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Japanese Invasion of China
July 1937 to September 9, 1945. Japanese and Chinese troops on the frontier led to what became known as the Marco Polo Bridge Incident. This fighting sparked conflict, the Second Sino-Japanese War. China received aid from Britain, France and the US. China received aid from Nazi Germany for a short period but Hitler decided to make an alliance with Japan in 1938. Japanese troops slaughtered an estimated 300,000 civilians and raped 80,000 women. Japan-unable to force victory/Chinese-no evict Japan -
Germany's invasion of Poland
Germans broke the German-Soviet Pact (stateding that Poland was to be partitioned-enabling Germany to attack Poland without the fear of Soviet intervention). The Polish army was defeated within weeks of the invasion. With more than 2,000 tanks and over 1,000 planes, broke through Polish defenses along the border and advanced on Warsaw in a massive encirclement attack. Warsaw surrendered to the Germans on September 3, 1939. The soviet Union invaded eastern Poland on September 17, 1939. -
German Blitzkrieg
Blitzkrieg-"lightning war". It was a military tactic designed to create disorganization among enemy forces through the use of mobile forces and locally concentrated firepower. German forces tried out the blitzkrieg in Poland in 1939 before successfully employing the tactic with invasions of Belgium, the Netherlands, and France in 1940. It was also used by German commander Erwin Rommel during the North African campaign of WWII and adopted by U.S General George Patton-European operation -
Fall of paris
On May 10th the Germans attacked France and quickly defeated the French army. The French government departed Paris on June 10th, and the Germans occupied the city on June 14. French premier Paul Reynaud telegrammed President Franklin Roosevelt, asking for aid, and if not that then any help at all. Roosevelt replied that the U.S. was prepared to send material aid. This commitment was not made formal and public. -
Pearl Harbor
Hundreds of Japanese fighter planes attacked the naval base near Honolulu, Hawaii. Is only lasted 2 hours, but it was devastation- they managed to destroy 20 naval vessels, including 8 huge battleships, and more that 300 airplanes. More than 2,000 American soldiers/sailors died and 1,000 were wounded. The day after, President Roosevelt asked congress to declare war on Japan-They approved with just one dissenting vote. Japanese allied Germany and Italy just 3 days later also declared war on U.S -
Bataan Death March
After the U.S surrender of the Bataan Peninsula on the main Philippine island of Luzon to the Japanese during WWII, the approximately 75,00 Filipino and American troops on Bataan were forced to make a 65-mile march to prison camps. The marchers made the trek in intense heat and were subjected to harsh treatment by Japanese guards. Thousands perished in what became known as the Bataan Death March. -
Battle of Midway
Happened 6 months after the attack on Pearl Harbor. U.S defeated Japan in one of the most decisive naval battles of WW2. U.S was able to counter Japan's planned ambush of its few remaining aircraft carriers-inflicted permanent damage on the Japanese Navy. The victory allowed the U.S. and its allies to move into an offensive position. -
Battle of Stalingrad
July 1942-Feb. 2, . It was the successful Soviet defense of the city of Stalingrad in the U.S.S.R. Russians 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. The Battle of Stalingrad was one of the bloodiest battles in history, with combined military and civilian casualties of nearly 2 million people. -
Allied Invasion of Italy
The British 8th Army under Field Marshal Bernard L. Montgomery begins the Allied invasion of the Italian peninsula, crossing the Strait of Messina. On the day of the landing, the Italian gov. secretly agreed to the Allies the terms for surrender, but no public announcement was made until September 8th. On July 10th the Allies began their invasion of Axis-controlled Europe with landings on the island of Sicily-off mainland Italy. -
Operation Thunderclap
The code for a cancelled operation planned in August but shelved and never implemented. The plan envisaged a massive attack on Berlin in the belief that would cause 22,000 casualties with 1110,000 killed, many of them key German personnel, which shatter German morale.
It was the proposal to bomb the eastern-most cities of Germany to disrupt the transport infrastructure behind what was becoming the Eastern front. -
D-Day (Normandy Invasion)
The Battle of Normandy (lasted from June 1944 to August 1944) resulted in the Allied liberation of Western Europe from Nazi Germany's control. Code-named Operation Overload, the battle began on June 6th, 1944, also known as D-Day. Some 156,000 American, British, and Canadian forces landed on five beaches along a 50-mile stretch of heavy fortified coast of France's Normandy region. The invasion was one of the largest military assaults in history and required extensive planning. -
Battle of iwo Jima
The American invasion of Iwo Jima stemmed from the need for a base near the Japanese coast. 3 U.S. marine divisions landed on the island in February 1945. Iwo Jima was defended by 23,000 Japanese army and navy troop. The marines wiped out the defending forces after a month of fighting, and the battle earned a place in American lore with the publication of a photograph showing the U.S. flag being raised in victory. American losses included 5,900 dead and 17,400 wounded. -
Battle of Okinawa
It was the last and the biggest of the Pacific island battles of WWII. It involved 287,000 troops of the U.S. Tenth Army against 130,000 Japanese soldiers. By the end of 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 dead. Ended-June 22, 1945. The Japanese navy and army sent air attacks by planes on one-way “suicide” missions.The commanding generals on both sides died in the course of this battle. -
VE Day
VE Day- Victory in Europe Day. Both Great Britain and the U.S. celebrate VE Day. Cities in both nations put out flags and banners, rejoicing in the defeat of the Nazi war machine. The day when German troops throughout Europe finally laid down their arms. They had lost more than 8,000 soldiers, and the Germans considerably more. The Germans surrender was realized in a final cease-fire. More surrender documents were signed in Berlin and in eastern Germany. -
potsdam Declaration
(proclamation) defining terms for Japanese surrender is a statement that called for the surrender of all Japanese armed forces during WWII. The Potsdam Conference’s Declaration on Germany stated, “It is the intention of the Allies that the German people be given the opportunity to prepare for the eventual reconstruction of their life on a democratic and peaceful basis.” An Allied Control Council was to deal with matters affecting Germany and Austria as a whole. -
Dropping of the atomic bombs
An American B-29 bomber dropped the world's first deployed atomic bombs over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The explosion wiped out 90% of the city and immediately killed 80,000 people; thousands more would later die of radiation exposure. Three days later, a second B-29 dropped another bomb on Nagasaki, killing an estimated 40,000 people. Japan's Emperor Hirohito announced his country's unconditional surrender in WWII on the radio (on August 15) citing the devastating power.
