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Japanese Invasion of China
The Japanese invaded China launching the Second Sino-Japanese War. (July 1937). The Japanese Kwantung Army turned a small incident into a full-scale war. Chinese forces were unable to effectively resist the Japanese.The Japanese methodically moved south, seizing control of most of eastern China and all of the major ports by the time war broke out in Europe. (1939). -
Rape of Naking
In late 1937, over a period of six weeks, Imperial Japanese Army forces brutally murdered thousands of people–including both soldiers and civilians–in the Chinese city of Nanking (or Nanjing). The horrific events are known as the Nanking Massacre or the Rape of Nanking, as between 20,000 and 80,000 women were sexually assaulted. -
Germans Invade Poland
General Interest 1939
Germans invade Poland
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At 4:45 a.m., 1.5 million German troops invade Poland all along its 1,750-mile border with German-controlled territory. Simultaneously, the German Luftwaffe bombed Polish airfields, and German warships and U-boats attacked Polish naval forces in the Baltic Sea -
German Blitzkrieg 1939-1940
Its successful execution results in short military campaigns, which saves human lives and limits the use of artillery. German forces tried out the blitzkrieg in Poland in 1939 before successfully using the tactic with invasions of Belgium, the Netherlands and France in 1940. -
Fall of Paris
On June 15th, 1940 Germans take over Paris. Many of the people that lived in Paris had already fled to other countries for safety, but other stayed and now were in for a very abusive and cruel take over. Paris was waiting for the United states to come to there aid but the U.S took to long to come so they gave in to letting Germany into their country. -
Operation Barbarossa
On June 22, 1941, Adolf Hitler launched his armies eastward in a huge invasion of the Soviet Union: three great army groups with over three million German soldiers, 150 divisions, and three thousand tanks came into Soviet territory. The invasion covered a front from the North Cape to the Black Sea, a distance of two thousand miles. Barbarossa was the turning point in World war II. -
Pearl Harbor
Just before 8 a.m. on December 7, 1941, hundreds of Japanese fighter planes attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor near Honolulu, Hawaii. The attack lasted just two hours, but it was devastating.The Japanese managed to destroy nearly 20 American naval vessels, including eight enormous battleships, and more than 300 airplanes. -
The Wannsee Conference
Heydrich met with Adolf Eichmann, chief of the Central Office of Jewish Emigration, and 15 other officials from various Nazi organizations at Wannsee, a house in Berlin. The agenda was simple and focused: to create a plan that would produce a “final solution to the Jewish question” in Europe. -
Battle Of Midway
The United States Navy defeated a Japanese attack against Midway Atoll, marking a turning point in the war in the Pacific theatre. In the four-day sea and air battle, the outnumbered U.S. Pacific Fleet succeeded in destroying four Japanese aircraft carriers with the loss of only one of its own, the Yorktown. -
Operation Gomorrah
On this day in 1943, British bombers raid Hamburg, Germany, by night in Operation Gomorrah, while Americans bomb it by day. The British aircraft dropped 2,300 tons of incendiary bombs on Hamburg in just a few hours.More than 1,500 German civilians were killed in that first British raid. -
D-Day
On June 6, 1944, the Allies invade Western Europe in the largest marine attack in history. Codenamed Operation Overlord, the battle began on June 6, 1944, also known as D-Day, when 156,000 American, British and Canadian forces landed on five beaches along a 50-mile stretch of the coast of France’s Normandy region. -
Battle of the Bulge
The Battle of the Bulge was a major German offensive campaign. On December 16, three German armies (more than a quarter-million troops) launched the deadliest and most desperate battle of the war in the west in the poorly roaded, rugged, heavily forested Ardennes. -
Battle of iwo jima
On February 19, 1945, American soldiers make their first strike on the Japanese Home Islands at Iwo Jima.The marines wiped out the defending forces after a month of fighting, and the publication of a photograph showing the U.S. flag being raised in victory was taken to show that the U.S won the battle. -
Battle of Okinawa
On April 1, 1945, Allied forces invade the island of Okinawa and engage the Japanese in the bloodiest battle of the Pacific War. Last and biggest of the Pacific island battles of World War II, the Okinawa campaign involved 287,000 U.S troops. War was fought because the U.S wanted the Okinawa island for their benefit. -
Victory in Europe
On this day in 1945, both Great Britain and the United States celebrate Victory in Europe Day. Cities in both nations, as well as formerly occupied cities in Western Europe, put out flags and banners, rejoicing in the defeat of the Nazi war. -
Dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima
On this day in 1945, at 8:16 a.m. an American B-29 bomber, the "Enola Gay", drops the world’s first atomic bomb, over the city of Hiroshima. Approximately 80,000 people are killed as a direct result of the blast, and another 35,000 are injured. At least another 60,000 would be dead by the end of the year from the effects of the fallout. -
V-J Day
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.”
