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Japanese Invasion of China
The Chinese and Japanese troops had a minor engagement on the Marco-Polo Bridge which led to an undeclared war. Japan launced a full-scale invasion of China for its territiorial control. This sparked the significance of the Second Sino-Japanese War in which Japanese troops took over Beijing and Nanjing and bombed Shanghai, killing thousands. This showed strong force of nationalism and resistance that was flourishing in China. -
Rape of Nanking
The population on Nanking in China was impacted by the Japanese army. The Rape of Nanking demonstrated the horror of the war as the population of Nanking demolished. Japanese soldiers poured into the city and killed Chinese civilians by either shooting or beheading them. 20,000 to 80,000 Chinese women were raped and over 400,000 Chinese residents lost their life. Japan used methods of wardare that led to mass death and suferring on a new level. -
Germany's Invasion of Poland
In August 1939, the foreign ministers of the Soviet Union and Germany signed the German-Soviet Non-Aggression pact. The two nations agreed not to attack each other and promise neutrality in the event that either of them went to war with a third party. A secret protocol divided eastern Europe into German and Soviet spheres of influence. This provided for German control over western Poland. Hitler was ready to conquer Europe. On -
German Blitzkrieg
The Germans stunned the world by rapidly invading and defeating the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France and a British Expeditionary Force (that was aiding the French) with their Blitzkrieg (“lightning war”). Germany's combination of fast armoured tanks on land and superiority in the air made a unified attacking force that was both innovative, effective and victorious for Germany throughout the whole World War II. -
Main causes of war in Europe and Asia. The two sides in war.
The economic collapse, and the political instability caused by World War I led the rise of fascism in Europe to World War II. Hitler and Mussolini adopted aggressive foreign policies involving war as an intended, even desirable method. Japan needed increasingly more natural resources to support its industrial growth. To accomplish this goal, they looked west to China. World War 2 was fought between two groups of countries, Axis powers, Germany, Italy and Japan and the rest with Allies. -
Fall of Paris
In April 1940, Germany occupied Denmark and Norway which launched a full-scale attack on a Western Europe and control of the eastern North Sea. On May 10, more than 2 million German troops on land and in the air invaded France, Belgium and the Netherlands using blitzkrieg tactics. The smaller countries fell within weeks, but France held on until June 22, when it signed an armistice with Germany. France’s falling convinced Benito Mussolini that Germany was winning the war. -
Operation Barbarossa
On June 22, 1941, Adolf Hitler ordered his armed forces to invade the Soviet Union. The German military assembled the largest and most powerful invasion force in history, attacking 3.6 million soldiers, 3,700 tanks and 2,500 planes. The invasion took Stalin and his Red Army off guard the Soviets were unprepared for the sudden blitzkrieg attacks across the border. By December, the Germans had captured Russian heartland and reached the gates of Moscow. They were assured of victory. However, -
Attack on Pearl Harbor
On December 7th, 1941, hundreds of Japanese fighter planes mounted a surprise attack on the American naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. The U.S. forces were unprepared, waking to the sounds of explosions and scrambling to defend themselves. More than 350 Japanese bombers, fighters and torpedo planes struck in two waves, sinking or disabling 18 ships and destroying more than 200 aircraft. The barrage lasted just 2 hours and was devastating. This ensured that global conflict commenced. -
Wannsee Conference
During 1941 the Nazi leadership committed to the “final solution” that entailed the attempted murder of every Jew living in Europe. The Wannsee Conference on January 20, 1942, 15 leading Nazi bureaucrats gathered to discuss and coordinate the implementation of the final solution. They agreed to evacuate all Jews from Europe to camps in a Eastern Poland where they would be worked to death or exterminated. Soon German forces rounded up Jews and deported them to camps in Poland. -
Operation Gomorrah
On the last week of July in 1943, British bombers raid Hamburg, Germany, by night in Operation Gomorrah while the Americans bombed it by day. British aircraft drop 2,300 tons of incendiary bombs on Hamburg in just a few hours. More than 1,500 German civilians were killed in that first British raid and the U.S. Air Force began a more comprehensive bombing run of northern Germany. Created one of the largest firestorms raised by the Royal Air Force and United States Army Air Forces. -
D-Day / Normandy Invasion
On June 6, 1944, British and U.S. forces landed on five beaches along a stretch of the coast of France’s Normandy region. Less than a week later, on June 11, the beaches were fully secured and over 326,000 troops, more than 50,000 vehicles and some 100,000 tons of equipment had landed at Normandy. The British and Americans broke loose. Although the fighting was deadly for all sides, the Germans were overwhelmed. The Normandy landings have been called the beginning of the end of war in Europe. -
Operation Thunderclap
Operation Thunderclap had been under discussion within the Allied Command for some time and was planned to happen August 1944 (which was cancelled). The proposal was to bomb the easternmost cities of Germany to disrupt the transport infrastructure behind what was becoming the Eastern front. Instead a number of coordinated smaller attacks against cities in the communications zone of the Eastern Front. -
Battle of the Bulge
On December 16, 1944 Germany launched the last major offensive of the war, The Battle of the Bulge, so-called because the Germans created a “bulge” around the area of the Ardennes forest in pushing through the American defensive line. It was an attempt to push the Allies to the front line, west from northern France to northwestern Belgium. It’s the largest one fought on the Western front. The ploy caused widespread chaos and suspicion among the American troops as to their identity. -
Battle of Iwo Jima
The fighting on Iwo Jima and Okinawa was fierce, violent and uncontrolled. Innovative U.S. tactics were matched by the vigor and sacrifice of Japanese soldiers and pilots. 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. Despite the difficulty of the conditions, the marines wiped out the defending forces after a month of fighting. American losses included 5,900 dead and 17,400. -
Battle of Okinawa
On Okinawa, the Japanese introduced kamikaze, pilots who volunteered to fly planes to dive bomb into an Allied ship. Japanese submarine, bomber, and kamikaze attacks took a heavy toll on the U.S. fleet. During 82 days of fighting, approximately 100,000 Japanese troops and 12,510 Americans were killed, and somewhere between 42,000 and 150,000 Okinawan civilians died as well. At this point, U.S. forces were nearing their position for the next stage of their offensive against the Empire of Japan. -
VE Day
On May 8, 1945, both Great Britain and the United States celebrate victory in Europe, rejoicing in the defeat of the Nazi war machine. German troops throughout Europe finally laid down their arms. In Prague, Germans surrendered to their Soviet antagonists, after they had lost more than 8,000 soldiers. The German surrender was realized in a final cease-fire. The war had been won, but the peace did not promise to be easy. More than one million people celebrated in the streets to mark the end. -
Dropping of the atomic bombs
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% of the city and immediately killed 80,000 people. Three days later, a second B-29 dropped another atomic bomb on Nagasaki killing 40,000 people. Japan's emperor Hirohito announced the country's surrender in a radio address 9 days after the first dropping of the bomb. The United States became the first and only nation to use atomic weaponry. -
VJ Day
The Allies were consistently bombarding Japan from air and sea, dropping some 100,000 tons of explosives on more than 60 Japanese cities and towns between March and July 1945 alone. On August 14, 1945, it was announced that Japan had surrendered unconditionally to the Allies, effectively ending World War II. VJ Day = Victory Over Japan Day. On September 2, Allied supreme commander along with the Japanese foreign minister signed the official Japanese surrender effectively ending World War II. -
Creation of the United Nations
The United Nations is a supranational organization dedicated to keeping world peace and security. The commitment to establish a new organization derived from Allied cooperation during the war. The United Nations created a powerful Security Council responsible for maintaining international peace. The UN founders made certain that the Security Council consists of five permanent members: The United States, the Soviet Union, Great Britain, France and China. -
Creation of NATO
In 1949 the United States established NATO, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, as a regional military alliance against Soviet aggression. The original members included Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal and the United States. The intent of the alliance was to maintain peace in postwar Europe through collective security, which implied that a Soviet attack on any NATO member was an attack against all of them.
