World War II: ISC Class 12 History Notes on Causes, Course and Axis Defeat

What World War II is about

Weightage: CISCE publishes no chapter or unit weightage for ISC History. World War II is part of Section B: World History, 7 of the 2027 syllabus and can be asked anywhere in the 80-mark Paper I (Section A 16 one-mark items, Section B 4-mark short answers, Section C 8-mark long answers).Source: CISCE ISC History (851) syllabus, examination year 2027; ISC 2025 specimen question paper

Key concepts

Aggressive foreign policy of Germany (1933-39)

Hitler's aims: to destroy the Treaty of Versailles, rearm Germany, unite all German-speaking people in one Reich, and win 'living space' (Lebensraum) in the east.

Steps, year by year
1. 1933: Germany left the Disarmament Conference and the League of Nations.
2. 1934: a ten-year non-aggression pact with Poland, to reassure the West.
3. 1935: conscription and open rearmament announced; the Saar returned by plebiscite; the Anglo-German Naval Agreement allowed a German navy of 35 per cent of Britain's.
4. March 1936: German troops remilitarised the Rhineland, breaking Versailles and Locarno; Britain and France did nothing.
5. 1936: the Rome-Berlin Axis; the Anti-Comintern Pact with Japan (Italy joined in 1937); German help to Franco in the Spanish Civil War.
6. March 1938: Anschluss, the union with Austria.
7. September 1938: the Munich Agreement gave Germany the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia.
8. March 1939: Germany occupied the rest of Czechoslovakia (Bohemia and Moravia) and took Memel from Lithuania.
9. May 1939: the Pact of Steel with Italy.
10. 23 August 1939: the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact, with a secret protocol dividing Poland and eastern Europe.
11. 1 September 1939: invasion of Poland; Britain and France declared war on 3 September.

How it made war more likely: every success without resistance encouraged Hitler to go further; Germany rearmed faster than the democracies; by 1939 his demands could only be stopped by force.

Worked example

[4] Between 1933 and 1939 Hitler tore up the Versailles settlement step by step. Explain four of these steps (leave out the union with Austria). (Analysis)

Try it first, then show the solutionSolution

1. 1933: left the Disarmament Conference and the League; 1934 pact with Poland - 1 mark.
2. 1935: conscription and rearmament; Anglo-German Naval Agreement - 1 mark.
3. 1936: remilitarised the Rhineland; Anti-Comintern Pact and Rome-Berlin Axis - 1 mark.
4. 1938-39: Munich and the Sudetenland; occupation of Czechoslovakia and Memel; Nazi-Soviet Pact - 1 mark.

Answer: In 1933 Hitler left the Disarmament Conference and the League, freeing Germany from international limits. In 1935 he announced conscription and rearmament, and the Anglo-German Naval Agreement accepted a larger German navy. In 1936 he remilitarised the Rhineland and formed the Rome-Berlin Axis and the Anti-Comintern Pact. In 1938-39 he won the Sudetenland at Munich, seized the rest of Czechoslovakia and Memel, and signed the Nazi-Soviet Pact to secure his eastern flank.

Aggressive foreign policy of Italy and Japan

Italy (Mussolini)

• Grievance: in the secret Treaty of London (1915) Italy had been promised territory that it did not receive at Versailles (a 'mutilated victory').
• Aims: to make the Mediterranean 'our sea' (Mare Nostrum), build an empire in Africa and win prestige.
• Actions: the Corfu incident (1923); the invasion of Abyssinia (Ethiopia) in October 1935, which defied the League (sanctions were half-hearted and excluded oil) and drove Italy closer to Germany; intervention in the Spanish Civil War (1936-39); the Rome-Berlin Axis (1936); joined the Anti-Comintern Pact and left the League (1937); occupied Albania (April 1939); the Pact of Steel (May 1939).

Japan

• The Great Depression hit Japan's silk and other exports; foreign tariffs closed markets; poverty was blamed on politicians and big business.
• The army, disgusted with weak parliamentary governments, gained control and wanted raw materials and markets in China.
• September 1931: the army seized Manchuria (the Mukden incident) and set up the puppet state of Manchukuo (1932); when the League condemned it, Japan left the League (1933).
• 1936: Anti-Comintern Pact with Germany.
• July 1937: full-scale war with China (Marco Polo Bridge incident); capture of Nanjing.
• 1940: Tripartite Pact with Germany and Italy; occupation of northern French Indo-China, plans for a 'Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere'.

How these made the war worldwide: Japan's expansion clashed with American, British and Dutch interests in the Pacific and South-East Asia, turning a European war into a global one after Pearl Harbour.

Worked example

[4] How did the Great Depression push Japan towards expansion in the 1930s? Explain four links. (Understanding)

Try it first, then show the solutionSolution

1. The Depression caused severe poverty; people blamed the government and big business - 1 mark.
2. Exports (especially silk) collapsed as other countries raised tariffs - 1 mark.
3. Japan's investments and trade in Manchuria seemed threatened by Chinese nationalism - 1 mark.
4. The army, contemptuous of weak parliamentary governments, seized Manchuria in September 1931 - 1 mark.

Answer: The Depression brought poverty to Japan's peasants and workers, who blamed the politicians and big business; exports such as silk collapsed when other countries put up tariffs; Japan's investments and trade in Manchuria appeared threatened by China; and the army, disgusted with weak governments, took matters into its own hands by seizing Manchuria in 1931, beginning a policy of expansion.

Anglo-French appeasement: why and how

Appeasement means giving in to the demands of an aggressor in the hope of avoiding war. It is linked above all with the British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain (1937-40).

Why Britain and France followed it
1. Horror of another war so soon after the First World War; strong pacifist public opinion.
2. Many felt the Treaty of Versailles had been too harsh, so some German demands seemed reasonable.
3. Fear of communism: a strong Germany was seen as a buffer against the USSR.
4. Economic weakness after the Depression; Britain and France were not ready to rearm and fight.
5. The League of Nations had proved ineffective, and the USA was isolationist.
6. Britain's empire and dominions were unwilling to fight in Europe; France was politically divided and would not act without Britain.
7. Belief that Hitler was a reasonable man with limited aims.

How it was carried out

• Anglo-German Naval Agreement (1935) accepted German rearmament.
• Half-hearted sanctions against Italy over Abyssinia (1935-36) and the Hoare-Laval plan.
• No action when Germany remilitarised the Rhineland (1936).
• Non-intervention in the Spanish Civil War, while Germany and Italy helped Franco.
• Acceptance of the Anschluss (1938).
• The Munich Agreement (29-30 September 1938): Chamberlain, Daladier, Hitler and Mussolini agreed to give the Sudetenland to Germany; Czechoslovakia was not consulted. Chamberlain claimed 'peace for our time'.

End: after Germany seized the rest of Czechoslovakia in March 1939, Britain and France gave guarantees to Poland (and later to Greece and Romania), ending appeasement.

Worked example

[4] Why were British and French leaders willing to give way to Hitler in the 1930s? Explain four reasons. (Understanding)

Try it first, then show the solutionSolution

1. They wanted to avoid another war so soon after the First World War - 1 mark.
2. They feared communism and saw Germany as a buffer against the USSR - 1 mark.
3. The Depression had weakened them economically and militarily - 1 mark.
4. The League was ineffective, the USA isolationist, and France would not act without Britain - 1 mark.

Answer: Britain and France appeased the dictators because (1) their peoples dreaded another war after 1914-18; (2) they feared communism more than Nazism and saw Germany as a barrier against the USSR; (3) the Depression had left them economically and militarily unprepared; and (4) with the League ineffective and the USA isolationist, they lacked support, and divided France would not act without Britain.

The Nazi-Soviet Pact and the outbreak of war (August-September 1939)

Reasons for the Pact (23 August 1939)
Hitler's motives
1. He demanded Danzig and a route across the Polish Corridor; Poland, backed by a British guarantee, refused.
2. He wanted Soviet neutrality so he could invade Poland without a two-front war.
3. He could take western Poland and deal with Britain and France first.
Stalin's motives
1. Britain and France were slow and half-hearted in alliance talks with the USSR (their delegation travelled by slow boat and had no power to sign).
2. He suspected the West wanted Germany to turn east; he had been excluded from Munich.
3. He needed time to rebuild the Red Army after the purges.
4. The secret protocol gave him eastern Poland, the Baltic states and Bessarabia, lands lost after 1917.

Developments that followed
1. Hitler believed Britain and France would not fight for Poland with Russia neutral; he took the British guarantee as a bluff.
2. Poland refused to negotiate under threat.
3. Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939.
4. Chamberlain at first hoped for negotiation but, under pressure from Parliament, sent an ultimatum; Britain declared war at 11 a.m. on 3 September 1939, and France followed the same day.
5. On 17 September the USSR invaded eastern Poland.

Worked example

[4] Why did two bitter ideological enemies, Nazi Germany and the USSR, sign a pact in August 1939? Give four reasons. (Analysis)

Try it first, then show the solutionSolution

1. Hitler, refused Danzig and the Corridor by Poland, needed Soviet neutrality to invade it - 1 mark.
2. Hitler wanted to avoid a two-front war - 1 mark.
3. Stalin distrusted Britain and France, whose alliance talks were slow, and suspected they wanted Germany to attack the USSR - 1 mark.
4. Stalin needed time to rebuild his army and wanted eastern Poland and the Baltic states (secret protocol) - 1 mark.

Answer: Hitler wanted the Pact because Poland, backed by Britain, refused his demands over Danzig and the Corridor, and he needed Soviet neutrality to attack Poland without fighting on two fronts. Stalin signed because Britain and France were slow and insincere in their alliance talks and he suspected them of pushing Hitler eastwards, and because he needed time to rebuild the Red Army and wanted the territories promised to him in the secret protocol.

Axis invasions in Europe and Asia (1939-41)

Europe
1. Poland (September 1939): conquered in weeks by 'Blitzkrieg' (lightning war of tanks, aircraft and motorised infantry); divided with the USSR.
2. The 'Phoney War' (winter 1939-40): little fighting in the west. The USSR attacked Finland (Winter War).
3. Denmark and Norway (April 1940): seized by Germany; Chamberlain resigned and Churchill became Prime Minister (May 1940).
4. Holland, Belgium and France (May-June 1940): German tanks broke through the Ardennes, bypassing the Maginot Line; British and French troops were evacuated from Dunkirk; France surrendered (June 1940) and the Vichy regime was set up. Italy entered the war (June 1940).
5. Battle of Britain (July-October 1940): the RAF defeated the Luftwaffe, so the invasion of Britain (Operation Sea Lion) was called off; the Blitz on British cities followed.
6. North Africa and the Balkans: Italian attacks in Egypt and Greece failed; Germany sent Rommel's Afrika Korps (1941) and conquered Yugoslavia and Greece (April 1941).
7. Operation Barbarossa (22 June 1941): Germany invaded the USSR, reaching Leningrad and the outskirts of Moscow, but was halted by the winter and a Soviet counter-attack (December 1941).

Asia
1. Japan continued the war in China and occupied French Indo-China (1940-41).
2. When the USA froze Japanese assets and stopped oil exports (1941), Japan decided to seize the oil and rubber of South-East Asia.
3. 7 December 1941: Japan attacked the American Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbour and, at the same time, Malaya, Hong Kong and the Philippines. The USA declared war; Germany and Italy declared war on the USA.
4. By mid-1942 Japan had taken Malaya, Singapore (February 1942), the Dutch East Indies, the Philippines and Burma.

Pearl Harbour changed the nature of the war: it brought the USA, with its vast resources, into the war and made the war truly worldwide.

Worked example

[4] Explain how the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour changed the nature of the Second World War. (Analysis)

Try it first, then show the solutionSolution

1. It brought the USA into the war against Japan, and Germany and Italy declared war on the USA - 1 mark.
2. The European war and the Asian war merged into one global war - 1 mark.
3. The Pacific and South-East Asia became a major theatre of war - 1 mark.
4. The vast industrial resources of the USA were thrown against the Axis, making their eventual defeat likely - 1 mark.

Answer: The attack of 7 December 1941 brought the USA into the war, and Germany and Italy then declared war on it, so the European and Asian conflicts became one worldwide war. The Pacific and South-East Asia became a major theatre, and the enormous industrial and military power of the USA was now ranged against the Axis, which in the long run made their defeat likely.

Course of the war, 1942-45, and reasons for the Axis defeat

Turning points of 1942-43

• Far East: the Battle of the Coral Sea (May 1942) and the Battle of Midway (June 1942), where the US navy sank four Japanese aircraft carriers, ended Japan's advance.
• Africa: at El Alamein (October-November 1942) the British Eighth Army under Montgomery defeated Rommel; Anglo-American forces landed in Morocco and Algeria (Operation Torch); Axis forces in North Africa surrendered in Tunisia (May 1943).
• Europe (east): at Stalingrad (August 1942-February 1943) the German Sixth Army was surrounded and surrendered; the Soviet victory at Kursk (July 1943) began a steady Soviet advance.
• Atlantic: by mid-1943 the Allies had defeated the U-boat campaign.

Allied advance, 1943-45

• Italy: Allied landings in Sicily (July 1943) and on the mainland; Mussolini fell and Italy surrendered (September 1943), though Germans fought on in Italy.
• West: D-Day, 6 June 1944: Allied landings in Normandy under Eisenhower (Operation Overlord); Paris liberated (August 1944); the German counter-attack in the Ardennes (Battle of the Bulge) failed.
• East: the Red Army advanced through Poland and the Balkans and reached Berlin; Hitler committed suicide on 30 April 1945; Germany surrendered unconditionally on 7-8 May 1945 (VE Day).
• Far East: the US 'island-hopping' campaign (Guadalcanal, the Philippines, Iwo Jima, Okinawa); the British-Indian army defeated Japan in Burma (Imphal-Kohima 1944, Rangoon 1945); atomic bombs on Hiroshima (6 August 1945) and Nagasaki (9 August); the USSR declared war on Japan (8 August); Japan surrendered on 15 August 1945 (formally on 2 September).

Reasons for the defeat of the Axis
1. Resources: the USA, the USSR and the British Empire together far outproduced the Axis in men, weapons, oil and raw materials.
2. Hitler's strategic mistakes: invading the USSR before defeating Britain (a two-front war); declaring war on the USA; refusing to allow retreat at Stalingrad.
3. Japan's mistake: attacking the USA brought a giant into the war; Japan over-extended itself across the Pacific.
4. Allied sea and air power: control of the Atlantic; strategic bombing damaged German industry and oil supplies.
5. Italy's weakness was a drain on Germany.
6. Soviet resistance: the USSR's huge manpower and relocation of industry behind the Urals; heavy German losses on the eastern front.
7. Resistance movements in occupied countries and Nazi brutality, which united peoples against the Axis.
8. Allied unity and leadership (Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin) and better intelligence (code-breaking).

Worked example

[4] Give four reasons for the defeat of the Axis powers. (Analysis)

Try it first, then show the solutionSolution

1. Superior Allied resources and production, especially once the USA joined - 1 mark.
2. Hitler's two-front war after invading the USSR in 1941 - 1 mark.
3. Japan's attack on the USA and over-extension in the Pacific - 1 mark.
4. Allied control of the seas and air; resistance movements in occupied Europe - 1 mark.

Answer: (1) The combined resources of the USA, the USSR and the British Empire far exceeded those of the Axis. (2) Hitler's invasion of the USSR in 1941 forced Germany into a two-front war it could not sustain. (3) Japan's attack on Pearl Harbour brought in the USA, and Japan over-stretched itself across the Pacific. (4) The Allies won command of the sea and air, crippling Axis supply and industry, while resistance movements weakened Axis control of occupied countries.

World War II in real life

Each concept, met in an everyday situation. Read the situation, answer the question in your own words, then compare with the model answer. The one-line hook is what to remember.

Topics in this chapter

• Anglo-French Appeasement: Why and How
• Axis Invasions in Europe and Asia, 1939-41
• Course of the War, 1942-45, and Why the Axis Lost

World War II: key facts

Germany's steps

1933 League; 1935 conscription; 1936 Rhineland; 1938 Anschluss and Munich; 1939 Czechoslovakia, Pact of Steel, Nazi-Soviet Pact

In order: examiners penalise wrong sequence.

Anti-Comintern Pact

1936: Germany and Japan (Italy joined 1937)

Against international communism.

Italy

Abyssinia 1935; Axis 1936; Albania 1939

Grievance: Treaty of London promises unmet.

Japan

Manchuria 1931; China 1937; Pearl Harbor 7 December 1941

Left the League 1933; Tripartite Pact 1940.

Outbreak

Poland invaded 1 September 1939; Britain and France at war 3 September

USSR invades eastern Poland 17 September.

1940-41

Fall of France June 1940; Battle of Britain July-October 1940; Barbarossa 22 June 1941

Dunkirk evacuation; Churchill PM May 1940.

Turning points

Midway June 1942; El Alamein October-November 1942; Stalingrad surrender February 1943

Kursk July 1943.

End of the war

D-Day 6 June 1944; VE Day 8 May 1945; Hiroshima 6 August; Japan surrenders 15 August (signed 2 September) 1945

Hitler's suicide 30 April 1945.

How the board asks World War II

The question patterns to expect, and the method that works for each.

Tricks to remember World War II

Short memory aids. Say each one aloud once, then use it on a question the same day.

• Hitler's ladder: 'L-C-R-A-S-C-P'

  League left (1933), Conscription (1935), Rhineland (1936), Anschluss (1938), Sudetenland (1938), Czechoslovakia (1939), Poland (1939).

  Use it when: Sequencing; examiners penalise Munich placed before the Rhineland.

• Turning points: 'Mid-Al-Stal'

  Midway (Pacific, June 1942), El Alamein (Africa, late 1942), Stalingrad (Europe, winter 1942-43).

  Use it when: One turning point per theatre.

• Appeasement reasons: 'WAR FEL'

  War-weariness, Anti-communism, Reasonable demands (Versailles too harsh), Financial weakness, Empire reluctant, League useless.

  Use it when: Four-point answers.

World War II: board-level solved questions

Ordered from board level to HOTS. Cover the solution, write your own, then compare step by step.

Case-study practice (Section D style)

Read the situation, then answer every part. In the board paper this is a 8-mark question split into 1 + 2 + 2 + 3 marks.

Where the marks are

How a typical answer is split into step marks. Show every step: a right final answer alone rarely earns full marks.

Where students lose marks in World War II

The slips examiners see most often, and what to write instead.

• ✗Mistake: Confusing reasons for appeasement with examples of it

  CISCE examiners' comments, 2024: candidates 'Confused reasons behind appeasement with examples of its application'.

  Wrong working

  Britain appeased Hitler because of the Munich Agreement.

  Right working

  Reason: Britain feared another war. Example: the Munich Agreement.

  ✓Do this: Reasons answer 'why'; examples answer 'how'. Keep two lists.

  Usually costs: Up to 4 marks.

• ✗Mistake: Events out of order

  CISCE examiners' comments, 2025: candidates 'Presented events out of sequence, e.g. Munich Pact before remilitarisation of Rhineland', 'Included irrelevant events such as the Saar Plebiscite' and 'Did not link events to Hitler's underlying objectives.'

  ✓Do this: Start each point with its year and link it to an aim (break Versailles, unite Germans, living space).

  Usually costs: 1-2 marks.

• ✗Mistake: Wrong signatories of the Anti-Comintern Pact

  CISCE examiners' comments, 2024: candidates 'Wrote Germany and Italy instead of Germany and Japan'.

  ✓Do this: Original 1936 signatories: Germany and Japan; Italy joined in 1937.

  Usually costs: 1 mark.

• ✗Mistake: One-sided reasons for the 1939 Pact

  CISCE examiners' comments, 2025: candidates 'Confused the 1939 pact with the 1934 Non-Aggression Pact with Poland' and 'Failed to consider the motivations of both parties'.

  ✓Do this: Give two motives of Hitler and two of Stalin.

  Usually costs: 2 marks.

• ✗Mistake: Only Pearl Harbour for Japan's aggression

  CISCE examiners' comments, 2024: candidates 'Wrote only about Pearl Harbour; few mentioned the Manchurian crisis'.

  ✓Do this: Link the Depression to poverty, lost exports, army control and the seizure of Manchuria (1931).

  Usually costs: Up to 3 marks.

• ✗Mistake: Informal names

  CISCE examiners' comments, 2025: candidates 'Used vague or informal terms such as "American" or "US of A"'.

  ✓Do this: Write 'the USA'.

  Usually costs: 1 mark.

Practice questions on World War II

Write each answer on paper first. Open the hint only if you are stuck, and the answer only when you have finished.

1. Q1 · 1 mark · Very short answerBoard level

   Which great power entered the war as a direct result of the attack on Pearl Harbour?

   Hint

   Use the standard name.

   Answer

   USA (United States of America).

2. Q2 · 1 mark · MCQBoard level

   Which was Italy's chief grievance that fed its aggressive policy?
   (a) Germany occupied Italian territory
   (b) It did not receive the territories promised in the secret Treaty of London (1915)
   (c) Britain blocked its trade with India
   (d) The League expelled it in 1920

   Hint

   'Mutilated victory'.

   Answer

   (b).

3. Q3 · 1 mark · Very short answerHarder board level

   Name the operation by which Germany invaded the USSR and give its date.

   Hint

   A medieval emperor.

   Answer

   Operation Barbarossa, 22 June 1941.

4. Q4 · 1 mark · MCQHarder board level

   Arrange in order: (P) Munich Agreement; (Q) Remilitarisation of the Rhineland; (R) Anglo-German Naval Agreement; (S) Pact of Steel.
   (a) R, Q, P, S
   (b) Q, R, P, S
   (c) R, P, Q, S
   (d) Q, P, R, S

   Hint

   1935, 1936, 1938, 1939.

   Answer

   (a) R, Q, P, S.

5. Q5 · 4 marks · Short answerBoard level

   [4] Describe the Axis invasions in western Europe in 1940.

   Hint

   Norway to the Battle of Britain.

   Answer

   (1) April 1940: Germany occupied Denmark and Norway. (2) May 1940: it overran Holland and Belgium and broke through the Ardennes, bypassing the Maginot Line. (3) The British and French were evacuated from Dunkirk and France surrendered in June 1940; Italy entered the war. (4) Germany then tried to win air control over Britain but lost the Battle of Britain (July-October 1940), so the invasion was abandoned.

6. Q6 · 4 marks · Short answerHarder board level

   [4] Explain why the Battle of Stalingrad was a turning point.

   Hint

   Losses, initiative, morale, oil.

   Answer

   (1) An entire German army (the Sixth) was encircled and surrendered in February 1943, a loss Germany could not replace. (2) Germany failed to reach the Caucasus oilfields. (3) The initiative passed to the Red Army, which advanced steadily to Berlin. (4) It shattered the myth of German invincibility and raised Allied morale.

7. Q7 · 4 marks · Short answerHOTS / competency

   [4] Analyse how the aggressive policies of the Axis made the war worldwide in scope.

   Hint

   Three regions plus alliances.

   Answer

   (1) German expansion in Europe brought in Britain, France and later the USSR. (2) Italian ambitions in Africa and the Mediterranean spread fighting to North and East Africa. (3) Japanese expansion in China and South-East Asia threatened American, British and Dutch interests, leading to Pearl Harbour and the Pacific war. (4) Alliances (Anti-Comintern Pact, Tripartite Pact) linked these regional wars into one world war once Germany and Italy declared war on the USA.

8. Q8 · 4 marks · Short answerHOTS / competency

   [4] Why did the policy of appeasement fail? Give four reasons.

   Hint

   Hitler's aims, Western weakness, USSR, Poland.

   Answer

   (1) Hitler's aims were not limited: he wanted living space in the east, which could not be satisfied by concessions. (2) Each concession increased German strength and confidence. (3) It alienated the USSR, which was excluded from Munich and turned to Hitler in 1939. (4) The democracies' weakness convinced Hitler they would not fight for Poland, so he invaded, making war certain.

9. Q9 · 8 marks · Long answerHOTS / competency

   [8] (a) Trace the course of the war in the Far East from 1941 to 1945. [4]
   (b) Explain four reasons for the defeat of Japan. [4]

   Hint

   (a) Pearl Harbour to surrender; (b) resources, navy, atomic bombs, USSR.

   Answer

   (a) After Pearl Harbour (7 December 1941) Japan seized Malaya, Singapore, the Philippines, the Dutch East Indies and Burma. Its advance was stopped at the Coral Sea and Midway (1942). The USA then island-hopped (Guadalcanal, the Philippines, Iwo Jima, Okinawa) while British-Indian forces defeated Japan at Imphal-Kohima and retook Burma. After the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the Soviet declaration of war, Japan surrendered on 15 August 1945. (b) (1) American industrial strength far exceeded Japan's. (2) The loss of carriers at Midway and of shipping to submarines cut Japan's supplies. (3) Japan was over-extended across a vast area. (4) The atomic bombs and the Soviet attack forced surrender.

10. Q10 · 8 marks · Long answerHarder board level

    [8] Explain the Axis invasions in Europe and Asia between 1939 and 1941.

    Hint

    Six European, two Asian.

    Answer

    Europe: (1) Poland conquered by Blitzkrieg, September 1939, and divided with the USSR; (2) Denmark and Norway, April 1940; (3) the Low Countries and France, May-June 1940, with Dunkirk and the Vichy regime; (4) the Battle of Britain lost by Germany, 1940; (5) Yugoslavia and Greece, and the Afrika Korps in North Africa, 1941; (6) Operation Barbarossa against the USSR, June 1941, halted before Moscow. Asia: (7) Japan's continued war in China and occupation of Indo-China; (8) Pearl Harbour and the conquest of Malaya, Hong Kong and the Philippines from December 1941, with Singapore falling in February 1942.

Test your recall

Answer in your head or on paper first, then open the card. Pulling an answer out of memory makes it stick far better than re-reading.

1. 1.When did Germany remilitarise the Rhineland?Show answer

   March 1936.

2. 2.Who signed the Munich Agreement?Show answer

   Chamberlain, Daladier, Hitler and Mussolini (September 1938).

3. 3.When did Britain declare war on Germany?Show answer

   3 September 1939.

4. 4.Which battle stopped Japan's naval advance in 1942?Show answer

   Midway (June 1942).

5. 5.When was D-Day?Show answer

   6 June 1944.

6. 6.On which dates were atomic bombs dropped on Japan?Show answer

   Hiroshima 6 August and Nagasaki 9 August 1945.

Quick revision checklist

The night before the exam: can you do each of these without looking?

• ☐Germany: League 1933; conscription, naval agreement 1935; Rhineland 1936; Anschluss, Munich 1938; Czechoslovakia, Pact of Steel, Nazi-Soviet Pact 1939.
• ☐Italy: Treaty of London grievance; Abyssinia 1935; Axis 1936; Albania 1939.
• ☐Japan: Depression; Manchuria 1931; China 1937; Tripartite Pact 1940; Pearl Harbour 7 December 1941.
• ☐Appeasement reasons: war-weariness, anti-communism, Versailles too harsh, weakness, League useless, empire reluctant.
• ☐1939-41: Poland, Phoney War, Norway, France (Dunkirk), Battle of Britain, Balkans, Barbarossa, Pearl Harbour.
• ☐1942-45: Midway, El Alamein, Stalingrad, Kursk, Italy, D-Day, Berlin; atomic bombs; Japan surrenders August 1945.
• ☐Axis defeat: resources, two-front war, USA brought in, sea and air power, Soviet endurance, resistance, Allied unity.

World War II: frequently asked questions