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German Invasion on Poland
This event was the beginning of WW1. About 1.5 million German troops decided to invade Poland and Hitler claimed that this was a defensive action. Hitler said that he wanted more "living space" for his people. However as a result of this event Britain and France declared war on Germany 2 days later. -
German Blitzkrieg
Blitzkrieg is a German term that means "lightning war". Germany used this tactic to get through enemy lines and anything and anybody that got in their way. It caused confusion and disorganization amongst their enemies through the use of mobile forces and firepower. -
Operation Barbarossa
Hitler commanded his armies to invade the Soviet Union on this day. Hitler wanted to keep on expanding. Over 3 million German soldiers, 150 divisions, and three thousand tanks were used for this event. Many senior commanding officers died this day. This event was an important turning point for the war because it caused Germany to fight a two front war -
Pearl Harbor
This was the day the Japanese attacked America's naval base on Pearl Harbor I an attempt to destroy everything we had. Although they did not destroy everything there was still a lot of damage. 20 American naval vessels and almost 200 airplanes were destroyed. Over 2000 American soldiers and sailors died and about 1000 were wounded. This was the event that caused America to get involved in the war. -
Battle of Midway
Admiral Chuichi Nagumo led a raid on Midway island. They thought it would be a smart way to spread themselves out more. 108 aircrafts were released and America tried fighting back but didn't do much harm at first. America realized Nagumo didn't have good strategy and were able to use this as an opportunity to attack and defeat the Japanese. As a result the U.S. was able to do a lot of damage them which made the Japanese leave the area. Japan had about 2,500 casualties and America had about 300. -
Battle of Stalingrad
This was a battle between Germany and the Soviet Union. Germany decided to advance into the Soviet Union because they wanted to try and capture Stalingrad. This was led by General Paulus. The Soviet Union decided to fight back and so they hid in different places to surprise attack the German. The German army finally decided to surrender because they were becoming weak. 150,000 Germans had died during this battle. -
D-Day(Invasion of Normandy)
This was the day the Allies landed on the beach in Normandy,France.They decided this was the best day to go through the English Channel because the weather was the most cleared up.About 156,000 Allied troops were able to successfully land on Normandy’s beaches. Over 4,000 allies died and thousands were wounded.However, though there was much loss and destruction it's still an important day in history because Paris was liberated and it prevented Germany from making and Eastern Front against Russia -
Battle of Bulge
Germans attacked American enemies to try to push the Allied front line west from northern France to northwestern Belgium. It lasted for three weeks and it was 250,000 soldiers against only 80,000 Americans. The Allies had 76,890 casualties, 8,607 of those casualties were death, and they lost 733 tanks. The Germans has about 68,000 casualties with 12,000 of those casualties being death and they lost about the same number of tanks as America. -
Battle of Iwo Jima
America invaded Iwo Jima because they needed a base near the Japanese coast. Iwo Jima was guarded by about 23,000 Japanese army and navy troops. Even though marines had to deal with many caves, dugouts, tunnels and underground installations, they successfully wiped out the defending force. The downside was about 5000 Americans were killed and about 17,000 were wounded. -
VE Day
Germany surrendered on this day to their Russian enemies because they realized they had lost too many soldiers and would continue to lose more. The result of this was the holiday called VE Day which stands for Victory Day in Europe. -
VJ Day
VJ Day stands for the day Japan officially surrendered. It was announced August 15 but was not made official until this day. Japan was completely devastated after the atomic bombs and just didn't want anymore destruction which is why they surrendered. This was the last event that marked the end WWII. -
Dropping of the atomic bombs
The first bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6th. This bomb was called little boy and it initially killed about 80,000 people and afterwards tens of thousands more would died from radiation exposure. The second bomb, known as fat man, was dropped on Nagasaki on August 9th. It killed about 40,000 people. America said they did this because Japan was not surrendering so they needed to do what they believed would end the war. As a result Japan unconditionally surrendered.
