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German Blitzkrieg
A German term for “lightning war,” blitzkrieg is a military tactic designed to create disorganization among enemy forces through the use of mobile forces and locally concentrated firepower. Its successful execution results in short military campaigns, which preserves human lives and limits the expenditure of artillery.Conventional wisdom traces blitzkrieg, “lightning war,” to the development in Germany between 1918 and 1939. Source:http://www.history.com/ -
Japanese Invasion of China
The Invasion of China, also called the Sino-Japanese War, took place in 1937 and ended in 1945. It happened when China began resisting the idea to expand Japanese influence in and around its territory. Japan needed more resources when it came to the economy. It wanted to be in power but didn’t have enough resources or space on its islands. It started with Korea and Taiwan and then Manchuria. They also wanted to prove they were stronger than other countries and could hold more power than them. -
Rape of Nanking
To break the spirit of Chinese resistance, Japanese General Matsui Iwane ordered that the city of Nanking be destroyed. Much of the city was burned, and Japanese troops launched a campaign of atrocities against civilians. In what became known as the “Rape of Nanking,” the Japanese butchered an estimated 150,000 male “war prisoners,” massacred an additional 50,000 male civilians, and raped at least 20,000 women and girls of all ages, many of whom were mutilated or killed in the process. -
Germany’s invasion of Poland
On this day the Germans began to bomb Polish airfields,1.5 million german troops invaded Poland and the German warships and U-boats attacked Polish naval forces in the Baltic Sea. Adolf Hitler had stated that it was a defensive measurement he had taken but France and Britain were not convinced whatsoever. France and Britain decided to declare war on them on September 3, starting world war 2. What Hitler wanted was “living space” for the german people and to enslave native slavs. -
Fall of Paris
On this day in 1940, Parisians awaken to the sound of a German-accented voice announcing via loudspeakers that a curfew was being imposed for 8 p.m. that evening-as German troops enter and occupy Paris. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill had tried for days to convince the French government to hang on, not to sue for peace, that America would enter the war and come to its aid. -
Operation Barbarossa
Barbarossa was the crucial part of world war 2. Adolf Hitler sent his armies containing over 3 million german soldiers, 3 thousand tanks, and 150 divisions to the frontier of the Soviet territory. Hitler had severely underestimated their opponent. Germany's biggest mistake was not representing themselves as liberators but conquerors. They were so confident in exterminating Jews and to enslave the Slavic people. -
Pearl Harbor
Around 8 AM on 12.7.41, Japanese warplanes attacked a U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor near Honolulu, Hawaii. Though it only lasted 2 hours, the effects were devastating. Many things were destroyed including: “20 American naval vessels, eight enormous battleships, and more than 300 airplanes.” Over 2,000 Americans soldiers and sailors died during the attack, and another 1,000 were wounded. The day after the attack, President Franklin D. Roosevelt requested that the U.S.declare war on Japan. -
Wannsee conference and the “Final Solution
On January 20, 1942, 15 high-ranking Nazi Party and German government officials gathered at a villa in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee to discuss and coordinate the implementation of what they called the "Final Solution of the Jewish Question."
The "Final Solution" was the code name for the systematic, annihilation of the European Jews. At some still undetermined time in 1941, Hitler authorized this European-wide scheme for mass murder.https://www.ushmm.org -
Battle of Stalingrad
The Battle of Stalingrad (July 17, 1942-Feb. 2, 1943), was the successful Soviet defense of the city of Stalingrad (now Volgograd) in the U.S.S.R. during World War II. Russians consider it to be the greatest battle of their Great Patriotic War, and most historians consider it to be the greatest battle of the entire conflict. It stopped the German advance into the Soviet Union and marked the turning of the tide of war in favor of the Allies. -
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
The Warsaw ghetto uprising began after German troops and police entered the ghetto to deport its surviving people. In response to the deportations, on July 28, 1942, several Jewish underground organizations created an armed self-defense unit known as the Jewish Combat Organization. Later on the third day of the uprising, Stroop's SS and police forces began razing the ghetto to the ground, building by building, to force the remaining Jews out of hiding. https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/mobile/en/article -
Operation Gomorrah
Operation Gomorrah was a bombing campaign that occurred in the European Theater of Operations during WWII. The British had suffered 167 civilian deaths of the German bombing raids in July. So in return, the British Aircraft dropped 2,300 tons of incendiary bombs on Hamburg in just a few hours. The power of the explosives that the British aircraft dropped were the same of what the German bombers had dropped on London in their five most destructive raids.
Sources: http://militaryhistory.about.com -
D-Day (Normandy Invasion - 1944)
Over 160,000 allied troops landed along a stretch of “heavily-fortified French coastline,” that was 50 miles, to fight the Nazis “on the beaches of Normandy, France. On June 6, 1944, more than 160,000 Allied troops landed along a 50-mile stretch of heavily-fortified French coastline, to fight Nazi Germany on the beaches of Normandy, France.” It was called a crusade. http://www.army.mil/d-day/ -
Battle Bulge
On this day, the Germans launch the last major offensive of the war, Operation Mist, also known as the Ardennes Offensive and the Battle of the Bulge, an attempt to push the Allied front line west from northern France to northwestern Belgium. The Battle of the Bulge, so-called because the Germans created a “bulge” around the area of the Ardennes forest in pushing through the American defensive line, was the largest fought on the Western front. -
Operation Thunderclap
Operation Thunderclap was the code for a cancelled operation planned in August 1944 but shelved and never implemented. The plan envisaged a massive attack on Berlin in the belief that would cause 220,000 casualties with 110,000 killed, many of them key German personnel, which would shatter German morale. However, it was later decided that the plan was unlikely to work. -
Battle of Iwo Jima
The American amphibious invasion of Iwo Jima during World War II stemmed from the need for a base near the Japanese coast. Following elaborate preparatory air and naval bombardment, three U.S. marine divisions landed on the island in February 1945. Iwo Jima was defended by roughly 23,000 Japanese army and navy troops, who fought from an elaborate network of caves, dugouts, tunnels and underground installations. -
Battle of Okinawa
Last and biggest of the Pacific island battles of World War II, the Okinawa campaign (April 1—June 22, 1945) involved the 287,000 troops of the U.S. Tenth Army against 130,000 soldiers of the Japanese Thirty-second Army. At stake were air bases vital to the projected invasion of Japan. By the end of the 82-day campaign, Japan had lost more than 77,000 soldiers and the Allies had suffered more than 65,000 casualties—including 14,000. -
VE Day
VE Day stands for Victory in Europe Day. May 8th was the day where German troops throughout Europe finally laid down their arms. About 1 million Germans attempted a mass exodus to the West when the fighting in Czechoslovakia ended, but were stopped by the Russians and taken captive. The Russians took around 2 million prisoners in the period just before and after the German surrender. On May 9, the Soviets would lose 600 more soldiers in Silesia before the Germans finally surrendered. -
Potsdam Declaration
On this day in 1945, just a day after the bombing of Nagasaki, Japan submits its acquiescence to the Potsdam Conference terms of unconditional surrender, as President Harry S. Truman orders a halt to atomic bombing. -
Dropping of the atomic bombs
The United States in 1940 had started to experiment to try and make the atomic bomb. They were the first one to use the atomic bomb on a Japanese city of Hiroshima. The bomb killed 80,000 people, because of the radiation, tens of thousands more died in the following weeks from wounds and radiation poisoning. Three days later, another bomb was dropped on the city of Nagasaki, killing almost 40 million more people. After that Japan decided to surrender. -
VJ Day
VJ Day stands for “Victory over Japan Day” or “Victory In Japan Day”. This day marks the end of WWII. This all started on August 14, 1945, when Japanese Emperor Hirohito cabled the U.S. to surrender, and agreed to the terms of the Potsdam Declaration. On August 15, 1945, news of the surrender was announced to the world. World War II was finally over. Hostilities ended. On September 2, 1945, the Japanese surrendered to the U.S. battleship USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. http://www.history.com/topics/
