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Germanys Invasion of Poland
*On September 17, 1939, the Soviet Union invaded eastern Poland. Unsuccessful at fighting a two front war, Poland surrendered to the Germans ten days later.
*Britain and France, standing by their guarantee of Poland's border, had declared war on Germany on September 3, 1939. -
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German Blitzkrieg
*The blitzkrieg waged by Germany
*A blitzkrieg is an intense and brutal military campaign.
*The word blitzkrieg means "rapid attack" in German
•Blitzkrieg is a method of warfare whereby an attacking force, spearheaded by a dense concentration of armoured and motorised or mechanised infantry formations with close air support. -
Pearl Harbor
*December 7, 1941
*A major United States naval base in Hawaii that was attacked without warning by the Japanese air force
*great loss of American lives and ships -
Allied invasion of Italy
•The Allied invasion of Italy was the Allied amphibious landing on mainland Italy that took place on 3 September 1943.
•The operation was undertaken by General Sir Harold Alexander's 15th Army Group and followed the successful invasion of Sicily
•during the early stages of the Italian Campaign of World War II. -
D-Day
*The Normandy landings were the landing operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944
*Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as D-Day, it was the largest seaborne invasion in history.
*Prior to D-Day, the Allies conducted a large-scale deception campaign designed to mislead the Germans about the intended invasion target. -
Battle of the Bulge
*the last major German offensive on the Western Front during World War II
*It was an unsuccessful attempt to push the Allies back from German home territory
*December 16, 1944–January 16, 1945 -
Battle of Okinawa
•The Battle of Okinawa, codenamed Operation Iceberg, was a major battle of the Pacific War
•fought on the island of Okinawa by United States Marine and Army forces against the Imperial Japanese Army.
•The initial invasion of Okinawa on April 1, 1945, was the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific Theater of World War II. -
Dropping of the atomic bombs
•During the final stage of World War II, the United States detonated two nuclear weapons over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945, respectively.
•The United States dropped the bombs after obtaining the consent of the United Kingdom
•The two bombings killed 129,000–226,000 people, most of whom were civilians. -
VJ Day
•Victory over Japan Day is the day on which Imperial Japan surrendered in World War II
•in effect bringing the war to an end
•The term has been applied to both of the days on which the initial announcement of Japan's surrender was made – to the afternoon of August 15, 1945, in Japan -
Liberation of concentration camps
•Soviet forces were the first to approach a major Nazi camp, reaching Majdanek near Lublin, Poland, in July 1944.
•The Soviets liberated Auschwitz, the largest killing center and concentration camp, in January 1945.
•The unspeakable conditions the liberators confronted shed light on the full scope of Nazi horrors. -
Battle of Iwo Jima
•was a major battle in which the United States Marine Corps landed on island of Iwo Jima
•they eventually captured the island of Iwo Jima from the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) during World War II. •The American invasion, designated Operation Detachment, had the goal of capturing the entire island, including the three Japanese-controlled airfields -
VE Day
•Victory in Europe Day, generally known as VE Day or V-E Day, was celebrated on Tuesday, 8 May 1945
•to mark the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Nazi Germany's unconditional surrender of its armed forces
•The formal surrender of the German forces occupying the Channel Islands did not occur until the following day, 9 May 1945
