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Japan Invades China
o Chinese forces were unable to effectively resist the Japanese.
o The Japanese methodically moved south, seizing control of most of eastern China .
o Japanese moved up rivers and railroad lines into the interior of China.
o Communists were in the remote areas of northwestern China.
o Japanese military was not only better armed and organized, they were also incredibly brutal. -
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Events during WorldWar II
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Germany invades Poland
o This move was not popular with many Germans who supported Hitler but resented the fact that Poland had received the former German provinces.
o Hitler sought the nonaggression pact in order to neutralize the possibility of a French-Polish military alliance.
o France and especially Britain followed a foreign policy of appeasement.
o Polish army was defeated within weeks of the invasion.
o Warsaw surrendered to the Germans on September 27, 1939. -
Recent Views
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Japan attacks PearlHarbor
o Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, Commander of the Japanese Combined Fleet, had initiated planning for a surprise attack on the United States Pacific Fleet .
o Submarines of the Advance Expeditionary Force began their eastward movement across the Pacific in mid-November.
o On the night of December 7 five two-man submarines that had been carried on large submarines cast off and began converging on Pearl Harbor.
o A total of 360 planes were launched in three waves.
o In PearlHarbor were 96 vessels. -
D-Day: The invasion on Normandy
o The Allies would attempt an invasion of France to liberate Europe from Germany.
o Allies decided to begin the invasion by landing a huge army at a place called Normandy Beach.
o Code-named "Operation Overlord", and commanded by American General Dwight D. Eisenhower.
o Allies landed on June 6, 1944 at five beaches in the Normandy area.
o Allied planes pounded the Nazi defenders and dropped thousands of paratroopers behind German lines the night before the seaborne landings. -
Germany Surrenders
oHeinrich Himmler, through Swedish Count Folke Bernadotte, attempted to contact Winston Churchill to negotiate surrender terms.
o Eisenhower adamantly refused to negotiate unless an unconditional surrender on all fronts was achieved.
o While the political leaders in Berlin made their attempts, the German troops began to surrender en masse.
o The first great surrender occurred in Italy.
o Lt.General Helmuth Weidling crossed the front lines and officially surrendered the German capital of Berlin. -
Hiroshima Atomic Bomb Dropped
o B-29 bomber, the Enola Gay, took off from Tinian, a North Pacific island in the Marianas, 1,500 miles south of Japan.
o On a hook in the ceiling of the plane, hung the ten-foot atomic bomb, "Little Boy."
o "Little Boy" was created using uranium-235, a radioactive isotope of uranium.
o Product of $2 billion of research, had never been tested.
o The bomb exploded 1,900 feet above the city and only missed the target, the Aioi Bridge, by approximately 800 feet. -
Atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki
o Uranium bomb called 'Little Boy'.
o Weighing 8,900 pounds.
o Wiped out nearly five square miles of Hiroshima–60 percent of the city.
o More than 78,000 of the city's total population of 348,000 were killed; an estimated 51,000 were injured or missing.
o 12-hour mission. -
Japan surrenders
o The ceremonies, less than half an hour long, took place on board the battleship USS Missouri.
o To most Japanese - not to mention those who had suffered at their hands during the war - the end of hostilities came as blessed relief.
o Not everybody was to lay down their arms.
o Tens of thousands of Japanese soldiers remained in China,
o Smaller groups continued fighting on Guadalcanal, Peleliu and in various parts of the Philippines right up to 1948.
