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German Blitzkrieg
Blitzkrieg is a military tactic designed to create disorganization among enemy forces through the use of mobile forces and locally concentrated firepower. If it's successful, it results in short military campaigns, which preserves human lives and limits the expenditure of artillery. German forces tried out the blitzkrieg in Poland in 1939 before successfully employing the tactic with invasions of Belgium, the Netherlands and France in 1940.
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Germany's invasion of France to capture Paris
By the time German tanks rolled into Paris, 2 million Parisians had already fled, with good reason. In short order, the German Gestapo went to work. While Parisians who remained trapped in their capital despaired, French men and women in the west cheered-as Canadian troops rolled through their region, offering hope for a free France yet. On this day, President Roosevelt froze the American assets of the Axis powers, Germany and Italy.
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Bombing of France sparked Battle of Britain
After Germany had conquered most of Europe, including France, the only major country left to fight them was Great Britain. Germany wanted to invade Great Britain, but first they needed to destroy its Royal Air Force. Germany bombed London in order to try and destroy their air force and prepare for invasion. Although the Germans had more planes and pilots, the British were able to fight them off and win the battle.http://www.ducksters.com/history/world_war_ii/battle_of_britain.php -
Lend Lease
The United States gave Britain war supplies, and the British did not have to pay for them. This allowed Britain to be in the war for as long as possible before America has to step in. This created the Lend-Lease Act.
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Operation Barbarossa
On June 22, 1941, Adolf Hitler launched his armies eastward in a massive invasion of the Soviet Union: three army groups with over three million German soldiers. Barbarossa was the crucial turning point in World War II. In the end the Soviets overreached, and the Germans restored a semblance of order to the front. But Barbarossa had failed, and Nazi Germany confronted a two-front war that it could not win.
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Germany invaded Soviet Union
The German air force bombed the Volga River and the city of Stalingrad. They reduced much of the city to rubble and moved in and took over a large portion of the city. However, the Soviet troops fought back by gathering and making a counter attack. They trapped the German army inside of Stalingrad. Soon the Germans began to run out of food. Finally, the majority of the German army surrendered.http://www.ducksters.com/history/world_war_ii/battle_of_stalingrad.php -
Pearl Harbor
Japanese fighter planes attacked the U.S. base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, launching one of the deadliest attacks in American history. The assault, which lasted less than two hours, claimed the lives of more than 2,400 people, wounded 1,000 more and damaged or destroyed nearly 20 American ships and more than 300 airplanes. Almost half of the casualties at Pearl Harbor occurred on the naval battleship USS Arizona, which was hit four times by bombs.
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Bataan Death March
Within a month of Pearl Harbor, the Japanese had captured Manila after the Japanese invasion of the Philippians and the American and Filipino defenders of Luzon were forced to retreat to the Bataan Peninsula. For the next three months, the surrendered Filipinos and Americans were rounded up by the Japanese and forced to march about 65 miles from Mariveles to San Fernando. In February 1945, U.S.-Filipino forces recaptured the Bataan Peninsula, and Manila was liberated in early March. -
Battle of Midway
A large Imperial Japanese Naval force sails for Japan towards Midway Island. The force Is made up of four task forces. One is charged with the invasion of the Aleutian Islands off of Alaska while the other three are to take Midway Island itself and assail the responding USN fleet. One group contains the required four aircraft carriers. The island of Kiska and island of Attu is taken by Japanese forces. The Aleutian Islands Campaign comes to a close. The Japanese invasion is ultimately repelled. -
After Pearl Harbor
FDR declares war the next day on Japan, but Germany and Italy declared war on the United States. This started WW2.
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Warsaw Ghetto uprising
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising began in earnest on April 19, the day before the start of Passover, when SS units arriving for the final deportations were greeted by an ambush. Of the more than 50,000 Jews captured during the uprising, 14,000 were either executed immediately or killed upon arrival at Treblinka. The remaining prisoners were sent to a number of concentration camps, by the end of the war all but few thousand were dead. The bravery of the these people has inspired many books and films. -
D-Day
Paratroops landed behind enemy lines and destroyed key targets and capture bridges for the main invasion force to land on the beach. Planes dropped bombs on German defenses. Underground members of the French resistance sabotaged the Germans by cutting telephone lines and destroyed railroads. The main invasion force approached the beaches of Normandy. Allied troops arrived and pushed the Germans out of France.
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Battle of the Bulge
Germany attacked and used over 200,000 troops and nearly 1,000 tanks to break through the US lines. It was winter and the Americans were not ready for the attack. The Germans broke through the line and killed thousands of American troops. They tried to advance quickly. It was small groups of American troops throughout the front who dug in and held out until reinforcements came that won the battle for the Allies.http://www.ducksters.com/history/world_war_ii/battle_of_the_bulge.php -
Battle of Iwo Jima
On the first day of the battle 30,000 US marines landed on the shores of Iwo Jima. The Japanese had dug all sorts of tunnels and hiding places all over the island and were waiting quietly for more marines to get on shore to attack. Many US soldiers were killed.
But after a month of furious fighting, the US to finally capture the island.http://www.ducksters.com/history/world_war_ii/battle_of_iwo_jima.php -
Liberation of concentration camps
Soviet soldiers were the first to liberate concentration camp prisoners in the final stages of the war. On July 23, 1944, they entered the Majdanek camp in Poland, and later overran several other killing centers. On January 27, 1945, they entered Auschwitz and there found hundreds of sick and exhausted prisoners. They rescued them.
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U.S. dropped two atomic bombs on Japan
On August 6, 1945, an American B-29 bomber dropped the world’s first deployed atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The explosion wiped out 90 percent of the city and immediately killed 80,000 people. Three days later, a second B-29 dropped another A-bomb on Nagasaki, killing an estimated 40,000 people. Japan’s Emperor Hirohito announced his country’s unconditional surrender in World War II in a radio address on August 15, citing the devastating power of “a new and most cruel bomb.”
