WWII Timeline

  • Japanese Invasion of China

    Japan began its campaign by invading Manchuria, China in 1931. Japan then continued the assault on China in 1937.
  • German Invasion of Poland

    Germany and the Soviet Union signed a non-aggression pact to attack Poland. Once they signed the pact the two powers crushed Poland within a month.
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    German Blitzkrieg

    The German Blitzkrieg was when the German army pushed through New Amsterdam and France which took only a month to make France surrender.
  • Operation Barbossa

    Hitler sent over three million soldiers and over three thousand tanks to betray the Soviet Union. The German army made massive progress then the winter arrived and the German push slowed to almost a dead stop. The Russians had then pushed them back into Polish territory. Which made the operation a failure.
  • Pearl Harbor

    While Japan was on their Pacific expansion spree they decided to try to take out the U.S. Navy by destroying their pacific fleet. They ended up destroying or damaging 20 ships and over 300 aircraft. 8 battleships were in the category of damaged or destroyed. One of the ships destroyed was the USS Arizona.
  • Wannsee Conference

    Nazi leaders discussed the “Final solution” to deal with the Jewish population. The “Solution” was to put all of the Jewish people into concentration camps and exterminate them.
  • Operation Gomorrah

    It was bombing raids by the British at night and the US bombing during the daytime hours over Hamburg. This bombing spree caused at least 28,000 civilian deaths and damaged industrial plants.
  • D-Day (Normandy Invasion)

    British, American, and Canadian force’s assaulted 5 beaches along a 50 mile stretch of heavily fortified west coast of France. Omaha beach was the deadliest beach with over 2,000 casualties. The total amount of casualties was 4,000.
  • Battle of the Bulge

    The battle of the Bulge was the last offensive for Hitler and his goal was to split the allies. But the plan had failed to spilt the allies and made it easier to push further into Germany.
  • Operation Thunderclap

    Was the bombing of Berlin with the help of RAF forces.
  • Battle of Iwo Jima

    The Battle of Iwo Jima was the most grueling battle of the island hopping campaign. Due to the Japanese digging into the ground creating tunnels throughout the island. It’s believed that only 200 Japanese soldiers were killed out of the 21,000 stationed on the island.
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    The Battle of Okinawa

    The last major battle in the war it was also the bloodiest. Over 180,000 US army and marines descended upon the island for the final push to Japan.
  • VE Day

    This indicates the victory in Europe were the allies celebrated their victory in Europe.
  • Atomic Bombs Dropped

    The United States dropped a atomic bomb on Hiroshima then three days later they dropped another on Nagasaki which killed over 120,000 Japanese civilians.
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    VJ Day

    The allies celebrated victory over Japan even though they didn’t fully surrender until September 2, 1945