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Japanese Invasion of Manchuria
Japan needed a reason to invade/attack China, so they were justified to fight. So, Japan claimed that China sabotaged the railways in Japan and also China recently executed a Japanese spy. Thus, giving Japan the right of way to invade China and take over Manchuria. -
Rape of Nanking
After Japan took over the capital of China, Nanking, the Japanese General Matsui Iwane ordered the city to be destroyed. The soldiers then pillaged the city: killing about 150,000 war prisoners, killed another 50,000 civilian males, and raped almost 20,000 women and mutilated and killed them in the process. -
Blitzkrieg
Military tactic designed to create disorganization among enemy forces through the use of mobile forces and locally concentrated firepower. "lightning war". Successfully implemented this in the invasions of Belgium, the Netherlands and France. -
Pearl Harbor
Hundreds of Japanese fighter planes attacked the naval base. The attack destroyed 20 naval vessels, over 300 planes, and 2,400 Americans died and 1,000 were wounded. -
Battle of Stalingrad
Fight between German forces and Russia. Known as the longest, largest, and bloodiest engagements in history of modern warfare. When the Russian forces defeated the German forces, it turned the tide of the war in favor of the Allied powers. -
Battle of El Alamein
The second battle of Egypt, El Alamein, was an Allied victory. This victory marked the beginning of the end for the Axis forces in North Africa. -
Kamikaze
Suicide pilots that would crash their planes into ships to sink them in honor of their country. Japan used too different types of planes one was a conventional aircraft and the second was a specifically designed plane, that was rocket-powered plane that was carried toward its target with it attached to the belly of a bomber. -
D-Day (Normandy Invasion)
One of the largest amphibious landings in history and all troops were attacking the fortified position of the German forces of France's Normandy beach. One of the bloodiest days of the war. This victory for the Allied forces was the beginning to the end of the war. -
Battle of Iwo Jima
One of the bloodiest fights of World War II. The Americans attacked to gain the island of Iwo Jima to use as a staging area to attack further inland in Japan. About 2,500 Japanese soldiers were killed and almost 7,000 Marines were killed during the fighting.
