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The German Blitzkrieg was a strategy Germany came up with to avoid a long war in the beginning of World War II. This would involve using offensive weaponry such as, but not limited to, tanks, planes, and artillery along a narrow front. This gave the Germans over two years of victorious during the war. At first, the German Blitzkrieg seemed very effective, but this method would only lead to their defeat in May of 1945. -
Pearl Harbor was an attack carried out by Japan on December 7th of 1941. The spark of this massacre started when Japan declared war on China in 1937. The United States used economic sanctions and trade embargoes to act against the aggression shown by Japan. This made Japan determined to stand their ground. The Japanese plan was to destroy the Pacific Fleet located in Hawaii. Around the time 8 am. that morning Japanese planes flew over the skies of Pearl Harbor leaving raining bombs and bullets. -
With the German Blitz history, Hitler hoped to recreate the success it brought and to have a quick victory over the nation he viewed as an enemy. The goal was to force the Soviet Union to capitulate. On June 22nd of 1941 more than 3 million German and Axis troops invaded the Soviet Union along a 1800 mile long front. This initiated Operation Barbarossa. It was Germans largest invasion force of the war. On the first day of the attack, they managed to shoot down more than 1,000 Soviet aircraft. -
The Day after Pearl Harbor, the Japanese initiated an invasion of the Philippines. The U.S.-Philippines Army could not overthrow the Japanese leaving U.S. General Edward King Jr. to surrender to them in April 1942. These 75000 surrendered men would then be split into equal groups of 100 and they would walk 65 miles miles from Mariveles to San Fernando. This route was harsh as the heat made it difficult to withstand. America avenged its defeat with the Invasion of Leyte in October 1944. -
Hoping to recreate the success of the Pearl Harbor Attack, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto decided to seek out to destroy the rest of the U.S. Pacific fleet with a surprise attack on the Allied base at Midway. Yamamoto planned a three-tactic plan. First, an air attack on the island, second, an invasion force of ships and soldiers, and finally, once the expected U.S. reinforcements from Pearl Harbor arrived a joint strike by Yamamoto’s fleet would be awaiting 600 miles to the west. -
Initiating the Battle of Stalingrad, Russian forces weren’t able to slow down the German Wehrmacht advances during a series of brutal skirmishes. Stalin’s forces lost more than 200,000 men, but successfully held off German soldiers. Within a day or two of launching its attack, Germany's Luftwaffe air force had rendered into the Volga River and sunk several Russian vessels in the process. Luftwaffe conducted dozens of air strikes on the city all throughout august to the end of the assault. -
The Wannsee Conference was held in a villa outside Berling. Reinhard Heydrich presented plans to coordinate with European-wide “Final Solution of the Jewish Question” to the German State and Nazi Parties. The “Final Solution was used as a code name for the systematic, deliberate, physical annihilation of the European Jews. in 1941 Hitler authorized his scheme for mass murder. This resulted the initiation for the Final Solution leading to the deaths of so many people. -
The military operation that aimed high suddenly collapsed, and optimistic prospects for success gave way to desperate attempts to stave off catastrophe. The Allies had just successfully overrun Sicily and were dominant on land, sea and in the air. The Italians tried to time their surrender to the moment of the Allied landing. Once they surrendered, the news came to the conclusion of Operation “Axis.” This would lead to rapidly occupying the entire peninsula, disarming more of a leaderless army. -
In January 1944, General Dwight Eisenhower was appointed commander of Operation Overlord. Allies carried out a massive deception operation intended to make the Germans think the main invasion target was Pas-de-Calais rather than Normandy. Many tactics were used to carry out the deceptions, including fake equipment and scenarios. Within the planning for the invasion, Eisenhower had chosen June 5th. Once the day came along, bad weather had been predicted. -
The Battle of the Bulge in the Ardennes region of Belgium was Hitlers last major offensive in WW2 against the Western Front. Hitler’s aim was to split the Allies in their drive toward Germany. The German troops failure to divide Britain, France and America with the Ardennes offensive paved the way to victory for the allies. The battle proved to be the costliest ever fought by the US. Army which suffered over 100000 casualties. Claiming victory of the battle on January 25 1945 -
The Battle of Iwo Jima was a military campaign between US Marines and the Imperial Japan Army in 1945. 750 miles off the coast of Japan the island of Iwo Jima had three airfields that could be a potential invasion of mainland Japan. American forces invaded the island on February 19 1945 and the Battle of Iwo Jima lasted for five weeks. in some of the bloodiest fighting of WW2 it’s believed that all but 200 or so of the 21000 Japanese forces on the island were killed, as were almost 7000 Marines. -
n Prague, Germans surrendered to their Soviet antagonists, after the latter had lost more than 8,000 soldiers, and the Germans considerably more; in Copenhagen and Oslo; at Karlshorst, near Berlin; in northern Latvia; on the Channel Island of Sark. The German surrender was realized in a final cease-fire. More surrender documents were signed in Berlin and in eastern Germany. On May 8, 1945, both Great Britain and the United States celebrated Victory in Europe Day. -
On August 6th 1945 during WW2 an American B29 bomber dropped the worlds first deployed atomic bomb over the city of Hiroshima Japan. The explosion immediately killed 80000 people possibly more. Tons of people would later die of radiation exposure. Three days later a second B29 dropped another atomic bomb on Nagasaki Japan killing an estimated 40000 people. Emperor Hirohito announced unconditional surrender in WW2 over radio on August 15 citing the devastating power of a new and cruel bomb. -
On August 14th, 1945, it was announced that Japan had surrendered to the Allies, effectively ending WW2. Since then, both August 14th and 15th have been known as “Victory over Japan Day.” The term has also been used for September 2, 1945, when Japan’s formal surrender took place aboard the U.S.S. Missouri, anchored in Tokyo Bay. Coming several months after the surrender of Nazi Germany, Japan’s capitulation in the Pacific brought six years of hostilities to a final and highly anticipated close. -
Allied forces in the west liberated their fair share of concentration camps as they advanced towards Berlin. The first was Ohrdruf, a subcamp of Buchenwald located near the German town of Gotha. On April 4, 1945, the 4th Armored Division liberated the camp. When they entered, American troops discovered piles of bodies, some covered in lime and others partially incinerated.