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German Blitzkrieg
The word blitzkrieg mean "lightning war." The Germans suddenly attacked Poland with the newest military technologies. The German air force defeated poland's and they broke through. Britain and France declared war on Germany but did not do anything to stop them. poland was quickly defeated and now under control of Germany. -
Nuetrality Act of 1939
When the war in Europe started Americans did not want to be involved because they still remember the devestation from the last war. America was nuetral but FDR was strongly against Nazi's. He wanted to aid the Allis so Congress passed the nuetrality act which had a cash and carry provision. This allowed countries to buy goods and arms in the US if they paid cash and carried the goods on their own ships. This act aided the Allies in order to provie them with supplies. -
Attack on Pearl Harbor
Hideki Tojo, Japan's Prime Minister at the time, wanted to keep The United States neutral. But Japan was set on expanding and the US was not. Because of the disagreements of views Japan finally decided to attack the US. Japan distracted the US by attemting to make peace while they were planning an attack. They hit Pearl Harbor hard destroying many ship and aircraft while also killing many men. The surprise attack convenced the American people it was time to enter the war. -
Bataan Death March
General Douglas MacArthur led US troops into Aisa at the beginning of the war for the US. Japans troops dominated in the fight and took the offensive side in the beginning. MacArthur evacuated to Australia and his troops stayed behind and continued to fight. After a few months the soilders surrendered and became prisioners of war. The Japanese forced the tired and sick soilders to march fifty five miles which is now known as the Japanese Death March because of the horible conditions. -
Battle of Coral Sea
The Battle of Coral Sea was a victory for the Americans confidence. The fight was to stop Japan from taking New Guinea because that would give them easy axcess to Australia. The fighing was not ship to ship fighting it was all airplanes on ships. After that the battles would be done like this and won by the strenght of aircraft carriers and planes. -
Battle of Midway
The Battle of Midway was the turning point for the war in the Pacific. While Japan lost four aircraft carries in the battle US only lost one. After this battle America is on the offensive side and Japan stays on the defensive side. -
D-Day
D-Day was the beginning of the Allies invasion in Europe. The Allied troops came in on the shores of Normandy. The fleet of allies was the largest fleet ever assembled. They had more than 4,400 ships and landing crafts. The goal was to cancel German communication and transportation networks and to get a footholed into western Europe. Allies won but there was a large loss of lives that day. -
Battle of the Bulge
The Battle of the Bulge was a surprise attack on the Allies from Germany. The Germans plan was to cut off all communication and transportation for the Allies spread out in western Europe. The attack was almost sucessful, but when the skies cleared the allied bomber attacked. This put the Allies back on the offensive side. Germany was most effected by this Battle because it used their needed resources and demilitarized its troops. -
Auschwitz Liberation
The Nazi's created Concentration camps during the Holocaust to put the people they discriminated against in. Torwards the end of the war Hitler turned them into death camps where they would kill the people (mostly jews) with gas chambers and burn the bodies. When the Allied troops arrived to liberate the camps the troops relized what their fighting was truely for. The soliders did not relize how horible and inhuman the things that happen there until then. Auschwitz was to largest death camp. -
V-J Day
The Allies were dominating over Japan at this time, but Japn has traditions and they would rather die than surrender. Truman felt there was no other option than to use our newly developed atomic bomb to push them to surrender. After two atomic bombs and Russia declaring war on Japan they finally surender. This day was known as V-J Day or Victory in Japan.
