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Japanese Ivasion of China
After the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894-95, was a military conflict fought primarily between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan from 1937 to 1941. The Japanese more armed than the Chinese. The reason for the invasion was primarily economic. This invasion lowered Chinese's army force and their econmy. The Japanese won this battle over the Chinese. -
Rape of Nanking
The Japanese Imperial Army marched into China's capital city of Nanking and proceeded to murder 300,000 out of 600,000 civilians and soldiers in the city. The six weeks of carnage would become known as the Rape of Nanking and represented the single worst atrocity during the World War 2 era in either the European or Pacific theaters of war. The actual military invasion of Nanking was preceded by a tough battle at Shanghai that began in the summer of 1937. Chinese forces there put up surprising -
Germany's Invasion of Poland
The Polish army was defeated within weeks of the invasion. The Germans were heavily armed. The reason for the invasion was because Adolf Hitler thought it would be good living space. -
German Blitzkrieg
The Blitzkrieg was a tactic that required offensive weapons such as tanks, planes, and artillary along the narrow front. This would be the most effective tactic in war history. These forces would drive a breach in enemy defense. -
Fall of Paris
The German blitzkrieg into Norway and Denmark foreshadowed what lay ahead for France, which had joined forces with Great Britain to try to halt Hitler's conquest of Europe. Breaking through the French border defenses took just two days. the French government fled Paris. -
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa was the German codename for Nazi Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War 2. This was the turning point for the fortunes of Adolf Hitler's Third Reich. In the failure of Operation Barbarossa resulted in the eventual overall defeat of Nazi Germany . -
Pearl Harbor
The Japanese had a suprise attack on one of the USS Arizona battleships. There was 8 battleships that were destoryed and 2,403 were dead. The Japanese action silenced the debate that had divided Americans ever since the German Defeat of France left England alone to fight against the Nazi terror. -
Wannsee Conference
Nazi Party and German government officials gathered at a villa in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee to discuss and coordinate the implementation of what they called the 'Final Solution of the Jewish Question.' The conference marked a turning point in Nazi policy toward the Jews. -
Bataan Death March
The American and Filipino forces fought from an untenable position until formally surrendering to the Japanese. The Japanese immediately began to march some 76,000 prisoners northward into captivity along a route of death. -
Battle of Midway
Japan demolished the Japanese military's perception that their homeland was immune from air attack. The battle was a decisive victory for the Americans, widely regarded as the most important naval engagement of World War 2. The Midway operation was not part of a campaign for the conquest of the United States but was aimed at its elimination as a strategic. Pacific power -
Battle of Stalingrad
Nazi Germany and its allies fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad in the southwestern Soviet Union. It was the turning point of World War II in the European Theater and was arguably the bloodiest battle in human history. The Soviet victory at Stalingrad saw the Germans pushed back towards the West, allowing the Soviet advance on Berlin. -
Operation Gomorrah
Operation Gomorrah destoryed a significant percentage of the city of Hamburg, leaving 1 million residents homeless and killing 40,000-50,000 civilians. Two thirds of Hamburg fled the city because of the bombing. This shook Nazi leadership and Hitler became concerned. -
D-Day Normandy Invasion
Normandy was the invasion and establishment of Western Allied forces in Normandy. The invasion began with overnight landings with massive air attacks and naval bombardments. Allied forces rehersed their roles for D-Day months before the invasion. -
Operation Thunderclap
Plans of this operation was dawn for a code named Thunderclap but it was shelved and never implemented. The plan envisaged a massive attack on Berlin that would cause 220,000 casualties with 110,000 killed. -
Battle of the Bulge
The Battle of the Bulge was a key engagement of World War 2. The objective of this attack would be the capture of Antwerp which would split the American and British armies in the area and would deprive the Allies of a badly needed seaport. -
Battle of Iwo Jima
The Battle of Iwo Jima was the United States capture of the island of Iwo Jima from Japan, producing some of the fiercest fighting in the Pacific Campaign of World War II. Japanese losses in the fighting for Iwo Jima are subject to debate with numbers ranging from 17,845 killed to as high as 21,570. -
Battle of Okinawa
Okinawa was the largest amphibious invasion of the Pacific campaign and the last major campaign of the Pacific War. More ships were used, more troops put ashore, more supplies transported, more bombs dropped, more naval guns fired against shore targets than any other operation in the Pacific. Total American casualties in the operation numbered over 12,000 killed [including nearly 5,000 Navy dead and almost 8,000 Marine and Army dead] and 36,000 wounded. -
VE Day
VE Day, was the public holiday celebrated to mark the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Nazi Germany's unconditional surrender of its armed forces. Both Great Britain and the United States celebrate Victory in Europe Day. Cities in both nations, as well as formerly occupied cities in Western Europe, put out flags and banners, rejoicing in the defeat of the Nazi war machine. -
Dropping of the Atomic Bombs
Bombings of the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan were conducted by the United States during the final stages of World War II. The two bombings were the first and remain the only use of nuclear weapons in wartime. The United States becomes the first and only nation to use atomic weaponry during wartime when it drops an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. -
VJ Day
VJ Day marks the end of World War 2, and the cessation of fighting against Japan. It is called Victory In Japan Day or Victory Over Japan Day. Japan had surrendered unconditionally to the Allies, effectively ending World War II.
