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WWII Unit Guide - Coggle Diagram

- - - - Goal was to encircle capital and polish formations
      - following the main encircling forces were units of Schutzstaffel (SS), the Death's Head Regiments - orders to these units were to rid poland of "the enemies of Nazism" with a logn list
  - - - Soviet strategy was to fight for every little place that was filled with rubble
      - Germans reffered to it as Rattenkrieg (War of the Rats)
  - - - General Bernard Montgomery (British) would rely upon numbers and fight a battle of attrition and once german defence was broken, win with massed armour
      - Forbidden to retret by hitler, rommel defended his northern posistion, weakening his southern positiion where the british plan worked
        
        Retreat eventually become the only option for germn-italian troops
  - - - Invasion of sicily and italy designed to force germans to divert divisions and relieve pressure on the Red Army (first front)
      - Second main front was in France - Operation Overlord
    - - Attack sand beachs - tnaks could not get traction on the shale beaches at Dieppe
      - Land the bulk of tanks after beaches are secure
      - Attack open beaches rather than establish ports
      - Absolute air superiority is necissary during amphibious pperations
      - Landign craft had to be improved and operated by the navy
    - - Gold Beach
        
        25000 British Sodiers, airbourne drops behind positions disoriented inexperienced defenders, suffereed 400 casualties
      - Juno Beach
        
        21000 Canadian men, first met stiff resistance, linked up with British forces from Gold Beach in evening, 1200 casualties w 350 close to dead
      - Omaha Beach
        
        34000 US troops, well depfended beach, germans had clear fire at approaching infantry, inaders eventually established beachhead at a cost of 4650 casualties
      - Sword Beach
        
        23000 troops, encountered little resistence but did face counter attack by german tank forces, allied air superiority blunted attack, 600 british casualties
      - Utah Beach
        
        23000 US troops, met limited resistence, suffering 197 casualties
  - - - hitler envisioned destruction of communist edifice and enslavement of the people who lived under it
- - - - First world war deeply effected military expendetures
  - - - When war did break out, they gathered an army to send ot france
- - - - Mein Kampf (by Hitler)
        
        Lebensraum - living space - in the east into which the german population could expand (Poland)
        
        After taking poland, germany would be able to use geran forces to deal with western urope with no enemy at her back
        
        avoiding a two front war as well
        
        Readjusting Versailles
      - True to his leadership style, Hitler did not choose what to do , but rather let circumstances dictate the course of events
      - Blitzkrieg - "Lightnight War" tactics: Required open spaces and a definitive and attainable end point
        
        dive-bombing - "flying artilery"
        
        Traditional infantry would follow to "mop up" any remaining resistance
  - - - allied powers would concentrate on the defeat of germany before the defeat of japan
      - strategic bombing would beconme a key component of the overall strategiy
      - italy was to be eliminated as quickly as possible
      - British and US holding in the Pacific would be defended
  - - - germany
        
        John Keegan argued that germany's economic stategy mirrored its military strategy, that is to say, like the german army it w was designed for quick victory
        
        same can be said for the japansese economy
      - japan
      - Overall
        
        The axis economies could not withstand a long war of attrition
        
        War of Attrition: a military strategy consisting of belligerent attempts to win a war by wearing down the enemy to the point of collapse through continuous losses in personnel and material. The war will usually be won by the side with greater such resources.
    - - Allies, specifically britain, understood it would have to sacrifice consumer production for war production
        
        About half of british production went to the war effort
        
        Yet, both britain and USSR depended on aid from US, whose economy produced a buncha material
- - - - The Dawes Plan: a financial aid package from the US to germany
        
        US gave loans to Germany
        
        Germany then paid off reperations to France and Britain
        
        This triangular flow seemed to work at first, as germany was in the so-called "Golden Age of the Weimar Republic" between 1924-1929
        
        Wall Stret Crash 1929 plugged germany into depression because it was actually dependent of the loans of the US
        
        Hitler and Nazi's used this economic hardship to get into office
        
        France and Britian paid off war time loans to US
    - - Hitler set out in undoing versailles with the justification of...
        
        National Socialism (Nazism)
        
        a mandate (assign (territory) under a mandate of the League of Nations)
      - Anchluss: Germany's annexation of Austria in 1938 (an act forbidden by versailles
    - - in the hope of avoiding war, appeasement was the name given to Britain's policy in the 1930s of allowing Hitler to expand German territory unchecked.
        
        In short: giving in to demands to avoid conflict
      - Most closely associated with British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, it is now widely discredited as a policy of weakness.
  - - - League of nations was formed
        
        was not taken seriously
        
        Germany and Japan just walked out
        
        failed to solve many conflicts or took to long to come to a concusion
        
        Ways of dealing with conflict
        
        collective security
        
        an aggressor against any one state is considered an aggressor against all other states, which act together to repel the aggressor.
        
        Didnt work because of different alliances and pacts between different countries, so no one helped in a time of need
        
        lots of loopholes
        
        gave cuntries false sense of secuirity
      - Treaty of Versailles
        
        axis powers denied seat at TOV
        
        Germany got all the blame for the war and had to pay HUGE reperations
      - End of the war provided LITTLE stability for europe and only benefited the USA
    - - ideology of Mussolini
      - Hitler.based Nazi ideology after facism
- - - - One of the many lessons of WWl - Europe could not be left on its own to recovery
      - Re-establishment of trade and sound currencies as soon as hostilities ceased
        
        global economy depended on as timely a recovery as possible
        
        avoid any long-term dependence on the US economy (do not want another stock market crash)
        
        Direct aid in the form of fod, fuel and loans from US
        
        Marshall Aid - aid credits allowing for the improvement of infrastructure and free trade - made recovery more efficient
        
        Plan was major accelerant for the cold war
        
        deteriorated US/Soviet relations
        
        US benefitted - wartime demand replaced by recovery demand
    - - Tribunal approach in which representatice of the four occupying powers would sit in judgement of the accused
        
        Individuals were accused
        
        Collectives such as the SS were accused
      - The accused were charger with one or more of the followign
        
        Carrying out an aggressive war
        
        Planning an aggressive war
        
        war crimes
        
        crimes against humanity
    - - Human lives lost- both military and civilian (more civilian livews lost and military)
      - Culture lost with all of the bombings and destruction of cities
      - Economic loss
  - - - aspects of the course of the war that made the cold war more likely
        
        the german invasion o fthe Soviet Union caused Stalin to look for security in eastern Europe
        
        Stalin interpreted the policy of appeasment as an anti-soviet policy of appeasement as a n anti-soviet policy
        
        the devastation that the war had visited on the soviet union provoked stalin to take reparations
        
        The US decision to not hare nuclear weapon technology with the allies led to a sense of mistrust and competition
        
        Stalin Chose to interpret the delays in operation overlord as deliberate
        
        During the wartime conferences difficult questions regarding post-war settlement were postponed
    - - Security Council - The veto provided to the four powers in the security council persuaded them that their role and influence would be respected
        
        Agreed that the new orginisation could not simply be another way for the powers to dominate the room
        
        provided a needed balance
      - General Assembly and of organs of the UN, which operated under the principle of one country one votem gave a voice to the less powerful states
    - - Overall, by weakening the old colonial powers to the extent that they could not longer maintain their empireds, WWll contributed to the wave of decolonization in africa and asia
        
        After the second world war, india's cries for independence could not longer be ignored as britain was too weak
        
        once japan surrendered to the US, Ho Chi Minh drafter a declaration of independence