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Japanese claimed that they were fired on by Chinese troops at the Marco Polo Bridge near Beijing. Using this as an excuse, the Japanese launched a full-scale invasion of China using the conquered Manchuria as a launching base for their troops. All of the major cities in China were captured by the Japanese by the end of 1937 – so were the major communication systems of the nation.
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The German-Soviet Pact stated that Poland was to be partitioned between the two powers, enabled Germany to attack Poland without the fear of Soviet intervention.Germans resented the fact that Poland had received the former German provinces of West Prussia, Poznan, and Upper Silesia under the Treaty of Versailles after World War I.
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Germany's strategy was to defeat its opponents in a series of short campaigns. Germany quickly overran much of Europe and was victorious for more than two years by relying on a new military tactic called the "Blitzkrieg" (lightning war). Germany became embroiled in a long war, leading ultimately to its defeat in May 1945.
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Barbarossa the largest military attack of World War Two and was to have appalling consequences for the Russian people. Operation Barbarossa was based on a massive attack based on blitzkrieg.
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hundreds of Japanese fighter planes attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor near Honolulu, Hawaii. The barrage lasted just two hours, but it was devastating: The Japanese managed to destroy nearly 20 American naval vessels, including eight enormous battleships, and almost 200 airplanes. More than 2,000 Americans soldiers and sailors died in the attack, and another 1,000 were wounded.
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Nazi Party and German government officials gathered at a villa in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee to discuss and coordinate the implementation of what they called the "Final Solution of the Jewish Question." The "Final Solution" was the code name for the systematic, deliberate, physical annihilation of the European Jews
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In February 1943, Kasserine Pass became the focal point in the North African campaign. The Axis powers planned to use the Kasserine Pass to prevent General Dwight Eisenhower from concentrating his forces against Tunis. The Battle of Kasserine Pass was Erwin Rommel's last great achievement in North Africa.
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military codename for the Allied bombing of Hamburg (Battle of Hamburg) during World War II (24 July 1943 - 2 August 1943). The attacks during the last week of July in 1943, created one of the largest firestorms raised by the RAF and USAAF in World War II, killing at least 42,600 civilians (other sources account for up to 125,000 deaths) and wounding over 37,000 in Hamburg and practically destroying the entire city.
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the Allied landing on mainland Italy on 3 September 1943, by General Harold Alexander's 15th Army Group (comprising Lieutenant General Mark Clark's U.S. Fifth Army and General Bernard Montgomery's British Eighth Army) during the Second World War. The operation followed the successful invasion of Sicily during the Italian Campaign.
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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 along a 50-mile stretch of the heavily fortified coast of France’s Normandy region. The invasion was one of the largest amphibious military assaults in history and required extensive planning. Prior to D-Day, the Allies conducted a large-scale deception campaign designed to mislead the Germans about the intended invasion target. By late August 1944, all of norther
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Mechanized forces of of the German 5th and 15th Panzer armies, as well as the 6th SS and 7th Army,attacked the US VIII forces in a line between Aachen and Bastogne. Hitler had convinced himself that the alliance between Britain, France and America in the western sector of Europe was not strong and that a major attack and defeat would break up the alliance.
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The American amphibious invasion of Iwo Jima during World War II stemmed from the need for a base near the Japanese coast. Iwo Jima was defended by roughly 23,000 Japanese army and navy troops, who fought from an elaborate network of caves, dugouts, tunnels and underground installations. Despite the difficulty of the conditions, the marines wiped out the defending forces
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The Okinawa campaign involved the 287,000 troops of the U.S. Tenth Army against 130,000 soldiers of the Japanese Thirty-second Army. At stake were air bases vital to the projected invasion of Japan. By the end of the 82-day campaign, Japan had lost more than 77,000 soldiers and the Allies had suffered more than 65,000 casualties—including 14,000 dead.
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This day offically announced the end of World War II in Europe. On Monday May 7th at 02.41. German General Jodl signed the unconditional surrender document that formally ended war in Europe. This benefited them because that meant fewer places they had to end the war.
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The United States becomes the first and only nation to use atomic weaponry during wartime when it drops an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The dropping of the atomic bombs soon marked the end of World War II.
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On August 14, 1945, it was announced that Japan had surrendered unconditionally to the Allies, effectively ending World War II. Since then, both August 14 and August 15 have been known as “Victoryover Japan Day,” or simply “V-J Day.”
