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German forces swept through Poland, Norway, Belgium, Holland, and France with astonishing speed and force. Blitzkrieg's amazing tactics required the concentration of offensive weapons. This included weapons such as tanks, planes, and artillery along a narrow front. This was Germany's strategy to avoid a long war in the first phase of World War II in Europe.
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A German assault on northwest Europe resulted in the capture and subjugation of not just France but three other countries which were Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Belgium. Eight days later, France signed an armistice with the Germans A puppet French state was set up with its capital at Vichy.
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Around 4.5 million troops launched a surprise attack to realize that Hitler's ambition of a vast eastern imperium. Hitler hoped to repeat the success of the Blitzkrieg in Western Europe and win a quick victory over the massive nation he viewed as Germany's sworn enemy. More than 800,000 Soviets had been killed, and an additional 6 million Soviet soldiers had been wounded or captured.
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The Japanese military did a surprise attack with bombs on the United States Naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. By attacking Pearl Harbor Japan believes that it can severely cripple the U.S. Pacific fleet. It can help them from interfering with its planned military actions in Southeast Asia against overseas territories. -
The Wannsee Conference was a meeting of Nazi officials. It took place in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee to plan the final solution to the so-called “Jewish question.” The conference marked a turning point in Nazi policy toward the Jews. An earlier idea, to deport all of Europe’s Jews to the island of Madagascar, off of Africa, was abandoned as impractical in wartime. As a result, a network of extermination camps was established in which 1.7 million Jews were murdered. -
The Warsaw ghetto uprising began after German troops and police entered the ghetto to deport its surviving inhabitants. The Germans had crushed the uprising and deported surviving ghetto residents to concentration camps and killing centers. After the uprising was over, most of the incinerated houses were razed, and the Warsaw concentration camp complex was established in their place.
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The plan and idea of operation thunderclap was an Allied plan to end the war against Germany by the use of bombing. They used bombs to destroy Berlin. The plan was that the Americans would bomb the railroads during the day and the British were to destroy other vital targets during the night.
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The D-Day operation brought together the land, air, and sea forces of the Allied armies which became known as the largest invasion force in human history. It was given the codename “overload”. The codename delivered five naval assault divisions to the beaches of Normandy, France. It led to the liberation of France, denying Germany any further exploitation of that country's economic and manpower resources.
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The Battle of the Bulge was Adolf Hitler's last major offensive in World War II against the Western Front. Hitler hoped that the German counter-attack would surround the British and American armies and stall the Allied offensive against Germany. The Battle of the Bulge cost the Reich some 100,000 casualties and tremendous losses in military equipment.
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The liberation of concentration camps was toward the end of the Holocaust. It was marked by chaos and death. As Allied troops closed in, the SS scrambled to empty camps. In January and February 1945, the SS forced over 150,000 inmates out of Auschwitz, Gross-Rosen, and Stutthof; when Soviet soldiers liberated the Auschwitz complex on 27 January, they found less than 8,000 survivors. -
The Battle of Iwo Jima was a military campaign between the U.S. Marines and the Imperial Army of Japan in early 1945. The U.S. determined that Iwo Jima must be captured. They invaded it after months of air bombardment. After the battle, Iwo Jima served as an emergency landing site for more than 2,200 B-29 bombers, saving the lives of 24,000 U.S. airmen.
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The Battle of Okinawa was the last major battle of World War II and the bloodiest of the Pacific campaign. A fleet of 1,300 U.S. ships and 50 British ships closed in for the invasion of the island. The objective was to secure the island, thus removing the last barrier standing between U.S. forces and Imperial Japan. The battle created a humanitarian disaster for civilians as well.
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On Victory in Europe Day or VE day, Germany unconditionally surrendered its military forces to the Allies, including the United States. It was celebrated to mark the end of WW2 in Europe. They celebrated the victory of ending WW2. -
The bombing of Hiroshima & Nagasaki in August 1945 brought an end to WW2. The United States wanted unconditional surrender, which thus meant the continuation of the war. Japan refused to surrender after multiple firebombing campaigns. The two atomic bombs dropped on Japan in 1945 killed and maimed hundreds of thousands of people, and their effects are still being felt today. -
V-J Day, or Victory over Japan Day, marks the end of World War II just like VE Day but over Japan. Japan surrendered unconditionally, and war-weary citizens around the world erupted in celebration. It was the deadliest and most destruct war in history and they celebrated it.