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Japanese Invasion of China
After a clash between Chinese and Japanese troops near Peiping in North China. After the clash, Japan took intense military actions against the Chinese people.
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Rape of Nanking
Japanese attack to break Chinese resistance, estmated 200,000 men were kiiled and at least 20,000 women and girls were raped and most killed and mutilated in the process.
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Ribbentrop/Molotov Pact
Before WWII Germany and the Soviet Union signed a nonaggression pact. This insured that Germany and the Soviet Union would not take military action against eachother for 10 years. This gave Germany the chance to invade Poland unopposed. This pact was broken once Germany invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941
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Germanys Invasion of Poland
1.5 million German troops invaded, while the Germans bombed airfields and attcked naval fleets. Hitler claimed it was defense but Britian and France didnt believe that so they delcared war on Germany.
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German Blitzkrieg
"Lightning War", armored divisions crashed through enemy lines and isolated segments of the enemy, which were captured by the motorized division and the panzer tanks went forward to repeat the process. While this was happening the "Luftwaffe" bombed cities, destoryed air support and supported the Blitzkrieg. This was sucessful against Poland, Belgium, Neatherlands, and France.
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Operation Barbarossa
Hitler sent over three million soldiers, 150 divisions, and three thousand tanks to invade Russia. The invasion stretched two thousand miles long and since Germanys efforts failed they now fought a two front war.
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Pearl Harbor
Hundreds of Japanese fighter planes attacked Pearl Harbor off of Honolulu, Hawaii, It lasted 2 hours and they destroyed almost 20 naval vessels, which included 8 battleships, more than 300 planes. 2,000 Americans died while 1,000 were wounded.
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Bataan Death March
The U.S. surrendered on the Bataan Peninsula and the Japanese forced around 75,000 American and Filipino to march 65 miles to their prison camps. They marched through intense heat and abuse from the Japanese soldiers,
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Battle of Midway
Six months after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, American troops had defeated Japan in a major decisive naval battle. Tahnks to the code breaking technology the Americans had they were able to what and when the Japanese were going to do. America cause permanent damage to the Japanese fleet.
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Battle of Stalingrad
Russian defense of the German invasion into the U.S.S.R. The sucessful defense was considered a turning point in the war because now Germany had a two front war to fight. This was one of the deadliest battles in history with an overall death toll of nearly two million casualties, both military and civilian.
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Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
Jewish occupants of the Warsaw Ghetto staged an armed revolt against the Nazi's to stop deportation to extermination camps. This uprising led to many other revolts throught Nazi controlled territory.
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Invasion of Normandy(D-Day)
One of the largest amphibious assaults, around 156,000 American, Canadian and British troops landed on the heavily fortified, 50 mile long beach of German controlled France. By late August that year all of Northern France had been liberated from the Germans. This is known as the beginning and end of the war in Europe.
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Liberation of Concentration Camps
As Allies marched through enemy territory they freed the captives of many extermination camps. As they did this they took land from the Germans confining them to less and less space at a time.
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Battle of the Bulge
Germans attempted to split the Allies by way of blitzkieg, The Allies were caught off guard and fought desperatley. General George S. Patton alligned the Allies into a large bulge which helped neutralize the Germans attacked but the Allies felt serious casulaties.
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Battle of Iwo Jima
Allies bombarded the Japanese through both air and naval attacks. 3 U.S. MArine divisions stormed the beach against around 23,000 Japanese soldiers. After a month of fighting the U.S. had wiped out the defending forces and had beaten the Japanese.
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Battle of Okinawa
287,000 Allied troops fought 130,000 Japanese soldiers for what was the rights for air bases which were vital to the Allied invasion of Japan. By the 82nd the Allies had more 65,000 casualties, 14,000 of which were dead. The Japanese had lost more than 77,000 troops from the battle.
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VE Day
German soldiers lay down their arms in surrender to the Allies. Throughout Erurope cities who had been under Nazi control rejoiced and hung banners and flags in the streets. Finally the Nazi war machine and Hitler had been defeated by the Allied Forces.
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Bombing of Hiroshima
America dropped the first ever atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. This bomb killed 90% of the population, immediately killing 80,000 people, and tens of thousands would die later of radiation exposure.
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Bombing of Nagasaki
Three days after the attack on Hiroshima the Americans dropped another atomic bomb on Nagasaki. This bomb did not damage the city as much as the first. It killed 40,000 Japanese and 6 days later the Japanese Emperor Hirohito announced Japans unofficial surreneder.
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Potsdam Declaration
Japan accepts the Potsdam Conferences terms of unconditional surrender as President Harry S. Truman puts a stop to the atomic bombing. After the bombing in Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the Soviet invasion of Manchuria, Japan decided it was time to surrender.
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VJ Day
After both atomic bomb droppings on the Japanese they unconditionally surendered on August 15, but formally surrendered on September 2. This marked the end of six years of hostility in the Pacific and the Japanese had been defeated.
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