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(http://www.history.co.uk/study-topics/history-of-ww2/sino-japanese-war)Known as the Second Sino-Japanese War, it involved Japan and China. Japan was desperate for resources like land. China was weakend by a civil war allowing Japan to take over Chinese ports. Both sides used the 'scorched earth' tactics, which burned and destroyed anything that could be useful to the enemy. By 1940, neither side could enforce a victory, an estimated 10 to 20 million Chinese civilians were killed.
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(http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/germans-invade-poland) 1.5 million German troops invaded Poland, starting World War II in Europe. Germany bombed Polish airfields and attacked the Polish navy. Germany was told to withdraw from Poland or else Britain and France will be at war with them. Russia (USSR) invaded Poland from the east and that's when Poland realized that they were defeated. In June of 1941 Germany invaded Russia, which caused the USSR to switch sides to the allied powers.
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(http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/blitzkrieg) Blitzkrieg, meaning lightning war, was a tactic used by Germany to disorganize the enemy. Blitzkrieg uses the element of speed and surprise to take down their enemies. It first originated in the 19th century by the Prussian military.
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http://www.history.co.uk/study-topics/history-of-ww2/barbarossa Operation Barbarossa was code name for when Germany invaded the USSR. Russia thought they were allied with Germany until they were invaded. Operation Barbarossa had three primary objectives – the Baltic states and Leningrad in the north, Moscow in the center, and the economic resources of the Ukraine and southern Russia in the south. Although, 500,000 Red Army soldiers were killed, Germany did not defeat Russia.
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Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American naval base in Honolulu, Hawaii. Around 8 a.m Japan attacked destroying about 20 American navy vessels, 300 planes, and killing 2,000 soldiers. Japan thought the attack would weaken the U.S forces, but they were wrong. The U.S struck back destroying many Japanese plane. The day after president Roosevelt declared war on Japan.
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(http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/holocaust/h-wannsee.htm) Reinhard Heydrich, second in command of the SS, met with fifteen other Nazi officials at Wannsee in Berlin. They discussed the "Final Solution", Hitlers plan to kill an estimated eleven million Jewish people.
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(http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/bataan-death-march) Japan invaded the Philippines on December 8th 1941. The Filipino-American military surrendered (75,000 troops). The surrendered Filipinos and Americans soon were rounded up by the Japanese and forced to walk 65 miles from Mariveles, on the southern end of the Bataan Peninsula, to San Fernando. The march took about five days complete. At the end of the march the prisoners were forced into P.O.W camps.
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(http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/battle-of-midway-begins) The Battle of Midway only lasted four days. It was a battle in the Pacific where the U.S was outnumbered but still defeated the Japanese. The plan was for Japan to surprise attack the U.S naval fleet, but the U.S already had a clue about their attack. At the end of the battle Japan lost four carriers and had about 2,500 casualties. The U.S lost two carriers, 145 planes, and about 300 casualties.
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(http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/battle-of-stalingrad) This battle stopped Germany from advancing into Russia. This battle consisted of two million civilian and military deaths. Stalingrad was essential for Germany to succeed in the war.
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This uprising inspired other prisoners to revolt in camps. Prisoners were treated horribly and given little food and be forced to work. A group of Jews formed the Jewish Combat Organization, they smuggled in weapons. The rebellion lasted for about a month. In all, about 7,000 Jews were murdered during the uprising
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Operation Gomarrah British bombers bomb Hamburg, Germany, known as Operation Gomorrah. The attack continued until November and killed more than 30,000 people and destroyed 280,000 buildings.
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(http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/d-day) Battle of Normandy, lasted from June 1944 to August 1944, ended in the Allied liberation of Western Europe from Nazi control. Codenamed Operation Overlord, about 156,000 American, British and Canadian forces landed on five beaches which had heavily fortified coast of Normandy, France. This battle was the beginning of the end of the war in Europe.
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(https://www.ushmm.org/outreach/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007724) The first to liberate concentration camps was the USSR. The first camp was Majdanek located in Poland. By the end of the war Germany knew that they were going to loose, so they fled and left thousands of prisoners in concentration camps. Allied soldiers could not believe what they had seen, people were skinny as skeletons and hundreds of dead bodies were stocked up in piles.
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(http://www.pbs.org/thewar/detail_5229.htm) Operation Thunderclap was the allied bombing on Dresden, Germany. Many Europeans were upset that a beautiful, like Dresden, was destroyed.
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(http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/battle-of-iwo-jima) A major attack on Japan, Iwo Jima was defended by 23,000 Japanese soldiers. The Japanese used a system of caves, dugouts, and tunnels. 5,900 American soldiers were killed.
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(http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/battle-of-okinawa) The last Pacific battle involved 287,000 U.S troops against 130,000 Japanese soldiers. Japan switched to kamikaze tactics, where pilots flew into enemy's planes or ships. In all, the U.S lost 12,281 soldiers and Japan lost around 10,000 people. The allied powers won this battle.
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(http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/victory-in-europe) VE Day, stands for Victory in Europe Day. Great Britain and the USA celebrate Germany's surrender. Russia captured around 2 million German soldiers, who were trying to escape. 13,000 British P.O.W were released to go back home.
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(http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/atomic-bomb-dropped-on-hiroshima) "Project Manhattan" was the plan by America to build and drop bombs on Japan. Albert Einstein told America that Nazi Germany was planning to build nuclear weapons. The USA dropped two atomic bombs on Japan, one at Hiroshima and the other at Nagasaki. At least 130,000 people in Japan were killed. A few days after the bombs were dropped, Japan surrendered.
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(http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/v-j-day) "Victory Over Japan Day" on September 2nd, President Truman held a formal surrender in Tokyo Bay on the USS Missouri. This ends the war in the Pacific and ends WWII.
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(http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/battle-of-the-bulge) This was Nazi Germany's last push at victory. German forces pushed in the middle of the allied lines, giving the name Battle of the Bulge. The battle cost the U.S. Army over 100,000 casualties. A German shortage of fuel helped the American military win.
