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Rape Of Nanking
Nanjing Massacre, also called the Rape of Nanjing, was the mass killing and ravaging of Chinese citizens and soldiers by soldiers of the Japanese Imperial Army. Nanking was captured during the Sino-Japanese War that preceded World War II. The number of Chinese killed in the massacre has been subject to much debate, with most estimates ranging from 100,000 to more than 300,000. -
Ribbentrop/Molotov Pact
Known as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, after Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov and German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, the agreement gave Adolf Hitler a free hand to have the ability to attack Poland without fear of Soviet intervention. -
Germany's invasion of Poland
Germany invades Poland which initiated World War II in Europe. German forces broke through Polish defences along the border and quickly advanced on Warsaw, the Polish capital. Hundreds of thousands of refugees, both Jewish and non-Jewish, fled the German advance hoping the Polish army could somehow halt the German advance. -
German Blitzkrieg
It was a military tactic calculated to create psychological shock and resultant disorganization in enemy forces through the employment of surprise and speed. -
Battle of Britain
Battle of Britain, during World War II, was the successful defence of Great Britain against effective and destructive air raids conducted by the German air force (Luftwaffe) from July through September 1940, after the fall of France. -
Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor was a surprise aerial attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor on Oahu Island, Hawaii. The attack was performed by the Japanese which precipitated the entry of the United States into World War II. The strike created a decade of worsening relations between the United States and Japan. -
Battle of Coral Sea
The battle was the first time in World War 2 that the Japanese experienced failure in a major operation. The battle stopped the Japanese sea-borne invasion of Port Moresby. -
Battle of Midway
The U.S. Navy's important victory in the air-sea battle and its successful defence of the major base located at Midway Island . This battle ashed Japan's hopes of neutralizing the United States as a naval power and effectively turned the tide of World War II in the Pacific. -
Stalingrad
Stalingrad was one of the most bloody battles on the Eastern Front in the Second World War. The Soviet Union caused a catastrophic defeat on the German Army in and around this very important city on the Volga river. -
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
The Warsaw ghetto uprising was a violent revolt that occurred from April 19 to May 16, 1943, during World War II. People in the Jewish ghetto in Nazi-occupied Warsaw, Poland, staged an armed revolt to prevent the sending of Jews to Nazi-run extermination camps. -
D-Day
Allied forces launched the largest amphibious invasion in the history of warfare. It was codenamed Operation 'Overlord'. The Allied landings on the beaches of Normandy marked the start of a long and costly campaign to liberate north-west Europe from Nazi occupation. -
Battle of the Bulge
The Battle of the Bulge started on December 16, 1944, when German forces launched a surprise attack on Allied forces in the forested Ardennes region in Belgium, Luxembourg, and France. The battle lasted until January 16, 1945, after the Allied counteroffensive forced German troops to withdraw. -
Battle of Iwo Jima
American forces invaded the island on February 19, 1945, and the ensuing Battle of Iwo Jima lasted for five weeks. In some of the bloodiest fighting of World War II, it's believed that all but 200 or so of the 21,000 Japanese forces on the island were killed, as were almost 7,000 Marines. -
Battle of Okinawa
The battle in the pacific where Allied forces took Okinawa would provide Allied forces with an airbase from which bombers could strike Japan. From Okinawa, US forces could increase airstrikes against Japan and blockade important routes, denying the home islands of vital supplies. -
Hiroshima and Nagasaki
The United States bombings of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and August 9, 1945, were the first instances of atomic bombs used against humans, killing tens of thousands of people, obliterating and levelling the cities. It also was contributing to the end of World War II.