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Japanese invasion of China
The Japan-China War started in July 1937 when the Japanese claimed that they were fired on by Chinese troops at the Marco Polo Bridge near Beijing. Using this as an excuse, the Japanese launhed a full-scale invasion of China using the conquered Manchria as a launching base for their troops. -
German Blitzkrieg
In the first phase of World War 11 in Europe, Germany sought to avoid a long war. Germany's strategy was to defeat its oppenents in a series of short campaigns. Germany quickly overran much of Europe and was victorious for more than two years by relying on a new military tactic. -
Germany's invasion of Poland
The Polish army was defeated within weeks of the invasion. From East Prussia and Germany in the north and Silesia and Slovakia in the south, German units, with more than 2,000 tanks and over 1,000 planes, broke through Polish defenses along the border and advanced on Warsaw in a massive encirclement attack. -
Operation Barbarossa
Adolf Hitler launched his armies eastward in a massive invasion of the Soviet Union: three great army groups with over three million German soldiers, 150 divisions, and three thousand tanks smashed across the frontier into Soviet territory. -
Pearl Harbor
Hundreds of Japanese fighter planes attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor near Honolulu, Hawaii. The barrage lasted just two hours, but it was devastating: The Japanese managed to destroy nearly 20 American naval vessels, including eight enormous battleships, and almost 200 airplanes. -
Wannsee Conference
Reinhard Heydrich, Himmler's second in command of the SS, convened the Wannsee Conference in Berlin with 15 top Nazi bureaucrats to coordinate the Final Solution in which the Nazis would attempt to exterminate the entire Jewish population of Europe, an estimated 11 million persons. -
Operation Gomorrah
British attacks on Hamburg continued until November of that year. Although the percentage of British bombers lost increased with each raid as the Germans became more adept at distinguishing between Window diversions and actual bombers. -
D-Day(Normandy Invasion)
All of the northern France had been liberated, and by the following spring the Allies had defeated the Germans. The Normandy landings have been called the beginning of the end of war in Europe. -
Battle of Iwo Jima
The American amphibious invasion of Iwo Jima during World War 11 stemmed from the need for a base near the Japanese coast. Following elaborate preparatory air and naval bombardment, three U.S. marine divisions landed on the island in February 1945. -
Opeartion Thunderclap
Now he headed Bomber Command, and that night the men were scheduled to launch an attack on Dresden this was to be the first in a series of large bombing raids on the principal cities of eastern Germany, designed to deliever the final blows to German morale. -
Battle of Okinawa
Last and biggest of the Pacific island battles of World War 11, the Okinawa campaign involved the 287,000 troops of the U.S. Tenth Army against 130,000 soldiers of the Japanese Thirty-second Army. Stakes air bases vital invasion of Japan. -
VE Day
VE Day officially announced the end of World War Two in Europe. German General Jodl dinged the unconditional surrender document that formally ended war in Europe. -
Dropping of the atomic bombs
An American bomber dropped the world's first deployd atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The explosion wiped out 90 percent of the city and immediately killed 80,000 people. -
VJ Day
Announced that Japan had surrendered unconditionally to the Allies, effectively ending World War 11. Coming several months after the surrender of Nazi germany, Japan's capitulation in the Pacific brought six years of hostilities to final and highly anticipated close. -
Battle of the Bulge
Adolph Hitler attempted to split the Allied armies in northwest Europe by means of a surprise blitzkrieg thrust through the Ardennes to Antwerp. Caught off-guard, Americn units fought desperate battles to stem the German advance at St.-Vith, Elsenborn Ridge, Houffalize and Bastogne.