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Nazi Soviet Non-Aggression Pact
Stalin and Hitler had a non-aggression pact and agreed to stay out of each others way. On June 22nd 1941 Hitler broke the pact and invaded Russia. This was a horrible time for Russia because, Stalin thought that everyone was out to get him and had killed most of his generals and war officials. So when Germany did invade it was easy to get in not so easy to take over. This event is important because it is the reason the operation of Barbarossa happened and one of the reasons why Germany lost. -
Miracle at Dunkirk
Hitler could decide whether or not he wanted to capture the Allied soldiers that were on the beach after he had taken over France. Mostly because he did not want to cut of his supple lines. So the Allies took advantage of this and sent out all kinds of boats and naval ships to save the soldiers. The RCN also joined in. The Allied troops save about 350,000 people. This event is important because if Britain did not get these soldiers back then Germany would have taken over Britain. -
Battle of Britain
Hitler wanted to go after the soldiers who escaped from Dunkirk but knew if he sent his navy after them that the RAF would bomb them. So he sent his air force to bomb the air craft factories in Britain. The bombings lasted until Oct 31 1940.The Germans had good pilots but Britain had radar and also had help from allied countries like Canada. This battle was important because Hitler made a mistake by bombing London. So Britain bombed Berlin and Germany lost a lot from this attack. -
Operation of Barbarossa
Once Hitler decided to invade Russia there was no use because the Russians would just push back into Russia and would burn everything they left behind. So when the Germans took over that area there was no point because they got nothing out of only burnt crops and farms. Then soon after the weather became very cold and the Germans were not prepared for this weather. They retreated, the attack lasted until Dec 5 1941. This was important because Germany took heavy losses. -
Start of war in Pacific Theater
The US put a band on exports of steel, and fuel to Japan because Japan had taken over northern France. Soon after Japan took over southern China and then the US, Britain and Netherlands froze all of Japans assets. The US wanted to stop Japans expansion but did not want to go war. This was important because this made the Japanese vary angry and made them attack Pearl harbor then had the Americans drop the atomic bomb. -
Pearl harbor
Once the Americans froze all exports to Japan from the US and a bunch of other countries the Japanese were angry because they are a small island that needed the oil because they do not have much oil there. On Dec 7 1941 the Japanese wanted to lift the embargo but the only problem was the pacific fleet in the US. The Japanese did not declare war they just bombed the fleet. This is an important event because it is the main reason why the US dropped the unclear bomb. -
Invasion of Hong Kong
Canada sent troops to Hong Kong along with other allied troops to defend against Japaneses troops. About 1900 allied troops were either killed or taken to Japanese torture camps. The camps were brutal and many people died of disease and starvation. The allied troops were brutally tortured in these camps. This was the first WW 2 combat for Canadians. This was important because this was when the allies found out merciless the Japanese were when it came to war. -
Dieppe Raid
Allied troops were sent to the beach of Dieppe once Hitler had taken over France. It was a bad idea to attack from the beach because there was a cliff on the beach. The Germans set up their machine guns at the top of the cliff and had an advantage against the Allied troops. Once the Allied troops got to the beach they were slaughtered because they could not get past the machine guns. This raid was important because it was a huge loss for the Allied troops. -
Battle of Stalingrad
The Nazis were running low on supplies so they decided to take the city of Stalingrad but the Russia where not going to let them take it without a fight. The Germans and Russians fought from Sep 14 1942 to Feb 2 1943 for the city of Stalingrad on the Volga river. the Nazis ended up losing with over 500,000 causalities. This battle was important because this was when the Germans started to lose the war and was one of the battles that effected Germany because they did not get the supplies. -
Allied Troops in Sicily
The allied troops planed to attack Nazi soldiers from Italy. They did this so that the Germans could neglect western Europe, take some heat off of Russia and trap Italy. The battle was high losses for both sides. At the end of the battle the Italians ended up surrendering to the Allies. The Italians ended up splitting up into 2 groups one was pro allies and the other was pro German. This battle was important because the Germans ended up losing land and some Italian allies. -
Battle of Ortona
At this point the Allied troops were still in Italy trying to fully take it over from the Germans. They had reached the city of Ortona. The Germans had blown up bridges and the country side trying to trap the allied troops and keep them from taking anymore land. The battle lasted from Dec 20 1943 to Dec 28 1943. The allies had many casualties but ended up taking over all of Rome by June 1944. This battle was important because the Germans lost land and allied Italians. -
D-Day/The Invasion of Normandy
The Allies made a lot of technology improvements for this up coming invasion. This became the biggest military operation in history, the allies had 150,000 soldiers 30,000 of them were Canadian. They also had 7000 battleships. The Americans and Canadians ended up freeing Paris and all of France from the Germans. Germany was now getting attacked from 3 sides France, Russia, and Italy. This battle was important because it was the down fall of Germany and was the begging of the end for the Nazis. -
V-E Day
The allies had a huge advantage because they could attack Germany from all 3 sides now. So they came at the Germans from the west of Germany. Then the Canadians liberated most of the Netherlands in April 1945. Then on April 30 1945 the Germans had just about lost the war and Hitler had committed suicide with his wife and told his soldiers specifically what to do with his body because he did not want to be publicly shamed.This was important because it was the defeat of Nazi Germany. -
Hiroshima
The US decide to drop the first atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima. They dropped it there because of the cities industrial and military significance. There were innocent civilians that were killed in the bombing. At 8:15 the atomic bomb "little boy" was dropped on Hiroshima. In seconds the city was flattened and thousands dead. Over 140,000 people died. This was significant because it was the first time a unclear bomb was dropped and the civilians died in a brutal way. -
Nagasaki
This was where the second atomic bomb was dropped the bomb was called the "fat man", it was dropped at 11:02 am. The people of Japan still kept fighting but on Aug 15 1945 the emperor of Japan made an announcement that Japan had surrendered. Over 80,000 people died in Nagasaki . This bomb was the thing that made the Japanese surrender and the war end.
