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Period: to
WW2
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German Blitzkrieg
The blitzkrieg or "lighting war" was a military tactic that creates disorganization to enemy forces by using mobile forces and local, concentrated power. It occured in Poland in 1939 as a "test run", then in Belgium, Netherlands, and France in 1940. The Soviet forces were driven back more than 600 miles to the gates of Moscow, with staggering losses. Although the Germans were eventually defeated in May 1945. -
Operation Barbarossa
Adolf Hitler launched his armies eastward in a massive invasion of the Soviet Union. Barbarossa was a turning point in World War II, because the failure made Nazi Germany fight a war against a coalition that had better resources. -
Pearl Harbor
Right before 8 a.m. Japenese fighter planes attacked U.S. Pearl Harbor near Honolulu, Hawaii; it lasted a total of two hours but caused severe damage. Japan was wanting to solve their economic and demographic crisis y expanding into neighboring territories and taking over their import markets. The U.S. didn't agree wirh this and so a debate began which ultimately led to the war because neither side would budge. The attack destroyed nearly 20 ships and 300 airplanes, 2500 men were killed. -
Wannsee Conference
Nazi officials met to talk about the "Final Solution" in the "Jewish Question". They were trying to figure out a way to deal with Jews and where to send them. Some months later they fgured out that "gas vans" worked the best and that is what they continued to use from then on. -
Bataan Death March
The day after the surrender of the main Philippine island of Luzon to the Japanese, 75,000 Filipino and American troops captured on the Bataan Peninsula began a forced march to a prison camp near Cabanatuan. The prisoners were forced to march 85 miles in six days, with only one meal of rice during the entire journey. -
Operation Gomorrah
Codename for Battle of Hamburg. Britain had suffered the deaths of 167 civilians as a result of German bombing raids in July. So, British bombers dropped 2,300 tons of incendiary bombs on Hamburg in a few hours. British attacks on Hamburg continued until November of 1943. -
Normandy D-Day Invasion
156,000 American, British and Canadian forces landed on five beaches along a 50 mile stretch on the coast of Normandy. The battle lasted from June to August 1944. In the end the Allied liberation of Western Germany from Nazi control was succeeded. -
Battle of Bulge
The Germans attempted to push the Allied front line West from northern France to northwestern Belgium. The Germans had 250,000 soldiers in the first attack, 14 German infantry divisions guarded by five panzer divisions-against a mere 80,000 Americans. The battle ended on January 25th, 1945. It resulted in a massive loss of American and civilian lives. The first American executed for desertion since the Civil War, Private Eddie Slovik, also occured. -
Battle of Iwo Jima
The battle happened because of the constant naval and air attacks from the Japenese to the U.S. for months. 3 U.S. Marine divisions were deployed onto the Iwo Jima and fought the Japenese who were taking cover under dugout tunnels and underground installations. In th end there was 5,900 Americans dead and 17,400 wounded but the U.S. did successfully capture the island. -
Battle of Okinawa
The last and biggest of the Pacific island battles of World War II. Had 287,000 troops of the U.S. Tenth Army against 130,000 soldiers of the Japanese Thirty-second Army. By the end of the 82nd day, Japan had lost more than 77,000 soldiers and the Allies had suffered more than 65,000 casualties, including 14,000 dead. -
VE Day
Great Britian and U.S. celebrated the victory of defeating the Nazi War Machine. German troops throughout Europe finally surrendered. In Prague, Germans surrendered to the Soviet antagonists, after losing more than 8,000 soldiers; in Copenhagen and Oslo, at Karlshorst, near Berlin,in northern Latvia and on the Channel Island of Sark. The result was more than 13,000 British POWs were released back to Great Britian. -
Potsdam Declaration
The last WW2 meeting held by the "Big Three" heads of state (President Truman, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin). They established a Council of Foreign Ministers and a central Allied Control Council for the administration of Germany. Also they issued a declaration demanding the “unconditional surrender” of Japan. -
Dropping of the Atomic Bombs
At 8 a.m. a U.S. B-29 bomber dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima which instantly killed ~80,000 people. Then 3 days later, another bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, killing 40,000 more people. The attack was ordered by President Truman and still resulted in 100,000 more deaths from radiation poisoning. The attack was ordered because Truman thought it was the only way to get Japan to surrender the war. -
VJ Day
"Victory Over Japan Day." Japan announced that they had surrendered which meant the end of World War II.
