MXMS U.S. History

Allied Powers: comprised most notably of the United States, Soviet Union, France and Great Britain; fought to defeat Germany, Italy, and Japan.

Triple Axis: comprised of Germany, Italy, and Japan; fought to defeat the Allied Powers.

Operation Overlord: the code name for the Battle of Normandy; commonly known as D-Day.

Operation Market Garden: the code name for the Allied liberation of Holland in 1944. 

Battle of the Bulge: the month-long battle in the Ardennes region of Belgium and France. 

101st Airborne Division: the air assault division who played a crucial role in Operation Overlord and Operation Market Garden during World War II. 

Blitzkrieg: swift, sudden military offensives usually combining air and land forces; "lightning war".

Battle of Britain: the air campaign launched by Germany against Great Britain in 1940. 

Invasion of Poland: carried out by Germany on September 1, 1939; officially started World War II.

Luftwaffe: the German air force during World War II. 

Total War: the mobilization of a population for fighting and manufacturing goods for war.

Battle of Monte Cassino: a major battle in Italy occurring between January and May 1944. 

Battle of Stalingrad: the bloodiest battle of World War II in Europe; fought in Russia between August 1942 and February 1943.

Battle of France: the battle in which the Germans seized control of France in 1940. 

General Dwight D. Eisenhower: Supreme Allied Commander of World War II in Europe.

Nazi-Soviet Pact: the agreement reached between Stalin and Hitler saying they would not attack one another and that Poland would be equally divided.

Munich Conference: led to the settlement of portions of Czechoslovakia for Germany prior to the start of World War II. 

Appeasement: practice of giving in to an aggressor nation's demands in order to keep peace.

Adolf Hitler: leader of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945.

Rosie the Riveter: fictional character created by the U.S. government to encourage women to work in wartime factories.

Pearl Harbor: site of the Japanese attack on December 7, 1941; the United States declared war on Japan the following day.

Pacific Ocean: the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions.

Island hopping: the U.S. strategy of World War II in the Pacific; involved a series of short journeys between Pacific islands, rather than a single journey straight to Japan.

Kamikaze: a Japanese aircraft loaded with explosives and making a deliberate suicidal crash into an enemy target.

Emperor Hirohito: Japanese emperor during World War II. 

Battle of Okinawa: the bloodiest battle of World War II in the Pacific; lasted 82 days. 

Battle of Peleliu: a major battle in the Pacific between June and November of 1944.

Battle of Guadalcanal: the first major offensive by the United States against the Empire of Japan; code named Operation Watchtower.

Battle of Midway: the most important naval battle of World War II; fought over three days in 1942.

Battle of Iwo Jima: a major battle in the Pacific between February and March of 1945; code named Operation Detachment. 

Battle of Saipan: a major battle in the Pacific between June and July of 1944. 

Mount Suribachi: a high mountain located on the southwest end of the island of Iwo Jima. 

Manhattan Project: the research and development project that produced the atomic bombs during World War II.

Hiroshima: Japanese city and site of first atomic bombing on August 6, 1945.

Nagasaki: Japanese city and site of second atomic bombing on August 9, 1945. 

Unconditional surrender: a surrender in which no guarantees or terms are given to the surrendering party. 

USS Arizona: one of the major battleships sunk at Pearl Harbor by the Japanese; over 1,000 officers and crewman were killed.

Douglas MacArthur: Supreme Allied Commander in the Pacific Theatre during World War II. ​

Japanese Internment Camps: relocation and imprisonment areas for Japanese citizens living in the U.S. during World War II.

United Nations: international peace keeping organization created at the end of World War II.