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Japanese Invasion of China
This Japanese invasion was an outright brutal attack on China at the invasion of Manchuria. This was caused by Japanese expansion in East Asia. Due to this Japanese seized control and put the former emperor PuYi back onto the throne thus being able to now control what happened in the country.
Sources//
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii
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Rape of Nanking
In an attempt to break the spirit of Chinese resistance, Japanese General Matsui Iwane ordered the city of Nanking to be destroyed. Most of the city was burned and the Japanese troops began to harm the citizens as well. The Japanese murdered an estimate of 150,000 male POV and 50,000 male civilians along with sexually assaulting 20,000 to 80,000 women of all ages within the short span of six weeks. Nanking was also the capital of Nationalist China and took decades for recovery. (History.com) -
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa was launched by Adolf Hitler and was a massive invasion of Soviet Union and it covered a front area from North Cape to The Black Sea. This forced Nazi Germany to now fight a two front war thus becoming the turning point in the war due to it starting their failure.
Sources//
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii
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Germany's Invasion of Poland
It was claimed by Adolf Hitler that Germany’s invasion of Poland was a defensive action in order to obtain “living space” for the Germans. This caused mass destruction and a war between Poland and Germany that eventually led to World War II. Sources//
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii
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German Blitzkrieg
Blitzkrieg is a term for “lightning war”. This was Germany’s way of quickly taking over lands and winning wars with minimizing the amount of casualties. This meant that they would have more resources to take over other lands with this war tactic as well. As a result lives were saved and time and resources spared with Germany beginning to gain control once again since World War I.Sources//
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii
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Pearl Harbor
This was a surprise attack by Japan that struck a critical blow against the U.S. Pacific Fleet and drew the United States into World War II. This was done in order to try and weaken the United States military and naval strength before they entered the war which was inevitable. Due to the bombing of Pearl Harbor the U.S. entered the war.
Sources//
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii
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Wannsee Conference
The Wannsee Conference was a day that Nazi officials met to discuss the “Final Solution” of the “Jewish question”. This was a meeting of the most powerful and influential Jewish leaders. Many gruesome ideas of how to solve this “Jewish problem” were brought up but it was obvious the overall goal was to exterminate the Jews all together. Due to this months later the “gas van” arrived in Poland thus killing 1,000 people day beginning to follow the Nazi’ goal. (History.com) -
Bataan Death March
The day after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, within a month the Japanese captured the capital of the Philippines and the defenders of Luzon were forced to retreat to the Bataan Peninsula. 75,000 American and Filipino troops were forced to march 65 miles to the Japanese prison camps. These soldiers were forced to march in extreme heat and died from the conditions during the march and by how they were treated by Japanese Military. This caused thousands of these soldiers to die during the march. -
Battle of Stalingrad
The invading Germans saw the conquering of Stalingrad essential to their campaign in southern Russia. From the point on the Volga River they could launch further assaults in the Caucasus. However, the Russians were determined to defend the city since the city was a vital industrial and transportation center. The battle was a successful defense in the Soviet Union. This made the Allies now in favor. During the battle Soviet forces surrounded and defeated an entire German Army. (History.com) -
Operation Gomorrah
This was when the British bombers raided Germany at Hamburg at night while the Americans bombed it by the daytime. Thousands of tons of incendiary bombs were dropped within just a few hours. The raid by the British alone killed 1,500 German civilians. This continues until November and proved to be devastating to Hamburg. This but Adolf Hitler into great despair and he refused to visit the burned out cities or ruins.
Sources//
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii
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Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
After the German invasion of Poland over 400,000 Jews in Warsaw were confined in an area of the city that was little more than 1 square mile. Shortly after this ghetto was sealed off by brick walls, barbed, wire, and armed guards. After a revolt by the Jewish prisoners Heinrich Himmler ordered that the Jews be “resettled” to extermination camps. This caused an uprising that killed 7,000 Jews and the Germans lost several hundred men in the uprising despite all of their artillery. (History.com) -
D-Day Normandy Invasion
On this day, British and Canadian troops under the code name of Operation “Overload” landed on the beaches of Normandy, France, These troops managed to trick the Germans on where they were actually going to land and began the liberation of northern France. This was the beginning of the end for the Germans and especially Hitler.
Sources//
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii
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Liberation of Concentration Camps
In the summer of 1944 the allies began to push into German controlled area. The Soviet Union was the first to discover the concentration camps and when they arrive there were hundreds upon hundreds of sick and diseased victims in the camps. The discovery of this territory frightened Germany and they tried to hide their crimes, however it did not work since they did not have enough time to hide their crimes.
Sources//
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii
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Battle of the Bulge
This was Hitler’s attempt at splitting the Allie armies in northwest Europe. He did this by a surprise blitzkrieg that caught the American troops off guard leaving a massive loss of American and civilian life. This also caused for the first time a large amount of American dissertation forcing an example to be made with an execution to show the consequences of such thing.
Sources//
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii
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Operation Thunderclap
This was an unreleased plan to end the war against Germany by bombing Berlin. This operation however was canceled and set aside. It is believed that it would cause 220,000 deaths and that it would shatter German moral. However, it was later rejected with the belief that it was unpractical and would not work.
Sources//
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii
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Battle of Iwo Jima
This ambitious invasion of Iwo Jima was based off of the American need for a base near the Japanese coast. On this day 23,000 Japanese soldiers defended the island, but the United States wiped out the defending forces within one month. This U.S. victory gave the U.S. the position it needed to begin a land invasion of Japan.
Sources//
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii
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Battle of Okinawa
The battle of Okinawa was a final push by the U.S. towards Japan, It involved 287,000 U.S. troops and 130,000 Japanese troops. This battle lasted 82 days with a total of 14,000 casualties that affected both sides. However, this gave the U.S. air bases that were essential to the upcoming invasion of Japan.
Sources//
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii
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VE Day
May 8th, 1945, the United States and Britain can now finally celebrate the Victory in Europe Day. German troops throughout put down their arms as flags were put up to celebrate the victory by the Allied Forces. 13,000 prisoners’ of war were sent back to Great Britain, however over two million prisoners were taken by Russia right before and after Germany’s surrender.
Sources//
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii
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Dropping of the Atomic Bomb
Discouraged by Japanese response for the demand for unconditional surrender,President Truman decided to use the atom bomb to force a surrender from Japan in order to end the war. He believed this would prevent the much greater casualties if the U.S. were to invade the mainland. So the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on Japan.Japan refused to surrender so the U.S. dropped a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki. It caused Japan to surrender to the U.S and marked the official end of World War II. -
VJ Day
On August 15th, 1945 the news of the Japanese surrender was officially announced to the world. On September 2, 1945 the Japanese made a formal surrender meeting that is known as VJ Day, it is also known as Victory Over Japan Day. This caused much celebration over the final and official ending of World War II.
Sources//
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii
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