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Japanese invasion of China
China fought Japan, with some economic help from Germany (see Sino-German cooperation until 1941), the Soviet Union and the United States. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the war would merge into the greater conflict of World War II as a major front of what is broadly known as the Pacific War. -
Rape of Nanking (1937)
The massacre occurred over six weeks starting December 13, 1937, the day that the Japanese captured Nanjing. During this period, soldiers of the Imperial Japanese Army murdered Chinese civilians and disarmed combatants numbering an estimated 40,000 to over 300,000, and perpetrated widespread rape and looting. -
Germanys invasion of Poland
The Invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign, or the 1939 Defensive War in Poland, was a joint invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, the Free City of Danzig, the Soviet Union, and a small Slovak contingent, that marked the beginning of World War II in Europe. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939 and ended on October 6. -
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. -
Ribbentrop/Molotov Pact (1939)
On August 23, 1939–shortly before World War II (1939-45) broke out in Europe–enemies Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union surprised the world by signing the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact, in which the two countries agreed to take no military action against each other for the next 10 years. -
Fall of Paris (1940)
On this day in 1940, Parisians hear 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. -
Operation Barbossa
Operation Barbosa was a massive operation that happened along the Baltic Shore on the Black Sea. Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Nazi Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II, which began on 22 June 1941. The operation was driven by Adolf Hitler's ideological desire to conquer Soviet territory as outlined in his 1925 manifesto. -
Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor is a lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. Much of the harbor and surrounding lands is a United States Navy deep-water naval base. It is also the headquarters of the United States Pacific Fleet. The attack on Pearl Harbor by the Empire of Japan on December 7, 1941 was the immediate cause of the United States' entry into the war. -
Wannsee Conference (1942)
The purpose of the conference was to ensure the cooperation of administrative leaders of various government departments in the implementation of the final solution to the Jewish. most of the Jews of German-occupied Europe would be deported to Poland and murdered. -
Bataan Death March (1942)
The Bataan Death March was the forcible transfer from Saisaih Pt. and Mariveles to Camp O'Donnell by the Imperial Japanese Army of 60,000–80,000 Filipino and American prisoners of war which began on April 9, 1942, -
Battle of Midway (1942)
the Battle of Midway–one of the most decisive U.S. victories against Japan during World War II–begins. During the four-day sea-and-air battle, the outnumbered U.S. Pacific Fleet succeeded in destroying four Japanese aircraft carriers while losing only one of its own, the Yorktown, to the previously invincible Japanese navy. -
Operation Gomorrah (1943)
British bombers raid Hamburg, Germany, by night time in Operation Gomorrah, while Americans bomb it by day time in its own “Blitz Week.” -
D-Day (Normandy Invasion - 1944)
During World War II (1939-1945), the Battle of Normandy, which lasted from June 1944 to August 1944, resulted in the Allied liberation of Western Europe from Nazi Germany’s control. -
Operation Thunderclap
Operation Thunderclap was the code for a cancelled operation planned in August 1944 but shelved and never happened. The plan envisaged a massive attack on Berlin that would cause 220,000 casualties with 110,000 killed, many of them key German personnel, which would shatter German morale. -
Battle of Iwo Jima (1945)
The Battle of Iwo Jima, 19 February – 26 March 1945, was a major battle in which the U.S. Marines landed on and eventually captured and envaded the island of Iwo Jima from the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II. -
Dropping of the atomic bombs (1945)
On this day in 1945, an American B-29 bomber, the Enola Gay, drops the world’s first atom bomb, over the city of Hiroshima. Approximately 80,000 people are killed as a direct result of the blast, and another 35,000 are injured. At least another 60,000 would be dead by the end of the year from the effects of the fallout. -
Battle of Okinawa (1945)
Last and biggest of the Pacific island battles of World War II, the Okinawa campaign involved the 287,000 troops of the U.S. Tenth Army against 130,000 soldiers of the Japanese Thirty-second Army. -
VE Day (1945)
In 1945, both Great Britain and the United States celebrate a Victory in Europe Day. Cities in both nations, as well as formerly occupied cities in Western Europe, put out flags and banners, rejoicing in the defeat of the Nazi war machine. -
VJ Day (1945)
On August 14, 1945, it was announced that Japan had surrendered unconditionally to the Allies, effectively ending World War II. Since then, both August 14 and August 15 have been known as VJ-Day. -
Battle of the Bulge (1945)
the Germans launch the last major offensive of the war, 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, was called this 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.
