-
Japan invades china
Japan's invasion of China was to Japan's desire to be an imperial power. There was both an economic and a militaristic element to this.
Economically, Japan needed more resources. It wanted to be an industrial and military power but did not have the resources and space on its home lands. For this reason, it expanded into Korea and Taiwan and eventually Manchuria. This was also a reason for wanting to break out of Manchuria and to dominate China.
Japan was being controlled by hard-line milita -
Germany's invasion of Poland
The German invasion of Poland was a primer on how Hitler intended to wage war–what would become the “blitzkrieg” strategy. This was characterized by extensive bombing early on to destroy the enemy’s air capacity, railroads, communication lines, and munitions dumps, followed by a massive land invasion with overwhelming numbers of troops, tanks, and artillery. Once the German forces had plowed their way through, devastating a swath of territory, infantry moved in, picking off any remaining resista -
Germany Blitzkrieg
Blitzkrieg means “lightning war”.blitzkrieg is a military tactic designed to create disorganization among enemy forces through the use of mobile forces and locally concentrated firepower. Its successful execution results in short military campaigns, which preserves human lives and limits the expenditure of artillery. German forces tried out the blitzkrieg in Poland in 1939 before successfully employing the tactic with invasions of Belgium, the Netherlands and France in 1940. The blitzkrieg was a -
Fall of Paris
The Battle of France, also known as the Fall of France, was the German invasion of France and the Low Countries during the Second World War, beginning on 10 May 1940, defeating primarily French forces. The battle consisted of two main operations. -
Liberation of concentration camps
Auschwitz, also known as Auschwitz-Birkenau, opened in 1940 and was the largest of the Nazi concentration and death camps. Located in southern Poland, Auschwitz initially served as a detention center for political prisoners. However it evolved into a network of camps where Jewish people and other perceived enemies of the Nazi state were exterminated, often in gas chambers, or used as slave labor. Some prisoners were also subjected to barbaric medical experiments led by Josef Mengele1911-79. Dur -
Operation Barbarossa
On June 22, 1941, Adolf Hitler launched his armies eastward in a massive invasion of the Soviet Union: three great army groups with over three million German soldiers, 150 divisions, and three thousand tanks smashed across the frontier into Soviet territory. The invasion covered a front from the North Cape to the Black Sea, a distance of two thousand miles. By this point German combat effectiveness had reached its apogee in training, doctrine, and fighting ability, the forces invading Russia rep -
Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, in the United States Territory of Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941 -
Bataan Death March
After April 9, 1942, U.S. surrender of the Bataan Peninsula on the main Philippine island to the Japanese during World War II (1939-45), the approximately 75,000 Filipino and American troops on Bataan were forced to make a 65-mile march to prison camps. The marchers made the trek in intense heat and were treated very harshly by Japanese guards. Thousands died in what became known as the Bataan Death March. -
Operation Torch
Operation Torch took place November 1942 during WW11. Operation Torch was the name given to the Allied invasion of French North Africa. Operation Torch was the first time the British and Americans had jointly worked on an invasion plan together. -
Battle of Midway
Six months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States defeated Japan in one of the most decisive naval battles of World War II. Thanks in part to major advances in code breaking, the United States was able to pre empt and counter Japan’s planned ambush of its few remaining aircraft carriers, inflicting permanent damage on the Japanese Navy. An important turning point in the Pacific campaign, the victory allowed the United States and its allies to move into an offensive position. -
Wannsee Conference
Wannsee Conference meeting of Nazi officials on January 20, 1942, in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee to plan the final solution to the so-called Jewish question . On July 31, 1941, Nazi leader Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring had issued orders to Reinhard Heydrich, SS (Nazi paramilitary corps) leader and Gestapo (Secret Police) chief to prepare a comprehensive plan for this “final solution.” The Wannsee Conference held six months later, was attended by 15 Nazi senior bureaucrats led by Heydrich and i -
Allied invasion of Italy
The Allied invasion of Italy was the Allied amphibious on mainland Italy that took place on September 3, 1943. During World War 2. This operation was undertaken by British General Harold Alexander’s 15th Army Group. Some combatants were Italy, United States, United Kingdom, Nazi Germany, Canada, Kingdom of Italy, and the British Raj. -
Tehran Conference
There was a meeting between U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin in Tehran, Iran, between November 28, and December 1, 1943. Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill a the the Tehran Conference. All of these actions named the meeting the Tehran Conference. -
D-Day (Normandy Invasion
DDayOn June 6, 1944 the Allied Forces of Britain, America, Canada, and France attacked German forces on the coast of Normandy, France. With a huge force of over 150,000 soldiers, the Allies attacked and gained a victory that became the turning point for World War II in Europe. This famous battle is called D-Day or the Invasion of Normandy. -
Battle of Iwo Jima
U.S. Marines invaded Iwo Jima on February 19, 1945, after months of naval and air bombardment. The Japanese defenders of the island were dug into bunkers deep within the volcanic rocks.
About 70,000 U.S. Marines and 18,000 Japanese soldiers took part in the battle. In thirty-six days of fighting on the island, nearly 7,000 U.S. Marines were killed and another 20,000 were
wounded. Marines captured 216 Japanese soldiers; the rest were killed in action. The island was finally declared secured on Ma -
Battle of Okinawa
Last and biggest of the Pacific island battles of World War II, the Okinawa campaign (April 1—June 22, 1945) involved the 287,000 troops of the U.S. Tenth Army against 130,000 soldiers of the Japanese Thirty-second Army. At stake were air bases vital to the projected invasion of Japan. By the end of the 82-day campaign, Japan had lost more than 77,000 soldiers and the Allies had suffered more than 65,000 casualties—including 14,000 dead.
Dropping of the atomic bombs (1945) -
Dropping of the atomic bombs
atomic bombOn August 6, 1945, during World War II 1939-45 an American B-29 bomber dropped the world’s first deployed atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The explosion wiped out 90 percent of the city and immediately killed 80,000 people tens of thousands more would later die of radiation exposure. Three days later, a second B-29 dropped another A-bomb on Nagasaki, killing an estimated 40,000 people. Japan’s Emperor Hirohito announced his country’s unconditional surrender in World War II in a r -
VE day
VE Day marks the day both Great Britain and the United States celebrate victory in Europe all day. Cities in both nations, as well as formerly occupied cities in Western Europe, put out flags and banners, rejoicing in the defeat of the Nazi war machine. The eighth day of May spelled the day when German troops throughout Europe finally laid down their arms. -
Nuremberg Trials
Held for the purpose of bringing Nazi war criminals to justice, the Nuremberg trials were a series of 13 trials carried out in Nuremberg, Germany, between 1945 and 1949. The defendants, who included Nazi Party officials and high-ranking military officers along with German industrialists, lawyers and doctors, were indicted on such charges as crimes against peace and crimes against humanity. Nazi leader Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) committed suicide and was never brought to trial. Although the legal j -
Battle of the Bulge
In December 1944, Adolf Hitler attempted to split the Allied armies in northwest Europe by means of a surprise blitzkrieg thrust through the Ardennes to Antwerp. Caught off-guard, American units fought desperate battles to stem the German advance at St.-Vith, Elsenborn Ridge, Houffalize and Bastogne. As the Germans drove deeper into the Ardennes in an attempt to secure vital bridgeheads, the Allied line took on the appearance of a large bulge, giving rise to the battle’s name. Lieutenant General
