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Japanese Invasion of China
The Second Sino-Japanese War was a military conflict fought primarily between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan from 1937 to 1945. The Japanese wanted more land. It followed the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894–95 -
Rape of Nanking
To break the spirit of Chinese resistance, Japanese General Matsui Iwane ordered that the city of Nanking be destroyed. Much of the city was burned, and Japanese troops launched a campaign of atrocities against civilians. The Japanese killed 150,000 male “war prisoners,”, an additional 50,000 male civilians, and raped at least 20,000 women and girls of all ages, many of whom were mutilated or killed in the process. Shortly after the end of World War II, Matsui was found guilty and executed. -
Germany's Blitzkrieg
A German term for “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. -
Germany's invasion of Poland
The Invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign, or the 1939 Defensive War in Poland, and alternatively the Poland Campaign or Fall Weiss in Germany, was a joint invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany. Germans were very unhappy with the move after Adolf Hitler had signeed a pact with Poland. Poland was split in half to chare with Russia as an agreement. -
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World War II
World War 2 was fought between two groups of countries. On one side were the Axis Powers, including Germany, Italy and Japan. On the other side were the Allies. They included Britain, France, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, India, the Soviet Union, China and the United States of America. -
German Blitzkreig Ends
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Operation Barbarossa
Adolf Hitler launched his armies eastward in a massive invasion of the soviet union; three great army groups with over 3 million german soldiers, 150 divisions 3 thousand tanks slammed across the frontier in the soviet territory. the invasion covered a front from the north cape to the black sea, a distance of 2 thousand miles. Barbarossa was the crucial turning point in WW2 for its failure forced nazi germany to fight a 2 front war against a coalition possesing immensly superior sources. -
Wansee Conference
Herman Goering, under instructions from Hitler, had ordered Reinhard Heydrich Himmler's number-two man, to submit "as soon as possible a gerneral plan of the administrative, material, and financial measures necessary for carrying out the desired final solution of the Jewish question." They wanted to get rid of the Jews. People in Poland were killing 1 thousnand people a day in "gas vans". -
Pearl Harbor
hundreds of japanese fighter planes attacked the american naval base at pearl harbor near honolulu, hawaii. they bombed pearl harbor because they targeted to knock out the pacific U.S. fleet. japanese managed to destroy 20 american naval vessels, including 8 enourmus battleships, and more than 300 airplanes. more that 2 thousand american soldiers and saliors died in the attack and another 1 thousand were wounded. more than 2 years into the conflict, america had finally joined WW2. -
Bataan Death March
It was the forcible transfer from Saisaih Pt. and Mariveles to Camp O'Donnell by the Imperial Japanese Army of 60,000–80,000 Filipino and American prisoners of war which began on April 9, 1942, after the three-month Battle of Bataan in the Philippines during World War II. About 2,500–10,000 Filipino and 100–650 American prisoners of war died before they could reach their destination. The 60 mi (97 km) march was characterized by occasional severe physical abuse. It's now a Japanese War Crime. -
Battle of Midway
A crucial and decisive naval battle in the Pacific Theater of World War II. The operation, like the earlier attack on Pearl Harbor, sought to eliminate the United States as a strategic power in the Pacific, thereby giving Japan a free hand in establishing its Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. This battle ended in decisive American victory. -
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
Residents of the Jewish ghetto in Nazi-occupied Warsaw, Poland, staged an armed revolt against deportaions to extermination camps. When the Nazis entered the ghetto to prepare a group for transfer to a camp, a ZOB unit ambushed them. Fighting lasted for several days before the Germans withdrew. Afterward, the Nazis suspended deportations from the Warsaw ghetto for the next few months. 50,000 Jews survived while Germans ended losing several thousand men. -
Operation Gomorrah
British bombers raided Hamburg, Germany, by night in operation Gomorrah, while Americans bomb it day by day in its own "Blitz Week. Britain has suffered the deaths of 167 civilians as a result of German bombing raids in July. More than 1500 German civilians were killed in the first British raid. -
D-Day
156,000 American, British and Canadian forces landed on five beaches along a 50-mile stretch of the heavily fortified coast of France's Normandy region. This strategy was used to break down Germany and attack them from all directions on all boarders. This caused the beginning of the end for not only the Germans but Hitler most of all. -
Battle of the Bulge
Hitler attempted to split the Allied armies in northwest Europe by means of a surprise blitzkrieg thrust through the Ardennes to Antwerp. The battle of the Bulge was the costliest action ever fought by the U.S. Army, which suffered over 100,000 casualties. -
Liberation of Concentration Camps
Soviet soldiers were the first to liberate concentration camp prisoners in the final stages of the war. On July 23, 1944, they entered the Majdanek camp in Poland, and later overran several other killing centers. On January 27, 1945, they entered Auschwitz and there found hundreds of sick and exhausted prisoners. The Germans has left them after their retreat. Survivors had mixed reactions to their newfound freedom. They kept saying "Freedom" to themselves, but could not grasp it. -
Operation Thunderclap
Two months after D-Day, Sir Charles Portal, chief of the Air Staff, had suggested that the moment Germany approached military collapse, a series of heavy air raids to be launched against east German population centers; these raids might even precipitate total surrender. These raids were large ones but less massive than in the original Thunderclap plan. -
Battle of Iwo Jima
The Battle of Iwo Jima was a major battle in which the U.S. Marines landed on and eventually captured the island of Iwo Jima from the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II. Americans wanted to take the island so they can stage an area for attacks on the main Japanese islands. After the heavy losses incurred in the battle, the strategic value of the island became controversial. It was useless to the U.S. Army as a staging base and useless to the U.S. Navy as a fleet base. -
Battle of Okinawa
Allies were approaching Japan as a base for air operations on the planned invasion of Japanese mainland. Four divisions of the U.S. 10th Army (the 7th, 27th, 77th, and 96th) and two Marine Divisions (the 1st and 6th) fought on the island. Their invasion was supported by naval, amphibious, and tactical air forces. Japan lost many soldiers and Okinawa was occupied by the U.S. until 1972. -
VE Day
Known as "Vicotry in Europe Day". It marked the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Nazi Germany's unconditional surrender of its armed forces. It then marked the end of WW2 in Europe. Adolf Hitler had commited suicide so the country was forced to surrender. The act of military surrender was signed on 7 May in Reims, France and on 8 May in Berlin, Germany. -
Dropping of the Atomic Bombs
The United States, with the consent of the United Kingdom as laid down in the Quebec Agreement, dropped nuclear weapons on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, during the final stage of the World War II. Together with the United Kingdom and China, the United States called for the unconditional surrender of the Japanese armed forces in the Potsdam Declaration. After being bombed, Japan surrendered. -
VJ Day
On August 15, 1945, news of the surrender was announced to the world. This sparked spontaneous celebrations over the final ending of World War II. On September 2, 1945, a formal surrender ceremony was held in Tokyo Bay aboard the USS Missouri. At the time, President Truman declared September 2 to be VJ Day. The war was finally over.
