WEB SITES
FOR TEACHERS ON WORLD WAR II
Access these sites through your
computer’s Internet connection. Open the
underlined address (URL). Information
can be printed or downloaded to your computer.
Be sure to follow links to other sites and find your way back with the
“back” button. Remember that some sites
will appear on more than one list of links.
All of the sites listed were active as of
Note: One emphasis
on this list is sites that give personal accounts of the war as experienced by
those who were there and those at home as well as sites developed to honor
them. This list also contains general
information about the war, key figures, weapons, machines (i.e. aircraft,
ships, tanks) and much more.
DISCLAIMER:
SOME IMAGES ON SOME SITES MAY BE DISTURBING TO VIEWERS.
Teachers should preview the sites and/or warn
students. The
36TH DIVISION IN WORLD WAR II
http://www.kwanah.com/txmilmus/36division/archives.htm
A pictorial
history of the 36th Division in the war. Includes numerous photos of
their battles (and life in between) in
http://www.nara.gov/education/teaching/fdr/infamy.html
A lesson plan for JS
students on
THE
ANNE
http://www.annefrank.com/index1.html
An
educational site on Anne Frank, her life, her times and her impact on those who
know her story. Sections: Anne Frank-Her Life & Times,
Students, Teachers (including a bibliography, curriculum and downloadable
materials) and more. The Students
section includes a Scrapbook with an illustrated version of her diary and a Virtual
Tour of the Anne Frank House in
“DAD” RAREY’S SKETCHBOOK JOURNALS OF THE 379TH
FIGHTER SQUADRON
NEW!!
During his service in the Army Air Corps, cartoonist George Rarey kept a
cartoon journal of daily life in his fighter squadron. This site has the sketches with commentary by
his colleagues and family. Sections:
Cadet Life, Volume I, Volume II, Volume III, Volume IV, Volume V, Nose Art, and
Artifacts. Outstanding. Excellent
THE
DECISION TO DROP THE BOMB – WEBQUEST NEW!!
http://oncampus.richmond.edu/academics/as/education/projects/webquests/wwii/bomb.html
A webquest
in which students discuss the decision to drop the Atomic Bomb on
DECODING NAZI SECRETS NEW!!
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/decoding/
Companion to a Nova program on the
Allies successful decoding of German codes and ciphers.
Sections: Crack the Ciphers (ciphers for you to decipher), Send a Coded
Message (use a replica Enigma machine to email a secret message), A Simple
Cipher (learn the tricks of the code breakers), Are Web Transactions Safe?
(cyber-codes), Mind of a Code breaker, and How the Enigma Works. Excellent
Click on What’s New and visit the section on audio and video clips. Also includes photos, photos of artifacts, and more. Outstanding clips. Excellent
EYEWITNESS TO WORLD WAR II NEW!!
http://www.ibiscom.com/w2frm.htm
First-person, eyewitness accounts of
key events of the war. Sections: Blitzkrieg, 1940; Air
Battle Over London, 1940; The London Blitz, 1940; Attack at Pearl Harbor;
Attack at Pearl Harbor-The Japanese View; The Battle of Midway, 1942; Attack on
an Arctic Convoy, 1942; A GI’s Trip to London, 1944; The Nazi Occupation of Poland; “Loose Lips
Sink Ships”; Shot Down Over France, 1944; Sunk by Submarine, 1944; Normandy
Invasion, 1944; The Forced Suicide of Field Marshal Rommel, 1944; Iwo Jima,
1944; The Fall of Berlin, 1945; The War Ends in Europe, 1945; Hiroshima,
1945. Excellent
A detailed narrative of the war by Stanley A. Frankel. Frankel served mostly in the south Pacific and many of his letters home were published as news articles. This outstanding account of the war reads more like a novel than a reminiscence and describes military actions. Includes a few photos. Excellent
GERMAN
CONSPIRACY TO DESTROY HITLER NEW!!
http://www.joric.com/Conspiracy/Center.htm
For six years, those in
![]()
HARRY TRUMAN ON TRIAL – UNIT PLAN NEW!!
A
unit for grade 11 in which students research President Truman’s decision to use
the atomic bomb on Japanese cities in World War II, the consequences, the
policies and more. Very
thorough. Excellent
THE HOME FRONT 1939-1945 (
http://home.freeuk.net/elloughton13/wwar.htm
A site for students on life on the
Home Front in
http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/
A huge list of links to the text of diplomatic and political papers from World War II. Includes documents, treaties, historical pamphlets and more. Includes sections on the Army, the Army Air Force, the Marines, the Navy, the Pacific Theater of Operations, the European Theater of Operations and more. Excellent
LIFE INTERRUPTED: THE
JAPANESE-AMERICAN EXPERIENCE IN WWII
NEW!!
http://www.lifeinterrupted.org/
Explores the internment of
Japanese-Americans during the war.
Two of the camps were located in
http://www.geocities.com/Pentagon/Camp/8605/
Original images of World War
II in
A brief history of the war
leads to the story of Operation Market Garden, an airborne Allied invasion
intended to push the Allied advance through

http://www.fortunecity.co.uk/meltingpot/oxford/330/mwindex.html
A site dedicated to the thousands who served on the British homefront during the war and the over 60,000 men, women and children who lost their lives. Sections include: Air Raid Precautions, Evacuation, the Fire Service, Home Guard Pages, National Registration, Rationing in Wartime, Women’s Voluntary Service, Photo Gallery, Homefront Badges, and Homefront links. The section on rationing is especially informative. An outstanding site. Excellent
MODERN WORLD HISTORY: KEY EVENTS THAT SHAPED THE 20TH
CENTURY
NEW!!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/modern/
From the BBC Education department. Sections: Treaty
of Versailles, Russia in Revolution, Fascism in Italy, The Rise
of Hitler, The Wall Street Crash, Nazi Germany, Stalin, The
Road to War, Axis Success, People at War, Propaganda,
and Allied Victory. Each section has three parts and there is an
Exercise at the end of each section for review.
Includes a Quiz,
a Timeline and a Teacher’s section with Tips on using the site in
the classroom. Includes
over 30 animated maps. Excellent
OPEN
DIRECTORY – WORLD WAR II SITES NEW!!
http://dmoz.org/Society/History/By_Time_Period/Twentieth_Century/Wars_and_Conflicts/World_War_II/
Over 800 links to sites
on World War II. Sections include: Air Forces; Documents,
Manuscripts and Other Primary Sources; Naval Forces; People; Theaters of
Operations; and more. Excellent
POSTCARD TO THE PRESIDENT - ACTIVITY NEW!!
http://www.successlink.org/great/g161.html
A
high school classroom activity in which students examine the decades after
World War I and compose a postcard to the President giving their position on
“isolationism” and the opposition to U.S. involvement in the war. Excellent
POWERS OF PERSUASTION – POSTER ART IN
WORLD WAR II – LESSON NEW!!
http://www.archives.gov/digital_classroom/lessons/powers_of_persuasion/powers_of_persuasion.html
Students examine online poster art from propaganda posters of World War
II to see how they were used to influence the American people to support the
war. Excellent
PRISONER
IN ONE’S OWN HOME – LESSON PLAN NEW!!
http://www.nytimes.com/learning/teachers/lessons/19991025monday.html?searchpv=learning_lessons
A lesson
plan for grades 8-12 on the internment of Japanese Americans during World War
II. “students examine the causes and effects of the
internment of 120,000 Japanese-Americans during World War II. Students develop
research questions examining the historic, legal and psychological impacts of
the internment camps. They then investigate the answers through a focused
research project with the results of their research becoming part of a
class-wide exhibit on this tragedy in American history.”
Excellent
An extensive
archive of letters to and from a soldier in the war. Private Art Pranger served with the Army in
the
http://fas-history.rutgers.edu/oralhistory/orlhom.htm
An archive of interviews with men and women veterans of World War II who served both at home and overseas. There are 258 interviews. Sections include: Interviews, Units They Served In, Picture Gallery, Patches, Medals, Memorials, and more. Excellent
THE SECOND WORLD WAR AUDIO & VIDEO NEW URL & INFO!
http://www.earthstation1.com/wwii.html
A huge archive of sound and video clips from the war. Sections include: Christmas Broadcasts, North Africa, Aircraft, Orphan Ann (Tokyo Rose), General “Hap” Arnold, Asia and the Pacific, Atomic Bombings, General Omar Bradley, Propaganda Broadcasts, War Cartoons, the Fall of Corregidor, D-Day, Martin Dies, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Europe’s Liberation, Admiral James Forrestal, Admiral “Bull” Halsey, Homefront, Iwo Jima, Japanese Internment, Henry Kaiser, Admiral Earnest King, Charles Lindburgh, General Douglas MacArthur, General George Marshall, Battle of Midway, Edward R. Murrow, Admiral Chester Nimitz, the O.S.S., General George Patton, Pearl Harbor Attack, Propaganda Posters, Remagen Bridge, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt, Sound Effects, Harry S. Truman, General Jonathon Wainwright, Wake Island, Warships, Miscellaneous. An outstanding site. Excellent
THE
SECOND WORLD WAR ENCYCLOPEDIA NEW!!
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/2WW.htm
An extensive site for
students to research every aspect of World War II.
Sections include: Background to the War, Major Offensives, Home Front,
The Resistance, Nazi Germany, Women in the War, and
Weapons and Tactics. Note: Scroll down
to find the list of sections. Teachers:
Explore the Teaching History Online section for lesson plans on history. Excellent
SONGS OF WORLD WAR II
http://www.fortunecity.com/tinpan/parton/2/ww2.html#top
Dozens of songs from World War II with the lyrics and history of the song. Some have sound files attached. Excellent
SPYWATCH NEW!!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/lookandread/intro.htm
Students go back in time to the 1940s to see if they can catch the
spy. There are clues to follow, suspects
to investigate and more. Fun sounds and graphics.
Includes a Teacher’s section. Students must complete sentences, rhymes and
more to find the clues. Excellent
http://www.thirdreichruins.com/
Presents photos of sites in
VOICES OF WORLD WAR II: EXPERIENCES FROM
THE FRONT AND AT HOME
NEW!!
http://www.umkc.edu/lib/spec-col/ww2/
Hear
the sounds our grandparents heard through music, news bulletins, war reports,
and much more. Here the popular music of
the times while reading about the daily circumstances of life during the
war. Each audio clip is captioned with
information about when it was broadcast, who’s speaking or singing and what was
happening in the war. Sections:
1939-1941,
WAR
AND REMEMBRANCE: EXPLORING THE CONNECTIONS BETWEEN ARTIFACTS AND HISTORY LESSON
PLAN NEW!!
http://www.nytimes.com/learning/teachers/lessons/20010510thursday.html?searchpv=learning_lessons
A lesson plan for
grades 8-12 in which “students explore the controversy
surrounding the ban of Nazi memorabilia and other hate-related artifacts from
online auction sites.
They then work in groups to design exhibits for a war museum, analyze the
relationship between artifacts and history, and react to a ban on the trade of
some of these objects.” Excellent
THE WAR OF THE WORLDS – WEBQUEST NEW!!
http://oncampus.richmond.edu/academics/as/education/projects/webquests/ww2news/t-index.htm
A
webquest for high school students on the different perspectives in the United
States, Germany and Japan on World War II and its causes. “In this project it will be the students' job
to create an editorial article from one of the three (the
WAS THE UNITED STATES READY FOR
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/lessons/13/g912/ready.html
A lesson plan for grades 9-12 in
which students examine the preparedness of the
http://members.aol.com/MrDonnHistory/World.html#WWII
WORLD WAR I
AND II WEBSITES - A GATEWAY SITE
http://members.aol.com/veterans/warlib6d.htm
A huge list of links to everything from battles to bios to virtual museums and veterans. A gateway site. Excellent
Although few people realize it, color film was developed at the end of the 1930’s and many developments in color photography were made with military use. This site shows color photos of the war. Sections include: Naval, Today, Aerial, Black & White, Ground, Various, and Propaganda. Photos include pictures of weapons, planes, people and artifacts. Several of the photos were taken by the Germans including photos of Hitler and propaganda rallies. This site offers a new prospective on a war most of us have only seen in black and white. Outstanding. Excellent
http://gi.grolier.com/wwii/wwii_mainpage.html
The Grolier online section on World War II includes the Story of World War II, Biographies & Articles, Air Combat Films, Photographs, World War II History Test, and Links. Excellent
WORLD WAR II – IN DEFENSE OF FREEDOM
WEBQUEST NEW!!
http://www.lausd.k12.ca.us/Lincoln_HS/Burleson/Lessons/WW2/
A webquest for high school students in which they research and analyze
the causes of World War II and U.S. involvement in the war and write an essay
on the “Four Freedoms”. Excellent
WORLD WAR II LINKS
- A GATEWAY SITE
http://members.aol.com/TeacherNet/WWII.html#To
A huge list of links on World War II. Search by topic. START HERE Excellent
Links to primary source materials on the web: Words of Peace, Words of War (speeches, declarations, treaties); The Color Books (British War Blue Book); Diplomatic Documents; Nazi-Soviet Relations 1939-1941; Chronology of International Events; the Japanese Monographs; Time Line of WW II; Major Conferences of World War II; The Pearl Harbor Attack Hearings; and many, many more. A huge site with link to hundreds of documents. Outstanding. Excellent
http://connections.smsd.org/veterans/wwii_sites.htm
A huge page of links to World War II
sites divided into Student and Teacher Sites.
Sections: The Rise of Fascism-Germany, Italy and Japan; Holocaust; Pearl
Harbor and America’s Response; D-Day and the War in the Pacific; The Home
Front; Plans for Peace and the Atomic Bomb; Personalities; Literature;
Propaganda; Women in the War; and Miscellaneous. Outstanding. Excellent
http://www.proteacher.com/090075.shtml
A list of links to 34 lesson plans on World War II. Follow the links to the lesson plans for the Holocaust and for the Atomic Bomb. Covers lesson plans with all sorts of activities and approaches. Excellent

A timeline of World War II
from 1939 to 1945, covering every day. Includes nine areas of combat: The Americas,
WORLD WAR II TIMELINE NEW!!
http://history.acusd.edu/gen/WW2Timeline/start.html
A timeline of World War II and the
events leading to it. Includes
1917-1945. Sections: By Date, By
Topic, Links, Pictures, Maps, Documents, and Bibliography. Sections include: articles, photos, key events and players and
more. Note: We found a couple of broken
links on this site. Excellent
WORLD WAR II – UNIT PLAN NEW!!
“Students
will be able to recognize the pattern and inductively arrive at generalizations
about the immense geographic scope and the human and monetary costs of World
War II. This will provide insight into which countries bore the brunt of the
fighting. The huge civilian losses will demonstrate that civilians were
targeted as combatants. The second chart will further demonstrate that
civilians were targeted by the warring parties and will introduce the Holocaust
by showing that the Germans essentially destroyed the European Jewish
population.” Excellent
WORLD WAR II – A WEBQUEST NEW!!
http://www.rede-nonio.min-edu.pt/es/sebgama/worldwar/index.html
A webquest in which students must set up a celebration
of the 55th anniversary of the end of World War II. They must
include a round table on the use of weapons of mass destruction, interviews
with survivors of the Holocaust and the Blitz in
WORLD WAR II WEBQUEST – A SOLDIER’S
PERSPECTIVE NEW!!
http://www.stnorbert.org/wwiiwebquest.htm
A webquest that immerses students
into the lives of soldiers and civilians in World War II.
Students choose a role and use the Internet to research that person’s
life and war experiences. Very thorough.
Excellent
![]()
A DATE WHICH WILL LIVE IN INFAMY – TEACHING WITH DOCUMENTS
LESSON PLAN NEW!!
http://www.archives.gov/digital_classroom/lessons/day_of_infamy/day_of_infamy.html
A lesson plan using the typed draft of President Roosevelt’s request to
Congress for a declaration of war against Japan in response to the attack on
Pearl Harbor. Includes the typed speech,
a photo of
http://www.coax.net/people/lwf/ww2.htm
A site dedicated to the military service of African
Americans in World War II. Includes photos, narratives, personal accounts and more. Very Good.
AFTER THE DAY OF INFAMY: “MAN ON THE
STREET” INTERVIEWS FOLLWING THE ATTACK ON
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/afcphhtml/afcphhome.html
An American Memory collection with “approximately
twelve hours of opinions recorded in the days and months following the bombing
of Pearl Harbor from over two hundred individuals in cities and towns across
the United States. On
ALEUTIAN WORLD WAR II NATIONAL
HISTORIC AREA –FOR KIDS NEW!!
http://www.nps.gov/aleu/ForKids.htm
Few are aware that the Japanese bombed and invaded the
http://www.accessweb.com/users/rbereznicki/over.html-ssi
Four separate battles over five
months in 1944 led to the capture of
THE CAUSES OF WORLD WAR II LESSON PLAN
http://www.col-ed.org/cur/sst/sst195.txt
A lesson plan for grades 10-12 on the causes of World War II. Very Good
THE
FOREIGN POLICY OF FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT TO THE ENTRY INTO WORLD WAR II LESSON NEW!!
http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1978/3/78.03.05.x.html
A lesson plan for high
school students on the events and policies that led to the
GETTING
INVOLVED IN WAR LESSON PLAN NEW!!
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/lessons/13/g68/involved.html
A lesson plan for grades 6-8 on how the
http://www.friesian.com/history/guadal.htm
A history of
the Guadalcanal Campaign, a series of land and sea battles in the south Pacific
from
“I”
WITNESS TO HISTORY LESSON PLAN NEW!!
http://www.nytimes.com/learning/teachers/lessons/19981207monday.html?searchpv=learning_lessons
A lesson plan for grades 8-12 in which “students
read a first-hand account of the Japanese attack on
http://edtech.suhsd.k12.ca.us/inprogress/suh/GForand/IwoJima.htm
A webquest for senior high students
on the battle for
JULY 1942: UNITED WE STAND NEW!!
http://americanhistory.si.edu/1942/index.html
In order to promote patriotic spirit, in July 1942, magazines across the
country displayed the