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Japan Invades Manchuria
Japan invades Manchuria after claiming Chinese nationalists had bombed part of a railway they owned, near the city of Mukden. -
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Important Events in World War II
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Beginning of World War II
WWII was started by a German invasion on Poland. Two days later, France and Britain declared war. -
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Important Events in World War II
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Invasion of France
German soldiers broke through the French defensive lines and pushed towards the coast. The Netherlands and Belgium surrendered to the Germans in May, and Paris fell into German occupation on June 14, 1940. Germany signed off on a truce on June 22, 1940. -
Battle of Britiain
It was an air campaign by the German Air Force in the summer and fall of 1940 against the United Kingdom, and was an attempt to destroy the British Royal Air Force, or the RAF, and knock out their radar stations. Only one radar staion was destroyed and five others damaged. 1,500 German aircafts took off the first day, and only 47 were shot down. -
Yugoslavia Invasion
It was a German bombing on Yugoslavia, and a land raid of 1,200 tanks on Greece. 17,000 civilians were killed that day, making it the largest number of civilian casualaties since the start of the war. It ended in a German victory with the surrender of the Royal Yugoslav Army on April 17, 1941. -
Germany Attacks Soviet Force
The attack was to destroy Soviet Union and take prime lands within the Soviet borders. There were more than three million German soldiers, 650,000 German allies (Finland and Romania, and later Italy, Croatia, Slovakia, and Hungary). The German forces cut off Soviet supplies, which left them very few choices except to surrender. -
The Attack on Pearl Harbor
A surprise military attack by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the US, at the American naval base of Pearl Harbor. Although it lasted two hours, the Japanese destroyed eight American battleships, almost 200 airplanes, and nearly 20 naval vessels. More than 2,000 American sailors and soldiers died, and another 1,000 soilders were wounded. The day after, Franklin D. Roosevelt declared war on Japan and the US had finally joined WWII. -
Battle of Stalingrad
A major battle between Germany and the Soviet Union over the city of Stalingrad, now Volgograd, in Southern Russia. It is also one of the bloodiest battles in history, killing nearly 2 million soldiers and civilians combined, and it was considered the turning point in the war on the Eastern Front. Germany saw it essensial to their campaign, and Russia saw it vital for industrial and transportation purposes. It ended February 2, 1943. -
Hitler's Suicide
Adolf Hitler killed himself August 30, 1945 by a cyanide capsule (which he tested on his "beloved" dog Blondi and her pups) and a bullet to the head. His wife Eva, whom he had just married the day before, also killed her self via cyanide capsule. -
Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Wanting to end the war quickly, President Harry S. Truman ordered the new deadly weapon to be used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The bombs exploded with a blinding flash in the sky, and a great rush of air and could be heard from miles away. The bomb on Hiroshima immediately killed 80,000 people, and thousands more died in the weeks to come do to radiation and wounds. The bomb dropped on Nagasaki killed nearly 40,000 more people. -
The End to World War II
Japan formally surrendered September 2, 1945, but it was generally accepted at that time that the war ended with the armistice (truce) of August 14, 1945, or V-J Day.
