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Japanese Invasion of China
The Japan-China War started when the Japanese claimed that they were fired at 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. The onslaught of the Japanese was relentless. Within 5 months, 1 million Chinese people were under Japanese control. All of the major cities in China were captured by the Japanese by the end of 1937. -
Rape of Nanking
Japanese General Matsui Iwane ordered that the city of Nanking be destroyed. Much of the city was burned, and Japanese troops launched a campaign of atrocities against civilians. The Japanese butchered an estimated 150,000 male “war prisoners,” massacred an additional 50,000 male civilians, and raped at least 20,000 women and girls of all ages, many of whom were mutilated or killed in the process. -
Germany's Invasion of Poland
The German-Soviet Pact of August 1939 stated that Poland was to be partitioned between the two powers and enabled Germany to attack Poland without the fear of Soviet intervention.The Polish army was defeated within weeks of the invasion. Nazi Germany occupied the remainder of Poland when it invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941. Poland remained under German occupation until January 1945. -
German Blitzkreig
A German term for “lightning war,” blitzkrieg is a military tactic designed to create disorganization among enemy forces through the use of mobile forces and locally concentrated firepower. Its successful execution results in short military campaigns. German forces tried out the blitzkrieg in Poland in 1939 before successfully employing the tactic with invasions of Belgium, the Netherlands and France in 1940. -
Fall of Paris
On this day in 1940, Parisians awaken to the sound of a German-accented voice announcing that a curfew was being imposed for 8 p.m. that evening as German troops enter and occupy Paris. By the time German tanks rolled into Paris, 2 million Parisians had already fled, with good reason. In short order, the German Gestapo went to work: arrests, interrogations, and spying were the order of the day, as a gigantic swastika flew beneath the Arc de Triomphe. -
Operation Barbosa
Adolf Hitler launched his armies eastward in a massive invasion of the Soviet Union: three great army groups with over three million German soldiers, 150 divisions, and three thousand tanks smashed across the frontier into Soviet territory. Soviet counterattacks stalled the advance. Barbarossa was the crucial turning point in World War II. Its failure forced Nazi Germany to fight a two-front war against an army possessing immensely superior resources. -
Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise, but Japan and the United States had been edging toward war for decades. The United States was particularly unhappy with Japan’s increasingly belligerent attitude toward China. Japan then declared war on China in 1937. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor destroyed 18 American ships and nearly 300 airplanes. Docks and airfields were also destroyed. Most important, almost 2,500 men were killed and another 1,000 were wounded. -
Wannsee Conference
15 high-ranking 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." It was a meeting to organize the mass murder of Euporean Jews. -
Bataan Death March
U.S. surrender of the Bataan Peninsula on the main Philippine island of Luzon, approximately 75,000 Filipino and American troops on Bataan were forced to march 65 miles to prison camps. The marchers made the trek in intense heat and were harshly treated by Japanese guards. Thousands perished in what became known as the Bataan Death March. -
Battle of Midway
The Battle of Midway effectively destroyed Japan’s naval strength when the Americans destroyed four of its aircraft carriers. Japan’s navy never recovered from its mauling at Midway and it was on the defensive after this battle. -
Battle of Stalingrad
The Battle of Stalingrad was a successful Soviet defense of the city of Stalingrad in the U.S.S.R. during World War II. Russians consider it to be the greatest battle of their Great Patriotic War, and most historians consider it to be the greatest battle of the entire conflict. It stopped the German advance into the Soviet Union and marked the turning of the tide of war in favor of the Allies. The Battle of Stalingrad was one of the bloodiest battles of all time, nearly 2 million deaths. -
Kasserine Pass
The Kasserine Pass was the site of the United States’ first major battle defeat of the war. General Erwin Rommel set his sites on Tunisia’s capital, a key strategic goal for both Allied and Axis forces. Rommel determined that the weakest point in the Allied defensive line was at the Kasserine Pass, a 2-mile-wide gap in Tunisia’s Dorsal Mountains, which was defended by American troops. Rommel broke through on February 20, inflicting casualties on the U.S. Army. -
Operation Gomorrah
British bombers raid Hamburg, Germany by night in while Americans bomb it by day in its own “Blitz Week." Britain had suffered the deaths of 167 civilians as a result of German bombing raids in July. Now the tables were going to turn. The evening saw British aircraft drop 2,300 tons of bombs on Hamburg in just a few hours. The explosive power was the equivalent of what German bombers had dropped on London in their five most destructive raids. More than 1500 Germans were killed. -
D-Day
More than 5,000 ships and landing craft carrying troops and supplies left England for the trip across the Channel to France, while more than 11,000 aircraft were mobilized to provide air cover and support for the invasion. Less than a week later, on June 11, the beaches were fully secured and over 326,000 troops, more than 50,000 vehicles and some 100,000 tons of equipment had landed at Normandy. -
Battle of the Bulge
It seemed as if the Second World War was all but over. But on this day, the German army launched a counteroffensive that was intended to cut through the Allied forces in a manner that would turn the tide of the war. The battle is known historically as The Battle of the Bulge. The courage and fortitude of the American Soldier was tested against great adversity. The U.S. suffered over 100,000 casualties -
Battle of Iwo Jima
Following preparatory air and naval bombardment, 3 U.S. marine divisions landed on the island in February 1945. Iwo Jima was defended by roughly 23,000 Japanese army and navy troops, who fought from a network of caves, dugouts, tunnels and underground installations. Despite the difficulty of the conditions, the marines wiped out the defending forces after a month of fighting, and the battle earned a place in American history because of the significant photograph of the U.S. raising the flag. -
Battle of Okinawa
Last and biggest of the Pacific island battles of World War II 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. -
VE Day
This was the day that both Great Britain and the United States celebrate Victory in Europe Day. Cities in both nations put out flags and banners, rejoicing in the defeat of the Nazi war machine. -
Dropping of the Atomic Bombs
The United States becomes the first and only nation to use atomic weaponry during wartime when it drops an atomic bomb on the Japanese cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Though the dropping of the atomic bomb on Japan marked the end of World War II. -
VJ Day
This was the day that Japan had surrendered unconditionally to the Allies, effectively ending World War II. Coming several months after the surrender of Nazi Germany, Japan’s capitulation in the Pacific brought six years of hostilities to a final and highly anticipated close.
