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Japans attack on China
Japans attack on China occurred on July 7th, 1937. This battle inbetween the two countries occurred near the Peiping in North China. After the battle, military activity intensified on part of Japan when Secretary of State Hull urged a self-restraint upon the Japanese government. https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/WorldWar2/china.htm -
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Rape of Nanking
The Rape of Nanking occurred between the timespan of December 1937, to January 1938. During the Nanking massacre, gruesome events such as mass killing and ravaging of Chinese citizens and capitulated soldiers by the Japanese army occurred.https://www.britannica.com/event/Nanjing-Massacre -
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German Blitzkrieg
The term Blitzkrieg is a military tactic that required the concentration of offensive weapons such as planes and tanks along a narrow front. These defenses would "drive a beach" in enemy defenses, allowing tanks to penetrate rapidly and roam freely behind enemy lines. As you can probably tell, this tactic was very effective and used caused much trouble to opposing forces. https://socratic.org/questions/what-is-blitzkrieg-and-how-did-the-germans-use-it-to-invade-countries -
Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl Harbor occurred on December 7th, 1941. This attack was rather unexpectant due to the fact that Japan arrived out of nowhere and started to bomb the ships. Due to this, the result of this attack was the gruesome death of many soldiers and many ships were destroyed. This also led to the Us entering WW2. https://www.ducksters.com/history/world_war_ii/pearl_harbor_attack.php -
Wannsee conference
The Wannsee conference is the day where the Nazi officials meet to discuss detailing revolving around the "Jewish question." This meeting revolved around various people to simply find an answer to the Jewish question. There were many gruesome idea to solve this problem including proposals to mass sterilization and deportation to the island of Madagascar. Eventually, the solution turned out to be killing large groups at one time. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-wannsee-conference -
Operation Ghammora
This attack actually had a total of six raids which is absolutely insane! Britains had resulted in a total death of 167 civilians as a result of the bombings and raids. Britain then responded and dropped 2,300 tons of incendiary bombs of their own on Hapsburg in just a few hours. Britain only lost 12 of 791 planes they attacked with! https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/operation-gomorrah-is-launched -
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Allied Invasion of Italy
After the Allies had driven the German and Italian troops from North Africa and Sicily, the Allies eventually decided to invade Italy in September of 1943. In Rome, the Allied conquest of Sicily, a region of the kingdom of Italy since 1860, led to the collapse of Mussolini's government. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/allies-invade-italian-mainland -
Liberation of concentration camps
As Allies crossed Europe near the end of WW2, they often ran into concentration camps filled with sick and starving prisoners. The first major camp was near Majdanek near Lublin, Poland in July 1944. The Germans actually attempted to hide the evidence of mass murder by hiding the camp which is quite disturbing. The Germans would have gotten away with it if it wasn't for the fact they forgot to remove the gas chambers. https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/liberation-of-the-concentration-camps -
D-day
On this day, allied forces of Britain, America, Canada, and France attacked German forces on the coast of Normandy. With all of these allies put together, they racked up a total of 150,000 people which was nearly impossible. They clearly were too overpowered for the Germans and they ended up taking a victory that led to the turning point of WW2 in Europe. https://www.ducksters.com/history/world_war_ii/d-day_invasion_of_normandy.php -
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Battle of the Bulge
This battle was the largest battle fought on the Western Front in Europe during WW2. This was also the largest war fought by the US Army. The location of this war took place in Ardennes, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Germany. Surprisingly, the allies won this war even though they had around 120,000 less soldiers than the Germans. https://www.historynet.com/battle-of-the-bulge -
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Battle of Iwo Jima
This was another major battle in which the US Marine Corps and Navy landed and captured the Island of Iwo Jima from the imperial Japanese Army during WW2. This battle took place 750 miles off the coast of Japan. In some of the bloodiest fighting of World War II, it’s believed that all but 200 or so of the 21,000 Japanese forces on the island were killed, as were almost 7,000 Marines. Fortunately, the Americans won this war. https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/battle-of-iwo-jima -
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Battle of Okinawa
The battle of Okinawa was the largest assault in the Pacific theaters of WW2. This war was fought on the island of Okinawa by United States Marine and Army forces against the Imperial Japanese Army. The result of this war was the allies taking down the Japanese homelands. https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/battle-of-okinawa -
VE Day
VE day happened on May 8,1945 in Great Britain, US, Australia, Western Europe, and on May 9th, in the Soviet Union and New Zealand. This day makes a conscious effort to honor the Nazi Germany for surrendering to the Allied forces, which ended WW2 once and for all! Another name for this massive celebration is "The Celebration Heard 'round the World." Also, if you didn't know, the "VE" stands for victory in Europe. https://www.historynet.com/v-e-day-1945-the-celebration-heard-round-the-world.htm -
Dropping of Atomic Bomb
On August 9th, 1945, a second bomb was dropped on Japan by the US. The location of all this happened at a place called Nagasaki. The US had actually already been prepared to drop this bomb named "fat man" on August 11th, but due to the bad weather called for that day, the bomb was dropped on August 9th, at 1:56am. This bomb was a B-29 bomber called "Bockscar" named after its commander, Frederick Bock. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/atomic-bomb-dropped-on-nagasaki -
VJ Day
On this day, it was finally announced that Japan had surrendered to its allies! This fortunately had the result of the ending of WW2. All of the men that served during this war were finally able to go home and return to their families. Ever since the surrender of Japan, both August 14th and August 15th have been known as VJ day, or "Victory over Japan day." https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/v-j-day
