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Japanese Aggression
In late 1931 Japan invaded China and took over their Manchuria prefecture. The reason that Japan did this was for resources that China had since Japan was growing at a very fast rate. With a huge take on China, Japan kept a huge eye over them to make sure that they were not to attack or even create a resistance group against Japan. -
Neutrality Act
This Law went into place on August 31st and it prohibited the selling of weapons to warring nations. This stopped trade and selling of oil weapons with Japan so they were losing oil. Weapons could also not be sold to Germany or any of the Axis powers that were engaged in war. -
Annexation of Austria
Hitler's main goal was to reunite the Third Reich, he wanted to reunite Germany once again. It also allows him to reach his Ultimate after reuniting the Third Reich which was the whole world. -
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Munich Pact
Britain and France agreed to Hitler's invasion of Sudetenland if he did not go any further to Czechoslovakia. These leaders did not realize one thing was that just getting to a bit of land, Hitler decided he would take the rest of the land. -
Non-aggression Pact
Since Germany realized that they messed up last time in the Great War and that fighting a two-front war would make them lose again. Hitler decided to sign a non-aggression pact with Stalin promising that they would not attack each other. With this plan, Hitler knew that he would be able to win this war if he took out france quickly enough. -
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The Lights go out in Europe
This was the start of Hitler's invasion of Europe they first attack Poland with a tactic called Blitzkrieg meaning "lighting war". In all, Germany deployed 60 divisions and nearly 1.5 million men in the invasion. After heavy shelling and bombing, Warsaw officially surrendered to the Germans on September 28, 1939. -
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France Falls
Once France falls within 6 weeks time of the Greman Blitzkrieg, that allows them to control France since they surrender half of their country over to the Germans. They accomplished this by going through Belgium which was a lower country to the Germans, but they did this to make sure that the British would leave France, so France would fight alone. Germany had a barrage of dive bombers and powerful mechanized and armoured troops since they main was not to take Paris but to destroy it. -
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Battle of Britain
America remained neutral and USSR has not yet in engaging in war. Germany started to bomb Britain in their homeland by using bombers, but one major flaw that they had during the day and bombers was being brought down by the RAF, so most bomb runs failed. Germany then later decided to do bomb runs in the night to destroy Britain. -
Attack on Pearl Harbor
Neutrality Act that was passed by Congress, the US put an embargo on Japan so they were no longer receiving oil and steel. Japan was sending out 6 carriers called Akagi, Kaga, Soruyuu, Hiriyuu, Shoukaku, and Zuikaku, and in all of them combined sent out a total of 353 planes to bomb Pearl Harbor and sink every ship that was at the Harbor at the time. 2,403 soldiers died and 1,178 were injured but a crucial issue was not sinking any of the US carriers because it would hurt them later. -
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Tehran Conference
It was a meeting between the "Big Three" and they were discussing a plan to invade France. It did not only address Nazi Germany but relations with Turkey and Iran. Iran during the conference wanted to be known as independent so the Big Three signed a contract saying the Iran was independent. -
D-Day
US and British forces hit the beaches of Normandy, France, this was also the beginning of the retaking of Europe. 24,000 US, British, and Canadian airborne troops landed, along with an amphibious landing. The landing consisted of 5 different areas to attacked but also dangerous since they were being fired from crow nest from German machine guns. -
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Battle of the Bugle
Germany after being pushed back from battles like D-Day and other battles as well decided to put one final offensive by using the Blitz Krieg tactic. The US was split up into different sides but the US was able to recover by encircling the German troops so that they could not get back up to help them. German soldiers proceeded to surrender since they were losing supplies and realized that they were going to lose this war as well. -
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Battle of Iwo Jima
Iwo Jima was part of the US plan of island hopping in order to get closer to Japan. This battle would last 5 weeks with marine and navy forces against the Japanese Army who were making sure that they would not lose Iwo Jima and prevent further US movement. The US left no room for the Japanese victory, so it prevented the Japanese to get reinforcement or even retreatment so they had no possible way of winning this battle. -
Victory in Europe
This was the mark of Germany surrendering with no condition. After their announcement of their surrender, people started to celebrate the end of WWII. This would end the war in Europe but not yet over the sea in the Pacific with Japan which the US was still fighting against. -
Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
After testing one atomic bomb to use to stop the war with Japan, the US proceeded to make 2 more in order to bomb Japan if they were not to surrender. One was dropped on Hiroshima on the 6th to tell Japan to surrender but they did not. The US later bomb Nagasaki on the 9th as one final notice and if not they would drop a third if they chose not to surrender. After the second dropping, Japan surrendered and signed the instrument of surrender officially ending the war.