-
Japanese invasion of china
This was a military conflict fought primarily between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. China fought Japan, with some economic help from Germany. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, China officially joined the Allies and issued a formal declaration war on Japan and other Axis Powers, -
Germany's invasion of Poland
Britain and France responded by guaranteeing the integrity of the Polish state. Hitler responded by negotiating a nonaggression pact with the Soviet Union in the summer of 1939. The German-Soviet Pact of August 1939, which stated that Poland was to be partitioned between the two powers, enabled Germany to attack Poland without the fear of Soviet intervention. -
German Blitzkrieg 1939-1940
Another name for Blitzkrieg is “lightning war". This event is is a military tactic designed to create disorganization among enemy forces through the use of mobile forces and locally concentrated firepower. German forces tried out the blitzkrieg in Poland in 1939 before successfully employing the tactic with invasions of Belgium, the Netherlands and France in 1940. -
Fall of Paris
On June 14th 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. In short order, the German Gestapo went to work: arrests, and interrogations. -
Operation Barbarossa
In the opening month of Operation Barbarossa German armies bit deep into Soviet territory. In September the Germans got enough supplies forward to renew their drives. The Germans struggled to the gates of Moscow where Soviet counterattacks stopped them in early December. They slowly conducted a retreat as Soviet attacks threatened to envelop much of their forces which was extremely disaterous -
Pearl Habor
On December 7, 1941, hundreds of Japanese fighter planes attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor near Honolulu, Hawaii. They somehow managed to destroyed 20 American naval vessels, including eight enormous battleships, and almost 200 airplanes. More than 2,000 Americans soldiers and sailors died in the attack, and another 1,000 were wounded. The day after that, the president declared war on Japan. -
Wannsee Conference
On January 20, 15 high-ranking Nazi Party and German government officials gathered in Wannsee to discuss and coordinate the implementation of what they called the "Final Solution of the Jewish Question." in Europe. A few months later, “gas vans” in Chelmno, Poland, were killing 1,000 people a day, to try and prove that it could be a “solution” they were looking for–the most efficient means of killing large groups of people at one time. -
Bataan Death March
U.S. surrender of the Bataan Peninsula on the main Philippine island of Luzon to the Japanese during World War II. American troops on Bataan were forced to make an arduous 65-mile march to prison camps. They made the march in intense heat and were subjected to harsh treatment by Japanese guards. Thousands perished in what became known as the Bataan Death March. -
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. The United States was able to preempt and counter Japan’s planned ambush of its few remaining aircraft carriers, inflicting permanent damage on the Japanese Navy. -
Battle of Stalingrad
The Battle of Staligrad was the successful Soviet defense of the city of Stalingrad in the U.S.S.R. during World War II. Russians consider it to be the greatest battle of their Great Patriotic War, and most historians consider it to be the greatest battle of the entire conflict. The Battle of Stalingrad was one of the bloodiest battles in history, with combined military and civilian casualties of nearly 2 million. -
Warsaw Ghetto uprising
The residents of the Jewish ghetto in Nazi-occupied Warsaw, Poland, staged an armed revolt against deportations to extermination camps. The Warsaw ghetto uprising inspired other revolts in extermination camps and ghettos throughout German-occupied Eastern Europe. -
Operation Gomorrah
The British aircraft drop 2,300 tons of incendiary bombs on Hamburg in just a few hours. Ths happened because they had already suffered the deaths of 167 civilians as a result of German bombing raids in July and were done. More than 1,500 German civilians were killed in that first British raid. After that, Germany began a more comprehensive bombing run of northern Germany, which included two raids on Hamburg during daylight hours. -
D-Day (Normandy Invasion)
The Battle of Normandy resulted in the Allied liberation of Western Europe from Nazi Germany’s control. D-Day began when 156,000 American, British and Canadian forces landed on five beaches along a 50-mile stretch of the heavily fortified coast of France’s Normandy region. This was one of the largest amphibious military assaults in history and required extensive planning. -
Operation Thunderclap
-
Battle of Iwo Jima
Iwo Jima was defended by roughly 23,000 Japanese army and navy troops, who fought from an elaborate network of caves, dugouts, tunnels and underground installations. This was sparked by the desire for a place where B-29 bombers damaged over Japan could land without returning all the way to the Marianas, and for a base for escort fighters that would assist in the bombing campaign. -
VE-Day
Both Great Britain and the United States celebrate Victory in Europe Day. The 8th day of May spelled the day when German troops throughout Europe finally laid down their arms. ermans surrendered to their Soviet antagonists, after the latter had lost more than 8,000 soldiers. About 1 million Germans attempted a mass exodus to the West when the fighting in Czechoslovakia ended, but were stopped by the Russians and taken captive. -
Battle of Okinawa
This battle involved the 287,000 troops of the U.S. Tenth Army against 130,000 soldiers of the Japanese Thirty-second Army. MAny things were at stake including air bases vital to the projected invasion of Japan. 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. -
Dropping of the atomic bombs
The United States became the first and only nation to use atomic weaponry during wartime when it drops an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. On August 6, 1945, the American bomber Enola Gay dropped a five-ton bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. A blast equivalent to the power of 15,000 tons of TNT reduced four square miles of the city to ruins and immediately killed 80,000 people. Tens of thousands more died in the following weeks from wounds and radiation poisoning. -
VJ Day
August 14 and August 15 have been known as “Victoryover Japan Day,” or simply “V-J Day.” The term has also been used for September 2, 1945, when Japan’s formal surrender took place aboard the U.S.S. Missouri, anchored in Tokyo Bay. Coming several months after the surrender of Nazi Germany, Japan’s capitulation in the Pacific brought six years of hostilities to a final and highly anticipated close. -
Battle of the Bulge
On December 16, three German armies launched the deadliest and most desperate battle of the war in the west in the poorly roaded, rugged, heavily forested Ardennes. The American units were caught flat-footed and fought desperate battles to stem the German. The German's shortage of fuel and the gallantry of American troops fighting in the frozen forests of the Ardennes was proved to be fatal to Hitler’s ambition to snatch the win and lead the Allies into the west.