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germanys invasion of poland
german forces invaded poland from the north, south, and west the morning after the gleiwitz incident.hitler said it was a defensive action. to hitler, the conquest of poland would bring lebensraum , or "living space", for the german people. warsaw surrendered to the germans. -
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german blitzkrieg
blitzkrieg means "lighting war ". it was a method of warfare whereby an attacking force spearheaded by a dense consentration of armoured and motorised or methanised infantry formations with close air support , breaks through the opponents line of defense by short, fast, powerful attacks and then dislocates the defenders. they used it because it was fast and affective. -
pearl harbor
hundreds of japanese fighter planes attacked the american navel base at pearl harbor near honolulu. the united states was particularly unhappy with japans increasingly belligerent attitude toward china. the japanese tried to expand into other territory. -
d day
more than 160000 allied troops landed along a 50 mile stretch of heavily fortified french coastline to fight nazi germany on the beaches of normandy, france. d day was the beginning of the end. -
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battle of the bulge
hitler attempted to split the allied armies in northwest europe by means of surprise blitzkrieg thrust through the ardennes to antwerp. as the germans drve deeper into the ardennes in an attempt to secure vital bridgeheads, the allied line took on the appearance of a large bulge, giving rise to the battles name. it was caused because of hitlers plan. 30000 soldiers and 44000 infantry forces were killed or captured. the germans also lost a significant amount of weapons, specifically tanks. -
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battle of iwo jima
the u.s. marines landed on and eventually captured the island of iwo jima from the japanese imperial army during ww2. the invasion was caused by the need for a base near the japanese coast. -
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battle of okinawa
the capture of okinawa was part of a three point plan the americans had for winning the war in the far east. -
ve day
the day to mark the formal acceptance by the allies of ww2 of nazi germanys unconditional surrender of its armed forces -
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dropping of the atomic bombs
an american b29 bomber dropped the worlds first atomic bomb over the city of hiroshima. 3 days later, a second bomb was dropped on nagasaki. -
vj day
it was the day celibrating japans surrender
