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Japanese invasion of China
Manchuria was believed to be rich of resourses that the Japanese needed. Japan left a huge army in southern Manchuria to guard its investments. The explosion of a section of the Manchuria railroad was used as an excuse to invade Manchuria. -
Rape of Nanking
Many women and children were sexually abused. In many cases, pregnant women were cut open, and had their fetus' torn out. Girls as young as 8 were sexually abused. More than 20,000 females were gang-raped by the Japanese, then either stabbed or shot so there wouldn't be any witnesses. Those who survived were ordered to dig their own graves. Chinese women were used as sex slaves solely for the pleasure of Japanese soldiers.About 20 American and European people made missionaries for the survivors. -
Germany's invasion of Poland
At 4:45 a.m., some 1.5 million German troops invaded Poland along its 1,750 mile border with German-controlled territory. On Sept. 3, 1939, Britain and France declare war on Germany. Germany signed a nonaggression pact with the Soviet Union to neutralize the possibility of USSR aid to Poland. -
German blitzkrieg
German troops first tested blitzkrieg, meaning "lightning war," on Poland. It was a plan that kept German forces constantly moving so the toll that Germany took after WWI wouldn't happen again. The term blitzkrieg was never used in the title of a German military manual or handbook. It was more effective on enemy forces. -
Fall of Paris
The French premier asked President Roosevelt for aid in the war. The U.S. sent material aid to France. President Roosevelt also froze the American assets of the Axis Powers, Germany and Italy. Canadian troops offered hope to the free French people who managed to escape before Germany rolled into Paris. -
Operation Barbarossa
Hitler launched his armies eastward in a massive invasion of the Soviet Union. He had three great army groups with over three million German soldiers, 150 divisions, and three thousand tanks. Barbarossa was the turning point in WWI, because it failure forced Nazi Germany to fight a two-front war. The greatest mistake that Germany made was to go as conquerors and not as liberators. The East was as ruthless as the Mongols. -
Pearl Harbor
The Japanese made a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, an American naval base near Honolulu, Hawaii. It only lasted about two hours. The Japanese managed to destroy nearly 20 American naval vessels, including 8 huge battleships, and almost 200 airplanes. More than 2,000 American soldiers and sailors died, and another 1,000 were wounded. Three days after the U.S. declared war on Japan, Germany and Italy declared war on the U.S. -
Wannsee Conference
Nazi officials meet to discuss the details of the “Final Solution” of the “Jewish question.” Heydrich met with Adolf Eichmann, chief of the Central Office of Jewish Emigration, and 15 other officials from various Nazi ministries and organizations at Wannsee, a suburb of Berlin. Various gruesome proposals were discussed, including mass sterilization and deportation to the island of Madagascar. Heydrich proposed simply transporting Jews from every corner Europe to concentration camps in Poland -
Bataan Death March
After the April 9, 1942, U.S. surrender of the Bataan Peninsula on the main Philippine island of Luzon to the Japanese during World War II (1939-45), the approximately 75,000 Filipino and American troops on Bataan were forced to make an arduous 65-mile march to prison camps. The surrendered Filipinos and Americans soon were rounded up by the Japanese and forced to march some 65 miles from Mariveles, on the southern end of the Bataan Peninsula, to San Fernando.
Source: history.com -
Kasserine Pass
Kasserine Pass was the Allied weak point. More than 1,000 American soldiers were killed by Rommel's offensive, and hundreds were taken prisoner. Kasserine Pass was the site of the U.S.'s first major battle defeat of the war. -
Operation Gomorrah
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Allied invasion of Italy
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D-Day (Normandy invasion)
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Liberation of concentration camps
Soviet forces were the first to reach a major Nazi camp near Lublin, Poland. Germans attempted to erase all evidence by destroying camps. The Germans dismantled camps in 1943, aftter most Jews in Poland had been killed. Auschwitz was liberated in January 1945. Most people liberated died from malnutrition not long after they were liberated. -
Battle of the Bulge
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Battle of Iwo Jima
Iwo Jima was defended by roughly 23,000 Japanese army and navy troops, who fought from an elaborate network of caves, dugouts, tunnels, and underground installations. American losses included 5,900 dead and 17,400 wounded.
Source: history.com -
Battle of Okinawa
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VE day (Victory in Europe)
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Dropping the atomic bombs
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VJ Day (Victoryover Japan)