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War crimes against the Chinese became commonplace. Seeking raw materials to fuel its industries. It had lost its industrial and financial base in east China and the flower of its armies. -
It was Germany’s strategy to avoid a long war in the first phase of World War II. Blitzkrieg tactics required the concentration of offensive weapons, such as tanks, planes, and artillery. Blitzkrieg was a German word meaning “lightning war." It happened to avoid a long war. Germany’s strategy was to
defeat its enemy in a series of short campaigns. Germany quickly occupied much of Europe and was victorious for more than two years. -
The 2nd Armored Division swept the western half of Paris while the 4th Infantry Division cleared the eastern part. Paris fell to Nazi Germany on June 14, 1940. The loss of Paris by relocating the government from Tours to Bordeaux. -
Pearl Harbour is a U.S. naval base near Honolulu, Hawaii, that was the scene of a devastating surprise attack by Japanese forces on December 7, 1941. The Japanese intended the attack as a preventive action to keep the United States Pacific Fleet from interfering with its planned military actions. It signalled the official entry of the US into the hostilities, which eventually led to the dropping of nuclear bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. -
It was a meeting of Nazi officials on January 20, 1942 in Berlin. It happened to prepare a plan for the “final solution”. As a result of the meeting a network of extermination camps was established in which 1.7 million Jews were murdered in 1942-1943. -
The captives were beaten, shot, bayoneted, and, in many cases, beheaded. A large number of those who made it to the camp later died of starvation and disease. The Bataan Death March and other Japanese were used to arouse fury in the United States. America would go on to avenge its defeat that occurred in the Philippines during the Island of Leyte in October 1944. It has a devastating legacy with Filipinos suffering disproportionately compared to U.S. troops. -
It was the Allied amphibious landing on mainland Italy that took place from 3 September 1943, during the Italian campaign of World War II. The Allies wanted to take advantage. The Allied armies were able to force Axis naval, air and land divisions out of the area and allowed Allied merchant ships into the Mediterranean for the first time since 1941. -
It was the start of Allied operations which would ultimately liberate Western Europe, defeat Nazi Germany and end the Second World War. D-day was born in the immediate aftermath of America's entry into the war, and agreement on a 'Germany first' strategy. It led to the liberation of France, denying Germany any further exploitation of that country's economic and manpower resources. -
It was the last major German offensive on the Western Front during World War II. Also called Battle of the Ardennes. Hitler hoped that the German counterattack would surround the British and American armies and stall the Allied offensive against Germany. The catastrophic losses on the advance of Allied forces following the Normandy Invasion. -
World War II conflict between the United States and the Empire of Japan. Taking the island meant more than a symbolic capture of the Japanese homeland. It meant the U.S. could launch bombing runs from Iwo Jima's strategic airfields, as the tiny island was directly under the flight path of B-29 Superfortresses from Guam, Saipan and the Mariana Islands. Iwo Jima served as an emergency landing site for more than 2,200 B-29 bombers, saving the lives of 24,000 U.S. airmen. -
Victory in Europe day is the day celebrating the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Germany's unconditional surrender of its armed forces on Tuesday. The conflict began in 1939 when Germany and the Soviet Union invented Poland. It meant an end to nearly six years of a war that had cost the lives of millions; had destroyed homes, families, and cities; and had brought huge suffering and privation to the populations of entire countries. -
The aerial bombings together killed between 129,000 and 226,000 people, most of them were civilians. The U.S. wanted to force a quick surrender by the Japanese to reduce the number of American lives lost. They brought death and destruction on a horrifying scale, they averted even greater losses. -
Marks the end of World War II. Japan had surrendered, war-weary citizens around the world erupted in celebration. Bringing the war to an end. -
Soviet soldiers were the first to liberate concentration camp prisoners in the final stages of the war. It was part of the Nazi's "Final Solution" to the Jewish. As the Allies advanced across Europe at the end of the Second World War, they came across concentration camps filled with sick and starving prisoners. -
American forces have overwhelmed Okinawa by June 22, marking another victory in the Pacific. From Okinawa, US forces could increase air strikes against Japan and blockade important logistical routes, denying the home islands of vital commodities. Provide Allied forces an airbase from which bombers could strike Japan and an advanced anchorage for Allied fleets.