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Japanese invasion of China
SourceThe Japan-China War started when the Japanese claimed that they were fired on by Chinese troops at the Marco Polo Bridge near Beijing. In the time scale of five months, one million Chinese people were under Japanese control. The war against China had lead to 4 million casualties with 60 million made homeless. By Aug 1945, the communists controlled far more of China than they had done in 1937. -
Rape of Nanking
[Source](peoplehttp://www.history.com/topics/nanjing-massacre)Over a period of six weeks, Imperial Japanese Army forces brutally murdered hundreds of thousands of people in the Chinese city of Nanking. Between 20,000 and 80,000 women were sexually assaulted. Nanking was left in ruins, and it would take decades for the city and its citizens to recover from the horrifying attacks. There is no exact known death toll, but estimates have ranged from 200,000 to 300,000. -
German Blitzkrieg (1939-1940)
SourceGermany's Blitzkrieg tactics overwhelmed Poland then not too long after destroyed Denmark, Norway, and the Low Countries and finally France.. Blitzkrieg first appeared in the form of elite infantry units. Later, Blitzkrieg evolved into modern mobile warfare. Blitzkrieg accounted for most of Germany’s military victories from 1939 to 1942. Germany's Blitzkrieg operations achieved all their goals. -
Germany's invasion of Poland
SourceGerman forces launched Blitzkeieg across the German-Poland border at more than ten points. The Germans had about 1 million men against about 600,000 Poles. Poland was crushed between the Red Army moving westward and the Wehrmacht moving east. They surrendered not to long after that in September due to lack of food and ammunition. Germany and the Soviet Union met the next day to set new borders dividing Poland between them. -
Operation Barbarossa
SourceCodenamed Operation Barbarossa, it was the largest military operation in history, involving more than 3 million Axis troops and 3,500 tanks. Soviets in numbers of 250,000 were lost in a massive encirclement around Minsk at the end of June, 180,000 were taken prisoner at Smolensk. But, Germans had underestimated both the resources of the Soviet Union and its willingness to accept massive losses. Operation Barbarossa was one of the decisive moments of the war in Europe. -
Pearl Harbor
SourceOn December 7, 1941, of Japanese fighter planes attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor near Honolulu, Hawaii. It lasted just two hours, but it was devastating: The Japanese managed to destroy nearly 20 American naval vessels, including eight enormous battleships, and almost 200 airplanes. More than 2,000 Americans soldiers and sailors died in the attack, and another 1,000 were wounded. -
Wannsee Conference
SourceOn this day, Nazi officials meet to discuss the details of the “Final Solution” of the “Jewish question.” The goal was to devise a plan that would render a “final solution to the Jewish question” in Europe. The minutes of this conference were kept with meticulous care, which later provided key evidence during the Nuremberg war crimes trials. -
Bataan Death March
SourceJapans bombing at Pearl Harbor soon led to what took place at the Bataan Death March. After the April 9, 1942, U.S. surrender of the Bataan Peninsula, the approximately 75,000 Filipino and American troops on Bataan were forced to make an arduous 65-mile march to prison camps. After the war, an American military tribunal tried Lieutenant General Homma Masaharu, commander of the Japanese invasion forces in the Philippines. He was held responsible for the death march, a war crime, and was executed. -
Battle of Midway
SourceThe United States was a growing threat, and Japanese Admiral Isoruku Yamamoto sought to destroy the U.S. Pacific Fleet before it was large enough to outmatch his own. When the Battle of Midway ended, Japan had lost four carriers, a cruiser and 292 aircraft, and suffered an estimated 2,500 casualties.In August 1942, the great U.S. counteroffensive began at Guadalcanal and did not cease until Japan’s surrender three years later. -
Battle of Stalingrad
SourceThe Battle of Stalingrad was the successful Soviet defense of the city of Stalingrad in the U.S.S.R. during World War II. It stopped the German advance into the Soviet Union and marked the turning of the tide of war in favor of the Allies. The Battle of Stalingrad was one of the bloodiest battles in history, with combined military and civilian casualties of nearly 2 million. -
Operation Gomorrah
SourceOperation Gomorrah was an aerial bombing campaign that occurred in the European Theater of Operations. Operation Gomorrah destroyed a significant percentage of the city of Hamburg, leaving over 1 million residents homeless and killing 40,000-50,000 civilians. In addition to the civilian casualties, Operation Gomorrah destroyed over 16,000 apartment buildings and reduced ten square miles of the city to rubble. -
Allied invsion of Italy
SourceAfter defeating Italy and Germany in the North African Campaign of World War II, the leading allies, United States and Great Britain, looked ahead to the invasion of occupied Europe and the final defeat of Nazi Germany. The Allies’ Italian Campaign began with the invasion of Sicily in July 1943. After 38 days of fighting, the U.S. and Great Britain successfully drove German and Italian troops from Sicily and prepared to assault the Italian mainland. -
Battle of Iwo Jima (1944-1945)
SourceThe invasion of Iwo Jima, about 575 miles from the Japanese coast, was sparked with great thought. The Japanese fought from an elaborate network of caves, dugouts, tunnels, and underground installations that were difficult to find and destroy. Except for 1,083 prisoners the entire garrison was wiped out. American losses included 5,900 dead and 17,400 wounded. -
D-Day (Normandy Invasion)
SourceThe battle began when some 156,000 American, British and Canadian forces landed on five beaches along a 50-mile stretch of the heavily fortified coast of France’s Normandy region. The Normandy invasion began to turn the tide against the Nazis. Also, it prevented Hitler from sending troops from France to build up his Eastern Front against the advancing Soviets. Later on, the Allies formally accepted the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany and Hitler had committed suicide. -
Battle of the Bulge (1944-1945)
SourceThe Battle of the Bulge was the largest land battle of World War 2 in which the United States directly participated. More than a million men fought in the battle with 600,000 Germans, 500,000 Americans, and 55,000 British. The last of the German reserves were gone, the Luftwaffe had been broken, and the German army in the west was being pushed back. Most importantly, the Eastern Front was now ripe for the taking by the Soviets. Until this day, there are no records of why the massacre happened. -
Operation Thunderclap
SourceThis 'Operation' had been under discussion within the Allied Command for some time, the proposal was to bomb the eastern-most cities of Germany to disrupt the transport infrastructure behind what was becoming the Eastern front. Also to demonstrate to the German population, in even more devastating fashion, that the air defenses of Germany were now of little substance and that the Nazi regime had failed them. -
Battle of Okinawa
SourceThis was the end of and the 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. Air bases vital to the projected invasion of Japan were at stake. By the end of the 82-day campaign, Japan had lost more than 77,000 soldiers and the Allies had suffered more than 65,000 casualties—including 14,000 dead. Furthermore, on both sides, commanding generals were dead. -
VE Day
SourceOn VE Day, both Great Britain and the United States celebrate the Victory in Europe. It was a day when German troops throughout Europe finally laid down their arms and surrendered. The Russians took approximately 2 million prisoners in the period just before and after the German surrender. Meanwhile, more than 13,000 British POWs were released and sent back to Great Britain. On May 9, the Soviets would lose 600 more soldiers in Silesia before the Germans finally surrendered. -
Dropping of the atomic bombs
SourceThe first atomic bomb dropped over the city of Hiroshima. Approximately 80,000 people were killed as a direct result of the blast, and another 35,000 were injured. Furthermore, least another 60,000 would be dead by the end of the year from the effects of the fallout. Hiroshima went from 90,000 buildings to28,000. Of the city’s 200 doctors, 20 were left alive or capable of working. There were 1,780 nurses and only 150 remained who were able to tend to the sick and dying. -
VJ Day
SourceOn this day, 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 “Victory over Japan Day.” Coming several months after the surrender of Nazi Germany, Japan’s capitulation in the Pacific brought six years of hostilities to a final and highly anticipated close.
