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The triggering of the full-scale war with China that lasted until 1945 began with an obscure clash involving a Japanese unit on night manoeuvres near the Marco Polo Bridge southwest of Beijing on the night of 7-8 July 1937.
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The German unwillingness to limit their war to the conquest of Poland and to launch meaningful peace talks meant that the Second World War
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The first concerted attack on British airfields was launched on 12 August 1940. The fall of France ensured that German air bases were now close to Britain. The luftwaffe (German air force) was instructed to help prepare the way for invasion by driving British warships
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Hitler’s overconfidence and contempt for other political systems reinforced his belief that Germany had to conquer the Soviet Union in order to fulfill her destiny and obtain Lebensraum (living space).
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The Japanese attack on the United States meant the conflict was clearly a world war. Japan could have restricted itself to attacking the British and Dutch colonies in South-East Asia, but, instead chose to also attack America in order to prevent it from opposing Japanese expansion.
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The continued capacity of the American navy, however, was shown clearly, on 4 June, with the American victory in the battle of Midway, a naval-air battle of unprecedented scale.
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The last major German offensive on the Eastern Front sought to exploit the opportunities provided by a major German salient.
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The Germans had concentrated more of their defences and forces in the Calais region, which offered a shorter sea crossing and a shorter route to Germany.
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The Americans used their naval and air superiority, already strong and rapidly growing, to mount a reconquest of the Philippines from October 1944. That operation helped ensure a naval battle: that of Leyte Gulf of 23–26 October, the largest naval battle of the war and one (or rather a series of engagements) that secured American maritime superiority in the western Pacific.
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The limited American ability to deploy more bombs speedily was not appreciated. Some 6.7 square kilometres of Nagasaki was reduced to ashes; 73,884 people were killed and 74,909 injured. Long-term health consequences were calamitous.