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The Holocaust
The Holocaust was when the Nazis had the goal to kill off 6 million Jews. The Nazis, who were fom Germany, thought that Jews were "unworthy of life". By May 8, 1945, the there were approximately 9 million jewish in Europe. The Nazis called every Jew that had been killed as part of the Final Solution. -
World War II Began
Adolf Hitler was determined to take over Poland even though they had an army and navy that was growing fast. Poland was suspicious of Hitler, so later on Hitler and Poland agreed to sign the German-Soviet Nonagresion act. Preparing Germany for attack on Poland, Adolf was determined. He planned to attack on August 26, 1939. The attack was postponed to September 3, 1939. -
Stalingrad
About 4 million German troops invaded Russian territory. About a month later, an estimate of 2 and a half million Russion soldires were killed. The Germans advanced into Russian territory, all the way. When winter hit in Stalingrad, the German army was caught in their summer uniforms. While the Germans were stuck in the snow, Stalingrad had another 2 million soldiers go and destroy the Germans. After a little while, the Germans retreated and walked the 1,800 miles home. -
Bombing of Pearl Harbor
ON December 7, 1941, two waves of aircrafts attacked Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. This attack was ordered by Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, and all the aircrafts- totaling 353 aircrafts -were led by Commander Mitsuo Fuchida. This is one of the most infamous events in World War II. -
The Ni'ihau Incident
On this day the Japanese had also bombed Pearl Harbor. When Shigenori Nishikaichi's plane had gotten damaged, he flew to where the Japanese pilots were told to land- Ni'ihau, where they thought was uninhabited. When Shigenori crashed, he found out that there were inhabitants on Ni'ihau. They treated him as a guest until they found out that he was included in the bombing. He managed to leave the town and other Japanese soldiers came to try to help. They came to late and Shigenori was executed. -
Operation Drumbeat
This German operation included about 40 U-boats attacking-you guessed it- the U.S! The U-boats attacked close to a coastline and some even landed on American soil. The German U-boats sunk about 397 ships and a total of about 2 million tons. Only 2 German boats had escaped. -
The Battle of Kursk
The Battle of Kursk was to be the largest tank war of World War II but it almost destroyed the Nazi German's war machine in Russia. There were about 6,000 tanks, 4,000 aircraft carriers, and 2 millin soldiers in this war. The war was mainly against the Germans and the Soviet Union. -
The Stalag Luft III
Stalag Luft was an Nazi camp where Allied airmen were taken captive after being shot down. The captives starting devising a plan to dig holes to the outside with over 600 other captives. On March 24th, 1944, they put their plan into action. Only 77 had escaped, but 74 of 77 had been re-captured and executed (on Adolf's word). That left 3 who had escaped to freedom. -
D-Day
This was the day when the Allied powers had invaded Normandy to release it from the Nazi control. It might sound trange that they INVADED Normandy to RELEASE it, but they were specifically attacking the Nazi Germans in Normandy. -
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The Great Japanese Fire Balloon
The Japanese launched large balloons filled with bombs and explosives. They expected the explosives inside the 'basket' to detonate when it reached it's destination-the U.S. The Japanese lached abaout 9000 fire balloons, but only 1000 reached the U.S. Only 6 Americans died in one of th launches.