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Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht were the violent anti-Jewish acts in Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia. The name was given to the shards of glass that covered the streets from the windows of synagogues, homes, and Jewish-owned businesses. -
Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggresion pact
The Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression pact stated that the two countries would not attack each other. It was signed to last 10 years. Although secretly Hitler promised Stalin Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland, and Poland were to be divided between them. So after 16 days after German invaded West Poland, The Soviet Union invaded an extremely weak East Poland. Unfortunately things went downhill June 22, 1941 when Germany invaded The Soviet Union. -
Invasion of Poland
Germany was upset that Poland gained part of Prussia and Silesia. Hitler signed a non-aggression pact with Poland to make sure no other countries thought to form an alliance with them. So on September 1st, he invaded West Poland. He sent airplanes that bombed cities and tanks carrying 1.5 million soldiers. Polands' military crumbled under the extremely organized German army. -
Dunkirk
The British and French army was trapped in Dunkirk 3 sides by the German army and 1 side by the sea. The German's bombed the city but didn't harm any of the troops. On May 27th the German army started to advance, Civilians brought their boats out to carry the troops across the channel. 330,000 soldiers were rescued from the city. -
Fall of France
On May 10th, Germany launched an invasion of France; Hitler sent soldiers and tanks through the Ardennes. The Ardennes is a thick forest in Northeast France. Since they went through the forest, they squeezed through the Maginot Line. After Germany got through the Maginot Line and entered France, Italy decided to join forces with Germany. Italy attacked France from the south while Germany attacked them from the north. France was so match for the 2 armies, so they surrendered. -
Battle of Britian
On July 10th Hitler sent out 4,500 aircrafts to begin bombing Great Britain. Great Britain’s air force was badly outnumbered, they only had 2,900 aircrafts. They targeted air craft factories at first, but in September started to focus on cities. They focused on London specially to break British morale. They bombed the streets every single day, but Britain preserved. The battle continued until May 10th, 1941 when Hitler decided to call of his attacks. -
The Alantic Charter
TThe United States didn't want to join WW2 because of the horrors that occurred from WW1. So they passed Neutrality acts that made it illegal to give weapons or money to countries at war. But President Roosevelt wanted to aid the countries in the war. So he and Winston Churchill secretly met in Newfoundland. They wrote a declaration that stated free trade among nations and the right for people to choose their own government. -
Pearl Harbor
Japan wanted was trying to conquer China, but their resistance was causing the war to drag on. So Japan planned on taking control of Southeast Asia to get more resources. America didn't want Japan getting control of the Philippines or Guam. So Roosevelt cut of all oil shipments to Japan but they kept attacking. Japan then decided that they were going to attack the American soldiers in Hawaii. They surprised the soldiers and within 2 hours they sunk 18 ships and killed 2,400 and wounded 1,000. -
Battle of Coral Sea
Japan wanted to take over New Guniea and The Sololmon Islands. Australia felt that if Japan took control of these islands they would be too close to their country. So they began to fight back. the entire war was fought by airplanes. Unfortunaley they were too late and Japan took over the island of Tulagi. The american troops broke the japenese code, so they combined forces with australia to defeat japan. -
Battle of Midway
Midway Island was home to a important American Airfeild. The island as attacked 6 months after Pearl Harbor was bombed. But the American's were ahead because they broke another Japanese Code. So the Americans knew that massive amounts of ships and aircrafts were on their way to attack the island. The americans destroyed Japane's naval and air force.So Japan called all of their troops back 2 days later. -
Battle of StalinGrad
Hitler wanted control of Stalingrad because it was a major industrial city. The Soviet Union however was willing to keep it at all costs. Germany constantly bombed the city, turning it into rubble. Stalin refused to let his troops surrender the city. By November Germany controlled 90% of the city. However winter rolled in & weakened the army. Out of 330,000 soldiers only 90,000 were survived. Although Hitler demanded they keep control of the city. February 2nd, 1943 Germany surrendered. -
Operation Torch
The operation was lead by Dwight Eisenhower. America wanted to help relieve soviet soldiers from the German army. American soldiers landed in Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. The countries were under French control, and Hitler threatened to occupy the rest of France if they didn't resist the Americans. Unfortunately they didn't and Hitler took the rest of France. American forces overpowered the Germans 6-1 and got control of Tunisia. -
D-Day
General Dwight Eisenhower was the U.S army chief behind the idea of D-Day. Eisenhower wanted to trick Hitler into thinking that they were attacking the city of Calais, so he set up a fake army. While the fake army was doing its job the real soldiers filed onto the beach of Normandy. The Germans had a concrete wall set up to and machine guns to protect themselves. Although they gained control of the beach, 3,000 American soldiers died in battle. -
Battle of Bulge
Allied forces were closing on Germany from the west and Soviet forces from the east, so Germany had to make a plan fast. The plan was to counterattack the allied forces in the west. They thought that the attack would split British and American forces up. German tanks broke through American walls on December 16th. Although the Allies were completely caught off guard they pushed the German troops back. -
Battle of Iwo Jima
The island was an important air base for Japan. Japan wanted to keep the island at all costs. American troops had bombed the island 2 months before so it was weakened. America then came in and trapped the troops until the surrendered. -
V-E Day
Victory in Europe is a public holiday that celebrates the day that the allies accepted the Nazi's surrender. This offically ended the war in Europe. -
Hiroshima
President Harry Truman wanted the war to come to a end very soon. The only way to do that was to invade Japan's home land, but that could cost America over half a million soldiers. So the president decided to drop the first atomic bomb on Japan. They decided to drop it on the city of Hiroshima. The city had 365,000 people living in it. After the bpmb was dropped 80,000 were killed by it. The destruction the bomb caused was unbelievable. -
Nagasaki
After the extreme success at Hiroshima, America decided to drop another atomic bomb on Japan. This time they chose a smaler town but caused just as much destruction. Nagaski inhabited 200,000 people. The bomb killed 70,000 people but many more died from radiation. -
V-J Day
Victory over Japan Day is the holiday celebrating Japan's surrender from the war. August 15th is the day celebrated in the UK, but America recgonizes September 2nd because Japan signed the offical document that day, -
Nuremberg Trials
After the devastation caused by the holocaust the allies took it upon themselves to punish Germany. They charged 22 Nazi leaders with war aggression, violating the laws of war, and crimes against humanity.12 of the leaders were sentenced to death and the rest were hung on October 16th, 1946. The bodies were then burned in the concentration camps where they murdered their victims.
