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Japan invades Manchuria
When the Kwantung Army of the empore of Japan invaded Manchuria immediately following the Mukden Incident. The Japanese established a puppet state, called Manchuko. Led to the US boycott of raw materials to Japan. -
German occupation of the Rhineland
German troops marched into the Rhineland. this action was directly against the Treaty of Versailles. It was Hitler's first illegal act in foreign relations since coming to power in 1933 and it threw the European Allies into confusion. -
Austrian Anschluss
Was the annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany in March 1938 -
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Munich Conference
A settlement permitting Nazi Germany's annexation of portions of Czechoslovakia along the country's borders mainly inhabited by German speakers, for which a new territorial designation "Sudetenland" was coined. -
Hitler takes the Sudetenland
Provoked by the demands of Nazi Germany that the Sudetenland be annexed to Germany, which in fact took place after the later infamous Munich Agreement. When Czechoslovakia was reconstituted after WWII, the Sudeten Germans were largely expelled, and the region today is inhabited primarily by Czech speakers. -
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Kristallnacht
It was "the night of broken glass", it was when the Nazi army started gathering up the Jewish people. The Nazi army burnt down synagogues and broke into Jewish houses. This event was one step leading to the beginning of the Holocaust. -
Germany/USSR Non-aggression Pact
Britain and France had been trying to arrange a pact with the Soviet Union, but were unsucessful. With the Soviet Union now neautral, Britian and France were out of possible powerful European allies. -
Blitzkrieg
Germany invaded and defeated Poland in which led to the victory of this Eastern European country. Blitzkrieg was an overwhelming combination of air attack and fast moving amored strikes and drive deep in Poland. The fact Germany had a strong confidence to overwhelm the European country with these powerful attacks. -
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Dunkirk
It helped evacuate about half a million allied soldiers who would otherwise have become POW's. These soldiers could subsequently contribute to the allied landing later in the war. -
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Battle of Britain
Was the first major campaign to be fought entirely by air forces, and was also the largest and most sustained aerial bombing campaign to that date. Marked the first defeat of Hitler's military forces -
Japan invades China
This showed the warlords that the US was not a political wimp and that they would have to look elsewhere to get raw materials. Their eyes pointd tot the South Pacific for oil and natural rubber. This led to the attack on Pearl Harbor and The Philippines. -
Japan invasion on China ends
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Invasion of USSR
Under the codename Operations "Barbarossa," Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union, in the largest German military operation in WWII. Germany inflicts heavy losses, but doesn't accomplish its goal. -
Atlantic Charter
The United States and Great Britain issued a joint declaration in August 1941 that set out a vision for the postwar world. The document is considered one of the first key steps toward the establishment of the United Nations 1945. -
Pearl Harbor
From the tactical standpoint the attack was one of the most ingenious naval operations in history. With the loss of four US battleships, 180 aircrafts, and 2,400 sailors the attack can be chalked up as a "win" for Japan. It may have been one of the biggest mistakes ever made in WWII. Made the US join the war. -
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Fall of the Philippines (Pacific Campaign0
The day following the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese unleash surprise air attacks on US air bases in the Philippines which destroped most of US airpower in the area. Shortly after these attacks, Japanese forces land at multiple points on the Philippines and quickly overwhelm US and Philippine resistance. The allied forces retreat to the Bataan Penisula and hold desperately, waiting for reinforcements from the US. -
Doolittle Raid (Pacific Campaign)
Served as a warning that this atack will be dealt with decisively and effectively. A moral booster, get the country to rise up and deal with war. that the Japan homeland will be targeted, not untouched. -
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Battle of Coral Sea (Pacific Campaign)
It's the first naval battle in human history where opposing ships never fired upon or attacked each other. The entire battle was fought by planes from carriers. -
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Battle of Midway (Pacific Campaign)
A turning point in the Pacific War. Before the Battle of Coral Sea on May 7-8 1942, the imperial Navy of Japan had swept aside all of its enemies from the Pacific and Indian Oceans. -
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Stalingrad (European Campaign)
The Axis powers suffered roughly 850,000 casualities and last a huge amount of supplies and equipment. The Axis forces were never able to fully recover from this loss and were eventually forced into a long retreat out of Eastern Europe, after the great battles of 1943-1944. For the Soviets, who also suffered great losses during the battle, the victory of Stalingrad marked the start of the liberation of the Soviet Union, leading to eventual victory over Nazi Germany in 1945. -
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Operation Torch (European Campaign)
Allowed the Allies to clear North Africa of Axis forces and control, but more importantly, it gave them a dry run of an invasion before the real thing in Italy and France. This meant that they had practice intergrating the various national armies, the generals had a chance to work together in the field, and soldiers. -
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Operation Overlord (European Campaign)
It opened up another front against the German thus stretching their defenses even thinner. Also for the Western member of the Allies it gave them a foothold in Europe allowing them contirbute more to the effort and thereby ensuring that the Soviets wouldn't have the sole say-so on how things were going to be in Europe after the war when the Nazis were eventually defeated. -
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Battle of Bulge (European Campaign)
It was the last throw of the dice for the Germans in the west. They gathered together all the reinforcements and equipment they could find and commited them to one last offensive. The German defeat meant that they had nothing left to oppose the advance of the British and Americans into Germany -
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Iwo Jima (Pacific Campaign)
Because of the distance between mainland Japan and US bases in Mariana Islands, the capture of Iwo Jima would provide an emergency landing strip for crippled B-29's returning from bombing runs. -
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Okinawa (Pacific Campaign)
The Japanese showed they knew they couldn't win the war but would make it so costly for the Allies to win so they would much rather prefer a negotiated settlement. the US realized that the Japanese would only surrender when dead. -
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VE Day (European Campaign)
The day of Victory in Europe, it was the end of WWII in Europe. War with Japan continued for several months later. -
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Hiroshima and Nagasaki (Pacific Campaign)
An American B-29 bomber dropped the world's first deployed atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Two days later a second B-29 dropped another atomic bomb on Nagasaki. Japan's emperor Hirohito announced his country's unconditional surrender. -
VJ Day (Pacific Campaign)
Japan surrendered unconditionally to the Allies, effectively ending WWII, known as Victoryover Japan Day.