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Japanese invasion of China
The war was the result of a decades-long Japanese imperialist policy aiming to dominate China politically and militarily to secure its vast raw material reserves and other resources. Japan knew that their military was weak. Although the two countries had fought intermittently since 1931, full-scale war started in earnest in 1937 and ended only with the surrender of Japan in 1945. -
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World War Two
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Germany's invasion of Poland
The German Luftwaffe bombed Polish airfields on September 1 1939. Nazi leader Adolf Hitler claimed the massive invasion was a defensive action, but Britain and France were not convinced. On September 3, they declared war on Germany, initiating World War II. To Hitler, the conquest of Poland would bring Lebensraum, or “living space,” for the German people. According to his plan, the Germans would colonize the territory and the native Slavs would be enslaved. -
German Blitzkrieg
Germany uses quick strikes called the Blitzkrieg, (literally "lightning war"), to take over Western Europe including the Netherlands, Belgium and northern France. The tactic was developed by German army officer Hans Guderian. It is desgined to hit hard and move instantly. -
Fall of Paris
On this day in 1940, Parisians awaken to the sound of a German-accented voice announcing via loudspeakers that a curfew was being imposed for 8 p.m. that evening-as German troops enter and occupy Paris. By the time German tanks rolled into Paris, 2 million Parisians had already fled, with good reason. The United States did not remain completely idle, though. On this day, President Roosevelt froze the American assets of the Axis powers, Germany and Italy. -
Operation Barbarossa
On June 22, 1941, Adolf Hitler launched his armies eastward in a massive invasion of the Soviet Union: three great army groups with over three million German soldiers, 150 divisions, and three thousand tanks smashed across the frontier into Soviet territory. The greatest mistake that the Germans made was to come as conquerors, not as liberators–they were determined to enslave the Slavic population and exterminate the Jews. -
Pearl Harbor
On December 7, 1941, hundreds of Japanese fighter planes attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor near Honolulu, Hawaii. The day after the assault, President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on Japan; Congress approved his declaration with just one dissenting vote. Three days later, Japanese allies Germany and Italy also declared war on the United States, and again Congress reciprocated. More than two years into the conflict, America had finally joined World War II. -
Wannsee Conference
On January, 20, 1942, Reinhard Heydrich, Himmler's second in command of the SS, convened the Wannsee Conference in Berlin with 15 top Nazi bureaucrats to coordinate the Final Solution (Endlösung) in which the Nazis would attempt to exterminate the entire Jewish population of Europe, an estimated 11 million persons. "Europe would be combed of Jews from east to west," Heydrich stated. -
Battle of Midway
Six months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States defeated Japan in one of the most decisive naval battles of World War II. An important turning point in the Pacific campaign, the victory allowed the United States and its allies to move into an offensive position. This fleet engagement between U.S. and Japanese navies in the north-central Pacific Ocean resulted from Japan’s desire to sink the American aircraft carriers that had escaped destruction at Pearl Harbor. -
Operation Gomorrah
On this day in 1943, British bombers raid Hamburg, Germany, by night in Operation Gomorrah, while Americans bomb it by day in its own “Blitz Week.” Britain had suffered the deaths of 167 civilians as a result of German bombing raids in July. The evening of July 24 saw British aircraft drop 2,300 tons of incendiary bombs on Hamburg in just a few hours. The explosive power was the equivalent of what German bombers had dropped on London in their five most destructive raids. -
D-Day (Normandy Invasion)
During World War II, the Battle of Normandy, which lasted from June 1944 to August 1944, resulted in the Allied liberation of Western Europe from Nazi Germany’s control. Prior to D-Day, the Allies conducted a large-scale deception campaign designed to mislead the Germans about the intended invasion target. All of northern France had been liberated, and by the following spring the Allies had defeated the Germans. The Normandy landings have been called the beginning of the end of war in Europe. -
Battle of Bulge
In December 1944, Adolf Hitler attempted to split the Allied armies in northwest Europe by means of a surprise blitzkrieg through the Ardennes to Antwerp. As the Germans drove deeper into the Ardennes in an attempt to secure vital bridgeheads, the Allied line took on the appearance of a large bulge, giving rise to the battle’s name. Its objective was to split the Allied armies by means of a surprise blitzkrieg thrust through the Ardennes to Antwerp, marking a repeat of what the Germans had done. -
Liberation of concentration camps
As Allied troops moved across Europe in a series of offensives against Nazi Germany, they began to encounter tens of thousands of concentration camp prisoners. Many of these prisoners had survived forced marches into the interior of Germany from camps in occupied Poland. These prisoners were suffering from starvation and disease. Only after the liberation of these camps was the full scope of Nazi horrors exposed to the world. Survivors of the camps faced a long and difficult road to recovery. -
Operation Thunderclap
The bombing of Dresden by the British Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Forces remains one of the more controversial events of World War II. The plan was to bomb Berlin and several other eastern cities in conjunction with the Soviet advance. The bombing of Dresden is said to have compromised the just cause of World War II, which otherwise for many appeared to have been without question a war in which the champions of democracy and freedom were pitted against oppression and evil. -
Battle of Iwo Jima
The American amphibious invasion of Iwo Jima during WWII stemmed from the need for a base near the Japanese coast. 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 with the publication of a photograph showing the U.S. flag being raised in victory. The battle was marked by changes in Japanese defense tactics-troops no longer defended at the beach line but rather concentrated inland. -
Battle of Okinawa
Japanese forces changed their typical tactics of resisting at the water’s edge to a defense in depth, designed to gain time. In conjunction with this, the Japanese navy and army mounted mass air attacks by planes on one-way “suicide” missions. Involved the 287,000 troops of the U.S. Tenth Army against 130,000 soldiers of the Japanese Thirty-second Army. By the end of the 82-day campaign, Japan had lost more than 77,000 soldiers and the Allies had suffered more than 65,000—including 14,000 dead. -
VE Day
Both Great Britain and the United States celebrate Victory in Europe Day. Cities in both nations, as well as formerly occupied cities in Western Europe, put out flags and banners, rejoicing in the defeat of the Nazi war machine. The eighth of May spelled the day when German troops throughout Europe finally laid down their arms. The main concern of many German soldiers was to elude the grasp of Soviet forces, to keep from being taken prisoner. -
Potsdam Declaration
Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and U.S. President Harry Truman, met in Potsdam, Germany, from July 17 to August 2, 1945, to negotiate terms for the end of World War II. Germany surrendered on May 8, 1945, and the Allied leaders agreed to meet over the summer at Potsdam to continue the discussions that had begun at Yalta. The lack of a common enemy in Europe led to difficulties reaching consensus concerning postwar reconstruction on the European continent. -
Dropping of the atomic bombs
On August 6, 1945, during World War II, an American B-29 bomber dropped the world’s first deployed atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The explosion wiped out 90 percent of the city and immediately killed 80,000 people; tens of thousands more would later die of radiation exposure. Three days later, a second B-29 dropped another A-bomb on Nagasaki, killing an estimated 40,000 people. -
VJ Day
Japan had surrendered unconditionally to the Allies, effectively ending World War II. Since then, both days have been known as “Victoryover Japan Day”. Images from V-J Day celebrations around the United States and the world reflected the sense of relief felt by citizens of Allied nations at the end of the bloody conflict. One photo taken by Alfred Eisenstaedt shows how a uniformed sailor passionately kisses a nurse in the midst of a crowd of people celebrating in New York City’s Times Square. -
The Nuremberg (Nuernberg) Trials of Nazis
Held for the purpose of bringing Nazi war criminals to justice, the Nuremberg trials were a series of 13 trials carried out in Nuremberg, Germany, between 1945 and 1949. The defendants, who included Nazi Party officials and high-ranking military officers along with German industrialists, lawyers and doctors, were indicted on such charges as crimes against peace and crimes against humanity. Nazi leader Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) committed suicide and was never brought to trial.
