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World War II Timeline

  • Japanese invasion of China

    Japanese invasion of China
    The Japanese invasion of China caused China to loose many lands to the Japanese, such as Korea and Manchuria, etc. This caused “allies” too worry that led them to break of their alliance with Japan. Which eventually led Japan to form an alliance with Germany and Italy. Japanese invaded China launching the Sino-Japanese War. Chinese forces were unable to effectively resist the Japanese because they using military methods. The feud ended when Japan surrendered.
  • Rape of Nanking

    Rape of Nanking
    Imperial Japanese Army seized the City of Nanking and murdered Chinese civilians. Japanese troops smashed into the city on December 13, 1937, with orders to "kill all captives." The elimination of the Chinese prisoners began after they were transported by trucks to remote locations. Young Japanese soldiers encouraged by their superiors to inflict pain on them to toughen themselves up for future battles. After the prisoners, the soldiers focused their attention to the women of Nanking.
  • Germany's invasion of Poland

    Germany's invasion of Poland
    Invading Germany was a gamble because the German Army was not strong yet and the German economy was still locked in the peacetime production. Hitler was confident that the invasion would have result in a short, victorious war for 2 reasons. The first reason was that he was convinced that they world's first armed corps would defeat Poland. Second was that the ministers of France and Britian would want a peace settlement.
  • German Blitzkrieg

    German Blitzkrieg
    Germany wanted to avoid a long war, so instead they defeat their opponents in series of short campaigns. They relied on this military tactic they called Blitzkrieg which means lighting wars. They quickly overran much of Europe because of this.
  • Operation Barbarossa

    Operation Barbarossa
    Germany started Operation Barbarossa—the invasion of the Soviet Union. This attack surprised the Soviets. In the first few weeks hundreds of thousands of enemy soldiers were captured and the Soviet population destroyed things that might help the Germans. Hitler ordered the German army to wait until new forces came to help them. This gave the Soviets time to strengthen their army. Weapons broke down in the bitter cold. The defeat was the worst that Germany suffered.
  • Attack on Pearl Habor

    Attack on Pearl Habor
    The United States didn’t like Japan’s attitude towards China. The Japanese government thought that the only way to solve its economic and demographic problems was to expand into its neighbor’s territory and take over its import market; leading Japan to declare war on China in 1937. American officials responded to this with trade bans. They reasoned that without access to money and goods, like oil, Japan would have to limit its expansionism.
  • Wannsee Conference

    Wannsee Conference
    A meeting between Nazi officials that made them plan a solution of what to do with Jews. Their first plans what were to deport all Jews to Madagascar, Africa, but they decided against it instead decided to send all Jews up east and put them in labor camps.
  • Creation of the United Nations

    Creation of the United Nations
    The United Nations was made of necessity. Meaning, of better judging of international conflict and negotiating peace than what it was provided in the old League of Nations. The growing Second World War became the real impetus for the United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union to begin formulating the original U.N. Declaration, signed by 26 nations in January 1942, as a formal act of opposition to Germany, Italy, and Japan.
  • Warsaw Ghetto uprising

    Warsaw Ghetto uprising
    Was the 1943 act of Jewish resistance that arose within the Warsaw Ghetto in German occupied Poland during World War II. Jewish opposed Nazi Germany's effort to transport the remaining Ghetto population to Treblinka extermination camp. The uprising started on 19 April when the Ghetto refused to surrender to the police, which made official order the burning of the Ghetto. It ended on May 16. 13,000 Jews died, about half of them burnt alive or suffocated. It was the largest single revolt by Jews.
  • Operation Gomorrah

    Operation Gomorrah
    To get back at what Germany had done to Britain, British aircraft drop 2,300 tons of flammable bombs on Hamburg (German city) for what had happen back in July. As well as the U.S. Eighth Air Force began bombing Germany, it ncluded two raids on Hamburg during the day. 17,000 bombers dropped more than 9,000 tons of explosives; killing more than 30,000 people and destroying 280,000 buildings. It was at the time the biggest assault in the history of aerial warfare.
  • D-Day (Normandy Invasion)

    D-Day (Normandy Invasion)
    156,000 American, British and Canadian forces landed on the coast of Normandy region (France). Germany invaded France and was trying to take over all of Europe which included Britain. Britain and the United States managed to slow down the expanding German forces. To prepare for the invasion, the allies had equipment in Britain; also increased the number of air strikes and bombings in German territory. Over 1,000 bombers a day were hitting German targets. They bombed railroads, bridges, airfields
  • Operation Thunderclap

    Operation Thunderclap
    An operation planned in August 1944 but was never executed. The plan was to have a massive attack on Berlin that might cause 220,000 casualties with 110,000 killed, many of them key German personnel, which would shatter German spirit.
  • Battle of Iwo Jima

    Battle of Iwo Jima
    The Battle of Iwo Jima was a major battle in which the U.S. Marines landed on and eventually captured the island of Iwo Jima from the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II. The American invasion, designated Operation Detachment, had the goal of capturing the entire island, including the three Japanese-controlled airfields, to provide a staging area for attacks on the Japanese main islands. This five-week battle comprised the fiercest and bloodiest fighting of the War in the Pacific of WW2
  • Battle of Okinawa

    Battle of Okinawa
    The Battle of Okinawa was a series of battles fought in the Ryukyu Islands, centered on the island of Okinawa, and included the largest marine assault in the Pacific War during World War II, the 1 April 1945 invasion of the island of Okinawa itself. The 82-day-long battle lasted from 1 April until 22 June 1945.
  • Fate Of Dicatators

    Fate Of Dicatators
    Their fate was death. Mussolini was murdered by the allies (April 28), and Hitler fearing same faith decided to commit suicide with his wife. (April 30th)
  • VE Day

    VE Day
    The public holiday of England’s victory. Celebrated on 8 May 1945 to mark the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Nazi Germany's unconditional surrender of its armed forces. It thus marked the end of World War II in Europe.
  • Liberation of Concentration Camps

    Liberation of Concentration Camps
    Soviet soldiers were the first to be approached to concentration camp on July 23, 1944,it was close to near Lublin, Poland. Surprised by the Soviet’s advances, the Germans tried to cover up the evidence of mass murder by destroying the camp but in the gas chambers were left standing. British and U.S. forced freed concentration camp near northern Germany, the prisoners were found weak, ill, and lacked nutrition. This showed conditions in the Nazi camps and what horrors were in the camps.
  • Dropping of The Atomic Bombs

    Dropping of The Atomic Bombs
    The United States, with the consent of the United Kingdom as laid down in the Quebec Agreement, dropped nuclear weapons on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 6th and 9th in 1945, during the final stage of World War II. The two bombings, which killed at least 129,000 people, remain as the only use of nuclear weapons for war in history.
  • VJ Day

    VJ Day
    On August 15, 1945, news of the surrender was announced to the world. This sparked spontaneous celebrations over the final ending of World War II. On September 2, 1945, a formal surrender ceremony was held in Tokyo Bay aboard the USS Missouri. At the time, President Truman declared September 2 to be VJ Day.
  • Battle of the Bulge

    Battle of the Bulge
    The battle was an attempt to push the Allied front line west from northern France to northwestern Belgium. It was called the Bulge because Germans created a “bulge” around the area of the Ardennes forest which was pushing through the American defensive line. Hitler’s objective was to surprise their allies. To Germany’s advantage the defensive line wasn’t heaily guarded. Then three German armies launched the deadliest battle of the war in the west.
  • Creation of NATO

    Creation of NATO
    In 1949, the possibility of further Communist expansion made the United States and 11 other Western nations to form the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to be able to banish communism in Europe. It was also primarily a security pact, stating that a military attack against any of the countries who had signed the agreement, would be a considered attack against the other allied countries.