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Japanese invasion of China
A clash occurred between Chinese and Japanese soldiers near Peiping in North China. The Japanese invasion of China began due to China starting a resistance to the expansion of Japanese influence in it's territory. The effects after the Japanese invaded China were, a lot of money was lost, due to war expenses.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/jun/06/china-war-japan-rana-mitter-review -
Rape of Nanking
During the Sino-Japanese War, Nanking, the capital of China, fell to Japanese soldiers, and the Chinese government flees to the Yangtze River. To break the spirit of Chinese resistance, Japanese General Matsui Iwane ordered that the city of Nanking be destroyed. Shortly after the end of World War II, Matsui was found guilty of war crimes by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East and executed.
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-rape-of-nanking -
German Blitzkreig
Blitzkrieg is a military strategy designed to create disorganization among enemy troops through the use of mobile forces and locally concentrated firepower. Its successful execution results in short military campaigns, which preserves human lives and limits the expenditure of artillery. German forces tried out the blitzkrieg in Poland in 1939 before successfully using the strategy with invasions of Belgium, the Netherlands and France.
https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005437 -
Germany's invasion of Poland
German troops invaded Poland on land and from the air, as Adolf Hitler seeks to regain lost territory and ultimately rule Poland. World War II had begun. The Germans invaded Poland because, he wanted to defend the Germans in Poland, and he wanted to overturn to treaty of versailles. Great Britain would respond with bombing raids over Germany three days later.
http://www.johndclare.net/RoadtoWWII3_HitlerInvadesPoland.htm -
Pearl Harbor
Japanese fighter planes attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor near Honolulu, Hawaii. Japan and the United States had been edging toward war for a long time. The United States was unhappy with Japan’s increasingly aggressive attitude toward China. The day after the attack, President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on Japan; Congress approved his declaration.
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/pearl-harbor -
Bataan Death March
Approximately 75,000 Filipino and American troops on Bataan were forced to make a 65-mile march to prison camps. The Japanese invaded the Philippines, and captured many prisoners. America avenged its defeat in the Philippines with the invasion of the island of Leyte in October 1944.
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/bataan-death-march -
Warsaw Ghetto uprising
The Warsaw ghetto uprising began after German troops and police entered the ghetto to deport its surviving inhabitants. The Germans and their allies murdered more than 10,000 Jews in the Warsaw ghetto during the operations. The German authorities granted only 35,000 Jews permission to remain in the ghetto. These Jews were then taken to concentration camps.
https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005188 -
D-Day
More than 160,000 Allied troops landed along a 50-mile stretch of heavily-fortified French coastline, to fight Nazi Germany on the beaches of Normandy, France. With Hitler’s armies in control of most of mainland Europe, the Allies knew that a successful invasion of the continent was central to winning the war. After D-day ended, the Germans surrender.
http://www.historynet.com/d-day-the-beginning-of-the-end-for-nazi-germany.htm -
Battle of the bulge
Adolph Hitler attempted to split the Allied armies in northwest Europe by means of a surprise blitzkrieg thrust through the Ardennes to Antwerp. On December 16, three German armies launched the deadliest battle of the war in the west in the poorly roaded, rugged, heavily forested Ardennes. The battle lasted for weeks resulting in many casualties.
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/battle-of-the-bulge -
Liberation of concentration camps
As Allied soldiers travled across Europe in a series of offensives on Germany, they began to encounter and liberate concentration camp prisoners, many of whom had survived death marches into the inside of Germany. They were freeing these Jewish prisoners because they were innocent people, and had no reason to be in these camps and the soldiers knew that. Tens of thousands of concentration camp prisoners were freed by the end of the liberation. -
Battle of Iwo Jima
Iwo Jima was a key island in the Bonin chain roughly 575 miles from the Japanese coast, was a desired 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. Iwo Jima was defended by the Japanese army and navy troops, who fought from an elaborate network of caves, dugouts, tunnels and underground installations. Despite the conditions, the marines wiped them out. -
Battle of Okinawa
The biggest of the Pacific island battles of World War II, was the Okinawa campaign. It involved the troops of the U.S. Tenth Army against soldiers of the Japanese Thirty-second Army. At stake were 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. -
VE Day
VE Day officially announced the end of World War II in Europe. On Monday May 7th at 2:41. German General Jodl signed the unconditional surrender document that formally ended war in Europe. Winston Churchill was then informed of this event. While no public announcements had been made, large crowds gathered outside of Buckingham Palace and shouted: “We want the King". -
Dropping of the atomic bombs
an American B-29 bomber, the Enola Gay, drops the world’s first atom bomb, over the city of Hiroshima. The atomic bomb was dropped in hopes of ending World War II. Approximately 80,000 people are killed as a direct result of the blast, and another 35,000 are injured. At least another 60,000 would be dead by the end of the year from the effects of the blast. -
VJ Day
Japan had surrendered unconditionally to the Allies, effectively ending World War II. They had surrendered because the United States was winning a one-sided war against Japan in the Pacific, inflicting a lot of casualties while the United States suffered relatively few. Since then, both August 14 and August 15 have been known as “Victory over Japan Day,” or simply “V-J Day.”
