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Japanese Invasion of China
On July 7th, 1937, there was a clash between Japanese and Chinese troops in the outskirts of Beijing. This was called the Marco Plo Bridge Incident. The Japanese government used this clash as an excuse to occupy Beijing. When China refused, a full-scale war broke out between the two. This led to the Second Sino-Japanese War. It also left China in poverty. -
Rape of Nanking
Also known as the Nanking Massacre, the Imperial Japanese forces brutally murdered hundreds of thousands of people, both civilians and soldiers, in Nanking (Nanjing) China. In this event, between 20,000 and 80,000 women were sexually assaulted. As a result, this city, which was the capital of Nationalist China, was left in ruins and would take decades to recover. -
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German Blitzkrieg
Blitzkrieg is a German term for "lightning war". This military tactic was designed to create disorganization among enemy forces. Germany tried this out first in Poland and the successfully employing the tactic when invading Belgium, the Netherlands, and France in 1940. -
Ribbentrop/Molotov Pact
Officially known as the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact, the Ribbentrop/Molotov Pact concluded a few days before the beginning of WWII and was introduced on August 23rd, 1939. In this pact, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union agreed to take no military action against each other for the ten years to come. This agreement was also a way to divide land between these two countries. The Germans broke this pact only 2 years later by invading the USSR. -
Germany Invades Poland
On September 1st, 1939, 1.5 million German troops invaded Poland. Adolf Hitler claimed the invasion was a defensive action though Britain and France didn't believe so. This invasion officially started WWII as Britain and France declared war on Germany on September 3rd, initiating WWII. -
Fall of Paris
The people of Paris woke up to hear that a curfew was being imposed for 8:00 p.m. Later that same day, German troops entered and occupied Paris, one of the many places that Germany would invade in this war. -
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Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa was a code name for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union. It covered around two thousand miles of Soviet Territory. This invasion became a major turning point in WWII after it failed. Leading Nazi Germany into a two-front war against a military that owned tons of higher-level resources, the invasion was originally scheduled for the middle of the month of May but was postponed so they could invade Yugoslavia and Greece first. -
Pearl Harbor
On December 7th, 1941, Japan launched a surprise attack on the United State's Naval Base, Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. This one attack initiated the U.S.'s involvement in WWII. The U.S. then declared war on Japan on December 8th, 1941 only one day after the attack. Then on December 11th, Nazi Germany, the Axis ally of Japan, declared war on the United States. This pushed the U.S. into a two-front war. Japan was thriving in the months following Pearl Harbor, until the Battle of Midway in June of 1942. -
Wannsee Conference
The Wannsee Conference was a meeting between 15 senior government officials from Nazi Germany and Schutzstaffel leaders. Their goal was to devise a plan that would cause a "final solution to the Jewish question" in Europe. Multiple horrid ideas were suggested but one that involved "gas vans" was developed. The officials viewed this as the most efficient way of killing large groups of people at the same time. -
Battle of Midway
This Battle occurred only six months after the infamous attack on Pearl Harbor. This battle acted as a turning point for American forces as they had won this battle after many Japanese advancements. This victory allowed Allied forces to move into an offensive position that further helped them in the war. -
Operation Gomorrah
In the month of July 1943, 167 civilian lives were lost because of the German raid bombings. On the night of July 24th, British bombers dropped approximately 2,300 tons of bombs. The power of the explosives was equal to what German bombers dropped on London in their past five raids. As a result of the British bombings, 1,500 German civilians were killed. -
D-Day (Normandy Invasion)
On June 6th, 1944, 156,000 Canadian, U.S., and British troops began landing on the coast near Normandy France. This invasion was one of the largest military assaults in history and required a lot of planning. These troops resulted in liberating all of Northern France by late August 1944 and later the Allied forces defeated the Germans in spring of the following year. -
Battle of the Bulge
On December 16th, 1944, the German military began "the Battle of the Bulge". It was the German military's counter-attack against the Allied Forces. Hitler hoped that this counter-attack would surround the British and American armies and stall the Allies who were fighting against Germany. However, by as early as January 1945, German military efforts had failed. American and Belgium prisoners of war who had been captured were murdered by Waffen SS Units. while this battle was being fought. -
Operation Thunderclap
Multiple Allied firebombing raids occurred in Dresden, Germany on the night of February 13th, 1945. More than 3,400 tons of explosives were dropped by American and British airforce. These bombings caused destruction to the "Florence of the Elbe" and killed about 135,000 people. This operation was proven to be unnecessary since the Germans were already planning to surrender. This operation killed as many as 135,000 people. -
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Battle of Iwo Jima
On February 19th, 1945, American Marine forces invaded the island of Iwo Jima, which is located 750 miles off the coast of Japan. All but 200 or so of the 21,000 Japanese forces on the island were killed as well as almost 7,000 Marines. This battle ended on March 26th, 1945 in Japanese defeat after a five-week battle. -
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Battle of Okinawa
This battle was the final major battle of WWII and was one of the bloodiest. On April 1st, 1945, the U.S. Navy's 5th fleet and more than 180,000 U.S. Army and Marine Corps troops began descended o Okinawa. This invasion was a part of Operation Iceberg. It also featured Japan's infamous kamikaze attacks, where Japanese troops crashed aircraft loaded down with explosives. -
Liberation of Concentration Camps (Liberation of Dachau)
Dachau, the first concentration camp established by Nazi Germany, was liberated by the U.S. 7th Army's 45th Infantry Division on April 29th, 1945. Dachau forced its prisoners into labor, initially the construction of this camp. Many concentration camps that came after this were modeled after this one. -
V.E. Day
"V-E Day", or "victory over Europe day" was celebrated by the U.S and Great Britain in 1945. On the 8th of May, German troops throughout Europe surrendered to the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union lost 8000 soldiers however the Germans lost many more. Germany's main concern at this time was that they would be captured by the Soviet Union. -
Dropping of Atomic Bombs
The U.S. dropped atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan in August 1945. This was the first time Atomic bombs were used in warfare. This resulted in 120,000 civilians dying and Japan surrendering a month later in September. Though the dropping of this bomb technically ended WWII, some historians believe it sparked the Cold War. -
V.J. Day
On "V-J Day", or "victory over Japan day", on August 14th, 1945, Japanese surrender had been announced, ending WWII. Their surrender came several months after Nazi Germany surrendered.
