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Period: to
World War 2
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Japanese Invasion of China
A day known as the Marco Polo Bridge Accident between china and Japan. Chinese troops who had been stationed out by a bridge were startled by Japanese training exercises and both sides took shots. No one died but then Japanese soldiers noticed there was a missing officer and demanded to be allowed to search the Chinese camp. When china said they would do it Japanese soldiers stormed into Wanping to look for him and a battle erupted. Attempts were made to settle things but it didn't work for them -
German and Soviet Pact
Shortly before WW2 broke out in Europe, Germany and Russia signed a non-aggression pact that surprised the world. Neither of them would take no military action against one another for 10 years. Stalin was fully intrigued with the idea so that he could keep his nation on Germanys good side and stay as a peaceful country. This pact would not last longer then 2 or 3 years as Germany went ahead with Operation Barbarossa. -
Germany invades Poland
On this day German forces bombarded Poland by air and later overwhelmed them with the blitzkrieg strategy. Hitler did this because he wanted Germany to regain all of its lost territory. Once he set up his base of operations in Poland he began setting up Nazi security which would take down anyone opposing the Nazis and also began to set up concentration camps. Within one day after the German invasion the SS soldiers were already terrorizing the populace. www.history.com -
German Blitzkrieg
This was a strategy that Germany had been building up since the loss of ww1 in 1918. It was a strategy where the tactic would completely disorganize enemy forces through the use of mobile forces, modern communications(radio), and locally concentrated firepower. It had been first used during the invasion of Poland and was used for the duration of ww2. Proving effective in not just Europe but also in Africa by Erwin Rommel or Desert Fox. George Patton a US general adopted it for battle in Europe -
Fall of Paris
People in Paris wake up to the sound of a german accent announcing the curfew time to be imposed for 8 pm.British Prime Minister Winston Churchill had tried for days to convince the French government to hang on, not to sue for peace, that America would enter the war and come to its aid. French premier Paul Reynaud telegrammed President Franklin Roosevelt, asking for just such aid-a declaration of war, and if not that, any and all help possible. Roosevelt replied that they would send materials. -
Operation Barbarossa
Adolf Hitler breaks his pact with Russia and send more than three million german soldiers and three thousand tanks that smashed across the frontier into Soviet territory. Operation Barbarossa was the code name for this attack which would conclude into the turning point in WW2 for Russia. Germans would be driven back and later be forced into a two front war. They did not prepare for the war against Russia well enough and had serious deficiencies. Their logistic preparations were gross inadequate. -
The Attack on Pearl Harbor
Just before 8 am hundreds of Japanese fighters and tactical bombers rained hell on the American Naval base Pearl Harbor near Honolulu, Hawaii. The Japanese managed to destroy almost 25 naval ships including 8 enormous battleships and more than 300 planes. Over 2,000 Americans were killed during the air attacked another 1,000 wounded. After the day of the assault President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked to declare war on Japan. Congress agreed and Germany with Italy also went to war with the US -
The Wannsee Conference
This was a conference held by Nazi officials trying to figure out a way to finding a way to quickly exterminate Jews. Adolf Eichmann chief of the Central Office of Jewish Emigration and 15 other Nazi officials all met up in a suburb in Berlin. The agenda was simple for the men: to divide a plan that would render a final solution to the jewish question. The picture shows all of the Nazi chiefs trying to decide what to do in the Mansion that was holding the conference. -
Battle of Midway: Turning point in Pacific
The battle of midway happened not to long after the Peal harbor attack. US naval ships conducted an attack on Japanese ships including four of Japans carriers. The US destroyed all of them causing serious issues for Japan. It was allow to costly and on top of it they lost destroyers and other ships as well. This battle allowed for the US to get into an offensive position in the Pacific. -
Operation Gomorrah
British bombers raid Hamburg, Germany by night in this operation; while America bomb it by day in its own Blitz week. After Britain had been bombed daily by Germany in the past it was now their turn to do so. The evening of July 24 British aircraft drop 2,300 tons of incendiary bombs. Only 12 aircraft were lost because of Window tactic which confused German radars to hit Aluminum dropped by the planes rather than the actual bombers. 30,000 civilians were killed and 280,000 buildings destroyed. -
Invasion of Italy
After the Battle of Stalingrad Stalin wants the allies to open up a second front on the west but they decide to attack Italy from the south instead. This would liberate Italy from fascist control and would later bring them to join the allies. Within three days of the first attack 150,000 allied troops were making their way into Rome. Mussolini was kicked out from power and completely disfigured by the Italian people. -
Normandy: D-Day
The largest amphibious assault in history that required extensive planning and a large deception planned which for the most part worked. After naval bombardment on Omaha Beach 156,000 troops made their way into Normandy. By late august 1944 almost all of northern France was completely liberated. -
Battle of the Bulge
This was Adolfs plan to split the allied force in Europe. It used a surprise attack of Blitzkrieg marking a repeat of what the Germans had done three previous times when things looked dark for them. However the allies stayed firm and pushed them all the way back to Berlin. More than a quarter million troops plunged at the Allied army in the west in a desperate maneuver. Americans at first were caught flat footed and maintained to fight battles to stem the German advance. -
Operation Thunderclap: Firebombing of Dresden
Series of allied bombing raids begins against the German city of Dresden reducing the florence of the elbe to rubble and flames and killing as many as 135,00 people. It was one of the single most destructive bombings in Europe. If anything it accomplished a lot since the Germans were already on the verge of surrender. The Yalta conference came to conclusions the factories needed to be bombed and german cities to stop and bring down the Nazi war machine. -
Battle of Iwo Jima
Following elaborate and destructive naval bombardment, Three us marine divisions landed on the island of Iwo Jima. They encountered around 23,000 Japanese soldiers who fought from a network of caves. The plan was to take the island so that us forces could set up a base of operations close to japan so they could further plan their attack on the mainland. Over 100,000 us troops invaded the island. The battle lasted for five weeks and saw one of the fiercest fighting in the Pacific theatre. -
Battle of Okinawa
This was the last and biggest Pacific island battles of WW2. The Okinawa campaign which lasted from April 1 to June 22 and involved 287,000 troops of the US Tenth army against 130,000 japanese soldiers who again were fighting from their network of caves. BY the end of the 82 day campaign japan lost over 77,000 troops. The Japanese.Japanese forces changed their typical tactics of resisting at the water’s edge to a defense in depth, designed to gain time. -
VE day: War in Europe is OVER!
On this day in 1945, 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. The eighth of May spelled the day when German troops throughout Europe finally laid down their arms: In Prague, Germans surrendered to their Soviet antagonists, after the latter had lost more than 8,000 soldiers. -
Dropping the A-bombs: Hiroshima and Nagasaki
The United states became the first and only nation to create and use the atomic bomb in WW2. Since 1940 the US had been working on developing an atomic weapon which could be used to wipe out entire cities. This would be used to speed up to the end of the war. Truman ordered the dropping and Enola gay dropped a 5 ton bomb on the city of Hiroshima, later Nagasaki would also be hit and soon after Japan would surrender on the USS Missouri. -
VJ day: The war in the Pacific is OVER!
On August 14, 1945, it was announced that Japan had surrendered unconditionally to the Allies, effectively ending World War II. Since then, both August 14 and August 15 have been known as “Victoryover Japan Day,” or simply “V-J 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 Pacific came to a close.
