-
German invasion on Poland
This marked the start of WWII. It only took a few weeks for Germany to break threw the Polish army. On September 3rd Britain and France declared war on Germany. -
German Blitzkrieg
Blitzkrieg means lighting war, which is a very good name for the tatics that the Germans used. They attacked swiftly adn forcefully. They used planes, tanks, and artillary to turn many countries into ruins. -
Period: to
WWII
-
Operation Barbarossa
Operation barbarossa was the name of the German invasion on Russia. Hitler had been planning this attack for about 1 year. He invaded with 117 army units while Russia had 132 units even though the purge had wiped out many senior commanding officers. -
Pearl Harbor
This was Japan's first invasion on America. They were attemping to wipe out all of our ships and planes, luckily they did not succeed. This is when America became more involved in the war. -
Battle of Stalingrad
This was a battle between Germany and the Soviet Union. Germany decided to advance into the Soviet Union because they wanted to try and capture Stalingrad. The Soviet Union decided to fight back and hid in different places to attack the German. The German army finally decided to surrender because they were becoming weak. This war caused over 1 million soldier deaths. -
Battle of Midway
An admiral by the name of Chuichi Nagumo led a raid on Midway island. They did this because they thought it would be a smart way to spread themselves out more. 108 aircrafts were released and America tried fighting back but didn't do much harm at first. America realized Nagumo didn't have good strategy so they were able to use this as an opportunity to attack and defeat the Japanese. As a result the U.S. was able to do a lot of damage them which made the Japanese leave the area. -
D-Day (Invasion on Normandy)
The allies invaded the beaches of Normandy, France. This was a major turning point in the war. The allies approached the beaches of Normandy in thousands of U boats, although there were many deaths and difficulties throughout D-Day, it was still considered successful. -
Battle of Bulge
Germany launches a surprise blitzkrieg on America as a last attempt. They were fighting in the barren cold with little resources. This caused mass casualities on both sides. This was also the most costly battle for the Americans. -
The Battle of Iwo Jima
Iwo Jima was being defended by about 23,000 Japanese. The Americans had to fight against mines, climbing up hills, Japanese tunnels, caves, duggouts, and underground installations. About 5000 Americans were killed and then 17,000 were wounded. -
VE Day
This is the day that Germany surrendered unconditionally. VE Day stands for victory day in Europe. The biggest fear of the German soldriers was that they would be taken prisoners of war in Russia. -
Dropping of the atomic bombs
The Americans gave the Japanese a chance to surrender before dropping the bomb but they did not. The first bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and the second was dropped on Nagasaki 3 days later. This was all to help end the war as soon as possible with the least amount of American casualities. -
VJ Day
VJ day stands for victory day in Japan. After the dropping of the 2 atomic bombs in Japan, they finally surrendered. Jspsn snnounced their surrender on August 15 1945 but it was not official until September 2nd 1945. This marked the end of WWII
