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Germany invades Poland
This event started World War II. Germany attacked Poland using the Blitzkrieg method, also known as lightning war. A blitzkrieg is a sudden attack using lots of firepower to damage as much as possible, as quickly as possible. A few days before this, Germany signed a nonaggression pact with the Soviets. By doing this, they got the Soviets to attack Poland from the East while Hitler ordered a blitzkrieg on Poland's west side. within a month, Poland had fallen to the Nazis. -
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World War II
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Battle of Britain
Right after Germany took control of France, they went to the United Kingdom to try and capture it as well. Germany named their attack Operation Sea Lion. It meant tht their Luftwaffe, or Air Force, would attack. Germany bombed everything that it could, but the UK used radar to detect the planes and figure out where they would be bombed next. By doing this, it saved the United Kingdom from falling to Nazi Germany. -
Japan attacks Pearl Harbor
On the morning of December 7, 1941, Japan surprise attacked the US at Pearl Harbor, which was the main pacific base for the US Navy. Japan sent a total of 6 aircraft carriers with 360 planes to attack the base, along with some submarines as well. They attacked in two waves. Japans mission for this attack was to prevent the US from influencing Japan's war effort in Southeast Asia. 2,402 people were killed. This attack postponed us for 6 months. This attack was the reason S got into WWII. -
Battle of Coral Sea
In May 1942, Japan tried to take New Guniea. In order to stop this, the US sent 2 aircraft carriers to fight. On May 7th and 8th, we fought aerial battles with the Japanese. The ships never got close enough to see eachother. The abttle ended as a draw, but Japan called off their attack of New Guinea. This battle shifted the momentum to the United States for the 1st time, because they stopped the Japanese from expanding their forces for the first time. -
Battle of Midway
The Battle of Midway was the main turning point for the US in the pacific during WWII. Before this battle, Japan was consistintley beating the US. American codebreakers were able to figure out when and where Japan was going to attack, and enabled the US to set up an ambush to take out Japan's ships. It worked, and the US sunk four of Japan's aircraft carriers. From this point on, the Japanese weren't able to keep up with the pace of US manufacturing. -
Battle of Stalingrad
The Battle of Stalingrad was important because it prevented Hitler and the Germans from capturing all of Europe. The Nazis wanted Stalingrad so they could control the rich caucasus oil fields. Germany ended up surrendering in December of 1943, over a year after fighting had begun. The German troops surrendered because they were starving, sick, and frostbitten. This battle was considered to be the turning point of the war in Europe. -
D-Day
D-Day was the first day of the Battle of Normandy. 156,000 allie troops landed on 5 beaches within 50 miles of eachother. There were 4,400 ships and landingcrafts, and 11,000 planes. The reason D-Day was so successful for the allies was because they tricked the Germans into thinking they were going to land at a different location. They did so by setting up a decoy base and decoy operations. D-Day is considered by many to be the beginning of the end to the war in Europe. -
Hitler Commits Suicide
On April 30th, 1945, Hitler killed himself by a self inflicted gun wound to the head. He did this because the Ally forces were pushing towards Berlin, Hitler's capital. After the German's lost the Battle of the Bulge, Hitler saw little hope for victory, and thought it would be better that he killed himself rather than being caught and tortured/ humiliated. His closest associates also commited suicide, including his soon to be wife. Hitler's "thousand year reich" only lasted a dozen years. -
Atomic Bomb Dropped on Hiroshima
After only a couple of years with the Manhattan project, the atomic bombs were ready to use. On August 6th, 1945 the first ever atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan. It killed an estimated 80,000 to 120,000, mostly civilians. The main reason President Truman decided to drop the bomb was to save American troops lives. Military advisors thought it could take as much as a million men to invade Japan -
Atomic Bomb Dropped on Nagasaki
Three days after the first atomic bomb was dropped, the US dropped another one on Nagasaki, Japan. This bomb killed 35,000 to 75,000 people, and most of them were civilians. After this second bomb, Japan knew they didn't stand a chance against the United States. 6 days after this bomb was dropped, the Emporer of Japan decided to surrender. This was the 2nd ever atomic bomb, and most recent atomic bomb used.
