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Japanese invasion of China
Japan entered on the side of the Allied Powers and picked off Germany's colonial empire in the Pacific Ocean. Japan invaded Manchuria immediately following the Mukden Incident. The Resistance War left a devastated society. So many people had been killed or deeply injured: soldiers, their families, the victims of bombing and of scorched earth actions, the survivors of the economic chaos, the forced labourers, the comfort women, the orphans.
[Link text](www.history.com/topics/nanjing-massacre) -
Germany's Invasion of Poland
It enabled Germany to attack Poland without the fear of Soviet intervention. Adolf Hitler claimed the massive invasion was a defensive action, but Britain & France were not convinced. On September 3, they declared war on Germany. Warsaw surrendered to the Germans in 1939. Britain and France had declared war on Germany on September 3, 1939. The Soviet Union invaded eastern Poland on September 17, 1939.
[Link text](www.history.com/this-day-in-history/germans-invade-poland) -
German Blitzkrieg
The German Blitzkrieg was is a military tactic designed to create disorganization among enemy forces through the use of mobile forces and locally concentrated firepower. They declared war because they didn’t agree. The effect is the British and French armies being pushed back in just a few weeks to the beaches of Dunkirk.
[Link text](www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/blitzkrieg) -
The Fall of Paris
Overnight it left assumptions on which Britain had planned to fight Hitler completely obsolete. The first operation was Case Yellow and is when the armored units of Germany cut off allied units which had advanced into the country of Belgium at the Ardennes. When the British and the French saw themselves pushed back by the operation, the British evacuated their BEF with other French divisions in Operation.
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Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa was code name for the German invasion of the Soviet Union. The failure of German troops to defeat Soviet forces in the campaign signaled a crucial turning point in the war. Operation Barbarossa was a turning point in the war: if Germany had won, the entire course of world war two would be different. Hitler was never the same again.
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Pearl Harbor
Japanese planes attacked the United States Naval Base at Pearl Harbor. It intended to destroy American fleet units, preventing the Pacific Fleet from interfering with Japanese conquest of the Dutch East Indies and to enable Japan to conquer Southeast Asia without interference. The effect was that about 2400 dead and 8 battleships destroyed/damaged. The long-term effect of Pearl Harbor was that it brought in the US to the war.
[Link text](www.history.com/this-day-in-history/pearl-harbor-bombed) -
Wannsee Conference
The high-ranking 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." It happened because they wanted to make mass murder occur. The effect was the destruction of the jews.
[Link text](www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-wannsee-conference) -
Battle of Midway
It happened because there were major advances in code breaking. The commander chose to invade a target relatively close to Pearl Harbor to draw out the American fleet, calculating that when the United States began its counterattack, the Japanese would be prepared to crush them. Yamamoto's plan was to attack and then assault the two islands that make up the Midway atoll.
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Battle of Stalingrad
It happened because he wanted the city to be saved. It stopped the German advance into the Soviet Union and marked the turning of the tide of war in favor of the Allies. General Paulus surrendered what remained of his army of about 91,000 men. About 150,000 Germans had died in the fighting.
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Allied Invasion of Italy
It happened because groups in Italy were uniting to overthrow Mussolini and make peace with the Allies. A strong German military present in Italy threatened to resist any such action. Montgomery’s 8th Army began its invasion of the Italian mainland and government agreed to surrender to the Allies. The effect was Mussolini was executed. German forces in Italy surrendered and six days later all of Germany surrendered.
[Link text](www.history.com/this-day-in-history/allies-invade-italian-mainland) -
Operation Gomorrah
The bombing happened because of propaganda. What happened was many of the attacks on Germany up to ‘Gomorrah’ had been separate British, at night, and American, at day, attacks. The combination of both forces gave Harris a substantial number of bombers and therefore a substantial number of bombs that could be dropped. The effect was that more than 1,500 German civilians were killed in that first British raid.
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D-Day
Allied invasion of France on June 6, 1944, led by American Forces. the Allied powers crossed the English Channel and landed on the beaches of Normandy, France, beginning the liberation of Western Europe from Nazi control during World War II. D-Day forced the Germans to fight a two front war again just as they had in WWI. By the end 1 million allied troops reached France.
[Link text](www.history.com/this-day-in-history/d-day) -
Battle of the Bulge
It happened because the Germans created a “bulge” around the area of the Ardennes forest in pushing through the American defensive line. What happened was isolated American units and the thick fog that prevented Allied air cover from discovering German movement, the Germans were able to push the Americans into retreat. The battle raged for three weeks, resulting in a massive loss of American and civilian life.
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Operation Thunderclap
Operation Thunderclap was the code for a canceled operation planned in August 1944 and never implemented. The plan pictured a massive attack on Berlin in the belief that would cause 110,000 killed. A series of Allied firebombing raids begins against the German city of Dresden, and killing as many as 135,000 people. More than 3400 tons of explosives were dropped on the city by 800 American and British aircraft.
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Battle of Iwo Jima
It happened because they needed a base near the Japanese Coast. Iwo Jima was defended by roughly 23,000 Japanese army and navy troops, who fought from an elaborate network of caves, dugouts, tunnels and underground installations. American losses included 5,900 dead and 17,400 wounded.
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Battle of Okinawa
It happened because they wanted to gain time. The battle of Okinawa involved the 287,000 troops of the U.S. Tenth Army against 130,000 soldiers of the Japanese Thirty-second Army. Japan had lost more than 77,000 soldiers and the Allies had suffered more than 65,000 casualties, including 14,000 dead.
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VE Day
It happened because they wanted to rejoice in the defeat of the Nazi war machine. the German surrender was realized in a final cease-fire. About 1 million Germans attempted a mass exodus to the West when the fighting in Czechoslovakia ended, but were stopped by the Russians and taken captive. More than 13,000 British POWs were released and sent back to Great Britain.
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Potsdam Declaration
What happened was it was the Japanese's unconditional surrender. It’s a statement that called for the surrender of all Japanese armed forces during World War II. The effect was that fighting continued between Japan and the Soviet Union in Manchuria.
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Dropping of the Atomic Bombs
It happened because Truman believed that the bombs would save lives of the Japanese too and not just ours. The explosion wiped out 90 percent of the city and immediately killed 80,000 people; tens of thousands more would later die of radiation exposure. Three days later, a second B-29 dropped another A-bomb on Nagasaki, killing an estimated 40,000 people.
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VJ Day
What happened was japan surrendered. They surrendered because they were worried on what would happen next after the bombs, and USS Missouri. It was the end of World War II. Japan’s capitulation in the Pacific brought six years of hostilities to a final and highly anticipated close.
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