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Japan Invades China
The Japanese decided on launching a full scale invasion on China. The troops invaded Manchuria and conqured it and set up a base camp there. The most voilent of the Japanese advances was the "Rape of Nanking." The troops orders were to take over the city and kill anyone there, babies and woman included. The total estimated death toll was put up to 250,000 chinese people. Within 5 months after the intial attacks 1 million chinese people were under Japanese control. -
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The Holocaust
The holocaust was the mass murder of 6 million Jews, and memebers of other persecuted groups by the Nazis. Hitler and the Nazi's had a veiw of a superior race and if you did not belong he beileved you should be excuted. The first concentration camp to start gassing people was near Lublin. Many more concentration camps were built and used throught World War 2. Jews were sought down through out the war by the Nazi's and set to their death at these concentration camps. -
Munich Conference
Hitler, Mussolini, Daladler and Chamberlain signed the Muich pact on this day. The pact had the purpose of turning over the Sudentenland back to the Germans. The pact also gave German's a percentage of natural resources that Czechoslovakia had. After this pact it was supposed to be peaceful between Czech and Germans but of course after a while Hitler began to invade other parts forcing surrender. -
Non-Aggression Pact
Hitler's journey of invading and taking over countries began to worry the Soviet Union. This led to the signing of the German-Soviet Non Agreession Pact. This pact agreed to make no military advances on eachother for the next 10 years. Stalin used this to keep the peace at a time of war and gave him a chance to build up the soviet military. German used the pact so he was able to invade Poland without oppistion. This pact was later broken by the Germans. -
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Germany Invades Poland
German forces were determined to regain lost land and take over Poland. Hitler launched land and air attacks on Poland. This battle was an indicator of the Germans future war style, "Blitzkrieg." He bombed the area and afterwards came through and wiped out any other resisitances. Once he had succeded he began to set up concentration camps to annilhilate all enemies of the Nazi's vision. -
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Battle of Britain
Hitlers next plan was to go and take over Britan with the use of air warefare. He sent a large number of aircraft over multiple times targeting air bases, military bases, and mostly its civilian population. Britan were able to hold off the attacks and damage/destory many German aircrafts. Hitler temporairly postponed the attacks on Britan and focused his attention on the adavnaces torwards the Soviet Union. -
Blitzkrieg
Blitzkreig is a military practice often used by the Germans, and is often referred to as "Lighting war." The actual tactic is to bombard the eniemies before enageing. This was very helpful as it wiped out alot of people and led to disorginazation. As being a very succesful military adavance it was later adopted by even the US. -
Lend-Lease Act
Durning the war the US found a way they could make money durning a depression while also remaining neutral in the war. The lend-lease act was made allowing the US to supply foreign countries with military equipment. The idea was the US could supply anyone they believed were vital to their defense. They used this policy up intill the Japanese bombed Pearl Habor at which that point they joined the war. -
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Operation Barbarossa
With overconfidence Hitler launched a huge advance torwards the Soviet Union. He sent 3 army groups with over 3 million german soilders, 150 divisions, and 3 thousand tanks. He sent this attack on a 2 thousand mile wide distance. The germans had grealy underestimated the Soviets which resulted in a two front war that was unlitimatly impossible for them to win. -
Pearl Habor
Durning what the US thought was a peaceful time with Japan, they had been secertly planning an attack on the military baae Pearl Habor in Hawaii. The whole attack took place under 2 hours were Japanese aircrafts came in and bombed and torpedoed anything they could. Many casulaties occured, and the US fleet and air force were crippled. They had succesfully destoryed 20 war ships and over 200 aircrafts. The following day Theodore Roosevelt declared war on the Japanese. -
Wannsee Conference
The Wannsee Conference was the meeting of senior parts of the Nazi party. The overall purpose of this meeting was to ensure complete cooperation of the Nazi's vision. The vision was to deport any jews found in Germany territories to concentration camps to be terminated. Durning the conference it was explained in detail exactly what was supposed to become of the Jews. -
Bataan Death March
After the surrender of the Bataan Peninsula to the Japanese Filpino and American troops were forced to march to Prison Camps. It was estimated that there were 75,000 soilders that engaged on the 65 mile long marched. The soilders endured harsh treatment and blazing heat. Many troops died durning this long march. -
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Battle of Midway
Japan had planned an ambush on the Allile troops before the battle of Midway. Due to the allies code breakers we were able to intercept a secert message speaking of the Ambush. Since we found out before we had the upper hand and were succesfully able to defeat the Japanese. This battle was known as the turning point in the pacific battles because we could move into an offensive position. -
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Battle of Stalingrad
The German were pushing for the defeat of the Soviet Union's city Stalingrad. Due to the weather change to winter and the determination of the Soviet soilders the German troops were forced to retreat in defeat. Russian's consider it to be their greatest battle of the war. The battle was also a turning point for the Allies and their long journey to victory. -
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Battle of the Bulge
Hitler spilt allied troops in northwest Europe in order for a suprise Blitzkrieg through the Ardennes to Antwerp. This is one of Germans battle plans they had used in the past.The American troops faught battles to stop the Germans advance at St. Vith, Elensborn Ridge Houffalize and Bastogne. When the Germans were advancing they appeared as a large bulge, which got the name Battle of Bugle. The third army to Bastogne led to the neutralization of the German counteroffensene. -
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Battle of Iwo Jima
Durning World War 2 the Allies were in need for a base near the Japanese coast. Their solution was to invade and take over certain islands, one of them being Iwo Jima. After Naval and Aircraft advancement 3 marine divisions were deployed onto the island. The island was defeneded my 23,000 japanese soilders that used underground fighting to their advantage. A month of fighting led to Allies victory. -
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Battle of Okinawa
This was the last and biggest battle on the Pacific islands durning World War 2. The battle contained 287,000 US soilders and 130,000 japanese soilders. The japanese soilders devoted all their strength of their defense. Japan lost 77,000 soilders while the Allies lost 14,000. Ships and aircraft were greatly damaged or destoryed throught the battle as well. -
V-E Day
On May 8th Americans and Europeans celebrate their victory in European Day. Cities celebrated the defeat of the Nazi war machine by putting out flags, and banners. Many German soilders were scared of the Soviet Union because they did not want to be taken prisoner. On May 9th the Soviets defeated the Germans and the war was over. May 5th was the day German troops throught Europe began to surrender. -
D-Day
D-day also known as the Battle of Normany was a battle durning World War 2. Is known as the beginning of the end of World wasr 2. The invansion required extensive planning and was one of the largest military assulats. American, British, and Candian troops landed on 5 beaches on the coast of France's Normandy reigion. By August all of Northen France had been liberated and by Spring the Germans were successfully defeated. -
Bombing of Hiroshima
This was the first ever deployed Atomic Bomb in History and was dropped over the city of Hiroshima. The explosion killed 90 percent of the population. 80,000 were killed instantly and tens of thousands more would later die due to radiation exposure. This atomic bomb was later followed by another. -
Bombing of Nagasaki
3 days after the bombing of Hiroshima a second atomic bomb was droppped at Nagasaki. This atomic bomb was estimated to kil 40,000 people, and marked the day that the Japanese surrendered. -
V-J Day
After Pearl Habor the America troops faught for 3 years against the Japanese. The US bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki unltimatly leading to the end of WW2. On August 14 Japan surrendered to the Allies, ending World War 2. Ever since then this date and the day after has been celebrated as "Victory of Japan" day. The actual announcement in the US was made on the 15 of August due to the time change. -
Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw pact signed in Warsaw included the Soviet Union, Poland, Albania, Hungary, Romania, East Germany, Bulgaria and Czechoslovakia. The Warsaw Pact was a treaty established for a mutual agreement that the Soviets were put in control of the amerd forces of the memeber states. The treaty meant if any other place was attacked everyone involoved in the treaty would come to their aid. When the NATO made West Germany a memember of the NATO the soviet union saw this as a threat and responded.