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Japanese Invasion of China
In 1937 skirmishing between Japanese and Chinese troops on the frontier led to what became known as the Marco Polo Bridge Incident. This fighting sparked a full-blown conflict, the Second Sino-Japanese War. Under the terms of the Sian Agreement, the Chinese Nationalists (KMT) and the CCP now agreed to fight side by side against Japan.
RESOURCE: https://www.history.co.uk/history-of-ww2/sino-japanese-war
VIDEO: https://www.smithsonianchannel.com/video/series/the-pacific-war-in-color/62324 -
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German Blitzkrieg
Blitzkrieg, meaning 'Lightning War', was the method of offensive warfare responsible for Nazi Germany’s military successes in the early years of the Second World War. Radio communications were the key to effective Blitzkrieg operations, enabling commanders to coordinate the advance and keep the enemy off balance. But Blitzkrieg was less successful against well organized defenses.
RESOURCE AND VIDEO:https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/the-german-lightning-war-strategy-of-the-second-world-war -
Fall of Paris
France surrendered to the Nazis in 1940 for complex reasons. The proximate cause, of course, was the success of the German invasion, which left metropolitan France at the mercy of Nazi armies. But the German victory opened profound rifts in French society.
RESOURCE:https://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/if-france-kept-fighting-how-world-war-ii-might-have-gone-17590
VIDEO:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLrZi5udyIc -
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Operation Barbarossa
On June 22, 1941, Nazi Germany launched a surprise attack against the Soviet Union. By the end of the year, German troops had advanced almost 1,000 miles to the outskirts of Moscow. Soon after the invasion, mobile killing units began the mass murder of Soviet Jews. German military and civilian occupation policies led to the deaths of millions of Soviet prisoners of war and Soviet civilians.
RESOURCE + VIDEO: https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/invasion-of-the-soviet-union-june-1941 -
Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor is a U.S. naval base near Honolulu, Hawaii, that was the scene of a devastating surprise attack by Japanese forces on December 7, 1941. They managed to destroy or damage 20 American naval vessels, eight battleships, and over 300 airplanes. Over 2,400 Americans died in the attack and another 1,000 people were wounded. The day after the assault, President Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on Japan.
RESOURCE + VIDEO: https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/pearl-harbor -
Wannsee Conference
The conference was a turning point in Nazi policy toward the Jews. They understood that the “final solution” was going to be the murdering of Jews, which is now known as the Holocaust. The final protocol of the Conference never exactly mentioned extermination, but within a few months the Nazis installed the first poison-gas chambers in Poland which came to be called extermination camps.
RESOURCE:https://www.britannica.com/event/Wannsee-Conference
VIDEO:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGGmXqWNrBo -
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Battle of Stalingrad
The Battle of Stalingrad was a brutal military campaign between Russian forces and those of Nazi Germany and Axis powers during WWII. The battle is known as one of the largest, longest and bloodiest battles in modern warfare: From August 1942-February 1943, over 2 million troops fought in close quarters, and nearly 2 million people were killed or injured in the fighting, including tens of thousands of Russian civilians.
RESOURCE:https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/battle-of-stalingrad -
Operation Gomorrah
On July 24, 1943, British bombers raid Hamburg, Germany, by night in Operation Gomorrah, while Americans bomb it by day in its own “Blitz Week.” The evening of July 24 saw British aircraft drop 2,300 tons of incendiary bombs on Hamburg in just a few hours.
RESOURCE:https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/operation-gomorrah-is-launched
VIDEO:https://www.facebook.com/PritzkerMilitaryLibrary/videos/726539344793236/?__so__=permalink&__rv__=related_videos -
D-Day
Codenamed Operation Overlord, the battle began on June 6, 1944, also known as D-Day, where 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. The invasion was one of the largest amphibious military assaults in history and required huge planning.
RESOURCE:https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/d-day
VIDEO:https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/d-day-allied-invasion-at-normandy-video -
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Battle of the Bulge
Called “the greatest American battle of the war”, the Battle of the Bulge was Adolf Hitler’s last major offensive in World War II against the Western Front. Hitler’s aim was to split the Allies in their drive toward Germany. The German troops’ failure to divide Britain, France and America with the Ardennes offensive paved the way to victory for the allies.
RESOURSE:https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/battle-of-the-bulge
VIDEO:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZmPM9s1mTs -
Liberation of Concentration Camps
The Soviets liberated Auschwitz, the largest killing center and concentration camp, in January 1945. The Nazis forced majority of Auschwitz prisoners to march westward (in what would become known as "death marches"). Soviet soldiers found over six thousand emaciated prisoners alive when they entered the camp. There was tons of evidence of mass murder in Auschwitz.
RESOURCE:https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/liberation-of-nazi-camps
VIDEO:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFOjVyLqVjg -
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Battle of Iwo Jima
The Battle of Iwo Jima was an epic military campaign between U.S. Marines and the Imperial Army of Japan in early 1945. The island of Iwo Jima had 3 airfields that could serve as a staging facility for a potential invasion of mainland Japan. American forces invaded the island on February 19, 1945, and the ensuing Battle of Iwo Jima lasted for five weeks.
RESOURCE + VIDEO:https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/battle-of-iwo-jima -
VE Day
On May 8, 1945, both Great Britain and the United States celebrate Victory in Europe Day (VE 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 during World War II.
RESOURCE:https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/victory-in-europe
VIDEO:https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2020/05/07/ve-day-victory-in-europe-anniversary-wwii/ -
Dropping of the Atomic Bombs
On August 6, 1945, an American B-29 bomber dropped the world’s first deployed atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The explosion 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 40,000 people.
RESOURSE:https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/bombing-of-hiroshima-and-nagasaki
VIDEO:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tl3_0D2h8BY -
VJ Day
On August 14, 1945, it was announced that Japan had surrendered unconditionally to the Allies, effectively ending World War II. Since then, both August 14 and August 15 have been known as “Victoryover Japan Day,” or simply “V-J Day.”
RESOURCE:https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/v-j-day
VIDEO:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiLLhQ870mw