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The Holocaust
The Holocaust was the forced extinction of the Jews and basically any racial group that was not Aryan. Hitler started this in Germany, not stopping as he conquered and invaded new territories. Hitler put thousands of people in camps and tortured them. The Holocaust was a terrible time for Europe. -
Japan Invades China
The invasion of China was one of the worst invasions, China was not ready and Japan's numbers came in and wiped them out. China lost their capital, their biggest ports, and their power of the country. Japan had taken over. For now. -
Munich Conference
The conference between leaders from Italy, France, and Great Britain with Germany allowing them the ability to take over Sudentenland of Czechslovakia if they promised not to keep expanding. Of course, Hitler continued to expand and this conference was completely useless in the end. -
Non-Agression Pact
The Non-Agression Pact was a pact between Germany and the Soviet Union agreeing not to fight for the next 10 years. Joseph Stalin used this to his advantage as a way to stay out of war so he could build the army, Hitler used this to his advantage because he was unopposed to invading Poland now. Hitler soon double crossed Stalin and invaded Soviet Union in 1941, ending the Pact. -
Germany Invades Poland
The Soviets and Germany had the German-Soviet Pact which stated that Poland was to be partitioned between the two powers, enabled Germany to attack Poland without the fear of a Soviet attack. Germany walks over Poland and succeeds in their invasion. -
Blitzkrieg
Blitzkrieg was the style of fighting that Hitler installed into his Nazi army. Blitzkrieg is a military tactic designed to create disorganization among enemy forces through the use of mobile forces and locally concentrated firepower. Successfully used, the tactic could be unbeaten, but the numbers and resources overpowered Germany and the Axis powers leading to an Allied victory. -
Battle of Britain`
Aerial fight between Germany and Britain over the United Kingdom, a significant turning point in the war. Battle ended when Germany's Luftwaffe failed to gain air superiority over the Royal Air Force of GB. Britain's defensive victory quite possibly saved themselves from total domination. -
Lend-Lease Act
Principal means for US giving aid to foregin nations in World War 2. This allowed the president to send arms and supplies to nations without compensation, allowing the US to stay out of battles but still be involved in the war. -
Operation Barbarossa
June 22, 1941, Adolf Hitler launched his armies eastward in a massive invasion of the Soviet Union. The forces invading Russia represented the finest army to fight in the twentieth century. Barbarossa was the turning point in World War II, for its failure forced Nazi Germany to fight a two-front war against a nations with superior resources. -
Pearl Harbor
Hundreds of Japanese fighter planes attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor. The strike lasted just two hours, but it was devastating. The Japanese managed to destroy nearly 20 American naval ships, including 8 enormous battleships, and almost 200 airplanes. -
Wannsee Conference
The "Final Solution" was the code name for the physical annihilation of the European Jews. At some time in 1941, Hitler authorized this European-wide scheme for mass murder. The Wannsee Conference was the conference of all major leaders of the Nazi party to plan the murdering of Jews in Europe. -
Bataan Death March
U.S. surrender of the Bataan Peninsula on the main Philippine island of Luzon to the Japanese during World War II. 75,000 Filipino and American troops on Bataan were forced to make an arduous 65-mile march to prison camps, many dying on the way due to disease, heat, or torture. -
Battle of Midway
The US intercepted coded messages and were able to decode them, allowing them to see Japan's plan to ambush the Pacific with their few reamining air craft carriers. The US, knowing it was coming, sent an aerial attack and wiped out Japan. Major turning point and this victory allowed the Allied powers to move into an offensive position. -
Battle of Stalingrad
The battle of Stalingrad was the successful defending of Stalingrad by the Soviet Union. Russians consider this to be the greatest battle of their Great Patriotic War and most historians belive it to be the greatest battle of the whole war. This victory stopped the German advance into the Soviet Union and marked the turning point of the war for the Allies. -
D-Day
The Battle of Normandy on the French border was where D-Day got its name, when British, French, and American troops lined up on the French border to defend the invasion that Germany was sending. The defense was successful, stopping the invasion and quite possibly stopping the overtaking of France to the Germans. -
Battle of the Bulge
The battle of the Bulge was the invasion of the Adrennes by Germany. The Germans attempted and almost succeeded in blitzkreiging the American troops. Liutenant General George S. Patten had the idea of shaping the allied line into a huge bulge, moving through German lines America succeeds to hold the Germans, a feat they could not accomplish three months before. -
Battle of Iwo Jima
Iwo Jima was an area in Japan that the US wanted to capture and build a base on. The land was defended by 23,000 Japanese soldiers but the three marine squads took them out in nearly a month. The battle was won and was a huge advantage throughout the rest of the war for the Amercians. -
Battle of Okinawa
The last and biggest pacific island battle of the war. The US's army of 287,000 was fighting the Japan army of a little more than 100,000. The air bases were key to the invasion of Japan and the US could not afford to lose them. America won with 65,000 casualties, as Japan lost with 77,000 dead. -
VE Day
Marks the day when the German forces surrendered to the Allied forces in Europe, day is greatly celebrated throughout Europe marking the unconditional surrender of the armed forces. This day is similar to VJ day(Victory in Japan) but is not the same. Allied forces win WW2. -
The Bombing of Hiroshima/Nagasaki
The bombing of Japan was when an American B-29 bomber dropped the world’s first deployed atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The explosion wiped out 90% of the city and killed 80,000 people; tens of thousands more would later die of radiation. Three days later, a second B-29 dropped another A-bomb on Nagasaki, killing an estimated 40,000 people. -
V-J Day
On August 14, 1945, V-J Day, or Victoryover Japan Day took place. This was the surrender of Japan to the Allied forces, Months after Germany surrendered, Japan realized they couldn't fight the war alone and surrendered to the US. The war was now over. -
Warsaw Pact
The Soviet Union and its affiliated Communist nations in Eastern Europe founded an alliance, the Warsaw Pact, in 1955. The alignment of nearly every European nation in one of the two sides formalized the division of the European continent that had taken place since World War II. The Warsaw Pact turned into communist vs non communist.