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World War II Battles

Amber Llewellyn

My students love to talk about battles, and that is an area that I feel the least confident talking about. While I understand strategy and tactics, I am far from an expert in these areas, and I do not know an American Tank from a Soviet Tank when shown pictures, which makes some of my students very disappointed in me. So my question is, how do you teach about the battles of World War II? Do you go into details or talk about what was important and how many people died? 

  • Hi Amber, 

    Whenever we get to WWII, I tell them that I am not a military historian. I feel similarly to you, that I don't feel very confident about talking about battles (except maybe Normandy), even though I did a summer institute at the National WWII Museum.  So, this gives the student an opportunity to shine, and perhaps give them an opportunity to do some research on the battles, and analyze the significance of the overall battle on the outcome of WWII, or the larger impact on technology or foreign policy, etc. 

    I don't have any lesson plans around this, but I can point the way to some great classroom materials curated by the National WWII Museum.   You'll. need to scroll down to get to the curriculum that's been developed by teachers, for teachers.   The next Curriculum Guide in the works is on women in WWII. Waiting eagerly for that one. 

  • I don't really concentrate on the individual battles in either WWI or WWII.  In WWII, I do a stations activity that focuses on key turning points, sometimes that's an actual battle or sometimes its a strategy. 

    I used to do an activity where I placed them in groups to create an annotated map.  Basically, we put a map of that theater in the middle of a large piece of paper.  Each student was then responsible for 1 - 2 battles and had to create notecards on the battle which they then glued to around the map and drew to where that battle was on the map.

  • Thanks for starting this  , I'm almost at WWII for AP World so I've started to think about what I can do this year. Like the others, I don't do a ton to focus on individual battles but I've had students read articles or even research battles they're interested in. I've been to the WWII museum in New Orleans and Pearl Harbor so I've included pictures from both in my notes before which my students enjoy. Thanks for sharing that link  I'll definitely take a closer look at some of their resources!

  • in reply to Angela Lee

     , I have the same issue as  .

    Thanks for the link.

    When I clicked on it, it wants me to create an account. If I go through this, are the lessons free, or is there a pay wall?

  • in reply to Donnetta Elsasser

    All the lessons are free! 

  • This is a great question.  I've been studying WWII since I was a kid (50 years). I've collected everything an American G.I. had.  From a WWII jeep to the guns and all the way to G.I. socks.  I used to think it was all about the battles.  However in the last decade or so I've been reaching kids in my American History WAR class through the personal stories.  The battle facts come to those who seek them.  Most kids want to hear a great story.  As a military historian, it's easy to talk about the M1 Garand, or the Airborne operation in Normandy.  But I think the letters home, the sacrifice of being away from family for years, the USO shows, and the aluminum drives put on by school children are what really sells the war to modern kids.  I'd go for that human level stuff and let the kids who want battles find the YouTube channels.