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Germany Invades Poland
Hitler sent Nazi army to take back land prior the WWII. This attack broke Hitler’s promise from the Munich Conference, so England and France announced that they are going to war with Hitler 2 days after he won Poland’s land. This caused WWII to start. -
Battle of Britain
Neither France nor England were prepared for WWII, but Germany was. Since England was on an island, Germany only could fight two ways, air or water but England was stronger in water, so they tried their luck with planes. British used a new thing, RADAR which lead British to victory and Hitler backing off is army. -
Germany Invades the Soviet Union
Hitler and Soviet Union leader, Joseph Stalin, formed an alliance which Hitler broke the Nazi-Soviet Pact. The Soviet Union didn’t see this coming. German was not winning fast because of the cold Russian winter -
Japan Attacks US Navy at Pearl Harbor
Japan launched a “sneak stack” in hope to destroy all of US Navy so they can grow into an empire and take over southern Asia without US getting in the way. The US was not ready for such an attack and lost over 3,000 sailors. President Roosevelt declare war on Japan and stated this day will be famous for a bad reason. -
Battle of Stalingrad, 1942-43
When Germany invaded Soviet Union, the Nazis was ready for a fast battle but since of Russia’s winter takes so long, the winter was also the worst one they have hard in over 100 years, this battle was not fast. At the beginning the Nazis were winning but turned around for the Soviet Union with the Battle of Stalingrad. After 10 months of fighting, the Soviet Army was slowly pushing back Hitler and is army. By 1945 he was pushed out of Poland all the way back to German. -
Island Hopping
The US was to far away from Japan to us bombing planes and other methods. They created a new plane which the US would slowly take island over all the way to Japan to get close enough to prepare to use bombing planes, this method was called “Island Hopping”. -
United Nations Created-
This was the idea of President Franklin Roosevelt to create a group to maintain peace after WWII. Unlike League of Nations, since that failed. Headquarters are in New York City and the goal is to prevent future wars. -
V-E (Victory in Europe)
Italy was defeated by the US and British in 1944. Germany surrendered to England, France, US and Germany on May 8, 1945. Hitler killed himself in April 1945 because he didn’t want to be captured by allied troops. -
D-Day (Invasion of Normandy)
British, Canadians and Americans were prepared to attack German through the English Channel. They pushed Germans out of France. At this point Germany was being hit from west and east and didn’t know what to do next. -
Yalta and Potsdam Conference
Leaders of US (Franklin Roosevelt), England (Winston Churchill) and Soviet Union (Joseph Stalin) meant up. The goal was to plan hoe England would be shaped after the war ended. They have reached an agreement for democratic elections. In July German had surrendered and Roosevelt had passed in April. Stalin had lied and didn’t do democratic elections but instead he wanted to have communist governments which lead the cold war. -
U.S. Drops Atomic Bombs on Japan,
On July 16, 1945 the US had successfully created an atomic bomb. President Harry Truman struggled with this decision which lead him to demanded Japan to surrender and send more soldiers to fight but nothing worked. Then he made the decision to us the atomic bomb that destroy all of Hiroshima and everyone in it, but the Japan government denied it ever happen. This led to a second atomic bomb and after the second one Japan surrendered. -
Nuremberg Trials
After the war, Allied troops agreed to put all Nazi leaders and Nazi soldier for war crimes considered “crimes against humanity” like genocide, slave labor, starting the war and concentration camps. 10 Nazis put on trial and 10 executed, 3 not guilty and 7 life in prison. -
Division of Germany
Germany was split into 4 zones for each allied group to lead over and the goal was to have all Nazism out of the country. English, French and US began to install democracy and help rebuild the economy, but Germany used communist, did not help rebuild but instead toke all goods they had. -
Rebuilding Japan
After the war with US, the Japanese and their Emperor had no power. General MacArthur was in charge to end militarism and rebuild Japan’s economy. Emperor could stay emperor but with no power, instead MacArthur created the Constitution of 1947. By 1952, the US and Japanese government decide the rebuild was complete, but US troops are there to this day and Japan has been friendly to the US.
