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Japanese Invasion of China
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/jun/06/china-war-japan-rana-mitter-review
https://www.britannica.com/event/Sino-Japanese-War-1937-1945 China launches full scale resistance against Japanese influence in their land. The conflict results in a stalemate that lasts for weeks. -
Rape of Nanking
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-rape-of-nanking Nanking, the capitol of China, fell to Japanese forces during the Sino-Japanese war. -
German Invasion of Poland
https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005070 Angered by losing land to Poland under the Treaty of Versailles, Hitler claimed nonaggression towards Poland to prevent a military pact against him, then invaded Poland to reclaim the land lost. -
Period: to
German Blitzkrieg
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/blitzkrieg German term for "lightning war", the German army took sweeping runs of light tanks that would cycle about, raining fire on anything opposing them, and barely anything could touch them. -
Pearl Harbor
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/pearl-harbor Just before 8 a.m., Japanese fighter pilots bombed pearl harbor, destroying 20 vessels, 300 airplanes, and about 3000 lives. -
Bataan Death March
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/bataan-death-march The day after the air raid on Pearl Harbour, Japanese troops immediately set siege to the Philippines. Tired out and driven back by Japanese troops, plague filled and starved troops of the U.S. and Philippines were forced to make a 65 mile march to Mariveles. -
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
https://www.ushmm.org/outreach/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007745 The first attempt by Jewish oppressed to fight against the German regime. The Z.O.B. fired upon German troops with arms smuggled into the Ghetto. The uprising had initial success. -
D-Day - Normandy Invasion
https://www.army.mil/d-day/ Allied troops flooded into Normandy under the command of General Dwight D. Eisenhower. 9,000 allied died, but the day was won. -
Battle of the Bulge
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/battle-of-the-bulge The Allied troops were set upon by German Blitzkrieg tanks, and desperately tried to hold down their position that looked like a "bulge" -
Battle of Iwo Jima
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/battle-of-iwo-jima Defended by 23,000 Japanese soldiers with an elaborate set of dugouts and caves, the U.S. set their sights on Iwo Jima to establish a naval base near their foe, Japan. -
Period: to
Battle of Okinawa
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/battle-of-okinawa The last battle of the U.S. Campaign against Japan. 91,000 people died in the two and a half month siege, with likely over 100,000 more wounded. -
VE Day
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/victory-in-europe Germans surrendered to their Soviet adversaries and signed peace treaty after peace treaty. -
Liberation of the Concentration Camps.
https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005131 Although the Soviets freed most of the Concentration Camps, the Germans burned everything they left behind to ensure nobody found out their terrible secrets. -
Hiroshima
https://www.osti.gov/opennet/manhattan-project-history/Events/1945/hiroshima.htm Hiroshima had a civilian population of 300,000 and was an important military city. A single B-29 bomber pilot named Enola Gay flew from Tinian and dropped an atomic bomb destroying everything within a mile and damaging everything within three miles from the dead zone. -
Nagasaki
Three days after the bombing of Hiroshima, Another B-29 pilot took off with the Plutonium Implosion Bomb, also known as "Fat Man"..As soon as the bombardier caught a glimpse of Nagasaki stadium, he released the bomb. It exploded over the city with a 40% greater effect of Hiroshima's bombing. -
Victory - Japan Day
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/v-j-day Japan formally admitted defeat to the U.S. upon the U.S.S. Missouri.
