Guided Reading 26-2
Hitler stunned Europe with the (1)________________ and (2) ________________ of his attack on Poland. His (3) ________________ or “lightening war,” used panzer divisions supported by airplanes. Within four weeks, Poland had (4) ________________. At the beginning of August 1940, the German air force launched a major offensive against (5) ________________. German planes bombed British (6) ________________, (7) ________________, (8) ________________, and (9) ________________. Hitler invaded the (10) ________________ on June 22, 1941. An early (11) ________________ and fierce soviet (12) ________________ halted the German advance.
On December 7, 1941, Japanese aircraft attacked the US naval base at (13) ________________ in the Hawaiian Islands. The United States now joined with European nations and (14) ________________ in a combined effort to defeat Japan. (15) ________________ declared war on the United States four days after Pearl Harbor.
At the beginning of 1943, the Allies, Great Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union, agreed to fight until the Axis powers, Germany, Italy, and Japan, surrendered (16) ________________. By the fall of 1942, that war had turned (17) ________________ the Germans.
On June 6, 1944, Allied forces under US general Dwight D. Eisenhower landed on the (18) ________________ beaches in history’s greatest naval invasion. Hitler committed (19) ________________ on April 30, 1945, and German commanders surrendered on May 7.
In Asia, US President Harry S Truman made the difficult decision to use (20) ________________ weapons against Japan and avoid an invasion of Japan. After the bombing of (21) ________________ and (22) ________________, Japan surrendered on August 14, 1945.