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Manchuria, China was seized in 1931 by the Japanese, even though the Parliament objected. There the Japanese set up a puppet government and many mines and factories. On July 7, 1937 China and Japan fought. China lost and all northern cities and the capital fell to Japanese control.
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The Signing
Joachim von Ribbentrop, a German minister, wrote a letter to Stalin asking for a meeting to discuss a non-aggression pact. Stalin's response started the negotiations between the two countries. On August 23, 1939 they signed a non-aggression pact. -
Hitler knew there would be no war on either side, so he moved to attack Poland using the blitzkrieg tactic. They bombed Warsaw, and the city crumbled. Poland fell three weeks before they could make a military response.
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Phony war cartoon
France and Britain declared war on Germany on September 3. They were no longer using the appeasement tactic. This was the start of the "Phony War." For the next 7 months, there was a strange calm and inactivity. -
On April 9, 1940 the phony war. ended. It ended with Germany launching a surprise attack on Norway and Denmark. Hitler wanted to occupy these two coutnries because he had plans to build bases there to strike at Great Britain.
Within four hours, Denmark fells. After 2 months Norway fell too. -
Escape from Dunkirk
May 26, 1940, Germany trapped the allied forces around the Lille. Belgium just surrendered from the attack. The Allies escaped to Dunkirk, a French port city on the English Channel. Great Britain sent out a fleet of 850 ships where all kinds of boats rescued 338,000 weary soldiers. -
Germans in Paris
Mussolini joined forces with Hitler, and together they declared war on Great Britain and France. On June 14, Paris fell to the Germans and Marshal Henri Pétain becomes the prime minister. -
Swastika Flag
On June 22, 1940 the French surrendered to the Germans and Italians. Northern France was being occupied by the Germans. Southern France had a puppet government. Charles de Gaulle organized the free French military forces that battled the Nazis until France was liberated in 1944. -
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa was the German plan to attack the Soviet Union. On June 22, 1941 they launched a blitzkrieg invasion on Russia. The Soviet Union was unprepared, and as they retreated they burned and destroyed everything (They had used this same tactic on Napoleon, if you recall). -
US Greer
On September 4, 1941, a German U-boat fired at a US boat bringing supplies for Britain. Franklin Delanor Roosevelt (FDR) commanded them to respond. So we fired back! This was the start of an undeclared naval battle. -
Operation BarbarossaOn September 8, 1941, the Germans surrounded Leningrad in Russia and isolated it from the rest of the world. They bombed their food supply, but the city refused to fall. A Nazi drive on Moscow began on October 2, and General Georgi Zhukav counterattacked. As the temperatures in Russia fell, the Germans retreated, but Hitler said "No retreat!" 500,000 German soldiers died.
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Pearl Harbor
On December 7, 1941, Hawaii woke up to the Japanese attacking them. Within two hours, Japan had sunk or severely damaged 18 ships, nearly the whole fleet. 2,400 Americans were killed, and nearly 1,000 were wounded. The next day, FDR made a speech to Congress that declared war on Japan. Congress approved. We officially went to war with Japan on December 8, 1941. -
Battle of Stalingrad
On August 23, 1942, Germany tried to capture Stalingrad in Russia. The Luftwaffe, or German air force, attacked with everything. Stalin wouldn't let his army retreat. On the outside, Soviet attackers trapped the Germans in and cut off their supplies, but Hitler wouldn't let them surrender. -
Soviet Win
On February 2, 1943, 90,000 frost-bitten, half-starved German soldiers surrendered. Out of the original 330,000, only 90,000 survived. This battle put the Germans on the defensive for the war. -
D-Day Beach
On June 6, 1944, at 6:30 in the morning, soldiers crossed the English Channel to arrive on the beaches of Normandy. It was an air, land, and naval battle. Many lives were lost on these beaches. On June 30, 1944, there were 850,000 Alllied forces in France. The D-Day invasion gave the Allies the foothold they needed in Europe. -
Allied Forces FlagDuring this time, Hitler faced a war on two fronts. He went to counterattack in the west, hoping to break up the American and British forces. On December 16, German tanks broke through the weak American defenses. The Battle of the Bulge was when the Germans tried to push through the Allied lines, but the Allies pushed back and won. The Nazis retreated. -
Franklin D. Roosevelt of America, Winston Churchill of Great Britain, and Josef Stalin of the Soviet Union all met through these dates to figure out what would happen after the war. They decided they would only accept an unconditional surrender from Germany, and it would be split into four zones: one each for France, Britain, the US, and the Soviet Union. Germany would go through demilitarization and denazification. They recreated the Polish borders.
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Franklin Roosevelt
On April 12, 1945, Franklin Delano Roosevelt passed away. Unfortunately, he did not get to see the end of World War II. He died of a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 63. -
Adolf and Eva
On April 29, 1945, Adolf Hitler and his new bride Eva Braun took their lives. They both drank poison, then Hitler shot himself in the head. When they had died, soldiers carried their bodies outside and had them burned. -
Nazis in the Newspaper
On this day (also my sister's birthday), General Dwight Eisenhower accepted the unconditional surrender brought on by Hitler's suicide. Harry Truman received it on the 8th. -
May 8, 1945 is the day Harry Truman, now president of the United States, accepted Germany's surrendered. This day is now known as V-E Day, or Victory in Europe Day.
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Truman, Stalin, Churchill
US, Great Britain, and China issued the Potsdam Declaration to Japan, demanding their unconditional surrender. Japan was only willing to surrender if they could keep their emperor, so we didn't accept it. -
Little Boy
On August 6, 1945, the US dropped the bomb nicknamed "Little Boy" on Hiroshima. Out of the 350,000 that were the original population, 70,000 died immediately and 70,000 died from radiation or wounds in the five years that followed. -
Fat Man
On August 9, 1945, at 11:02 am, a B-29 bomber flew over the city of Nagasaki. He dropped the plutonium bomb that was nicknamed "Fat Man." Out of the original 250,000 that lived in Nagasaki, 70,000 died by the end of the year. -
V-J Day Kiss
September 2, 1945 was known as V-J Day, or victory in Japan day. After the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombing, the Soviet Union invaded Manchuria and pushed the Japanese out. World War II is officially over, and the Allies have won.
