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Rape of Nanking
During the Sino-Japanese War, Nanking, the capital of China, falls to Japanese forces, and the Chinese government flees to Hankow, further inland along the Yangtze River. Japanese General Matsui Iwane ordered that the city of Nanking be destroyed. Much of the city was burned, and Japanese troops launched a campaign of atrocities against civilians. In what became known as the “Rape of Nanking,” the Japanese butchered an estimated 150,000 male “war prisoners. -
German Blitzkrieg
A German term for “lightning war,” blitzkrieg is a military tactic designed to create disorganization among enemy forces through the use of mobile forces and locally concentrated firepower. Its successful execution results in short militHary campaigns.
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Fall of Paris
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill had tried for days to convince the French government to hang on, not to sue for peace. French premier Paul Reynaud telegrammed President Franklin Roosevelt, asking for just such aid-a declaration of war, and if not that, any and all help possible. United States was prepared to send material aid—and was willing to have that promise published.
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Pearl Harbor
On December 7, 1941, Japanese fighter planes attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor near Honolulu, Hawaii. The Japanese managed to destroy nearly 20 American naval vessels, including eight enormous battleships, and more than 300 airplanes. More than 2,000 Americans soldiers and sailors died in the attack, and another 1,000 were wounded.
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Wannsee Conference
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. Instead, the newly planned final solution would entail rounding up all Jews throughout Europe, transporting them eastward, and organizing them into labour gangs.
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Bataan Death March
The day after the surrender of the main Philippine island of Luzon to the Japanese, the 75,000 Filipino and American troops captured on the Bataan Peninsula begin a forced march to a prison camp near Cabanatuan. During “Bataan Death March,” the prisoners were forced to march 85 miles in six days, with only one meal of rice during the entire journey. -
Operation of Midway
The United States defeated Japan in one of the most decisive naval battles of World War II. Due to major advances in code breaking, the United States was able to preempt and counter Japan’s planned ambush of its few remaining aircraft carriers, inflicting permanent damage on the Japanese Navy.The victory allowed the United States and its allies to move into an offensive position.
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Allied Invasion of Italy
The British 8th Army under Field Marshal Bernard L. Montgomery begins the Allied invasion of the Italian peninsula. On the day of the landing, the Italian government secretly agreed to the Allies’ terms for surrender, but no public announcement was made until September 8.
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Italian dictator Benito Mussolini envisioned building Fascist Italy into a new Roman Empire, but a string of military defeats in World War -
D-Day
During World War II the Battle of Normandy, lasted from June to August of 1944. The battle began on June 6, 1944, also known as D-Day, when some 156,000 American, British and Canadian forces landed on five beaches. The invasion was one of the largest amphibious military assaults in history. History.com -
Liberation of concentration camps
The German regime had constructed the six sites containing gas chambers and large crematoria, with the genocidal purpose of annihilating Europe's Jewish population in what they called the 'Final Solution to the Jewish Question'. Of the estimated six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust, well over three million perished in these six camps. -
Battle of Iwo Jima
he American invasion of Iwo Jima, a key island in the Bonin chain was sparked by the desire for a place where B-29 bombers damaged over Japan could land without returning all the way to the Marianas., Iwo Jima was defended by 23,000 Japanese army and navy troops.
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VE Day
On this day in 1945, both Great Britain and the United States celebrate Victory in Europe Day. Cities in both nations, as well as formerly occupied cities in Western Europe, put out flags and banners, rejoicing in the defeat of the Nazi war machine.
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Dropping of Atomic Bomb
On this day in 1945, an American B-29 bomber, drops the world’s first atom bomb, over the city of Hiroshima. 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 fallout.
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V-J Day
On August 14, 1945, it was announced that Japan had surrendered unconditionally to the Allies. Since then, both August 14 and August 15 have been known as “Victoryover Japan Day,” or simply “V-J Day.” The term has also been used for September 2, 1945, when Japan’s formal surrender took place aboard the U.S.S. Missour..
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Battle of the Bulge
December 1944, Adolph Hitler attempted to split the Allied armies in northwest Europe by means of a surprise blitzkrieg thrust through the Ardennes to Antwerp. American units fought desperate battles to stem the German advance at St.-Vith, Elsenborn Ridge, Houffalize and Bastogne. As the Germans drove deeper into the Ardennes in an attempt to secure vital bridgeheads, the Allied line took on the appearance of a large bulge, giving rise to the battle’s name.
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