How did the Second World War in Europe develop?

Cambridge IGCSE History 0470 · Paper 1 Section B, Depth Study E Syllabus: 2027 and 2028 Depth study E: The Second World War in Europe and the Asia-Pacific, 1939 to c.1945 Key Question 1 of four

This is the first of the four Key Questions in Depth Study E, and it asks how the war in Europe developed once it was being fought. It runs from the German conquest of western Europe in 1940, through the failure to conquer Britain, into the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, and stops at the German defeat at Stalingrad and its impact. Everything in this file is about Europe. The Asia-Pacific, the civilian experience of the war, and the Allied road to victory each belong to one of your three siblings, and section 3 says exactly which.

Read this before anything else. This Depth Study is new, and past-paper practice on it barely exists. Depth Study E was examined for the first time in the 2024 series. Until 2023 Cambridge offered seven Depth Studies, three of which were China, South Africa, and the Israelis and Palestinians; those three were withdrawn and the Second World War took their place. That means there is no 2018 to 2023 record for any of this content, and the whole corpus behind this file is a single year of papers. Section 2 counts exactly what that year contains, question by question, because the honest number is small and you should plan your revision around it rather than around a bank of practice that does not exist.

The marking is not covered here. The level ladders, the mark split, the two rules Cambridge changed for 2024 and the examiner faults that repeat every series are all in the How Cambridge marks History 0470 Paper 1 notes, which cover Section B explicitly and carry the Section B question map. Read that page once. This file assumes it.

If you came here for why the war broke out, you are in the wrong file. Appeasement, the Rhineland, Austria, the Sudetenland, the Nazi-Soviet Pact and the invasion of Poland belong to Core Content Option B Key Question 3, and they live in the How far was Hitler's foreign policy to blame for the outbreak of war in Europe in 1939? notes. That is a different section of the paper as well as a different topic. Yours starts once the fighting has begun.

The file is built around Cambridge's four focus points, because each one is a ready-made 10 mark essay title and because three of the four have already been set as one in the only year available.

1. What the syllabus actually asks

This is the wording printed in the Cambridge IGCSE History 0470 syllabus for 2027 and 2028, on the Depth study E content page.

The full printed title, which is longer than you may have seen it

Cambridge prints the Depth Study with a date range attached:

Depth study E: The Second World War in Europe and the Asia-Pacific, 1939 to c.1945

Shortened forms of that title circulate without the dates, including in the Section B question map on the marking page, so take the dates from the content page itself. They matter, and section 2 shows one place where they cause a genuine problem: the title starts in 1939, and the specified content starts in 1940.

Key Question 1

How did the Second World War in Europe develop?

Focus points

• To what extent had Nazi Germany gained control of Europe in 1940?
• Why was Germany unable to conquer Britain?
• Why did Hitler invade the Soviet Union in 1941?
• Why was the Battle of Stalingrad a turning point?

The specified content is printed once for the whole Depth Study, undivided

This is the point that catches people out here more than in any other Depth Study. Cambridge does not print a specified content list under each Key Question. It prints one list for the whole of Depth study E, after Key Question 4, and leaves you to work out which items answer which question. There is no official division. What follows is the entire list, exactly as Cambridge prints it:

• Extent of German conquest of Europe 1940:
• invasion of and surrender of France; Vichy government in France
• Dunkirk
• German plans to invade Britain (Operation Sea Lion)
• the Battle of Britain and its consequences
• Operation Barbarossa and initial Nazi successes
• German defeat at Stalingrad and its impact
• The reasons for the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and its consequences
• Reasons for initial Japanese military successes in Southeast Asia by early 1942:
• Case study: Malaya and Singapore
• The Battle of Midway and its impact
• The impact of bombing on peoples' lives and morale in Europe:
• the Blitz
• Allied bombing of German cities
• The impact of Japanese control on people's lives:
• Case study: Malaya and Singapore
• The impact of Nazi control in occupied Europe:
• Case study: Poland, including circumstances leading to the Holocaust and its impact
• The methods and effectiveness of resistance movements in Malaya and in France
• The Allied invasion of Sicily and victory over German forces in Italy
• The collapse and surrender of Nazi Germany in 1945:
• the D-Day landings and the advance to Germany
• the Russian advance from the East
• The reasons for the defeat of Japan:
• the battles of Guadalcanal and Okinawa
• the US strategy of island-hopping
• the bombing of Japan
• the decision to use the atomic bomb and its consequences
• Consolidation of victory:
• the Allied occupations and control of Germany and Japan
• the war crimes trials in Nuremberg and Tokyo

Cambridge writes the date ranges and some compound terms with dashes; the wording is otherwise exactly as above, with nothing added and nothing left out. Note Cambridge's own inconsistency between "peoples' lives" in one item and "people's lives" in the next. That is its typography, not a slip here.

The three items that belong to this Key Question are the first three, and only the first three:

Everything from "The reasons for the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor" onwards belongs to a sibling file. Section 3 maps each of them.

Read the focus points as arguments, not as a list

Cambridge defines its own three layers and prints the definitions:

Key questions define the over-arching issues.

Focus points identify the issues that enable candidates to gain an understanding of the key question.

Specified content provides guidance on what needs to be studied for each key question.

So the four focus points are four arguments, each with two sides, and each of them is already phrased as an essay title.

Two of these are openly hedged. "To what extent" and "why was it a turning point" both invite the answer "less than you think", and Cambridge's own mark schemes credit that argument. The Paper 4 mark scheme for the Stalingrad question explicitly tells examiners to allow counterarguments that another event mattered more. An answer that knows only one side of any of these four is a one-sided answer before it starts, which the How Cambridge marks History 0470 Paper 1 notes show is capped at 6 out of 10.

2. How thin the past-paper record is, counted exactly

Do not take a general impression from this section. Take the numbers, because they change what revision on this content can realistically look like.

Depth Study E exists in one exam year

Every Paper 1 question paper from 2018 to 2023 was read for this file. None of them contains Depth Study E at all. The Depth Study first appears in the 2024 series.

The 2024 series contains seven Paper 1 papers: one March paper and three each in June and November. All seven set Depth Study E, and all seven set it at Question 17 and Question 18, the last slot on the paper, which confirms the placement in the Section B question map on the marking page. Seven papers times two questions is fourteen Depth Study E questions in existence, and each is a three part structured essay, so forty-two question parts in total for the whole Depth Study.

Of those fourteen questions, four are yours

The fourteen questions split four to Key Question 1, three to Key Question 2, four to Key Question 3 and three to Key Question 4. So on Paper 1, Key Question 1 has been set four times, and every one of those four was at Question 17. Question 18 in all seven papers went to Key Question 3 or Key Question 4. That is the whole record: four questions, twelve question parts.

Here is every one of them, in Cambridge's words:

Paper 4 doubles the record, if your school enters you for it

If your school enters you for Paper 4, the Alternative to Coursework, rather than the coursework component, your Depth Study is examined there too. Depth Study E sits at Questions 9 and 10 on Paper 4, again the last slot, in all seven of the 2024 papers. Four of those seven set a Key Question 1 question, always at Question 9:

• March 2024: write an account of the evacuation of Dunkirk, 15 marks; discuss the importance of the defeat of France in 1940, 25 marks.
• June 2024 paper 2: write an account of Operation Barbarossa; discuss the extent to which the Battle of Stalingrad was the turning point in the war in Europe.
• November 2024 paper 1: write an account of Germany's plans to invade Britain; discuss the importance of the Royal Air Force in the defence of Britain in 1940.
• November 2024 paper 3: write an account of the German conquests in Western Europe in 1940; discuss the importance of the defeat of Poland.

These are worth reading even if you sit coursework instead, because the Paper 4 mark schemes carry indicative content lists that are far more detailed than anything on Paper 1, and a good deal of what follows in sections 4 to 7 comes from them.

What all four focus points being covered does not mean

Across Paper 1 and Paper 4 together, eight Key Question 1 questions exist. Every focus point has been touched at least once, but not evenly, and one gap is worth naming.

No question in the corpus asks why Hitler invaded the Soviet Union. Focus point 3 asks exactly that, and the two questions set on Barbarossa ask what it was and why it failed to finish by the end of 1941. The motive appears only inside a Paper 4 indicative content list. Notice also that the specified content bullet is "Operation Barbarossa and initial Nazi successes", which does not mention motives either. Focus point 3 is the one place where the focus point asks for something the specified content does not name and no question has yet tested. Prepare it anyway. It is a printed focus point, and a printed focus point can be set.

Do not build a slot theory out of one year

In 2024, Question 17 always took Key Question 1 or 2 and Question 18 always took Key Question 3 or 4. On Paper 4 the equivalent pattern held in five of seven papers and broke in two. One year is not a pattern, the marking page records that Cambridge does not tie a Key Question to a slot inside a Depth Study, and the sample here is far too small to bet a revision plan on. Revise all four Key Questions of Depth Study E or, at minimum, know that skipping one is a real gamble rather than an informed one.

The examiner reports cannot help you yet

The March 2024 Principal Examiner report is the only report in the corpus covering a series in which Depth Study E existed. On Paper 1 it says of Questions 16, 17 and 18 that "There were too few responses to these questions for any meaningful comments to be made." On Paper 4 it records that Depth Study B was the most popular, followed by D and C, and that there were "too few attempts at Depth Study E ... to make any meaningful comments." So there is no topic-specific examiner commentary on this content anywhere. The general faults in section 7 of the How Cambridge marks History 0470 Paper 1 notes are what you have, and they apply here as fully as anywhere else.

3. Where this Key Question starts and stops

Depth Study E has an unusually crowded set of borders: three sibling Key Questions, plus a Core Content Key Question that owns everything before the fighting starts.

The hard boundary is with Key Question 4, and the syllabus draws it at Stalingrad

This is the least obvious line in the Depth Study, because "how the war developed" and "how the Allies won" could plausibly cover the same years. Work it out from the specified content, which settles it. Your last item is German defeat at Stalingrad and its impact. Key Question 4's first item is the Allied invasion of Sicily and victory over German forces in Italy. Nothing sits between them.

So the line is a date and a direction at once:

1. Germany advances and is checked, 1940 to early 1943
2. that is Key Question 1
3. the Allies advance and Germany collapses, from Sicily in 1943 to the surrender in 1945
4. that is Key Question 4

The Eastern Front sits on both sides of that line and is split by it. Barbarossa and Stalingrad are yours. The Russian advance from the East is Key Question 4's, and Cambridge names it there in its own specified content bullet under the collapse of Nazi Germany. A November 2024 question asking whether Germany collapsed in 1945 because of the Russian advance from the East was set as a Question 18, not a Question 17.

The one licensed crossing is inside a turning point question. When Paper 4 asked how far Stalingrad was the turning point, the mark scheme told examiners to allow counterarguments naming the Battle of Britain, the defeat of Italy and the Normandy landings. Naming a Key Question 4 event as a rival to Stalingrad is doing your own question. Narrating D-Day is not.

The other boundary: 1939

Cambridge's title starts the Depth Study in 1939. Cambridge's specified content starts it in 1940, with the conquest of Europe. Poland is not in the specified content of Depth Study E at all, and its Nazi occupation appears only under Key Question 3, as the case study on civilians. Section 8 explains what to do about that, because Cambridge has already set a question on the defeat of Poland despite it.

4. Focus point 1: To what extent had Nazi Germany gained control of Europe in 1940?

Set three times on Paper 1 as a (c), and twice on Paper 4 as a full question. It is comfortably the most examined thing in this Key Question.

What Cambridge credits about the campaign itself

The campaign as Cambridge's mark schemes describe it:

• In May 1940 Germany used blitzkrieg to invade the Low Countries. There was fierce resistance in some areas, notably Belgium.
• German forces used air superiority and infantry supported by tanks, with the aim of advancing to the English Channel and surrounding the Allied armies.
• German forces invaded France through the dense forests of the Ardennes and bypassed the Maginot Line.
• A two day battle at Sedan ended in defeat for the French.
• The Allies counter-attacked near Arras but did not have the reserves to hold the ground they gained.
• German troops entered Paris on 14 June. French forces had withdrawn from the city the day before, and it was declared an open city to prevent its destruction.
• France fell within six weeks.

Two things Cambridge credits that candidates rarely have. Germany had broken French codes and knew about French war plans. And every German military unit had a radio, which let German forces react faster than the Allies and kept headquarters up to date. In a mark scheme that is offered as an explanation of German superiority, not as trivia.

The named German plan

Cambridge names the German plan in a mark scheme, and naming it is exactly the sort of specific contextual knowledge that turns four marks into five on a part (b):

1. Case Yellow was the German attack to the north
2. it was designed to draw the main Allied forces into northern France and Belgium and surround them in a huge pincer manoeuvre
3. but the northern attack was itself a diversion
4. it trapped Allied forces in the north and left German forces free to attack further south

The two sides of "was it German skill or Allied failure?"

Cambridge set this argument twice, from opposite ends. In June 2024 the statement blamed French leadership and the mark scheme offered German tactics as the other side. In November 2024 the statement credited German superiority and the mark scheme offered German planning as one side and Allied inferiority as the other. Both are the same argument. Know both columns.

German strengths, in Cambridge's words

• Blitzkrieg, described in one mark scheme as high speed attacks at French weak points.
• Tanks concentrated in the Ardennes while the French army had gone north, and the French assumption that the land there was unsuitable for tanks.
• Stuka dive bombers.
• A willingness to take risks, and the concentration of forces in one place.
• Superior communications, through the radios in every unit.
• German tanks were superior; the German army was superior in number and technology.

French failures, in Cambridge's words

• The French army had plenty of men and equipment, but its commanders were too old fashioned. They were still fighting the First World War rather than the war the Germans were actually fighting.
• Their plans were based on the Maginot Line, which they assumed would hold the Germans for a long time. That made them too defensive.
• They waited for the Germans to attack when they should have gone on the offensive while Germany was attacking Poland.
• Even when the Germans invaded Belgium, French commanders were slow to react.
• The French government was divided, and the French army had not been modernised.
• France expected to fight a defensive war and did not anticipate the speed of the attack.

Cambridge's own top band exemplar comes down on the French side while conceding the German one, which is the shape a Level 5 judgement needs:

1. the German victory was partly due to innovative German tactics
2. but it was mainly the fault of the French military leaders
3. they played into German hands by being so defensive
4. had they taken the initiative while Germany invaded Poland it would have surprised the Germans and defeated their tactics
5. instead they stayed behind the Maginot Line and allowed the Germans to take every initiative

How much control Germany had actually gained, which is what the focus point asks

The focus point says "to what extent", so it wants the reach of the conquest assessed, not narrated. Cambridge's Paper 4 mark scheme on the importance of the defeat of France gives you the assessment ready made, sorted by type:

• Military. France was knocked out of the war in Europe, and it had the largest army, the largest air force and the most armoured vehicles of any Allied army in 1940.
• Strategic. German occupation of France meant that only an invasion from across the Channel could defeat Germany in future. Germany controlled most of Western Europe, and could use French ports to house U-boats in the Battle of the Atlantic.
• Political. France was split into Occupied France and the Vichy government in the south, and a Free French provisional government led by de Gaulle was established in London.
• Cultural. Vichy France was seen as collaborators, took part in the Final Solution and enforced anti-Semitic policies.
• Morale. German occupation was a massive blow to many French, and some joined the French Resistance.

The limits are in that list too, and they are what makes an "extent" answer balanced. Britain was not conquered. A French government in exile existed. A resistance existed. The Soviet Union was not yet in the war. Control of most of Western Europe is not control of Europe.

Vichy, which Cambridge examines twice and separately

Vichy has its own bullet in the specified content and was set as a part (a) in June 2024 and a part (b) in March 2024. Learn it as a thing in itself.

What it was. It governed the southern part of France. It began in 1940 after the defeat of France. It was led by Marshal Petain and Pierre Laval. It lasted four years. It collaborated with the Nazis. It was an authoritarian regime in which Petain was an absolute ruler. It censored the press and imprisoned its critics. It put Jews in camps and deported them. When the Allies invaded in 1944 it fled to Germany.

Why it mattered to Germany. Cambridge's own Level 3 explanation runs through the Jewish policy:

1. Vichy carried out the policies towards the Jews that Germany wanted
2. it began by removing Jews from the civil service and seizing their property
3. it went further and began deportations, doing the arresting itself
4. many were deported to camps like Auschwitz
5. this was exactly what the Germans wanted, so Vichy did the work of the Germans for them

The other credited reasons: it meant Germany did not have to conquer southern France; it meant southern France was governed by a regime friendly to Germany and its policies; it governed with extreme right wing policies; and it contributed economically to the German economy.

Dunkirk

Dunkirk has its own specified content bullet, was a Paper 4 part (a) in March 2024, and is one half of a Paper 1 part (c) in November 2024. What Cambridge credits:

• By 21 May 1940 the German army had trapped Allied forces in northern France.
• On 23 May Hitler ordered a halt on the German army's advance. The Luftwaffe was to be used to destroy the Allied armies and force a surrender and peace terms.
• The British and French planned an evacuation from Dunkirk, and the Battle of Dunkirk was used to delay German troops.
• The evacuation was Operation Dynamo.
• The Royal Navy, the French Navy and merchant ships, 800 in total, carried out the evacuation, supported by the RAF. Many civilians helped.
• Allied equipment and weapons, including tanks, were lost to the Germans. The soldiers who got back had left most of their armaments in France and were completely disorganised.

For the numbers evacuated, read section 8 before you write one down. Cambridge gives three different figures.

Why it mattered, in Cambridge's words: the BEF was Britain's only trained fighting force, so its loss would have damaged the Allied war effort; the rescue was a great boost to civilian morale; and the "Dunkirk spirit" helped Britain to fight on in 1940 when prospects for victory looked remote.

5. Focus point 2: Why was Germany unable to conquer Britain?

Set as a part (b) twice on Paper 1, as half of a part (c) twice, and as a whole Paper 4 question once. Note the shape of the focus point: it asks why Germany was unable, so the answer is a list of things Germany lacked as much as a list of things Britain did.

What Operation Sea Lion required, which is where the answer comes from

The Paper 4 mark scheme sets out the German plan in more detail than any Paper 1 scheme does, and the plan is the argument, because every item on it is something that had to go right and did not.

• The defeat of France and the Low Countries had given Germany control over the Channel coast.
• The German navy was weak compared to Britain's, so Germany needed air superiority to invade.
• Hitler ordered preparations for the invasion, Operation Sea Lion, when Britain refused to negotiate peace terms.
• The RAF was to be defeated and destroyed on the ground.
• The English Channel was to be swept of British mines at the crossing points, and the Strait of Dover blocked at both ends by German mines.
• The coastal zone between occupied France and England was to be dominated by heavy artillery, and the Royal Navy sufficiently engaged in the North Sea and the Mediterranean that it could not intervene in the crossing.
• British home squadrons were to be damaged or destroyed by air and torpedo attacks.

The chain that follows from it:

1. Germany takes the Channel coast in June 1940
2. an invasion of Britain becomes physically possible for the first time
3. but the German navy cannot face the Royal Navy, so the plan depends on air superiority
4. the RAF wins the Battle of Britain in the summer of 1940
5. without control of the skies the crossing would be destroyed by the British navy and air force
6. Sea Lion is never launched

What Cambridge credits as reasons

The Battle of Britain. Cambridge's own Level 3 explanation: for the invasion to succeed, Germany needed its air force to control the skies, or any invading force would be under heavy attack by British aircraft; in the Battle of Britain in the summer of 1940 the RAF won control of the skies by defeating the Luftwaffe; once that happened, an invasion was impossible.

Everything else Cambridge lists, each of which is a Level 2 identification on its own and becomes a Level 3 explanation once you attach the mechanism:

• The German navy did not control the English Channel or the North Sea, and British naval supremacy made an invasion very difficult.
• Germany did not have enough ships or barges to get the troops across.
• German invasion plans were not ready.
• Britain had organised strong resistance forces across Britain, and by 1940 had organised very strong defences.
• The men rescued at Dunkirk meant Britain still had a trained army, though Cambridge notes in the same scheme that they would have been no match for a full scale German attack and had lost their equipment.
• Hitler was more interested in expanding eastwards.
• Hitler always preferred a negotiated peace to an invasion.

That last pair is the argument that Germany was not so much unable as unwilling, and it is worth a paragraph on the other side of any part (c) on this.

Why the Battle of Britain mattered, which is the separate question Cambridge also asks

November 2024 set "Why was the Battle of Britain important?" as a part (b) in its own right, and Paper 4 set the importance of the RAF as a 25 mark discussion. The credited consequences:

• Hitler was unable to launch Operation Sea Lion. Unlike much of western Europe, which had fallen to German forces very quickly and become occupied by the Nazis, Britain stayed independent and would be able to fight back.
• British war production could continue, and Britain could continue fighting in Europe and in other theatres of war.
• German air superiority was diminished, and the efficiency and tactics of RAF Fighter Command improved, including the development of the Dowding System.
• The radar system was proved to be effective.
• It gave RAF pilots important experience for countering the night and day raids of the Blitz.
• The RAF was viewed by many as the saviours of British independence, and propaganda and censored media played on RAF victories to boost morale.
• It helped shift US opinion towards supporting Britain in the war effort.
• Hitler failed to achieve his objective of conquering Britain.

The Dunkirk against Battle of Britain comparison, set as a part (c)

November 2024 asked whether the evacuation from Dunkirk was more important than the Battle of Britain. Cambridge's Level 5 exemplar concedes Dunkirk and then decides against it, and the reason it gives is the one to learn:

1. Dunkirk mattered to those rescued and was a great boost to public morale
2. but the Battle of Britain secured Britain's position and prevented Hitler's invasion
3. that was more important to the long term development of the war
4. because it meant Britain would not be captured and would be able to fight on

Note the criterion. Cambridge is judging against the long term development of the war, not against how it felt at the time. Naming the criterion you are judging by is a cheap and reliable way of making a judgement look supported.

6. Focus point 3: Why did Hitler invade the Soviet Union in 1941?

The least examined focus point in this Key Question, and the one where the corpus and the focus point are furthest apart. No question in the corpus asks the "why". Two ask what Barbarossa was and why it failed to finish in 1941. Prepare the "why" from the specified content and the one mark scheme that touches it, and prepare the "how it went" thoroughly, because that is what has actually been set.

What Cambridge says about the motive

The Paper 4 indicative content is the only place in the corpus where the motive appears at all. It gives two:

• Germany began planning in 1940 to conquer the Soviet Union as part of the Lebensraum policy.
• The operation was designed to destroy Soviet armies and capture the Soviet Union's vast economic resources.

That is one ideological reason and one material reason, which is exactly the two sided shape a part (c) would need. Do not add a third from memory. If a question on the motive is set, an answer that explains those two properly, with the 1940 planning date attached, is already at the top of Level 4.

What Operation Barbarossa was

Set as a part (a) in November 2024 and as a Paper 4 account in June 2024. What Cambridge credits:

• It was an attack by the German army on Russia.
• Over 3.8 million Axis troops took part, described by Cambridge as the largest such operation in history.
• It was launched in 1941. The USSR was not prepared and was paralysed by the initial German gains.
• Blitzkrieg techniques were used, and at first German forces made very rapid advances.
• German forces attacked towards Leningrad in the north.
• There were massive initial gains from June to August in the Baltic states and Ukraine. The German High Command and Hitler pushed towards Moscow and Leningrad. Kiev was captured with huge losses.
• German atrocities followed in each occupied territory: starvation, Germanisation and anti-Semitic policies.
• By September the German advance slowed, because the Germans had miscalculated the strength of the Soviet army.
• Germany failed to capture Leningrad, focused on Moscow until December, and the Russian winter set in.
• The Luftwaffe was grounded, Germany suffered over 800 000 casualties, and plans were revised after the failure to capture Moscow.

Why Germany could not finish it in 1941

This was a part (b) in November 2024, and Cambridge's own Level 3 explanation bundles several reasons into one chain:

1. Germany assumed the defeat would come quickly and made no plans for a long war
2. it expected the Soviets to surrender after the initial defeats
3. the Soviet Union was vast, which brought logistical difficulties that cut supplies of fuel and ammunition
4. most German soldiers had only summer uniforms
5. when winter set in they were unprepared

The other credited reasons, each a Level 2 identification on its own:

• Soviet soldiers used scorched earth tactics as they retreated, which made communication more difficult for the German army.
• Although the Russians suffered heavy defeats at first, they had huge reserves of troops.
• Russian soldiers were used to fighting in winter conditions.

Notice what this list does for focus point 3 as an argument. The reasons Germany invaded and the reasons the invasion stalled are the same reasons seen twice: Germany went for the resources of a vast country and was defeated by the vastness. That is a judgement sentence waiting to be written.

7. Focus point 4: Why was the Battle of Stalingrad a turning point?

Set once on Paper 1, as a part (a), and once on Paper 4 as a 25 mark discussion. The Paper 4 scheme is by some distance the richest thing in the corpus on this content, and it is organised in a way you can lift directly into an essay.

What happened, as Cambridge describes it

• The German forces attacked the city.
• Stalin ordered all the Russian men to grab a rifle and defend the city.
• The Russians kept the civilian population in the city.
• German artillery pounded the city until it was in ruins.
• Soviet reinforcements were sent, trapping many German soldiers through the winter.
• In 1943 the Russians retook the city, and the Germans retreated.
• It was Germany's biggest defeat so far in the war.

For the casualty figures, read section 8 first. Cambridge's two documents do not agree about what they are counting.

The five kinds of turning point, which is Cambridge's own structure

The Paper 4 mark scheme sorts the argument into facets. This is the best essay plan available anywhere in this Depth Study, because each facet is a separate explained point and the marking rewards additional explanations directly.

The other side, which Cambridge tells examiners to accept

The mark scheme instructs examiners to allow counterarguments, and names them:

• Stalingrad was less of a turning point than the Battle of Britain.
• Or less of one than the defeat of Italy.
• Or less of one than the Normandy invasion, the D-Day landings.
• Or the war continued even after the defeat at Stalingrad, so nothing was decided there.

This is the licensed crossing into Key Question 4 discussed in section 3. Naming D-Day as a rival turning point is answering the question set. Narrating D-Day is answering Key Question 4.

1. Stalingrad reversed the direction of the war in the East
2. it was the last point at which Germany could take the initiative there
3. but Germany still had to be beaten in Italy, in France and in Germany itself
4. so Stalingrad decided who would be advancing, not when the war would end

8. Where Cambridge's own documents disagree, and what to do about it

This section exists because the corpus for this content is one year deep, so there is no third document to break a tie. Do not try to reconcile these. Choose the safe form and move the argument on, because in every case the mark is for the explanation, not the number.

How many were evacuated from Dunkirk. The March 2024 Paper 1 mark scheme says 330 000 Allied troops. The March 2024 Paper 4 mark scheme, in the same series, says 340 000 troops in eight days. The November 2024 Paper 1 mark scheme says over 300 000. Write over 300 000, which is the form no other Cambridge document contradicts, and spend the sentence on what those men were rather than on how many.

What year Dunkirk was. The March 2024 Paper 1 mark scheme, in a Level 3 exemplar, opens "In 1939 the British forces were encircled by German forces and forced back to the Channel." Every other Cambridge document places it in 1940: the specified content heads the whole item "Extent of German conquest of Europe 1940", and the Paper 4 mark scheme dates the trapping of the Allied armies to 21 May 1940. The exemplar is the outlier. Use 1940.

Stalingrad's casualties. The Paper 1 mark scheme says over a million Russians died and about 800 000 Germans died. The Paper 4 mark scheme says 2 million total casualties. Those are not the same measure, and the two cannot both be describing the same thing, since deaths on the first count already exceed the total on the second. If you need a figure inside an explanation, say the battle was the largest and deadliest single battle of the Second World War, which is Cambridge's own wording and is not in dispute anywhere.

How the invasion of Britain is spelled. The syllabus and the Paper 4 mark schemes print Operation Sea Lion. The November 2024 Paper 1 mark schemes print Operation Sealion. Nothing turns on it. Use the syllabus spelling and do not worry about it.

Whether 1939 is in this Depth Study at all. The title says the Depth Study runs from 1939. The specified content begins at Extent of German conquest of Europe 1940 and never mentions the invasion of Poland. Cambridge then set, in November 2024, a Paper 4 question worth 25 marks: discuss the importance of the defeat of Poland. Its mark scheme runs to five facets, including 200 000 Polish casualties and over 600 000 captured, the Nazi-Soviet Pact and the Soviet conquest of eastern Poland, Britain and France entering the war because they had promised to defend Poland, Poland falling within a month as a demonstration of blitzkrieg and air superiority, the establishment of the Nazi General Government and the Polish government in exile in London.

So a question can be set on 1939 even though the specified content starts in 1940. Two consequences, and take both. Know the defeat of Poland well enough to use it. And do not use it as a substitute for the 1940 content, because the 1940 content is what the specified content actually names and what every Paper 1 question so far has asked about. Note as well that the Nazi occupation of Poland, as distinct from the campaign, belongs to Key Question 3 as its case study on civilians.

9. Judgement sentences that reach the tenth mark

The tenth mark on a part (c) is a supported judgement, and the How Cambridge marks History 0470 Paper 1 notes explain why it is a separate act from the analysis. These are shaped for the arguments in this Key Question. Each states a position and attaches a reason.

• "France fell in six weeks because of German planning more than French weakness, since a defensive strategy that had held in 1914 was only made worthless by the specific route the Germans chose."
• "The French leadership failed less by being incompetent than by being prepared for a different war, which is why an army with more tanks lost to one that used them better."
• "Germany could not conquer Britain because the invasion depended on a condition Germany never met, and control of the air was the one thing British defeat in France had not cost Britain."
• "The Battle of Britain mattered more than Dunkirk, because Dunkirk saved an army and the Battle of Britain saved the country the army would have to fight from."
• "Barbarossa failed for the same reason it was attempted, since the size of the Soviet Union was both the prize and the obstacle."
• "Stalingrad was the turning point of the war in the East rather than of the war, because it settled who would be advancing without settling how long the advance would take."
• "Germany's control of Europe in 1940 was wide rather than complete, and what it did not include, Britain undefeated and the Soviet Union unengaged, is what eventually undid it."

Every one of these concedes something to the other side inside the same sentence. That is what stops a judgement reading as a restatement of the question, which the examiner reports name as the difference between 9 and 10.

10. Quick revision

• Where it sits: Paper 1 Section B, Depth Study E, Question 17 or 18. In the only year available, Key Question 1 was set four times and always at Question 17. On Paper 4 the Depth Study is Question 9 and Question 10.
• The record is one year deep. Seven Paper 1 papers in 2024, fourteen Depth Study E questions, four of them yours. Nothing from 2018 to 2023 exists on this content. No examiner report comments on it, because too few candidates sat it.
• Your three specified content items: the conquest of Europe in 1940 with France, Vichy, Dunkirk, Sea Lion and the Battle of Britain; Operation Barbarossa and initial Nazi successes; German defeat at Stalingrad and its impact. The list is printed once for the whole Depth Study and is undivided.
• France 1940: blitzkrieg into the Low Countries in May 1940; through the Ardennes, bypassing the Maginot Line; two day battle at Sedan; Case Yellow as the northern diversion and pincer; Allied counter-attack at Arras; Paris entered 14 June, declared an open city; France fell in six weeks.
• Why France fell: German tactics, risk taking, concentrated tanks, Stukas, radios in every unit, broken French codes, against French commanders who were too defensive, planning on the Maginot Line, slow to react, and a divided government.
• Vichy: southern France, from 1940, Petain and Laval, four years, authoritarian, censorship, deportation of Jews, fled to Germany in 1944. Important to Germany because it did Germany's work on Jewish policy, saved Germany a conquest, and contributed economically.
• Dunkirk: trapped by 21 May 1940, Hitler's halt order 23 May, Operation Dynamo, 800 vessels, over 300 000 evacuated, equipment lost, the BEF was Britain's only trained force, "Dunkirk spirit".
• Sea Lion: needed air superiority because the German navy was weak; RAF destroyed on the ground, Channel swept of mines, Dover blocked, coastal zone under heavy artillery, Royal Navy tied up elsewhere. None of it happened.
• Battle of Britain, summer 1940: RAF won control of the skies, so no invasion; Britain stayed independent and could fight back; radar proved effective; the Dowding System; shifted US opinion.
• Barbarossa: planned from 1940 for Lebensraum and Soviet economic resources; over 3.8 million Axis troops; launched 1941; rapid gains June to August in the Baltic states and Ukraine; Kiev captured; slowed by September; Leningrad not taken; Moscow the focus until December; over 800 000 German casualties.
• Why 1941 was not enough: no plans for a long war, expected surrender, vast distances and broken supply, summer uniforms, scorched earth, huge Soviet reserves, Russians used to winter.
• Stalingrad: civilians kept in the city, artillery reduced it to ruins, Soviet reinforcements trapped the Germans through the winter, retaken in 1943, Germany's biggest defeat so far. Five facets: military, strategic, economic (the Volga oil and transport hubs), morale (first full scale retreat of a German field army), tactical (the encircled 6th Army).
• The boundary with Key Question 4 is Stalingrad. Sicily onwards, D-Day, the Russian advance from the East and the surrender are not yours. Naming them as rival turning points is.
• Never re-argue appeasement or the outbreak of war here. That is Core Content Option B Key Question 3.

11. Where these facts come from

Everything above is taken from Cambridge's own published 0470 materials, and this section says which document carries which claim, because the corpus is thin enough that you should be able to check any of it.

The Cambridge IGCSE History 0470 syllabus for 2027 and 2028. The full Depth Study title with its date range, the Key Question, all four focus points, the whole specified content list, the definitions of key question, focus point and specified content, the placement of Depth study E as the fifth Depth Study, and the Paper 1 and Paper 4 structures referred to in section 2.

The seven Paper 1 question papers and mark schemes of the 2024 series, that is March 2024 and three papers each in June and November 2024. The count of papers setting Depth Study E, the placement at Questions 17 and 18, the twelve Key Question 1 question parts quoted in section 2, and every mark scheme detail in sections 4 to 7 attributed to a Paper 1 scheme: the Stalingrad part (a) list, the Vichy part (a) and part (b) lists, the invasion of France part (a) list, the Operation Barbarossa part (a) list, the reasons Germany could not conquer the USSR by the end of 1941, the reasons Hitler did not invade Britain, the importance of the Battle of Britain, and the Level 2, Level 3 and Level 5 material for the four part (c) questions.

The seven Paper 4 question papers and mark schemes of the 2024 series. The placement of Depth Study E at Questions 9 and 10, the four Key Question 1 questions listed in section 2, and the indicative content behind the Dunkirk account, the importance of the defeat of France, the German plans to invade Britain, the importance of the RAF, the account of Operation Barbarossa, the five facets of Stalingrad as a turning point with the permitted counterarguments, the account of the German conquests in Western Europe in 1940, and the importance of the defeat of Poland.

All 41 Paper 1 question papers from 2018 to 2023. These were read only to establish a negative, that Depth Study E appears in none of them.

The March 2024 Principal Examiner report. The two statements quoted in section 2, that there were too few responses to Questions 16, 17 and 18 on Paper 1 for meaningful comment, and too few attempts at Depth Study E on Paper 4 for meaningful comment, together with the relative popularity of Depth Studies B, D, C and A on Paper 4.

Deliberately not written above, because no Cambridge document in the corpus verifies it

Expect this list to be long. That is the correct outcome for a Depth Study with one year of papers behind it, and the Second World War has a larger popular literature than any other topic on this syllabus, so the temptation to fill the gaps from general reading is at its strongest here. Every item below is something a textbook would give you and this file will not:

• Any date for the Battle of Britain beyond Cambridge's own "the summer of 1940", including its start and end dates, and any figure for aircraft or pilots lost on either side.
• Any date, duration or casualty figure for the Battle of Stalingrad other than the year 1943 for the Soviet recapture and the disputed figures set out in section 8.
• The date Operation Barbarossa was launched beyond the year 1941, the number of German army groups, and the names of their commanders.
• The date France signed the armistice, the location at which it was signed, and the date the Vichy regime was formally established.
• The names of any German or French commander in the 1940 campaign. Cambridge names Petain, Laval and de Gaulle in political roles and no military commander at all.
• The number of divisions, tanks or aircraft on either side in France in 1940.
• The name and date of any phase of the Battle of Britain, any German bombing decision within it, and any account of why the Luftwaffe changed targets.
• The date Operation Sea Lion was postponed or cancelled.
• Any figure for Soviet or German strength at the start of Barbarossa other than Cambridge's "over 3.8 million Axis troops", and any figure for prisoners taken in 1941.
• The date of the German surrender at Stalingrad, and the name of the German commander there. Cambridge names the 6th Army and no individual.
• Anything about the Battle of the Atlantic beyond Cambridge's single clause that Germany could use French ports to house U-boats.
• Anything about North Africa, which appears nowhere in Depth study E's specified content at all.

None of these is needed for a top band answer to any question in the corpus. Every part (b) and part (c) in this Key Question is marked on explanation, and the one mark that a specific fact can add sits inside an explanation, so an unverified date buys nothing and costs credibility. Where you need a detail, take one from sections 4 to 7, all of which Cambridge has printed itself.

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