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Japanese invasion of China
The Japanese had launched a full scale invasion on China. It started with China troops at the Marco Polo Bridge. After 5 months most of China was under the control of the Japanese. Later on through America had came in the picture and helped China to defeat the Japanese by bombing Japan's shippments. In the end over 60 million Chinese were homeless and there was 4 million Chinese causualties. -
Germany's invasion of Poland
Germany had invaded Poland on land and in the air. They had used bombs to destroy everything. The reason they did this was because Hitler wanted to reclaim lost land and rule Poland. The Polish army tried to fight back but they had made many miscalculations and they were under equipped. They were no match for the Germans. In the end Germany directly annexed those former Polish territories along German's eastern border. -
German Blitzkrieg
Blitzkrieg is a German term for “lightning war,” blitzkrieg is a military tactic designed to create disorganization among enemy forces through the use of mobile forces and locally concentrated firepower. The Germans had tried this tactic when they went against Poland.It was used by German commander Erwin Rommel during the North African campaign of World War II, and adopted by U.S. General George Patton. It results in short military campaigns, which preserves human lives. -
Fall of Paris
On this day in 1940, Parisians awaken to the sound of a German-accented voice announcing via loudspeakers that a curfew was being imposed for 8 p.m. that evening-as German troops enter and occupy Paris. German tanks rolled into Paris, 2 million Parisians had already fled, with good reason. the German Gestapo went to work: arrests, interrogations, and spying were the order of the day, as a gigantic swastika flew beneath the Arc de Triomphe.While Parisians who remained trapped in their capital. -
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa was the largest attack in World War II. It was between the Germans and Russians. Germany had invaded Russia. Three army groups were sent to attack Russia ,but they underestimated their opponent their logistical preparations were grossly inadequate for the campaign. In the end the Soviets overreached, and the Germans restored a semblance of order to the front the spring thaw in March 1942 brought operations to a halt. -
Pearl Harbor
Japan had launched a surprize attack on America at Pearl Habor. Japanese planes had attacked a naval base. They had destroyed18 American ships and 300 airplanes. The Japanese plan was to destroy the Pacific Fleet. That way, the Americans would not be able to fight back as Japan’s armed forces spread across the South Pacific. In the end though they had failed to destroy the Pacific Fleet ,but alot of men were killed in the process. -
Wannsee Conference
On this day the Nazi Officials had met up to discuss the final solution for the Jews. They were trying to come up with ideas to dispose of them like mass sterilization and deportation to the island of Madagascar. Months later, the “gas vans” in Chelmno, Poland, which were killing 1,000 people a day, proved to be the “solution” they were looking forthe most efficient means of killing large groups of people at one time. -
Bataan Death March
The surrendered Filipinos and Americans soon were rounded up by the Japanese and forced to march some 65 miles from Mariveles, on the southern end of the Bataan Peninsula, to San Fernando. The men were divided into groups of approximately 100, and what became known as the Bataan Death March typically took each group around five days to complete. The exact figures are unknown, but it is believed that thousands of troops died because of the brutality of their captors. -
Battle of Midway
the Battle of Midway–one of the most decisive U.S. victories against Japan during World War II–begins. During the four-day sea-and-air battle, the outnumbered U.S. Pacific Fleet succeeded in destroying four Japanese aircraft carriers while losing only one of its own, the Yorktown, to the previously Japanese navy. n six months of offensives prior to Midway, the Japanese had triumphed in lands throughout the Pacific. -
Battle of Stalingrad
In the Battle of Stalingrad, Soviet forces surrounded and crushed an entire German army under General Friedrich Paulus, emulating Hannibal’s encirclement and destruction of a Roman army under Aemilius Paulus in 216 B.C. For both sides, Stalingrad became a desperate ordeal of rodentlike scurrying from hole to hole. It stopped the German advance into the Soviet Union and marked the turning of the tide of war in favor of the Allies. -
Warsaw Ghetto uprising
In Warsaw, Poland, Nazi forces attempting to clear out the city’s Jewish ghetto are met by gunfire from Jewish resistance fighters. Shortly after the German occupation of Poland began, the Nazis forced the city’s Jewish citizens into a “ghetto” surrounded by barbwire and armed SS guards. The Warsaw ghetto occupied an area of less than two square miles but soon held almost 500,000 Jews in deplorable conditions. Disease and starvation killed thousands every month, and beginning in July 1942,6,000. -
Operation Gomorrah
On this day the Americas had bombed the German city Hamburg. The british was also apart of this operation too. They had helped raid Hamburg until November. Thousands of Germans were killed in this event. There was alot of bombs and explosives used killing more than 30,000 people. With all this taking place this had a great effect on Hitler it was the end of the war for him and he was defeated. -
D-Day (Normandy Invasion)
This invasion was also known as Operation Overlord. The American , British , and Canadian forces landed on the coast of the Normany region. They had went on the beaches to attack ,but 4,000 allied troops lost their lives and some went missing. A week later the beaches were fully secured with 360,000 troops. In the end the Allies had reached the Seine River, Paris was liberated and the Germans had been removed from northwestern France, effectively concluding the Battle of Normandy. -
Battle of the Bulge
This battle was also known as Operation Mist and the Germans tried to make an attempt to push the Allied front line west from northern France to northwestern Belgium. Germans created a “bulge” around the area of the Ardennes forest in pushing through the American defensive line. In this battle the Germans had used a trick by having english-speaking German commandos who infiltrated American lines and, using captured U.S. uniforms, trucks, and jeeps. -
Operation Thunderclap
Allied bombing run over the German city of Dresden that killed over 60,000 civilians. Operation Thunderclap had been under discussion within the Allied Command for some time, the proposal was to bomb the eastern-most cities of Germany to disrupt the transport infrastructure behind what was becoming the Eastern front. Also to demonstrate to the German population, in even more devastating fashion, that the air defences of Germany were now of little substance and that the Nazi regime had failed. -
Battle of Iwo Jima
On this battle the Americas had made their first strike to attack the Japanese. Iwo Jima was defended by roughly 23,000 Japanese army and navy troops, who fought from an elaborate network of caves, dugouts, tunnels and underground installations. Despite the difficulty of the conditions, the marines wiped out the defending forces after a month of fighting, and the battle earned a place in American lore with the publication of a photograph showing the U.S. flag being raised in victory. -
Battle of Okinawa
This battle involved the 287,000 troops of the U.S. Tenth Army against 130,000 soldiers of the Japanese Thirty-second Army. At stake were air bases vital to the projected invasion of Japan. Japanese forces changed their typical tactics of resisting at the water’s edge to a defense in depth, designed to gain time. In conjunction with this, the Japanese navy and army mounted mass air attacks by planes on one-way “suicide” missions. By the end of the 82-day campaign Japan had lost more than 77,000. -
VE Day
On this day both Great Britain and the United States celebrate Victory in Europe Day. Cities in both nations, as well as formerly occupied cities in Western Europe, put out flags and banners, rejoicing in the defeat of the Nazi war machine. The eighth of May spelled the day when German troops throughout Europe finally laid down their arms: In Prague, Germans surrendered to their Soviet antagonists, after the latter had lost more than 8,000 soldiers. -
Dropping of the atomic bombs
On this day in 1945, at 8:16 a.m. Japanese time, an American B-29 bomber, the Enola Gay, drops the world’s first atom bomb, over the city of Hiroshima. Approximately 80,000 people are killed as a direct result of the blast, and another 35,000 are injured. At least another 60,000 would be dead by the end of the year from the effects of the fallout. U.S. President Harry S. Truman, discouraged by the Japanese response used the atom bomb to end the war to prevent any greater loss to happen. -
VJ Day
it was announced that Japan had surrendered unconditionally to the Allies, effectively ending World War II. Since then, both August 14 and August 15 have been known as “Victoryover Japan Day,” or simply “V-J Day.” President Harry S. Truman announced news of Japan’s surrender in a press conference at the White House: “This is the day we have been waiting for since Pearl Harbor. This is the day when Fascism finally dies, as we always knew it would.” Jubilant Americans declared August 14 VJ Day.
