-
Japan invades China
HIstory LEarning Cite
Japan saw Manchuria as a great supplier for goods and as a good protector. The invasion happened after the Mukden Incident. On July 7th, both Japanese and Chinese exchanged fire to eachother. Japan used the excuse to begin this war because Chinese troops at the Marco Polo Bridge near Beijing, someone had fired at them. They used this and went full on China. China's most important port fell. -
Rape of Nanking
History Cite
When Japan armies fled into the cities, they killed over 250,000 civilians. This was one of the most brutal massacres in history. They beheaded,bayonated,shot them, and many other gruesome ways before dumping them into massive graves. It lasted over 6 weeks. -
Invasion of Poland
Ushmm
Hitler wanted to sign an agreement pact with Poland in January of 1934. Many Germans did not agree to this, epecially those who follow Hitler. -
German Blitzkrieg
History.com
The "blitzkrieg" is what the Germans defined as the "lightning war ". This was used to described how the sky looked when there were thousands of planes dropping bombs down below. It was also known as a military tactic. It was used to distract the opponent. This was used by Germany on Poland which successfully led to the invasion of Poland. -
Fall of Paris
The Guardian
Germany played this one very secretive. France had been wating on them to attack, but it had taken a while for them to think they wouldnt anymore. Germany had emerged from the forrests and attacked Paris. They fought back hard, but it was nothing compared to Germany. France was then divided into German occupation zones, North and West. -
Operation Barbarossa
History
Hitler had forgotten the pact with Stalin, and went foward with attacking the Soviet Union. He sent 3 million soldiers, armed and ready to fight against ones who they believed were allies. Barbarossa was the crucial turning point in the world war 2, for its failure forced Nazi Germany to fight a two front war against there own allie, but Barbarossa was a fail, and Hitler faced his first defeat -
Pearl Harbor
History.com Website
Pearl Harbor was one of history's worst day ever. Japanese aircrafts dropped bombs on the harbor, located in Honolulu,Hawaii. The barrage lasted just two hours but it was devastating. It had destroyed 20 naval vessels, 200 airplanes and 8 battleships. More than 2,000 soldiers died and about 1,000 had been greatly injured. This caused Franklin D. Roosevelt to ask to go to war with Japan -
Wannsee Conference
<ahref='http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005477' >U.S.</a>
The Wannsee Conference or the Final Solution was the meeting with Hitler and the Nazi Party officials,on how they would deal with the Jewish population. He then decided on the extermination on the ending of Jews. Most officials had already known this was planned. Hydrich indicated that about 11 million Jews would be part of this Final Solution, but not including Jews from the United Kingdom and so forth. -
Bataan Death March
History
The Bataan Death March was the forcible and cruel transfer of prisoned Filipinos and little of prisoned Americans. There was about 70,000 Filipinos and about 500 Americans being switched to Camp O'Donnell. More than half of them were dead before even reaching the location. They were stripped of values and weapons and told to walk threre. Many of them were beatened,tortured and bayonated. They didnt recieve much food or water -
Operation Gomorrah
<ahref='http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/hamburg_bombing_1943.htm' >History Learning Site</a>
On this day, British forces bomb Hamburg,Germany. When Germany had bombed British in July, they had killed 167 civilians, and now Britain felt like it was time to turn the tables.More than 1,500 Germans were killed on the first raid. This was successful for the first bombing since they had used a new device called "Window". This used aluminum foil on the aircraft which made the planes not seem there -
Allied invasion of Italy
U.S.
Field Marshal Bernard led an Allied invasion into the peninsula of Italy. On the day of the landing, the Italian government had secretly agreed to surrender. Mussolini was planning to become a Roman Empire, but then he became allied with the Axis powers. On September 3, Montgomery's 8th Army began its invasion on Italy and they eventually surrendered. -
D-Day
Army Military
On June 6, 1944, more than 160,000 Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy,France. General Eisenhower called the operation a bet to be full victory. More than 5,000 ships and aircrafts helped along, but the cost was deadly. About 9,000 soldiers had died on the beach. This day was successful but also a tragedy. -
Operation Thunderclap
WW2 Today
Operation Thunderclap had been under discission as well, to bomb most cities of Germany. Allied forces also wanted to show Germans that they were not as strong as they thought they were. They were planning to hit Dresden, the largest city of Germany, they also hadnt been bombed before. They knew that if they hit this city, it would anger them and will hurt them the most. -
Battle of Iwo Jima
WW2
The Battle of IwoJima was a major battle in which the United States Armed Forces landed and eventually captured the island of Iwo Jima. This was known as Operation Detachment, and there goal was to capture the entire island, including the three Japanese-controlled airfields. It had lasted 5 weeks and bloodiest war of War in the Pacific of WW2. The Imperial Japanese Army were heavily armed with bunkers and hidden artillery positions. -
Battle of Okinawa
History
The last major battle, the Okinawa involved the 287,000 troops of the U.S. This was the Japanese Thirty-Army. At stake were air bases because they were projected invasion of Japan. By the end of the campaign more than 77,000 soldiers died from Japan and 65,000 casualties from the Allied forces. This was also a big turning point for Japan because they had switched their normal tactics. They started doing one-way missions, which was suicide. -
Liberation of concentration camps
U.S.As Allied troops moved across Europe in a series of offensives against Germany, they had been coming across concentration camp prisoners, skinny, almost dying. Soviet forces were the first to approach a major Nazi camp, the Germans tried to hide the evidence. The Soviets overran some of the sites, but most of the Jews were already dead.When they reached Auschwitz, they found over 840,000 peoples clothing.Thanks to the rest of the Allies, they ended up freeing. -
V.E. Day
History
VE Day was the Victory in Europe Day. It officially meant that World War 2 was finally over. German General Jold signed the unconditional surrender document that formally ended the war in Europe. Many partied in celebration even when it was pouring rain outside. Everyone was throwing parties and it was a time of union for the public, to move forth together. -
Dropping of Atomic Bombs
U.S. History
The United States became the first and hopefully the last, country to use atomic bombs during wartime. They dropped the first one on Hiroshima,Japan. Since 1940, they had been working on developing an atomic weapon, but it was created because they had heard about Germany making one, this became known as the Manhattan Project. The first one immediately killed 80,000, and the second one killed 40,000. Many died from radiation poison. -
V.J, Day
HIstory
VJ Day stands for VIctory over Japan Day. This was the day chosen on which Japan surrendered also with World War 2 ending. When Japan heard about the surrender, about 100 soliders committed suicide and over 100 prisoners of war were also murdered. The picture on the left became very popular. It showed that after all the hate and devastating effects of war, they can finally move on as well and have everything go back to normal. -
Battle of the Bulge
History
Hitler attempted to split the Allies by using a blitzkrieg on Ardennes to Antwerp. They released three armies which would be known as the deadliest,brutalist in the west. A crucial German shortage caused them to almost fall out, but instead call for Allied help. The Battle of the Bulge cost about 100,000 casualties.
