Holocaust, the 32
Hungary 25, 39, 47, 50
Illustrious, HMS 18, 19
Iron Curtain 50, 51
Italian army, defeat in North Africa 18
Italian troops 19
Italy 4, 6, 18, 19, 20, 20 map, 22, 23, 25, 32, 34 map, 35, 48, 49, 50
Allied invasion of 36, 37, 37 map
“Jewish problem,” the 32
Jews 6, 32, 32, 33, 33 map
Jodl, General Alfred 48
Junkers Ju-87 (Stuka) 10
Juno beach 40, 41
Katyusha multiple rocket launchers 38
Kesselring, Field Marshal Albert 36
Kiev 26
capture by Red Army 38
Kursk 38, 39 map
Ladoga, Lake 26, 27
Latvia 9
Lebensraum (living space) 6
Lend-Lease program 16
Leningrad 26, 27
front 26
siege of 25, 25 map, 26, 26, 26 map, 39
Libya 18, 19, 19, 20
Lithuania 6, 9
London 15, 45
Luftwaffe 7, 13, 14, 15, 19, 21
Maginot Line 10
Maleme 21
Malta 18, 19, 20, 21
Mannerheim Line 9
Manstein, General Erich von 12, 53
Market-Garden, Operation 42, 43
Marshall, General George 54
Marshall Plan 50, 54
massacres of civilians 21
Mediterranean 18, 18, 19, 20 map, 21, 23 map, 30, 30 map, 34 map, 35, 42, 43 map
war zone 5 map, 19 map
Memel 6, 6 map
Mers-el-Kébir 18
Mihailovic, Colonel Draza 32
Minsk 26
Molotov, Vyacheslav 7
Monte Cassino 36
Montgomery, General Bernard 22, 22, 41, 42, 43, 47, 54
Moscow 25, 26, 39
Mulberry harbors 41
Murmansk 16 map, 28
Mussolini, Benito 4, 18, 19, 36, 48, 54
Narvik 10, 11
NATO 50, 51 map
Nazi New Order 31, 32
Nazis 31, 32, 32, 39, 42, 48
Nazi-Soviet Pact 7, 24
Netherlands, 10, 12, 43
night fighters 15
Normandy 40, 41
breakout from 42, 43
campaign 43, 43 map
North Africa 18, 19, 20, 22, 23, 35, 36
Allied invasion of 23 map
North African campaign 22, 23, 23 map
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) 50, 51 map
Norway 10, 11, 30, 31
invasion of by Germany 11, 11 map
Norwegian campaign 1940, 10
Nuremberg war crimes trials 50, 50
occupation zones 49, 50
Office of Strategic Services (OSS) 33
Omaha beach 40, 40 map, 41
Oslo 11
Overlord, Operation 41
P-51 Mustang fighter 35
panzers 12, 13, 36, 41
parachute troops 20
partisan groups 32
Patton, General George 42, 46, 47, 54
Paulus, Field Marshal Friedrich 28
Pearl Harbor 17
Pétain, Marshal Philippe 13, 31
“Phony War” 10
Ploesti oil fields 34, 35
Poland, invasion of 4, 6, 6, 6 map, 7
Death camps in 32
postwar borders of 49
resistance groups in 32
Soviet advance into 39, 39
Potsdam Conference 49
Prague 6
prisoners of war 31
Provence, Allied landings in 42
Quisling, Vidkun 31
radar 14, 15
RAF (Royal Air Force) 12, 14, 15, 34, 34, 41
Reichstag building, Berlin 49
Remagen bridge 47
resistance movements 32
Rhine crossings 46 map, 47
Rhineland, the 4
Ribbentrop, Joachim von 7
Roma people 31
Romania 9, 25, 34 map, 35, 39, 50
Rommel, General Erwin 20, 22, 23, 54
Roosevelt, President Franklin D. 15, 16, 16, 17, 36, 46, 48, 55
Rotterdam 12
Royal Navy 11, 12, 18, 19
Rundstedt, Field Marshal Gerd von 44
Saarland 5
Salerno landing 36
Sea Lion Operation 13, 14 map
“Second Front” 36
Sedan 13
Sicily 20
Allied invasion of 36, 36, 37 map
Sinti (gypsy) people 31
slave labor 31, 33, 33 map
Slavs 24, 31, 32, 33
Smolensk 25 map, 26
Spanish Civil War 7
Soviet
advances in 1943–34, 39 map
offensive 1942–43, 38
territory occupied by 1943–44 39 map
troops in Poland 38
Soviet Union 6, 6 map, 7, 8, 9, 16, 21, 25, 28, 30, 30, 32, 36, 50, 51 map
counteroffensive in 1942 29 map
German invasion of 25, 25 map
German offensive in 1942 29 map
Special Operations Executive (SOE), 33
Stalin, Josef 6, 9, 24, 25, 27, 28, 38, 46, 50, 55
Stalingrad 28, 29, 29, 38
battle of 28, 28, 29 map
losses at 29
strategic bombing offensive against Germany 34 map
Stuka dive-bomber 7, 10
Sudetenland 4, 6
Suez Canal 18, 22
Sword beach 40, 41
Swordfish biplanes 18, 19
Taranto 18, 19
Tito, Josip Broz 32, 50, 55
Torch, Operation 22
Torgau 48, 49
Tripoli 20
Truman, President Harry S. 48, 50
Tunisia 23
U-boats 16, 17, 17
Ukraine 26, 39
United States 15, 16, 17, 22, 28, 36, 50, 51
United States Army Air Force (USAAF) 34, 35
U.S. daylight bombing raids 34
USSR(see also Soviet Union) 51
Utah beach 40, 41
V-1, V-2 rockets 45, 45
Versailles, Treaty of 4, 5
Vichy 13, 18, 19, 30, 31, 42
Vienna 4, 5
Vistula, River 39, 45
Warsaw 8, 39
Pact members 51 map
Uprising 32, 39
Wehrmacht 31
West Germany 50
Western Front 31
Winter War, the, 1939–40, 8
Yalta Conference 46
Yugoslavia 20, 21, 32, 39, 49
German invasion of 20, 20 map, 21
Zhukov, Marshal Georgi 48, 48, 55