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Japanese Invasion of China
- started July 10, 1937
- Japanese claim they were fired on by Chinese troops
- Japanese launched full scale invasion of China
- In November the Japanese took Shanghai
- By the end of 1937 all of the major Chinese cities had been captured by the Japanese
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Germany's Invasion of Poland
-In september of 1939 about 1.5 million german troops invaded the country of Poland
-The Germans bombed their airfields and used U-boats to defeat their navy
-they claimed this as a defensive strike but Britain and France were not conviced so they attacked Germany starting WWII Source: History.com -
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German Blitzkrieg
German Blitzkrieg
-The German word blitzkrieg means "lightning war"
-It was used by the Germans to create havoc by the opposing sides forces
-It was tested by the Germans in Poland and was then successfully used against Belgium, the Netherlands, etc.
-This was later adopted by the U.S. during WWII
-This proved to be a successful tactic and helped the Germans take several countries. source: History.com -
Fall of Paris
-German troops enter and occupy Paris
-United States sent medical aid to the French
-2 million Parisians fled when the Germans came into Paris
-President Roosevelt froze the American assets of the Axis powers, Germany and Italy
(history.com) -
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa -Operation Barbarossa was a plan to make a massive invasion of the Soviet Union
-This included over 3 million German soldiers, 150 divisions and three thousand tanks
-This event was a crutial turning point for WWII due to the fact that its failure for the germans caused them to go into a two-front war
-They underestimated their opponents which lead to their failure source: History.com -
Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor
-On the morning of December 7,1941 hundreds of japanese attacked the naval base of Pearl Harbor
-About 20 naval vessels and 200 fighter planes were destroyed during the attack
-Over 2000 soldiers were killed and over 1000 were severely wounded
-This attack made the U.S. enter the war with only one vote voting against it
-Around three days later Germany and Italy declared war on the U.S.
Source:HIstory.com -
Wannsee Conference
-The Wannsee conference was held by the Germans to discuss the "final solution" to the Jewish situation
-They were discussing the physical annihilation of the European Jewish population
-Hitler authorized this mass murder of the Jewish population
-This was a major part of the Holocaust -
Battle of Midway
-Six months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States defeated Japan in one of the most decisive naval battles of World War II
-United States countered Japan's planned ambush of its few remaining aircraft carriers, inflicting permanent damage on the Japanese Navy
-The intelligence interplay would be critical to the outcome of the battle and began many weeks before the clash of arms
-Historians see Midway as the turning point in the Pacific theater of the war
(History.com) -
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
-From April 19 to May 16 residents of the Jewish ghetto in Nazi-occupied Warsaw, Poland , staged an armed revolt against deportations to extermination camps
-Thousands were slaughtered as Germans blew up buildings -
Operation Gomorrah
-Operation Gomorrah was an allied attack between Britain and the U.S. that involved bombing the German city of Hamburg
-The plan was for Britain to bomb the city at night and the U.S. by day
-This operation was successful it killed over 30,000 Germans and over 280,000 buildings
-Over 9,000 tons of explosives were dropped
-This had an effect on Hitler due to the fact he would not visit the burned down cities source:History.com -
D-Day Invasion of Normandy
- D-Day was an event of around 156,000 Americans, British, and Canadian forces storming five points of a 50 mile stretch of beach -This took place along the French coast line that was heavily fortified -This event was one of the biggest military assaults in history and took a lot of preparing -These landings mark the beginning of the end of the war
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Battle of the Bulge
Battle of the Bulge
16 Dec 1944 -Last German offense of WWII, result in retreat or German forces toward Germany
-Started December 16, 1944
-Hitler thought a major attack would break up the alliance between Britain, France, and America
-Ordered attack against what were primarily American forces.
-Initial atttack by the Germans created a bulge in the Allied front line
-Battle started with a two hour bombardment of the Allies lines
http://youtu.be/8a8fqGpHgsk
(History.com) -
Liberation of concentration camps
-Throughout the spring of 1945 the U.S. and its allies liberated several concentration camps
-One of the more famous concentration camps was Aushwitz
- There were several hundreds of thousands jews and prisoners in these camps and they were liberated at the end of WWII -
Operation Thunderclap
-Allied bombing run over the German city of Dresden that killed over 60,000 civilians
-Plan was to bomb the eastern-most cities of Germany to disrupt the transport infastructure behind what was becoming the Eastern front
-Dresden, lying so far in the east of Germany that it had been out of the range from the RAF attention for much of he war, had received very little bombing so far
-First wave bombed between 22,13 and 22.31
(History.com) -
Battle of Iwo Jima
-Stemmed from the need for a base near the Japanese coast
-Iwo Jima was devended by roughly 23,000 Japanese army and navy troops who fought from an elaborate network of caves, dugouts, and tunnels
-Despite the difficulty of the conditions, the marines wiped out the defending forces after a month of fighting, adn the battle earned a place in American lore with the publication of a photograph showing the U.S. flag being raised in victory
(History.com) -
Battle of Okinawa
-Allied forces invade the island of Okinawa and engage the Japenese in the bloodiest battle of the Pacific War
-287,000 troops of the U.S. Tenth Army
-130,000 soldiers of the Japanese Thirty-second Army
-Japanese sent a mass of "suicide" attacks
-Commanding generals on both sides died in battle
(History.com) -
VE Day
-The Allied victory in Europe
-Great Britain and the United States both celebrate Victory in Europe Day
-Rejoicing the defeat of the Nazi war machine
http://youtu.be/N1AKeJ16spg
(History.com) -
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 city of Hiroshima
-Ended World War II, but ignited the Cold War
-First attack killed 80,000 people
--Three days later another bomb was dropped killing nearly 40,000 more people
-A few days later Japan announced its surrender
http://youtu.be/t19kvUiHvAE
(History.com) -
VJ Day
-American victory over Japan
-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
(History.com) -
Postdam Declaration
-By the summer time of 1945 the defeat of the Japanese was imminent
-They're Navy and Air-Force were destroyed
-At the end of the summer Okinawa had been captured by the Americans
-At the signing of the declaration it marked the end of the worst war in human history
