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Japanese Invasion of China
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/china_war.htm The Japanese invasion of China rooted from the Japanese claiming they were fired on by Chinese troops at the Marco Polo Bridge. Using that as their motive, Japan launched an attack on China using Manchuria as the launching base. Japan came in with the intent of taking over China. They took over all of China’s major cities and had 1 million Chinese people under their control by the end of 1937. China forced Japan to surrender on August 14, 1945. -
German Blitzkrieg
http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005437 One of Germany’s main goals in the war was to make it short. Blitzkrieg attempted to do just that from 1939-1940. Blitzkrieg required tanks, planes, and artillery. German air power prevented the enemy from resupplying or redeploying forces. They could suffocate the opponent and force surrender. Despite success with blitzkrieg, it turns out that it’s not the perfect fighting tactic as Germany failed to defeat the Soviet Union as USSR. -
Germany's Invasion of Poland
http://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2011/06/world-war-ii-the-invasion-of-poland-and-the-winter-war/100094 On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland. This officially started World War II. The Polish army had no chance, and were defeated within weeks of the invasion. Germany had about 1.5 million troops, 2,000 tanks, and over 1,000 planes. Germany was out to send a message to start this war. They took over Warsaw and many other cities in Poland. Finally, after constant bombing and shelling, Warsaw and Poland surrendered to Hitler and Germany on September 27, 1939. -
Operation Barbarossa
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/operation_barbarossa.htm Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Germany’s invasion of Russia. The Soviet Union was not expecting to be attacked by Germany. Germany cut the Soviets off from their supplies. This left them no choice but to surrender. During this time, Hitler also decided to send German Jews to the now German occupied Soviet Union. On December 6, 1941, the Soviets launched a counter attack. But Germany took more land and became more powerful. -
Pearl Harbor
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/pearl-harbor Japan attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor near Hawaii. More than 2,000 soldiers and sailors died, and 1,000 more were injured. The next day, America declared war on Japan. The U.S. was officially apart of World War II. Pearl Harbor was so undefended it was an irresistible target for Japan. The Japanese wanted to goad the U.S. into lifting the economic sanctions against them. For the first time, Americans wanted war. -
Wannsee Conference
This was the conference to establish a plan to exterminate the Jews. The Nazi’s planned to kill an estimated 11 million Jews. Heydrich, said that Jewish Ghettos were working too slowly to kill the Jewish people, so now they would have to send them to concentration camps. The goals of the meeting was to make a sustainable plan to kill all of the Jewish people in and around Germany land. This happened because Hitler, told the reason for their troubles were becuase of the Jewish people. -
Bataan Death March
On April 9, 1942 the Japanese marched 76,000 troops (12,000 American and the rest Filipino) marched 60 miles. The Japanese were unequipped to march all of the prisoners and very brutal towards all of the prisoners. They did this because they needed the prisoners to march back to the main island off of the Bataan Peninsula. This event wasn’t known till after the war but because of this the commander, Maharu Homma was convicted of all of the deaths and was killed by a firing squad. -
The Battle of Midway
This was a battle between the United States and the Japanese. Japan tried sinking the Unites State's aircraft carriers that escaped destruction from Pearl Harbor. The United States was able to defeat the Japanese becasue of advanced technology like code breaking. The United States was able to figure out Japanese code and counter their attacks. This win set up an offensive movemnt for the United States.
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/battle-of-midway -
Battle of Stalingrad
This was a battle between the Soviet Union and Germany. It is said to be one of the bloodiest battles ever. The Soviet Union won this war and the were sucessfulotecting the city of Stalingrad. The Soviets stopped the German army from advancing any further into Russia. Both military units combined lost about 2 million people. This battle changed the tide of the war. Stalin humiliated Hitler in the Battle of Stalingrad.
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/battle-of-stalingrad -
Allied Invasion of Italy
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/invasion-of-sicily The Allies were trying to end the war by making each enemy surrender. Up next was Italy. They invaded Italy in hopes of removing them from the war. The first stepping stone to invading Italy, was the island of Sicily. The invasion of Italy included 150,000 Allied Troops. Italy was able to evacuate 100,000 men. They were surprised to learn that the enemy was gone. Their invasion was complete on August 17, 1943. -
Operation Gomorrah
On July 24, 1943 British Bombers started to raid Hamburg Germany during the night while American bombers bombed it during the week. More than 1,500 German civilians were killed during the raids of the first day. Overall the raids during Operation Gommorah killed 30,000 people and destroyed over 280,000 buildings. This was retaliation from when Germany bombed London weeks before. But more importantly the U.S. and British air forces wanted to show Germany that they too can be very destructive. -
D-Day (Normandy Invasion)
Allied troops stormed Normandy beach France, the beach was heavily fortified by Nazis armed Nazis with machine guns. They sailed ships across the English Channel to the beach of Normandy on France’s north-western side. More than 160,000 allied troops landed on that beach and over 9,000 died or were wounded during that battle. This invasion happened because Nazis took over France four years before and this would expose Germany’s western front to Allied forces. By winning the battle of Normand -
Battle of the Bulge
three German armies fought two battered and weak American divisions in the poorly roaded, rugged, heavily forested Ardennes. This happened because German officials saw the weak American army and decided he would sneak attack the armies. This depleted many of Germany’s armored forces. This sneak attack killed more than 100.000 Americans troops and led to many heavy losses to other countries too. This battle was called battle of the bulge because of how the allied armies were aligned on the map. -
Liberation of concentration camps
American, French, Candian, and British troops freed Jewsish and other people from concentration camps. This happened after the Allied troops won land where the lands were located. Some German troops surrendered when allied troops came and some were killed by Allies. After the release of prisoners the people were starved and many died soon after. Some of the prisoners went to other countries to find refuge. Many were left homeless and starving. -
Operation Thunderclap
This was a proposal to bomb all of the eastern cities of Germany, that later got filled out by Allied forces. The main city bombed was Dresden which had been too far to bomb for most of the war. The allied forces wanted to show Germans that German air defenses were useless and the Nazi's has failed them. The impact of this event was now transportation were now damaged so troops couldn't reach some parts of the eastern side. This put some Germans into an unknowing situation about the Nazi's. -
The Battle of Iwo Jima
The United States invades the island of Iwo Jima becasue they needed a base near the Japanses coast. Japan had 23,000 soldiers guarding the island of Iwo Jima to protect them. Within a month of fighting, the Unites States ened up winning this battle to defeat the Japanese. The United States raised the tp the flag to symbolize that they were won this battle against theJapanese
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/battle-of-iwo-jima. -
Battle of Okinawa
This was largest and last Pacific Island battles of World War II. 287,000 troops of the United States army going up against 130,000 soldiers of the Japanese Army. At stake were air bases vital to the projected invasion of Japan After 82 days, Japan had already lost 77,000 soldiers. This pushed the Japanese back, and forced them to retreat.
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/battle-of-okinawa -
VE Day
This day is the day that the United States and Great Britain celebrated their victory in the streets. This eighth of may is when the Germans finally laid down their guns and surrendered. "Your courage has defeated the Nazis. The war is over.” Joseph Stalin was the man that said these words over the radio about the war. The Germans surrendered and the war is over. Victory in Europe.
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/victory-in-europe -
Dropping of the Atomic Bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
On August 6, 1945 the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the city of Nagasaki. Just three days laster, another bomb was dropped on the city of Hiroshima.The first bomb killed 80,000 people immediately, and the second bomb killed almost 40,000 people or more. The U.S. dropped this bomb because they did not wont to lose anymore American soldiers. This event made Japan surrender because of the destruction and death was too much to handle. http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/bombing-o -
VJ Day
This day marked the Japanese finally giving up on the war and surrendering. This day is know as Victoryover Japan Day. After the United States bombed two cities in Japan, they could not fight in the war any longer becasue of all the destruction the bombs caused. Once the bombs hit the surface and exploded, they destroyed everything in thier paths. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were demolished.
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/v-j-day
