DSE History | The Second World War — Teacher Prep Guide | Three reasons for appeasement, a timeline and casualty shares

2026-11-04

Tutor lesson-prep guides · Secondary History

Students say Hitler invaded so war followed, but cannot say why Britain and France kept giving way. Start with the logic of appeasement: not stupidity, but fear of repeating 1914.

Objectives — Students will be able to: (1) give three reasons for appeasement and name the false assumption behind it; (2) order six dates from 1938 to 1945 and explain each turning point; (3) use casualty shares to argue that this was total war.

01 Prerequisites (3-minute check)

If any of these fails, fix it before the lesson starts.

Skill	Quick check	Pass mark
Memory of WWI	Why did Britain and France dread another war	A lost generation, weak economies
Dictatorship	Shared features of Nazi Germany and the USSR	One party, leader cult
Map reading	Where Poland sits relative to Germany	Poland lies to the east

02 Lesson flow (60 minutes)

Time	Stage	Tutor does	Student does
0-6 min	Opener	If you were British PM in 1938, would you fight	Vote and justify
6-16 min	Three reasons	Fear of repeat, rearmament unfinished, anti-communism first	Copy three lines
16-30 min	Timeline	Munich to Poland is 336 days; build six boxes	Order the boxes
30-44 min	Two theatres	How west and east tied each other down; why Stalingrad turned the tide	Draw two arrows
44-56 min	Casualties	70 million dead, about 3.04 per cent of the population	Compute the share
56-60 min	Exit check	Collect and mark three questions	Work alone

03 Teaching script (read it out)

Scene 1: Appeasement was a calculation

Britain and France knew Hitler was dangerous. Three realities pushed them to concede: the memory of 1914, unfinished rearmament, and a Soviet Union seen as the bigger threat.
The error was the assumption that concessions bought time. Munich on 30 September 1938 to the invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939 is 336 days, and Germany armed throughout.

Ask students: give three reasons and one false assumption without using the word weak.

Scene 2: A timeline must carry causes

Each box needs what was done and what it made possible: Munich 1938, Poland 1939, Barbarossa 1941, Pearl Harbor 1941, Stalingrad 1943, German surrender 1945.
Barbarossa to the surrender at Stalingrad is 590 days, so a single encirclement lasted more than eighteen months. That length is the point about the eastern front.

Ask students: join every box to the next with a therefore.

Scene 3: Use shares to explain total war

About 70 million died out of a world population near 2300 million, roughly 3.04 per cent. The Soviet Union alone accounts for 38.6 per cent, and Poland lost 6 million of 35 million, about 17.1 per cent.
Shares break the image of a battlefield war: deaths concentrated among civilians, occupied populations and famine, which is why the United Nations and human rights law followed.

Ask students: argue in two figures that this was total war.

04 Question types and worked steps

Type	Example	Steps	Answer
Appeasement explanation	Why did they concede	Three reasons plus one false assumption	Each reason tied to an event
Timeline ordering	Six dates in sequence with turning points	Year first, then therefore	Mark which theatre
Casualty data	Interpret 3.04 and 38.6 per cent	Numerator, denominator, conclusion	Link to civilian deaths
Essay judgement	Could the war have been avoided	Two points each side, then a verdict	Every point cites an event

Sanity check (teach this): Sanity checks: the war ran from 1939 to 1945, six years; deaths were about 70 million, roughly 3 per cent of the population, not half; Germany surrendered in May 1945 and Japan in August, about three months apart.

05 Independent practice (3 questions)

Question	Answer	What to watch
Three reasons	Three lines, each with an event	Is the false assumption stated
Six-box timeline	Year, event, therefore	Do the arrows connect
Casualty share	70 over 2300 as a fraction then a percentage	Million and billion confused
Short essay	150 words on avoidability	Both sides present

06 Common mistakes and what to say

Mistake	Student writes	Say this
Calling appeasement stupid	They were naive so they gave way	What were they afraid of? Give three realities, then the wrong assumption.
Dates without causes	1938, 1939, 1941	Add a therefore to each box. I want causes, not numbers.
Broken units	Seventy billion died	Seventy is millions and the world held 2.3 billion. Units first, then the share.
Merging theatres	After Stalingrad the US won	East and Pacific are two lines; explain each, then how they supported each other.

07 Homework (paper, section and question numbers)

Secondary History chapter index — Every chapter in the subject
All prep guides — Parallel chapters
Redo this chapter — Rebuild the six-box timeline with a cause in each box

08 Exit check (last 5 minutes)

Question	Answer	Decision
Three reasons for appeasement	Fear of 1914, rearmament, anti-communism	Fear of Germany alone means restart
Turning point in the east	Stalingrad, 1943	Normandy means redo the timeline
Share of world population killed	About 70 million, about 3 per cent	Seven hundred million means redo act three

09 Tutor FAQ

How many dates must be memorised?

Six: Munich 1938, Poland 1939, Barbarossa and Pearl Harbor 1941, Stalingrad 1943, surrender 1945. Dates are the skeleton; causes earn marks.

Estimates of deaths differ between books

Use about and state it. The share and the structure matter more than 68 versus 70 million.

Can an answer cover Europe only?

DSE questions often demand both Asia and Europe; a Europe-only answer loses half the marks.

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A TutorZone lesson-prep guide. Written by the TutorZone team; questions and lesson flow are original and are not taken from any school or publisher material.