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Period: to
World War II
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Japanese invasion of China
Japan wanted to expand and find new resources. Their army was strategic and powerful, so they went to battle against China. Japan gained control of northeastern provinces and overran most of northern and central China. Through all this China refused to surreneder, so after WWII began, Japan faced defeat and China got their land back. -
German Blitzkrieg
Blitzkrieg was the operating concept for trench warfare during WWI. Germany launched another Blitzkreig in Poland during 1939. The Polish army was being pushed back toward their borders when Germany began invading, but had allied help with the French and the British. The Soviet Union soon went in on the invasion and helped Germany defeat them. Once Poland surrenedered, Germany and the Soviet aligned borders to divide Poland among themselves. -
Germany's invasion of Poland
Germany initally wanted to sign a nonaggression pact with Poland to make sure they didn't ally with France. Britian and France wanted Germany to have limited power and favored many of the policies within the Treaty of Versailles. Once Germany was fully aware of this, they signed a pact with the Soviet Union and agreed to invade Poland together. Poland was imeditetly defeated within weeks of the invasion and Germany occupied Poland until 1945. -
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa was a nickname given to Nazi Germany's invasion of Russia. This was the largest miliarty attack of WWII, which was also based on Blitzkreig. Even though Russia had a massive army, Germany split their army off into northern, central, and southern regions around the country. By the 17th day,a few thousand tanks, weapons, and planes were destroyed. Germany saw Russia has a huge comminstic threat during this time, so they felt iinvasion was necessary to protect their citizens. -
Pearl Harbor
Early December 7, 1941 hundreds of Japanese airforce pilots flew to the coast of Hawaii and schemed an attack on American naval bases. Though the destruction only lasted two hours, nearly 20 naval vessels were destoryed and 3,000 Americans were either dead or wounded. The next day, President Roosevelt declared war on Japan, with agreement from Congress. Once Japan allied with Germany and Italy, the US had no choice but to get involved in the war. -
Wannsee Conference
15 high-ranked Nazi party and government officials discussed the “Final Jewish Question”. During the meeting, it was approximated that 11,000,000 Jews would be affected by this provision. It was also said that the Jews were going to be deployed under supervision to various labor camps, all categorized by gender and physical ability. Jews living in axis-controlled Europe were not the only ones involved in the plans; Jews fromt he UK and neutral countries, such as Sweden, were included as well. -
Battle of Midway
The Battle of Midway was a crucial and decisive naval battle in the Pacific Theatre of World War II. Between 4 and 7 June 1942, only six months after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States Navy decisively defeated an attacking fleet of the Imperial Japanese Navy, inflicting devastating and irreparable damage on the Japanese fleet. It was Japan's first naval defeat since the Battle of Shimonoseki Straits in 1863. -
Bataan Death March
The Bataan Death March, which began on April 9, 1942, was the forcible transfer by the Imperial Japanese Army of 60,000–80,000 Filipino and American prisoners of war after the three-month Battle of Bataan in the Philippines during World War II. It happened because the Japanese were very cruel during WWII. Eventually Japan was charged with a war crime for the event. -
Battle of Stalingrad
The Battle of Stalingrad (23 August 1942 – 2 February 1943) was a major battle of World War II in which Nazi Germany and its allies fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad (now Volgograd) in the south-western Soviet Union. Marked by constant close quarters combat and direct assaults on civilians by air raids, it is often regarded as the single largest and bloodiest battle in the history of warfare. The heavy losses inflicted on the Wehrmacht make it arguably the most strate -
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was the 1943 act of Jewish resistance that arose within the Warsaw Ghetto in German-occupied Poland during World War II, and which opposed Nazi Germany's final effort to transport the remaining Ghetto population to Treblinka extermination camp. The most significant portion of the rebellion took place beginning on 19 April, but ended when the poorly supplied resistance was defeated by the German soldiers. This officially finished their operation to liquidate the Ghett -
Operation Gomorrah
Operation Gomorrah was when Britian was seeking revenge on Germany for killing innocent citizens during a bomb raid they started. A few weeks after the German bomb raid, British bombers invaded Hamburg, Germany. Over 2,300 bombs were released from British aircrafts within only a few hours. Nearly 2,000 Germans were killed from the first raid and they didn't stop there. The US allied with Britian and did a bomb run in northern Germany. Only 12 out of 791 British aircrafts were destroyed. -
D-Day
Under the code name Operation “Overlord,” US, British, and Canadian troops landed on Normandy beach in France. More than 130,000 allied troops landed on five beaches code named Omaha, Gold, Juno, Sword, and Utah. Despite Allied superiority, the Germans contained Allied troops on the beach for six weeks. Allied troops suffered more than 10,000 casualties. The German defenders only took about between 4,000 and 9,000 casualties. By June 11, however, Allied troops overcame German resistance. -
Battle of the Bulge
Operation “Watch on the Rhine” was made to split British and US forces in northern France. The American soldiers, fighting in small groups in subzero cold and snow stopped the German advance. After creating a large corridor at the end of December, US troops and some British troops counterattacked to eliminate the Bulge. In increasing allied pressure, the Germans began to withdraw from the Bulge. Germans suffered more than 100,000 casualties; the Americans approximately 81,000. -
Operation Thunderclap
The Air Ministry had been considering a series of air raids on German cities to cause confusion and consternation so the hardstretched German war machine and civil administration would break down and the war would end.The Germans at the time were fighting hard inside their own territory, so it was a suitable time for attack. Berlin, Dresden, Leipzig, and Chemnitz were all suitable targets. The bombings went as planned with 1406 sorties and only a 0.6% loss. -
Battle of Iwo Jima
The American invasion of Iwo Jima stemmed from the need for a base closer to the Japanese coast. Three US marine divisions landed on the island, which was defended by roughly 23,000 Japanese army and navy troops. Despite the difficulty of the conditions, the marines wiped out the defending forces after a month of fighting, and the battle earned a place in American lore. important due to B29 bombers that were damaged and as a base for escort fighters to assist in the bombing campaign. -
V-E Day
Western Allies crossed the Rhine after having smashed through the strongly fortified Siegfried Line and overran West Germany. German collapse came quickly after the meeting of the Western Russian troops at Torgau in Saxony, and after Hitler’s suicide in the middle of Berlin, which was falling to the Russians. The unconditional surrender of Germany was signed at Rheims on May 7th and ratified at Berlin on May 8th. This day marks the formal celebration of victory for the Allies in Europe. -
Battle of Okinawa
Alongside the territorial reconquest of land, Americans wished to destroy what was left of Japan’s merchant fleet and use airstrips to launch bombing raids on Japan’s industrial heartland. There were four airfields on the island that America needed to control. Never having seen kamikaze attacks, Japan's attacks dealt massive amounts of damage to American carriers. By April 20th however, all Japanese resistance in the north of the island had been eradicated except for some geurilla activity. -
Potsdam Declaration
The Potsdam Declaration was issued on July 26, 1945 by U.S. President Harry Truman, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and President Chiang Kai-shek of the Republic of China, who were meeting in Potsdam, Germany to consider war strategy and post-war policy. This event happened as a result of the world war 2 outcome, which was allied victory. The result of the declaration was that Japan faced multiple limitations to various things, for an example it was limited in the lands it could reign. -
Dropping of the Atomic Bomb
An Allied demand for an immediate surrender was made to the leadership in Japan, who rejected. A plane called the Elona Gay dropped an atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima. Instantly, 70,000 Japanese citizens were vaporized. In the months and years following the drop, 100,000 died due to burns and radiation sickness. Two days later, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan. A second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. 80,000 Japanese people perishished. Japan surrendered five days later. -
V-J Day
V-J Day is the name chosen for the day on which Japan surrendered. This event occurred on August 15 (or 14 depending on the time zone) and is considered to be the final end of WWII. The event caused public celebrations and even a few riots. This event can be contributed to the events at Nagasaki and Hiroshima, without the actions taken by Harry Truman the war could have continued indefinitely.
