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Japan Invades China
Japanese troops claimed that they were fired upon by Chinese soldiers near Beijing at the Marco Polo Bridge. The Japanese used this as an excuse to launch an invasion on China. Japan used their puppet state, Manchuria, as a launching base for their troops to invade. The Japanese successfully took over with facing only a little bit of resistance. Chinese troops were no match for the Empire of Japan. http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/china_war.htm -
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World War II
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The Rape of Nanking
Japanese forces brutally assaulted and murdered hundreds and thousands of the civilians of Nanking. Japanese troops not only murdered their victims but took turns raping them before they killed them. Between 20,000 and 80,000 women were sexually assaulted in this massacre. Nanking was the capital of Nationalist China at the time and the attack crippled China as a nation. This attack took decades to recover from and to repair the damage that had been done. http://www.history.com/topics/nanjing -
Ribbentrop/Molotov Pact
This was a nonaggression pact named after the ministers of the Soviet Union and Germany. This pact was agreed upon and concluded only a few days before the start of World War II. This agreement divided much of Eastern Europe. Germany and the Soviet Union acted as if they were allies who were on the same page but they were power hungry. Eastern Europe was divided into German and Soviet spheres of influence. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/230972/German-Soviet-Nonaggression-Pact -
Germany's Invasion of Poland
Germany invaded Poland and within weeks of the invasion the Polish army was defeated. German units took down Polish defenses with more than 2,000 tanks and over 1,000 airplanes. The Germans surrounded the Polish and advanced on Warsaw in a massive encirclement attack. After heavy shelling and bombing the Polish surrendered a few weeks later. Britain and France had declared war on Germany two days after the first day of the invasion. http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/mobile/en/article.php?ModuleId=1000 -
German Blitzkrieg
Blitzkrieg is a German term for "Lightning War". It was a military tactic used to cause disorder and destruction among enemy forces. The Blitzkrieg caused disorder and destruction through the use of mobile forces and locally concentrated firepower. The German commander Erwin Rommel uses the Blitzkrieg during the North African campaign of World War II. It was also adopted by U.S. General George Patton for his army's European operations. http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/blitzkrieg -
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa was the code name for the German invasion of the Soviet Union. The German troops had failed to take down the Soviet Union's forces which alarmed Germany and was a turning point in the war. The Barbarossa force had about 3,000 tanks, 7,000 artillery pieces and about 2,500 aircrafts. Operation Barbarossa was the largest and most powerful invasion force in human history. The Germans' strength was further increased by more than 30 divisions of Finnish and Romanian troops.
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Pearl Harbor
Hundreds of Japanese fighter planes attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor near Honolulu, Hawaii. The attack only lasted two hours but the attack was devastating. The Japanese managed to destroy 20 American naval vessels including eight enormous battleships, and 200 airplanes. More than 2,000 American soldiers and sailors were killed in the attack and another 1,000 were wounded. The day after the assault Franklin D. Rosevelt declared war on Japan.
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Wannsee Conference
This conference was set up the final solution to the Jewish question. The conference was brought together by Nazi officials in the German suburb of Wannsee. The conference marked a turning point in Nazi policy toward the Jews. The newly planned final solution would entail rounding up all the Jews throughout Europe, transporting them eastward, and organizing them into labor gangs. Overall the treatment of Jews got worse and worse as time passed.
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Bataan Death March
Approximately 75,000 Filipino and American troops on Bataan were forced to march 65 miles to their death. The 75,000 people who participated in the march were instructed to march all the way to prison camps. The marchers made the arduous journey in intense heat and were exposed to cruel treatment by Japanese soldiers. People were rounded up in groups and would march to the prison camps in about five days. Thousands of people died which gave this famous march the name of the Bataan Death March. -
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
Heinrich Himmler ordered to liquidate the Warsaw Ghetto and deport its able-bodied residents to forced labor camps. On January 18th a group of Jewish fighters that were armed with pistols fought their German escorts on their way to a labor camp. The German forces intended to begin to liquidate the Warsaw Ghetto on April 19th. When police entered the ghetto that morning the streets were deserted, nearly all of the residents were in hiding places or bunkers. This signaled the uprising of Warsaw. -
Operation Gomorrah
Operation Gomorrah was an orchestrated bombing in Hamburg, Germany. The bombing included the American army and the British army. The combination of both bomber forces gave Harris an incredible number of bombers therefore an incredible number of bombs that could be dropped. Hamburg was surrounded by anti-aircraft defenses and 1,700 shelters for 230,000 civilians. Radar in the city could pick up enemy bombers when they were 100 miles away.
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D-Day (Normandy Invasion)
On June 6th more than 60,000 allied troops landed along a heavily fortified French Coastline. The Allied troops were there in order to fight Nazi Germany on the beaches of Normandy. More than 5,000 ships and 13,000 aircrafts supported the D-Day invasion. More than 9,000 Allied soldiers were killed or wounded. This sacrifice allowed 100,000 soldiers to begin the trek across Europe.
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Operation Thunderclap
Operation thunderclap proposed a plan to bomb the Eastern cities of Germany. The planned to bomb the Eastern most cities in order to disrupt the transport infrastructure behind what was becoming the eastern front. Also to demonstrate to the German population that the air defenses of Germany were now of little substance. The nazi regime had appeared to have failed Germany. At Yalta Churchill had promised to do more to support Soviet forces moving west into Germany. -
Battle of the bulge
This famous battle started on December 16th, 1944 and lasted until January 25th, 1945. Hitler attempted to split the allied armies by a surprise Blitzkrieg through the Ardennes to Antwerp. The Germans fought against the Americans multiple times and took them by surprise many times. As the Germans drove deeper into the Ardennes, the Allies took on the appearance of a large bulge. Lieutenant General George S. Patton's successful manuever lead to the neutralization of the German's counteroffensive. -
Battle of Iwo Jima
The American invasion of Iwo Jima started out all because of the need for a naval base near the Japanese coast. Iwo Jima was defended by about 23,000 Japanese army and navy troops. The Japanese soldiers fought through a complicted network of caves, dugouts, tunnels, and underground installations. Even though conditions were rough, the marines wiped out the forces after a month of fighting. The battle earned a place in American lore through a photograph showing the U.S. flag being raised. -
Liberation of Concentration Camps
U.S. Forces liberated countless numbers of concentration camps across Europe. Liberators confronted unspeakable conditions in the nazi camps where corpses lay unburied. After the liberation of nazi camps the real horrors of the nazis were exposed to the world. The small amount of inmates that survived were comparable to skeletons because of their lack of nutrtition and constant demand for physical labor. Disease remained an issue and the labor camps had to be burned down to prevent epidemic. -
VE Day
This was the day that the Allies celebrated the defeat of Nazi Germany and the end of Hitler's reich. This date also marked the end of World War II according to Europe. The Allies had begun to overrun Germany from the west in April as Russian forces advanced from the east. Allied and Soviet forces met at the Elbe River, the German army was all but destroyed. Five days later Hitler killed his dog, new wife Eva, and then committed suicide. -
Battle of Okinawa
This battle was the last and the biggest of the Pacific bttles of World War II. The Okinawa campaign involved 287,000 U.S. troops and 130,000 Japanese soldiers. air bases were at stake, they were vital to the projected to the invasion of Japan. when the 82-day campaign had ended, Japan had lost more than 77,000 soldiers. The Allies suffered 65,000 casualties, including 14,000 dead. -
Dropping of the Atomic Bombs
The U.S. was the first nation to use atomic weaponry. The U.S. dropped the first tomic bmb on Hiroshima and three days later the second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. The cities were in ruins and the effects were devastting. After about 120,000 Japanese civillian deaths Japan surrendered a few days later. The U.S. celebrated in joy knowing that the Second World War had officially ended. -
VJ Day
Japan's formal surrender took place aboard the U.S.S. Missouri, anchored in Tokyo Bay. Several months after the surrender of Nazi Germany, Japan surrendered cbringing the six years of hostilities to a highly anticipated close. Many VJ Day celebrations fell out of favor due to Jpan possibly taking offense. VJ Day isn't as commonly celebrated now but it is forever written in the history books. The U.S had to create an atomic mess in order to create peace.
