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Japanese Invasion of China
In 1937 the Japanese invaded China because they claimed that a chinese soldier had fired at them at the Marco Polo Bridge. The battle was strong but the Japanese prevailed with their first victory by having Shanghai (very important Chinese port) and Nanjing (Chiang Kai-shek’s capitol) fall. Almost all of China was taken over, however guerilla communist troops were training. After the Japanese surrendered because of underestimating the Chinese, 4 million deaths later, now communism grew bigger. -
Germany's Invasion of Poland
Germany ran propaganda in order to get Poland to evacuate, where Germany then had a fake invasion where they dressed nazi's in poland uniforms. After that, the actual invasion took place september 1st. German troops decided to invade poland with bombing of polish airfields and naval attacks. Adolf Hitler claims it as defensive while Britain and France decide to claim war on Germany on September 3rd, starting world war 2. -
German Blitzkrieg
Blitzkrieg was first used in a Time Magazine article to describe the enemy German's in war, and eventually the name stuck. Blitzkrieg was a batte system that relies on quick and strong movements used to overwhelm the enemy's weak spots. In may of 1940 examples of these attacks can be seen against Europe as it was rather effectivce. It worked so well because it caught the enemies very much off guard. -
Fall of Paris
German's had invaded France one faithful evening in June and had impacted France in a big way. They gave a curfew of 8:00 and wouldn't let France do anything. They had hoped that America would come to their aid, and they did, although they could only offer more supplies. Eventually Candadian troops did come through and offer hope to the French. -
Operation Barbarossa
Hitler had planned a massive invasion of the Soviet Union that spanned 2,000 miles in one of the biggest invasions in history. Before this they had signed pacts to make their relationship stronger which did prolong the invasion. The failing of operation Barbarossa was the biggest turning point of WW2 because it led to Hitler wanting more invasions and impactful battles. -
Pearl Harbor
America wasn't very happy with Japan's attitude towards China and how they were at war with them all the time. America responded by limiting their access to goods and after that war was imminent between the two. One day, when no one expected it, Japan launched a bombing attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, causing many under prepared Americans to perish. This influenced the later attacks from America to Japan. -
Wannsee Conference
The Germans decided to find the "final solution to the Jewish question" by getting together and figuring out what to do. After some speculating, the idea of concentration camps came up and they decided they would work the chosen people to death, and would gas all the ones that would not die. The result of this is multiple deaths and the rise in strength of the Nazi party. -
Bataan Death March
After the Pearl harbor bombing, the Japanese had captured the captial of the Philippines (Manila) and had got the US army that resided there to surrender 75,000 troops at Bataan. The troops were then forced to march about 65 miles to San Fernando, with thousands of troops dying because of the harshness of theifr captors. America later avenged their defeat with the invasion of the island of Leyte. -
Battle of Midway
After Pearl harbor, Japan wanted to finish the job by getting rid of the last of the American ships that were at the harbor, but America was a step ahead. They found the Japanese on June 4th as they had a big battle with Midway based planes hence the name, batte of Midway. It was a game of back and forth between the two, but eventually it ended with many air deaths and lead to America traveling to Tokyo later. -
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
Due to the concentration camps the Jewish Warsaw ghetto had brought up an uprising against these camps with weapons by their side. The camp members took guns from the armory and staged the revolt, but most of them were recaptured. In the end, it promoted more uprisings in other camps and was a good step towards freedom. -
Operation Gomorrah
The Germans had bombed Britain in the past with 167 deaths, so Britain repaid the favor. They more than tripled the amount of fire power and waves of bombers with about 9,000 tons of explosives killing about 30,000 people and destroying about 280,000 buildings. After these bombs dropped in Hamburg, Hitler refused to visit the broken sites and broke down German morale. -
D-Day
Americans had allied with Canada and Britain to invade the beaches of Germany in an attempt to penetrate their defenses. Hitler feared of this, so beforehand he got men to create a wall of traps such as landmines, bunkers, water traps, etc. to protect themselves from the upcoming invasion. The allied countries tried all they could to decieve Germany to have their motives undetectable. They launched a major battle on the beaches of Normandy that ended up in th victory of the allied troops. -
Battle of the Bulge
The allied armies were a problem for Germany, so they planned to confuse them with a blitzkrieg surprise attack. They attacked two inexperienced divisions with 3 German armies and almost destroyed division of 106. However, The American troops were persistant and kept fighting in the frozen forest of Ardennes, and since Germany was low on fuel, this was a big problem for Hitler. In the end, even though over 100,000 casualties occurred, the German's eventually retreated. -
Liberation of Nazi Camps
In the summer of 1944, Soviet forces had managed to be quick in advances in Germany and had discovered their first concentration camp. Germany tried to hide the evidence by burning all of the camps down, but to no avail. This started a string of liberations of different camps,with a jumpstart when Auschwitz was liberated in Januray, saving thousands of mal nourished and exhausted jews. -
Operation Thunderclap
Allied countries were in a conference discussing the possibility of performing airstrikes on somwhere in German that holds a threat and they decided on Dresden. At night, 244 lancasters dropped over 800 tons of explosives over the city, and then three hours later an even bigger onslaught occurred. There was backlash to the huge destruction of a beautiful city when the war was almost over, and was a big issue at that time. -
Battle of Iwo Jima
America decided that they needed a base near Japan that would be a great area of retreat and planning. Thus the battle of Iwo Jima came into play. After an initial start to the battle, the japanese were fighting in a network of caves and bunkers that would help conceal them from the enemy for a more defensive approach. Eventually, American troops found the hiding places and were victorious. -
Battle of Okinawa
The battle of Okinawa consisted of a large number of American troops vs. a smaller number of Japanese troops in attemps to secure vital air bases. Due to the difference in numbers of troops, Japan played it very defensively with using old caves and castles. Their new strategy involved having one way suicide missions of pilots known as kamikaze, making it very difficult for the Americans. Around 100,000 civilians died, with many more other deaths. -
VE Day
VE stands for Victory in Europe day, because it marks the day that Germany surrendered to the Soviet enemies. The Russians had taken over 2 million German prisoners before and after the surrender. Around 13,000 British POW were released after a while. Soviets celebrate this day on may 9th. -
Dropping of the Atomic Bombs
Atomic weapons had been in developement for a while and when the bombs were ready, Germany was already defeated. After testing it's effectiveness, they were going to use it on the lasting war they had with Japan. They bombed the city of Hiroshima killing about 80,000 people and ruining the whole area. They later dropped another bomb on Nagasaki, killing 40,000 more people. -
VJ Day
On August 14-15, Japan had surrendered due to the bombings, basically ending all of world war 2. The potsdam had wanted Japan to surrender and they would have a peaceful government relationship, they said no, and the atomic bombs made them change their minds. After 4 years, the war on Japan with America and all of world war 2 had ended.
