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Blitzkrieg
What happened : Germany wanted to avoid a long war so they created a new strategy to defeat its opponents in a series of short campaigns. Blitzkerg was the lightning war of WW2
Why it happened :a military tactic designed to create disorganization among enemy forces through the use of mobile forces and locally concentrated firepower
Effects :Germany quickly overran much of Europe -
Germany invasion of Poland
What happened: Hitler knew that to gain all of Europe, he needed to neutralize Poland He already created a plan to divivde Britian and French involvement. It was marked the beginning of World War II in Europe.
Why it happened?:Hitler claimed the massive invasion was a defensive action, but Britain and France were not convinced.
Efrects:Warsaw surrendered to the Germans on September 27, 1939. Britain and France, standing by their guarantee of Poland's border. -
Operation Barbarossa
What Happened: German invasion of the Soviet Union The failure of German troops to defeat Soviet forces, It was a crucial turning point in the war.
Why it happened? Hitler considered the invasion of the USSR as part of his plan to provide the German nation with “living space” and to end communism
Effects: Germans realized that they would not defeat the Soviet Union in a lightning war as they had originally planned. -
Pearl Harbor
What happened: Japanese planes attacked the United States Naval Base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii Territory. It completely destroyed the American battleship U.S.S. Arizona and capsized the U.S.S. Oklahoma.
Why it happened?: It was a surprise attack from Japan.
Effrects: Forcing Japanese and Japanese-American citizens living in the United States to be confined to so-called "relocation camps" for the duration of the war. -
Wannsee Conference
What happened?:It was a meeting of senior officials of Nazi Germany, held in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee on 20 January 1942.
Why it happened?: Nazis wanted to coordinate the Final Solution in which the Nazis would attempt to exterminate the entire Jewish population of Europe, an estimated 11 million.
Effects: The holocausts were created. -
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
What happened?: SS and police units deported 265,000 Jews to the Treblinka killing center and 11,580 to forced-labor camps. The Germans and their auxiliaries murdered more than 10,000 Jew.
Why it happened?: Jews wanted to organize a resistance against the Germans .
Effects:In response to the deportations, on July 28, 1942, several Jewish underground organizations created an armed self-defense unit known as the Jewi -
Operation Gomorran
What Happened:British bombers took off for the German city of Hamburg, which delivered 2,300 tons of bombs to the city, knocked out roofs and windows, and subsequent waves of bombers dropped 350,412 incendiary bombs to start fires. a mass of raging fires with black smoke rising to 19,000 feet.
Why it happened?: Because Germany did bombing raids in Britian which killled 167 civilians.
Effects:Destroyed industrial and munitions plants and killing more than 30,000 people. -
Invasion of Italy
What happened?;
Why it happened?:It began with British forces skipping across the Strait of Messina to Calabria. A secret agreement would neutralize the Italian forces, leaving only German divisions offering resistance.The Germans immediately seized Italian military installations upon hearing of their capitulation, imprisoned their hapless former allies, and fired on their clueless ships.
Effects:opened a second front on the continent of Europe to help take some pressure off the USSR. -
D-Day (Germandy Invasion)
What Happened: The Allied powers crossed the English Channel and landed on the beaches of Normandy, France, beginning the liberation of Western Europe from Nazi
Why it happened?: It was the start of the campaign to liberate Europe and defeat Germany.
Effects :The war in Europe ended with German surrender on 7 May 1945. -
Liberation of Conceration Camp
What Happened:
Soviet soldiers were the first to liberate concentration camp prisoners in the final stages of the war.They entered the Majdanek camp in Poland, and later overran several other killing centers.
Why it happened?:The allies wanted to stop Hitler
Effects:Allied troops, physicians, and relief workers tried to provide nourishment for the surviving prisoners, In spite of the liberators' efforts, many camp survivors died -
Battle of the Bulge
What happened:Germans launch the last major offensive of the war.
Why it happened?:The battle was a last attempt by Hitler to split the Allies in two in their drive towards Germany and destroy their ability to supply.
Effects: The battle of the bulge was basically the German's last stand. Hitler threw everything he had into that battle. -
Japanese Invasion of China
What Happened:The Japanese Kwantung Army turned a small incident into a full-scale war.
Why it happened?:Japan felt they deserved to have the imperial power.
Effects:
The Chinese victory opened the way for the Chinese people to begin the search for a new identity that went beyond the fractured allegiances of the wartime experience -
Operation Thunderclap
What happened: Operation Thunderclap was the code for a cancelled operation planned but created a massive attack on Berlin -
Battle of Iwo Jima
What Happened:Three U.S. marine divisions landed on the island it was the U.S. Invading the island.
Why it happened?:America’s desire to finally destroy Japan’s merchant fleet so that the Japanese mainland could not be supplied from the food-rich sectors of South East Asia which Japan still had control over.
Effects: the U.S. won the air fields were shut down. Allies were making to take over Japan -
Battle Of Okinawa
What Happened:This war was the last and biggest pacific island battle.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 casualties—including 14,000 dead
Why it happened?:
Effects: -
V-E Day
What happened: it''s victory for Euorpe , the date is mark the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Nazi Germany's unconditional surrender of its armed forces. -
Fall of France
What Happened?: Germany inaded Paris. Italy opportunistically entered the war on Germany’s side. Four days later, the French capital fell, provoking the flight of the French Government to Bordeaux.
Why it happened?:
Effects: -
Potsdamn Declaration
What happened: Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and U.S. President Harry Truman met up to negotiate terms for the end of World War II.
Why it happened?:The major issue at Potsdam was the question of how to handle Germany and revision of the German-Soviet-Polish borders .
Effects:Potsdam was the last postwar conference of the Big Three. -
Dropping the atomic bombs
What Happened: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 1945, during the final stage of the World War II.
Why it happened?:
Effects: -
V-J Day
The news of the surrender was announced to the world. This sparked 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.
