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Period: to
World War 2
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Ribbentop/Molotov Pact
The pact that Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union surprised the world by signing before WWII broke out. The two countries agreed to take no miltary action toward each other for the next 10 years. Hitler used this pack to invade poland safely while Stalin used it to take some more time to build up his nation. -
Hitler Invades Poland (Blitzkrieg)
Used blitzkrieg warfare for the first time when taking poland. Blitzkrieg is when the tanks go first to level the ground and the troops come by after to occupy the land. Poland fell within a month as Hitler invades wes poland and Stalin invades eastern Poland. -
Fall of Paris
The Geramans rushed in taking Paris succesfully with german tanks soon rolling in. About 2 million Parisians fled the city out of fear of the germans. This day was filled with arrests and interrogations but then Canadian forces came into France to fight the germans off. -
Pearl Harbor
At almost 8 A.m the japenese attacked pearl harbor injuring or completly destroying almost 20 american ship, destroying more than 300 airplanes and killing 2,500 men. This attack "awakened the sleeping giant" which is the U.S declaring war the very next day. -
Wannsee Conference
A conference to discuss the "final soulution" or the plan to mass murder the jews in Europe that Heydrich proposed. Even though they already knew that the German Army, the SS and the police were already killing jews in serbia. They discussed how to tell if a person was a jew by the Nuremberg Laws. -
Bataan Death March
U.S surrender of the Bataan Peninsula, 75,000 American and Filipino troops were forced make a 65 mile journey to prison camps. Where thousands died on the death march to the prison camps and when they got to the prison camps the troops were tortured by japanese soliders. -
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
Jewish civilians raised an uprising in Warsaw, Poland to the deportations to extermination camps. Inspiring others to do the same in ghettos and extermination camps through out conquered Europe. -
Operation Gomorrah
Operation Gomorrah was a bombing raid lead by the british at night and the U.S by day on the german city of Hamburg. There was only 12 casualities of the british air force out of the 721 that flew because of their new technology Window confusing german radar by flying Window strips behind the airplanes. -
D-day
156,000 americans with canadian and british forces landed on five beaches along a 50 mile coast of France, Normandy. Less tha a week later the beaches were secured and for about 2 months troops continued to invade france until capturing the Seine river -
Liberation of Concentration camps
Soviet soliders began liberating concentration camps on july 23, 1944 but kept liberating camps between 1944-1945. When the soldiers rushed in to the camps they found thousands of exhausted worn out prisoners. They tried to helped the prisoners that they found but most was even too weak to feed themselves. -
Battle of the Bulge
Hitler sent more than 200,000 german troops and 1,000 tanks toward the Englsih Channel to split the allies forces. the germans paratrooped behind allied territory taking bridges, roads and cutting cominucations. But General Dwight D. Eisenhower rushed reinforcements to defend against the German attack. -
Battle of Iwo Jima
Three marine divisions landed on Iwo Jima which was defended by 23,000 japanese troops fighting in caves, dugouts and tunnels in the island. The environment made it especially hard for the americans to advance on the island. After a month of fighting the marines captured the island making it one of the most popular WWII battles in american history. -
VE Day
The day Great Britian and U.S celebrate victory in Europe day when the germans surrendered to the Soviets. Many germans tried running from the Russians to the west when the cease-fire was declared. But were stopped by the Russians capturing 2 million prisoners. -
Dropping of the Atomic Bombs
The first ever atomic bomb was dropped into the city of Hiroshima wipng out 90% of the city's population killing about 80,000 people and others would soon die from radiation exposure a couple days after. Then three days later another atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki killing about 40,000 people. -
V-J Day
Japan surrendered to the allied forces unconditonally marking this as Victory over Japan day or V-J day. Also being used on september 2 1945 when Japan's formal surrender on the U.S.S Missouri.