World War II Vocabulary

World War II

Glossary and Terms

Air Raid Shelter- various types of shelters were used to protect people from bombs which were dropped during air raids. Many people used the tube stations as air raid shelters.

Allied Powers – Countries that fought against the Axis Powers. Primary members included the United States, Britain, the Soviet Union, France, and China.
Anderson Air Raid Shelter – were half buried in the ground and were made from six corrugated iron sheets bolted together. They were covered with earth. People built them in their gardens.
Anti-Semitic – an intense dislike of Jewish people.
Appeasement – This was the policy of many countries when Hitler first started to take over Austria and parts of Czechoslovakia. They gave into Hitler’s demands in order to avoid going to war. When Hitler invaded Poland, they realised that appeasement would not work, and France and Great Britain declared war on Germany.
Atomic Bomb – A nuclear bomb with enormous and destructive energy. Two atomic bombs were dropped on the Japanese cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima to force Japan to surrender.
Auschwitz – An infamous concentration camp in S.W Poland.
Axis Powers – An alliance formed by Germany, Italy, and Japan. These countries wanted to expand and conquer other countries. They were opposed by the Allied Powers.
Battle of Britain – A period of aerial bombardment of British cities known as The Blitz and the aerial combat that took place in the skies as the R.A.F. tried to fight off the Luftwaffe.
Benito Mussolini -The Italian dictator known as Il Duce.
Blackout -Everyone was ordered to black out every form of light to make it difficult for the German bombers to spot British cities from their aircraft at night.
Blitz – A continuous bombing of British cities from July to October 1940 by the Luftwaffe. These air raids generally took place at night-time.
Blitzkrieg – This means “lightning war” in German. Hitler would attack quickly and try to take over a country before it had time to fight back.
Churchill – Winston Churchill took over as prime minister of Britain during the war. He became famous for his inspirational speeches.
Civilians- Ordinary people who are not part of any military force.
Code Breakers – Bletchley Park was the headquarters for a secret operation to figure out the sophisticated German codes. The Germans sent coded messages by using the enigma machine. The Allies could intercept the messages but couldn’t understand the message until they finally cracked the code.
Concentration camp – A place where the Germans put people they did not like such as Jewish people. They were dreadful places.
D-Day – Deliverance Day. The day that United States and British forces attacked the German forces on the shores of Normandy, France. A turning point in the war as the Allies defeated the Germans.
De Valera – the Irish leader during the war.
Draft -The compulsory enlistment of men in the military services.
Dunkirk – From the 26th May until the 4th June 1940 the Allies were driven back by the Germans as far as the French coast. Operation Dynamo was launched to evacuate the stranded troops. More than 330,000 troops were rescued by a variety of naval and civilian vessels (ships, boats, trawlers).
The Emergency – The Emergency was a term used by the Irish to refer to the wartime.
Evacuees – Children in large British Cities were considered to be in grave danger during the blitz so they were evacuated to the country where they were taken in by complete strangers.
Eastern Front – The Germans called the war with the Soviet Union the Eastern Front.
Fascism – A type of government ruled by a dictator. Germany with Hitler and Italy with Mussolini were fascist governments.
Fuhrer – The title Adolf Hitler gave himself. It means “leader” in German.
Final Solution – A term used by the Nazis which meant the extermination of the Jews.
Gas mask – Everyone was given a gas mask in a box to protect them from gas bombs. People could be fined if they didn’t carry their mask with them at all times.
General Eisenhower – An American general who commanded the U.S forces during the Normandy landings during D Day and the invasion of German occupied European.
George Cross – A medal which is the second highest award given to members of the public and the British Armed forces for bravery.
Gestapo – The Nazi police force. They were mean and very powerful in Germany during WWII. They hunted down enemies of the Nazi party as well as Jewish people.
German Army Iron Cross -A medal which was awarded for bravery by German soldiers during wars including the first and second world wars.
Ghetto – The restricted areas or quarters of European cities where Jewish people were forced to live.
Goebbels -The German Minister of Propaganda.
Holocaust – A term used to describe the murder of 6 million Jewish people by the German Nazi Party.
Jude -The German word for a Jew.
Kamikaze – A term used to describe how Japanese pilots would intentionally crash their planes into US battleships. The planes were sometimes full of explosives and the pilots knew they were going to die.
Lord Haw Haw was a nickname given to William Joyce who was an Irish American who sided with the Germans and he became a broadcaster of Nazi propaganda to the United Kingdom during the war. His announcement “Germany calling, Germany calling” became a familiar sound across the airwaves. He was eventually executed by the British in 1946 for betraying Britain.
Kindertransport -A mission which took thousands of European children to safety. They were mainly Jewish children and were often the only ones in their families to survive the Holocaust .It took place in the nine months leading up to the outbreak of war The U.K. took in nearly 10,000 children from Germany , Poland, Austria and Czechoslovakia. There is a statue called Frank Meisler Kindertransport -The Arrival in London’s Liverpool Street Station to commemorate the rescue effort.
Luftwaffe – The name for the German air force.
Manhattan Project – The code name for the research and development program where scientists invented the atomic bomb.
Morrison Shelters – were used by people who didn’t have a garden to protect them from falling debris and rubble. They resembled steel cages.
Nazi – The Nazi Party was a political party in Germany led by Adolf Hitler. The full name was the Nationalist Socialist German Workers’ Party.
Neutral – Ireland didn’t take sides with either the Allies or the Axis Powers. Ireland remained neutral but many Irishmen and women enlisted with the Allied forces. Many people claimed Ireland was neutral on the Allied side!
Pact of Steel – A treaty signed by Germany and Italy. It was later signed by Japan and called the Tripartite Pact. This pact created the Axis Powers alliance.
Panzer – German armoured tanks.
Pearl Harbour – The 1941 aerial attack by the Japanese on the U.S.A navy in Hawaii.
Potsdam Conference – A meeting in the summer of 1945 between Prime Minister Churchill, President Churchill and Russian leader Stalin to decide on how to deal with German after the war.
P.O.W. -The soldiers captured by the enemy were known as prisoners of war and they were usually held in large P.O.W. camps.
Propaganda – information of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote a political cause or a certain point of view.
Radio – radio was a vital means of communication during the war. Coded messages were broadcast by the B.B.C. to the resistance movement in German occupied Europe.
RAF – The air force of Great Britain. It stands for the Royal Air Force.
Rationing – Food was scarce and had to be rationed or distributed fairly among everyone.
Ration Books -Everyone was issued a ration book to ensure they received their fair share of food and goods.
The Resistance – Resistance movements occurred in every country occupied by the Germans. They worked undercover against the Germans by a variety of means from non-cooperation to propaganda to hiding crashed pilots to sabotage. Sometimes the resistance was known as The Underground. It was extremely dangerous to be involved with The Underground. If they were captured, the Germans were ruthless and dealt with them without mercy.
Rommel -The brilliant German field marshal who led the German forces in North Africa. The Allies admired his skills as a military leader and nicknamed him The Desert Fox.
Spitfire – A single seat fighter aircraft used by the R.A.F.
S.S. -The German special police force who were Hitler’s bodyguards and were also in charge of the concentration camps. They were notoriously cruel.
Star of David – was a badge which Jewish citizens of Nazi occupied countries were forced to wear.
Swastika – a geometrical symbol which was adopted by the Nazis. It was an ancient symbol associated with Asian culture and signified wellbeing. The Nazis used it on their flags.
U-Boats – German submarines which were armed with torpedoes.
V-E Day – Victory in Europe Day. The day the Allied victory in Europe was celebrated; May 8, 1945.
Victoria Cross – a medal which was the highest award for valour or courage to members of the British Armed Forces. It was awarded 182 times during W.W. 11.
V-J Day – Victory in Japan Day. The day the Allied victory in Japan was celebrated; September 2, 1945.
Wehrmacht – The name for the German army.
Yalta Conference -A meeting by Churchill, Stalin and Roosevelt to discuss the final days of the war in February 1945.
Yamamoto -The Japanese admiral who organised the Pearl Harbour attack.