4º British: Online World War II lesson. Stage 3: Transition (1941-42)

The following link will show you the third chapter of my classroom presentation. Because this week you have to finish the monthly work too, this chapter is shorter :)

It is about the official entrance of Russia (after Hitler broke the pact and invaded it!) and USA (after the attack over Pearl Harbour) into the war and how these two fatcs altered the development of the conflict.

The Russian or Eastern front was a terrible and long war scenario, with the infamous and bloodiest one being Stalingrad battle, with around two million casualties and several documented cases of cannibalism. Because the city bore Stalin’s name it was of a high importance for the morale of the Soviet forces to hold it… and for Hitler to conquer it. Can you guess how it finished? Do you remember Napoleon Bonaparte’s mistake? Yes, exactly: the Russians waited for winter to come... then, they trapped the German troops into an exhausting urban warfare, fighting house by house. Look at the drawing (in red, obviously, the Russian Soviet Army; in dark grey, the Germans):

Meanwhile, in the Pacific front, the Japanese government decided to attack Pearl Harbor (Hawaii) because the following reasons:

1. As a revenge: USA cut off US oil exports to Japan in the summer of 1941. Without USA oil supplies (80% of their total!) Japanese navy would be unable to function.
2. Strategy: Japan wanted to create an empire (they called it “an Asian co-prosperity sphere” under the motto “Asia for Asians”). As Europeans powers were busy in the war and not able to defend their Asian colonies, in attacking Pearl Harbor the Japanese hoped to destroy the USA fleet so that the Japanese navy would have total free reign in the Pacific. Indeed, in the hours following the Pearl Harbor attack, Japan also attacked British-held Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaya, and the USA territorial possessions of the Philippines, Guam and Wake Island. 

The saddest thing is that USA known that a Japanese attack was imminent somewhere in the Pacific, but experts had thought the Philippines or some other area of the South Pacific closer to Japan was the likely target. Pearl Harbor was considered too far away and therefore they did not prepared safety steps... Look at the geographical location of Hawaii tn this map:

But there is another sad side on this part of History: the suffering of the North-Americans citizens with Japanese origin. Watch the following video to discover what happened to them (6 minutes in English). Ugly history: Japanese American incarceration Camps.

You can watch two short videos about both episodes here:

Simple History: Battle of Stalingrad (5 minutes)

Simple History: Pearl Harbour (1’20 minutes only!)

The last slide of this part is a photo of the famous Enigma machine, the German encryption device whose working process was dechipered by the British Inteligence at Bletchley Park as part of the Ultra program. There is even a quite recent film about it, if you like this type of cinema: The imitation game (2014).

Now, to show that you have really revised all that information (if necessary, you can also do a quick online search), send the answers to the following questions to blogeducativo08@gmail.com before Tuesday, 5 May (important announcement: also remember that this same week, Thursday 7 May, you MUST send me the monthly work nº7):

Question 1: What was the Operation Barbarrosa? Summarise it in 5-6 lines.

Question 2: Why did Hitler order to invade the Caucasus?

Question 3: Find out the title of a book&film that was inspired in the true story of the Russian sniper Vasily Zaitsev.

Question 4: What is the meaning and historical explanation of the Japanese word “kamikaze”?

Question 5: What was the “Leapfrogging”, also known as “Island hopping strategy”, in the Pacific Front?

Question 6: How did the Enigma machine work? Summarise it in 5-6 lines.

That’s all for this week. If any doubt, just ask me, ok?