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Period: to
WW2 Events
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Japanese Invasion on China
The Japanese started to invade China after some years of tension and prior skirmishes. In July of 1937 the Japanese started the full out conflict with the Chinese when their skirmish at the Marco Polo Bridge turned into a full conflict, which was later known as the Marco Polo Bridge Incident. This lead into many other events, such as the Rape of Nanking.
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Rape of Nanking
Starting in December of 1937, a Japanese army of around 50,000 marched into Nanking from Shanghai under the orders to "kill all captives". Their first concern was killing the 90,000 or so chinese captives who surrendered, then moved onto raping and murdering civillians and they pleased. Around 20 Americans and Europeans made an International Safety Zone, where around 300,000 civillians took refuge. Out of the population of 600,000 around 300,000 were murdered during this time.
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Germany's invasion on Poland
At 4:45 am, Hitler ordered around 1.5 million German troops to invade Poland, claiming it was a defensive measure. Hitler had signed a nonaggression pact with the Soviet Union to make sure the USSR would not intervene. However, Britain and France both had signed a treaty to protect Poland from military forces. This ended up being the beginning of World War 2, when Britain and France declared war on Germany on September 3.
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Germany Blitzkreig
A "blitzkreig" is also known as a "lightning war", which was a german war tactic that was extremely useful to the Germans during WW2. Blitzkreigs, which were used in the invasions of Belgium, the Netherlands and France, was a tactic that had large formations which would move via wheels or tracks, that were all directed by radios. This would disrupt or disorganize their opponents so much it would nullify their countermeasures and result in very short wars.
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Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa was an invasion to the east, into the Soviet Union lead by Adolf Hitler. Three gigantic groups of german soldiers which were made up of over three million troops with three thousand tanks marched in this operation. This invasion lasted extremely long, stretching into winter, which the Germans were not prepared for. The soviets out maneuvered them while the Germans slowly fell to the extreme weather and cold, causing them to retreat.
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Pearl Harbor
More than two years after World War 2 started, the Japanese issued an attack on Pearl Harbor in the United States, which is where one of the United States' naval bases was located. Hundreds of Japanese aircrafts flew over this base attacking Pearl Harbor. Over 2,000 American soldiers died, as well as around 20 naval vessles and 200 airplanes being destroyed. The day after, America declared war on Japan and later, Germany and Italy.
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Wannsee Conference
The Wannsee Conference was a meeting where several German Officials talked about the "final solution to the Jewish question". The word 'extermination' was never used, however it was implied that anyone that did not die in the various methods mentioned at this meeting would be executed in some way.
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Bataan Death March
After the U.S. was forced to surrender around 75,000 troops in the Philippines to the Japanese, the Bataan Death March took place. The Japanese captors made both Filipino and U.S. troops march 65 miles in grueling conditions. The heat was extremely bad, the captors starved and beat their prisoners as well. There aren't exact numbers, but it's believed that thousands of troops died on this march, and thousands more at the prisoner-of-war camps they were taken to.
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Battle of Midway
About 6 months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, American forces fought a rather decisive battle against Japan in a naval battle in the north-central Pacific Ocean. American radio nets intercepted Japanese commands, and recent breakthroughs on the American side allowed the Americans to understand their code, letting them plan against the Japanese plans. Many Japanese aircrafts, mechanics, ships, and aircrafts were lost in this battle, which was a huge turning point for America.
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Battle of Stalingard
Germany invaded Russia and wanted to occupy Stalingrad. This city was a center point for transportation and industrial activity, making Soviet forces determined to defend it. After Germany took the center point of the city, soviet forces encircled the German forces, who were not prepared for the drawn out winter. On February 2, 1943, the German forces were forced to surrender the remaining 90,000 men. Many people consider this the turning point in WW2.
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Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
The Warsaw Ghetto was a 1 square mile section of Warsaw, where 400,000 Jews were forced to live in. The Germans blockaded off this area with brick walls and barbed wire and shot anyone trying to leave. The orders were given to send the Jews to extermination camps, and soon underground defense forces such as ZOB formed. These groups smuggled in weapons, and eventually fought off German forces trying to deport them, for awhile. Eventually, Germany got full control.
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Operation Gomorrah
Hundreds of British aircrafts flew over and bombed Hamburg, Germany during the evenings during Operation Gamorrah. On the first night, July 24, 791 aircrafts dropped 2,400 tons of incendiary bombs on Hamburg over the course of just a few hours. Only 12 british aircrafts were lost during this raid because a new radar jamming tactic, 'Window', was used. This was where aircrafts dropped aluminum foil en route to their destination, which confused radars. Over 30,000 people were killed.
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D-Day (Normandy Invasion)
D-Day was the day where allied forces, including British, American, and Canadian forces invaded France's very fortified coast in the Normandy region. Around 156,000 troops landed on this coast and fought their way through Normandy. This was such a success in part to a large scale diversion tactic that led to Germany thinking the allied forces would invade not from Normandy, but rather Pas-de-Calais, as well as a few other areas. This was a huge turning point in the war.
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Battle of the Bulge
Germany launched a blitzkreig against allied forces in Northwestern Europe in an attempt to split them apart. This battle was an attempt to break through the Ardennes to Antwerp. The line of allied forces started to resemble the shape of a bulge as they tried to protect bridgeheads, giving the battle its name. A shortage of German fuel and the corageous American forces led to a victory in this battle, however it was extremely costly.
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Operation Thunderclap
Operation Thunderclap was a plan to issue many bombings on the city of Dresden, which was controled by Nazi Germany at the time. This plan was talked about for a long time before they finally went through with it, having a 'master bomber' mark the ares to bomb first, at a lower altitude. After the areas were marked, the hundreds of bombers would fly through and drop their incendiarys. This operation left Dresden completely scorched to the ground pretty much.
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Battle of Iwo Jima
The battle of Iwo Jima was a battle to get a base near Japans coast for the Americans to let damaged aricrafts land on and prepare for further attacks. Iwo Jima was defended by around 23,000 japanese soldier, and they had a new tactic of defending from inland, using dugout and tunnels to help them. All of the Japanese forces, except for 1,083 prisoners, were wiped out completely.
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Battle of Okinawa
The Battle of Okinawa was a battle to take the island of Okinawa, which would serve as a strategic point for air bases in the predicted invasion of Japan. This battle involved 287,000 troops from the U.S. army, and 130,000 from the Japanese army. The Japanese spent most of their energy defending, using the kamikaze tactic especially, and in the end over 77,000 japanese soldiers died, as well as 14,000 allied deaths.
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VE Day
VE day, or Victory in Europe day, is the day when both Great Britain and America celebrated the defeat of the Nazis. Cities that were formerly occupied, as well as cities in both Great Britain and America put out banners and flags to celebrate. British prisoners of war were sent back home. There were a few skirmishes between the Soviets and Germans still, that didnt end till the next day, so it was not celebrated till the 9th in Moscow.
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Atomic Bomb dropped on Hiroshima
By this time, Nazi Germany had already been defeated in Europe, however the war between America and Japan still waged on. Japan refused to surrender till the brutal end. America weighed its options of continuing to bomb Japan as they had been in past battles, however it was decided that would result in up to 1 million American casualities. The atom bomb was dropped to prevent these casualties, blasting 5 square miles of Hiroshima, killing 80,000 people immediatey, and more from poisoning.
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Atomic Bomb dropped on Nagasaki
Japan did not immediately surrender after the Hiroshima bombing, so the U.S. went to drop another atomic bomb, more powerful than the first, on Nagasaki. The bomb was equivelant to the force of 22,000 tons of TNT. The landscaping of Nagasaki, which had many valleys and hills, helped contain the blast, thus only blasting about 2.6 square miles. Around 60,000 - 80,000 people died in this blast, resulting in Japans surrender.
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VJ Day
It was announced that Japan had unconditionally surrendered in the war, similarly to VE day, VJ day is "Victory over Japan Day". Both August 14th and 15th were celebrated. This was months after Nazi Germany had surrendered, and lead to the end of the war.
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