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On September 1st Poland was invaded. Germany covered its tracks by accusing Poland Britain and France of planning an attack on Germany. In their invasion, they used over 2,000 tanks, along with 900 bomber planes paired with 400 fighter planes, and even 1.6 million men to support the ground. Almost instantly they took over the entire country demolishing the Poland army which was lacking technologically.
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/invasion-of-poland-fall-1939 -
Blitzkrieg was a new and revolutionary tactic used at the beginning of the war. they would use a series of tanks planes and ground troops to completely wipe out cities or countries. it was very effective early on in the war, no other countries had a response to such an aggressive form of attack.
https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/blitzkrieg -
the germans stormed France in late may and within one month they had captured the capital and established themselves as temporary leaders of France. they would continue to rule the nation until the surrender of Nazi Germany in 1945.
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/paris-liberated#:~:text=Paris%20fell%20to%20Nazi%20Germany,with%20its%20capital%20at%20Vichy. -
in the middle of the summer, the Luftwaffe descended on Britain. they conducted a series of carpet bombings in London. this victory for Germany would allow them a very heavy tactical advantage. but in the end, the royal air force, although lesser equipped they were better pilots which allowed them to be victorious.
https://www.britannica.com/event/Battle-of-Britain-European-history-1940 -
in the winter of 1941, an armada of Japanese planes headed toward pearl harbor. they were planning to do this to de-mobilize the united states so they could be unstoppable for roughly 6 months. they did a series of bombings and destroyed a very large portion of the base.
https://www.britannica.com/event/Pearl-Harbor-attack -
The Wannsee Conference or the conference of a final solution was held in a suburb of berlin where 15 nazi party leaders talked about what exactly to do with Jews. their original plan was to ship all of them off to Africa. but after the war started they realized that was highly impractical and too expensive and then they came up with the idea of concentration camps.
https://www.britannica.com/event/Wannsee-Conference -
Japan had been planning an attack to take Port Moresby from the allied powers. allied intelligence learned of the plan and told all available units to help. the Japanese were crushed by the Allies' naval and air power. they had to take a desisting loss.
https://www.britannica.com/event/Battle-of-the-Coral-Sea -
the battle of midway was very tactical. although it was a naval war. it was fought almost entirely with airplanes. it was a decisive move by the united states to move in on japan's conquered land to scare them and to approach on the mainland japan. -
The Germans advanced on Stalingrad with a very large amount of troops. Russia sat hidden in the town ready to attack as soon as they entered the city. the battle was one of the most gruesome of the entire war with nearly 2 million deaths. the Russians successfully defended the germans, it was one of the turning points of the entire year.
https://www.britannica.com/event/Battle-of-Stalingrad -
In the early stages of World War 2, some 100,000 people were forced by the Japanese military were they were forced to march or be in cramped train cars to march to a camp. during the march, thousands were shot, killed, beheaded, or toured. once arriving at the camp a large number of people died of sickness or starvation.
https://www.britannica.com/event/Bataan-Death-March -
possibly the most well-known battle fought in World war 2
150,000 troops landed on a stretch of very heavily fortified french beach. at the time it was the largest amphibious attack in existence. American, Canadian, and British troops trudged across the beach and overpowered French fortifications.
https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/d-day -
after the allied powers had pushed into France they pushed across toward the western front. the germans were scared of them pushing into Germany and made their last offensive move of the war and pushed a bulge into the allied troops. the germans were very successful.
https://www.britannica.com/event/Battle-of-the-Bulge -
after the battle of the bugle, the germans were pushed back dramatically by allied and soviet forces alike. the soviet forces pushed through Poland and as they went along they liberated all the camps they found and went through. the sights that troops saw were very horrific, they saw many different types of crimes towards humanity.
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/liberation-of-nazi-camps -
another battle between Japan and the United States for a small island with airstrips. located about 750 miles away from mainland Japan it would be a vital asset for America. troops stormed the beaches and climbed the mountains and obliterated the Japanese and left about only 200 or so Japanese alive out of 21,000.
https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/battle-of-iwo-jima -
going into this decision the United States faced two possibilities. to either send hundreds of thousands of men into mainland japan and destroy them or drop a giant very lethal bomb scientists have been building for years and spent billions of dollars on. they dropped two atomic bombs on two of the largest cities in Japan Hiroshima and Nagasaki.