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Japanese invasion of China
Japan sought to grow its influence and in order to accomplish that it required more materials. This led Japan to invade Manchuria and take over large sections of China. The League of Nations heavily criticized this however didn't step in due to the fear of war. This stressed relationships specifically with the U.S. and was one of the lead ups to Pearl Harbor. -
Nanjing Massacre
After taking over Shanghai the Japanese made their way towards Nanking (or Nanjing), the Chinese leader removed all of the troops before hand and outlawed evacuating the city. This led to the Japanese troops killing many civilians and untrained auxiliary. The Japanese forces were extremely cruel and raped 20,000-80,000 women which is why it is called 'The Rape of Nanking'. Japan then installed a puppet government but the massacre hurt Japan's reputation and was an easy target for propaganda. -
Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact
Stalin wasn't able to make a pact with the Allies so in fear that Russia would be attacked by Germany he became allies with Germany instead. Germany wanted to invade Poland without much interference so they made a pact that they wouldn't attack each other. This greatly helped Germany and gave Russia a side for most of the war. It also gained more land for the two because they split Poland. -
Invasion of Poland
Germany wished to gain land in Poland to test out their new strategies and to gain more ground. Luckily for them since Russia had recently signed a pact with them they didn't meet much resistance form Poland. Poland's military wasn't as advanced and was quickly overrun by Nazi's. This helped form Hitler's blitzkrieg approach which defined Germany's war tactics for the entirety of WW2. -
German Blitzkrieg
The German forces in WW1 were defeated due to their low mobility so in WW2 Nazi Germany planned to improve on this. Germany devised a way to move much faster by concentrating their forces more efficiently. First they would bomb a place to exhaustion and after the nation was plagued by starvation and low morale a mass of German troops would invade and become annexed by the Germans. This worked very well for them in the first part of the war however fell apart against the Soviets. -
Fall of Paris
Without ensured support from the U.S. and the other allies the French government sued the German's for peace. Britain tried to convince France not to give up but France decided to surrender anyway. The U.S. did not publicly wish to announce it's support for France as to avoid a formal declaration of war which didn't help France's chances. This resulted in many Parisians being mistreated however also caused America to stop exporting to the axis powers. -
Operation Barbarossa
Germany wanted to take over the east which was dominated by the Soviet Union. However, earlier in the war Germany had already signed a pact to not do this. Operation Barbarossa was the codename for Germany's plan to invade the Soviet Union. This surprised the Red Army and Germany gained advantage early on. But the mission failed due to the sheer number of the Soviet's forces and Germany's underestimation of the weather. -
Pearl Harbor
The United States had been cutting down on trade with the Japanese due to Japan's expansion and cruelty with China. This made Japan very angry so they sent over a bunch of fighter planes to damage an important military base: Pearl Harbor. They did this in hopes that America would no longer be able to fight Japan's south Pacific forces. However instead Japan only enraged America and pulled them into the war. -
Wannsee Conference
The Wannsee Conference was called to coordinate the Nazi's "Final Solution". This "solution" was actually just their plan to exterminate the Jewish population. The conference was not held to decide whether the Nazi's would exterminate the Jewish people more just a decision on how they would do it. Sadly, this is the decision that led to concentration camps as a Nazi named Heydrich suggested. This conference concreted the way Jewish citizens would suffer for the rest of the war. -
Bataan Death March
The U.S.-Filipino army surrendered to the Japanese after being defeated on the Bataan Peninsula. The troops were then forced to march 65 miles to prisoner-of-war camps. This walk (along with the camps themselves) killed many people due to mistreatment and starvation. Due to this massacre the walk was named the 'Bataan Death March'. Since this was only the day after Pearl Harbor the U.S. was already furious at Japan and it only served to further motivate American morale. -
Battle of Midway
The battle of Midway was a strong victory for the U.S. After decoding messages from Japan, America was prepared to defend Midway. Even though we interpreted the wrong attack as the 'main fleet' we still wiped out the Japanese and killed 200 of their best pilots. This dropped the morale of the Japanese considerably and officially turned the tides of the war. This also made Japan quit trying to expand in the Pacific and forced them to curl up which allowed America to start fighting back. -
Operation Gomorrah
Operation Gomorrah was essentially Britain's revenge plan for the Nazi air raids that had been plaguing the U.K. During Operation Gomorrah Britain continuously bombed Hamburg, Germany. In order to do this Britain also invented a device called "Window" to mislead German radars. The radars picked up the "Window" as other aircrafts and diverted troops there. Operation Gomorrah marked the end of the war and sucked out German morale, even high officials and Hitler himself were despaired. -
Normandy Invasion
Before the invasion American General Dwight Eisenhower misled the Germans into believing America was going to invade Pas-de-Calais, this made the Nazi army unprepared when the armies landed on Normandy. Amphibious invasions stormed the beach and the Allies gained a lot of ground making it very successful. The troops then secured the beaches causing German confusion and solidifying the beginning of the end of the war. Due to air support the Allies also took out a lot of Nazi supply routes. -
Battle of the Bulge
American troops were marching through Ardennes when attacked by 30 German divisions. Germans broke through the American front and surrounding an infantry division. However reinforcements were sent and flanked the Germans. The German's created a 'bulge' formation and Americans continuously attacked the group until it dissipated. This was Hitler's last large offensive attack in the West and many Americans were killed in the attack despite their victory. -
Operation Thunderclap
This was simply a plan from the allies to bomb Germany in a large scale way. It would've been very effective in decreasing the German morale. However, instead they modified the plan so that it'd have less civilian casualties. They instead targeted the city of Dresden and decided to fire bomb it. It was a terror operation and only served to demotivate German citizens. It was very effective and killed many innocent citizens. -
Battle of Iwo Jima
Americans had crushed much of Japan's military and decided that the island of Iwo Jima would be an easy takeover. They bombed the island assuming it would get rid of Japanese defenses and then the Marines stepped in to take on any survivors. The Japanese then waited until the Marines struggled with the environment and started attacking. The Japanese soldiers knew they were outnumbered however they tried to holdout until eventual America took the island. -
Battle of Okinawa
After the American victory in Iwo Jima there was only one last island before Japan. That was Okinawa, Once again America was lured in with a peaceful landing only to fall right into the enemy's plan. American's eventually walked into the city of Shuri where they were trapped by the Shuri defense line. Eventually the Americans took over the defense line but were plagued by Kamikaze warfare and battles until eventually the Japanese Generals Ushijima and Cho committed ritual suicide. -
VE Day
VE day or Victory in Europe day celebrates when German troops surrendered to the Allies. After Hitler killed himself his successors signed a unconditional surrender that took effect on May 8th. However, in Moscow VE day isn't technically until May 9th due to fighting in Silensia. This fighting was caused by German soldiers attempting to flee being captured by Soviet forces. -
Dropping of the Atomic Bombs
Before the end of the war the American Manhattan project was devoted to developing atomic weapons. By the end of WW2 America had developed just these weapons. And since Japan wasn't surrendering as fast as America wanted them to they decided to try out their fancy new weapons. America dropped a bomb on Hiroshima nicknamed "Little Boy" and then followed it up with a bomb called "Fat Man" which they dropped on Nagasaki. This made Japan surrender and killed hundreds of thousands of people. -
VJ Day
This is the official day Japan surrendered. After the bombings Japan decided to surrender to the U.S. and conform to the Potsdam Declaration. This put an official end to WW2 and was a victory for America. Emperor Hirohito asked the Japanese people to accept this defeat and that more fighting would be useless. This was celebrated heavily in the United States and the soldiers were very happy to be able to finally go home. -
