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Japanese invasion of China
The Second Sino Japanese War broke out when China began a full resistance toward the expansion of the Japanese influence in their land. This was was not declared until December 9th 1941 which the conflict started earlier with the Chinese wanting to be independent. When the conflict started with military effort Japan was much more prepared with initial large success which eventually went into a stalemate until the allied forces came later.
https://www.britannica.com/event/Second-Sino-Japanese-War -
Ribbentrop/Molotov Pact
This was the German and Soviet nonaggression pact which Adolf Hitler eventually broke when he invaded the Soviet Union. This pact was only made because the Soviet Union could not find an agreement with France and Britain about the security of Europe. In the early part of 1939, the Soviet Union faced the idea of having to resist the German advancement into the East. This is why they decided to have a peace agreement with Germany.
https://www.britannica.com/event/German-Soviet-Nonaggression-Pact -
German Blitzkrieg
The German Blitzkrieg was a swift warfare tactic that was a method of offensive warfare utilizing maneuverability and mobile forces, mostly tanks and air support with infantry coming behind to clean up. This was used in the early stages of WWII to catch France, Belgium, Poland, Norway, and Holland off guard. This led to the Germans easily controlling these territories fairly easy off the bat of the war.
https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/blitzkrieg -
Fall of Paris
The Fall of Paris was an event that took place after Germany had taken control of much of Europe and their next target was France. With the German Infantry units being virtually untouched and the armored divisions that were battle-hardened being restocked with fresh tanks got prepared to invade France. With France having a diminished moral state and diminished military forces they stood no chance.
https://www.britannica.com/event/Battle-of-France-World-War-II/The-fall-of-France-June-5-25-1940 -
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa was the invasion of the Soviet Union that was originally scheduled for May of 1941 but was forced to be postponed. This would become a saving grace for the Soviets, as the Russian winter came early which would turn the tide of war. The Soviets had bout three times the number of tanks that the German forces had, but another major factor of this operation failing is the number of reserve divisions Stalin had to pull to war.
https://www.britannica.com/event/Operation-Barbarossa -
Pearl Harbor
Peral Harbor is the United States naval base near Honolulu, Hawaii. The event that took place in December of 1941 is the Japanese attack of this naval base where we had lots of our ships stored. Nearly 20 American ships were destroyed with eight battleships and 300 airplanes. More importantly, 2400 Americans were killed. This event led America to declare war on the Axis Powers which is a turn of events for the Allied Powers in WWII.
https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/pearl-harbor -
Wannsee Conference
The Wannsee Conference was not an event where decisions on whether or not the "final solution" will be put into place, but on how to do it at the most effective rate possible. There were many different representatives, the only representatives missing from the meeting was the German Ministry of Transportation and the German Armed Forces. This is because these divisions had already negotiated what to do.
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/wannsee-conference-and-the-final-solution -
Battle of Stalingrad
The Battle of Stalingrad was Germany and its allies battling for control of the Soviet Union city Stalingrad. Which was in the southwestern part of the Soviet Union. The Soviets ordered everyone strong enough to hold a rifle to defend the city, thus it was a very hard-fought battle. The Soviets bought time for many things to be shipped out of Stalingrad with skirmishes north of Stalingrad although they lost 200,000 troops.
https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/battle-of-stalingrad -
D-Day (Normandy Invasion)
D-Day was the invasion of the French west coast. The success of this operation was about 50-50 with the German-held French coast being heavily reinforced. The success of this invasion was the tipping point of the war for the Allied Powers, this event allowed the Allied Powers to continue to march into the German-held territory and liberate Europe. This eventually led to the end of the war coming quite quickly,
https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/d-day -
Battle of Iwo Jima
This was a military campaign between the United States Marines and the Japanese Imperial Army of Japan in early 1945. It was located about 750 miles off of the coast of Japan, this island had 3 airfields that could serve as the facility to attack mainland Japan. This fight lasted five weeks in which only about 200 Japanese soldiers survived while killing 7,000 marines, but the United States eventually won getting the strategic value.
https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/battle-of-iwo-jima -
Liberation of concentration camps
The first camp that was made by the Nazi regime was Dachau, it was liberated on April 29 of 1945. It was liberated by the U.S's seventh army's 45th infantry division. The prisoners there were used as forced laborers, it was made 5 weeks after Adolf Hitler originally took power. It was used for political opponents of Hitler originally but by 1938 it was mostly Jews withheld in this camp. It also served as the model concentration camp.
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/dachau-liberated -
VE Day
VE-day stands for victory in Europe day, while in the Soviet Union it was only victory day and is still called that in Russia. This is the day that Germany surrendered, whilst Japan was still fighting and Italy had switched sides in 1943. This day was heavily celebrated by the world as an evil had been vanquished from the world.
https://www.militarytimes.com/off-duty/military-culture/2019/05/08/v-e-day-1945-the-celebration-heard-round-the-world/ -
Dropping of the atomic bombs
There were two atomic bombs that were dropped on Japan in August of 1945. A total of 120,000 people were killed from these two atomic bombs. 120,000 people are a lot of people, but these atomic bombs prevented even more people from dying due to the most bloody war in the history of humankind. These two bombs came from what is known as the Manhatten project where top scientists were recruited to develop the bombs.
https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/bombing-of-hiroshima-and-nagasaki -
VJ Day
V-J Day was the day that Japan surrendered to end the world's most bloody war. This was after several months of Germany already being beaten. Japan surrendering was due to the fact of the prior Atomic Bombs being used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. These bombs were used to save many lives on both the American and Japenese side as Japan planned to keep fighting and to use their civilians to fight as the Soviets did in the battle of Stalingrad.
https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/v-j-day -
Battle of the Bulge
The Battle of the Bulge was Adolf Hitler's last major offensive, at least an attempt at it. The goal was to split the American forces in half, but with the Germans failed to do so brought the end for the Third Reich. Winston Churchill called this battle the greatest battle fought by the Americans during the war, probably because this lasted a bloody six weeks with 30 German divisions attacking worn-out American soldiers in forests.
https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/battle-of-the-bulge
