World War II Index/Glossary of Terms
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- Part of the Marianas island group in the Pacific. U.S. troops made an amphibious assault on the Japanese-held island on July 20, 1944. The island was secured in August after hard fighting.
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- Mounds of earth in Normandy, France, that date back to Roman times. They were used to mark boundaries and keep cattle in. See Stephen Ambrose's discussion of what it was like for the Allies to fight in these hedgerows after D-Day.
Heer
- The German Army.
Ernest Hemingway
- Author who served as a war correspondent in Europe. Stephen Ambrose writes harshly of his service here and here.
Helsinki
- Helsinki is the capital city of Finland. The USSR bombed Helsinki in February 1944.
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- An important air base on Guadalcanal that Marines easily took, but then fought hard to defend in April 1942.
Hiroshima
- The Japanese city that the U.S. dropped the "Little Boy" atomic bomb over on August 6, 1945. Approximately 140,000 people in the area will die by the end of the year.
Adolph Hitler
- Leader of the fascist Nazi Party in Germany. Killed himself on April 30, 1945.
Holland (The Netherlands)
- Western European nation invaded by the Germans. The 101st Airborne fought in Holland in 1944.
Hollandia
- An island in Dutch New Guinea in the Southwest Pacific. After being taken by General MacArthur with American and Australian forces from the Japanese in April 1944 a large base was established here.
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