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Japanese invasion of China
The Japan-China War began when the Japanese claimed that they were fired on by Chinese troops near Bejing. The Japanese used this as an excuse to start to invade Manchuria. Within five months, one million Chinese people were under Japanese control. By the end of 1937, Japan captured all of China's major cities. By 1941, there was two million Japanese soldiers in China, but such areas were not totally controlled by the Japanese, allowing the Chinese to undermind Japanese authority. -
Rape of Nanking (1937)
In late 1937, over a period of six weeks, Imperial Japanese Army forces brutally murdered hundreds of thousands of people in the Chinese city of Nanking. The horrific events are known as the Nanking Massacre or the Rape of Nanking, as between 20,000 and 80,000 women were sexually assaulted. Nanking, then the capital of Nationalist China, was left in ruins, and it would take decades for the city and its citizens to recover from the savage attacks. -
German Blitzkrieg (1939 - 1940)
A German term for "lightning war," a military tatic create disorganiztion of enemy forces with the use of mobile forces and firepower. On September 1, 1939, German forces launched Blitzkrieg across Poland. The Polish army was pushed back eastward, towards a natural line of defense. On 17 September 1939, Soviet troops entered Poland from the east, carrying out the pact between Hitler and Stalin, just signed on 23 August. -
Germany's Invasion of Poland
On September 1, 1939 1.5 million German troops invade Poland along it German- controlled boarder. German's were bombed Polish aricraft and German warships attacked Polish naval ships. Poland declared war on Germany on September 3. This innitiates World War II. The conquest of Poland would bring Lebensraum (living space) for German people according to Hitler. -
Fall of Paris (1940)
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill had tried for days to convince the French government to hang on, not to sue for peace, that America would enter the war and come to its aid. French premier Paul Reynaud telegrammed President Franklin Roosevelt, asking for just such aid-a declaration of war, and if not that, any and all help possible. the Allies, would take such a public declaration of help as but a prelude to a formal declaration of war. -
Operation Barbarossa (1941)
Nazi Germany's invasion of Russia on June 22, 1941 is known as Operation Barbarossa. This was the largest military attack in World War II. Hitler said, "When the attack on Russia starts the world will hold its breath." This massive attack was based on blitzkrieg. Three army groups attacked Russia and four army units defended Russia. The Russian Army was on the verge of a total collapse and Moscow seemed destined to fall. -
Pearl Harbor (1941)
On December 7, 1941, hundreds of Japanese fighter planes attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor near Honolulu, Hawaii. The attack lasted two hours, but was devastating. The Japanese managed to destroy 20 American naval vessels and eight enormous battleships, and almost 200 airplanes. More than 2,000 Americans soldiers and sailors died in the attack, and another 1,000 were wounded. The day after President Roosevelt asks Congress to declare war on Japan. -
Wannsee Conference (1942)
On January 2o, 1942 high-ranking Nazi Party and German government officials gathered in Wannsee a suburb in Berlin. They discussed the the implementation of what they called the "Final Solution of the Jewish Question." The "Final Solution" was the code name for the deliberate, physical annihilation of Jews. Hitler authorized a European wide mass murder. The men at the table did not discuss whether the plan should be undertaken, but instead discussed the implementation of a policy decision. -
Battle of Midway (1942)
The Battle of Midway, fought in June 1942, must be considered one of the most decisive battles of World War Two. The Battle of Midway effectively destroyed Japan’s naval strength when the Americans destroyed four of its aircraft carriers. Japan’s navy never recovered from its mauling at Midway and it was on the defensive after this battle. -
Operation Gomorrah (1943)
In 1943, British bombers raid Hamburg, Germany. By night in Operation Gomorrah, while Americans bomb it by day in its own “Blitz Week." When Germany bombed British raids in July, the British suffered from 167 civilian deaths. On the evening of July 24, 1943 British aircraft dropped 2300 tons of bombs in Hamberg.More than 1,500 German civilians were killed in that first British raid. -
Allied invasion of Italy (1943)
The Invasion of Italy was fought September 3-16, 1943, during World War II (1939-1945). Planning for the invasion fell to Supreme Allied Commander in the Mediterranean, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, and the commander of the 15th Army Group, General Sir Harold Alexander. Working on a compressed schedule, their staffs devised two operations, Baytown and Avalanche, which called for landings in Calabria and Salerno respectively. -
D-Day (Normandy Invasion -1944)
Codenamed Operation Overlord, the battle began on June 6, 1944, also known as D-Day. 156,000 American, British and Canadian forces landed on five beaches along a 50-mile stretch of the heavily fortified coast of France’s Normandy region. The invasion was one of the largest military assaults in history.The Allies conducted a large-scale deception campaign designed to mislead the Germans about the intended invasion target, prior to D-Day. -
Battle of the Bulge (1945)
The Battle of the Bulge is also known as the Ardennes Offensive. This was known as the largest battle fought on the Western Front in Europe during World War II; it is also the largest battle ever fought by the United States Army. The German offensive was to drive a wedge between the Allies. he German codename for the buildup to the offensive was Watch on the Rhine. It fell far short of its goals but managed to create a bulge in the American lines 50 miles wide and 70 miles deep. -
Battle of Iwo Jima (1945)
The capture of Iwo Jima was part of a three-point plan the Americans had for winning the war in the far east. Combined with the attacks on Iwo Jima, was America’s desire to finally destroy Japan’s merchant fleet so that the Japanese mainland could not be supplied from the food-rich sectors of South East Asia which Japan still had control over. This relates to the destruction of Japan’s remaining industrial base by the bombing of it by the American airforce. -
Operation Thunderclap
The Air Ministry had been considering a series of heavy area raids on German cities with a view to causing confusion that the hard-stretched German war machine and civil administration would break down and the war would end. The name given to this plan was Operation Thunderclap. It had been decided not to implement it until the military situation in Germany was critical. -
Battle of Okinawa (1945)
The Battle of Okinawa, codenamed Operation Iceberg, this was fought on the Ryukyu Islands of Okinawa and included the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific War during World War II. The 82-day-long battle lasted from early April until mid-June 1945. After a long campaign of island hopping, the Allies were approaching Japan, and planned to use Okinawa, a large island only 340 mi away from mainland Japan, as a base for air operations on the planned invasion of Japanese mainland. -
VE Day (1945)
Great Britain and the United States celebrate Victory in Europe Day. The eighth of May spelled the day when German troops throughout Europe finally laid down their arms: In Prague, Germans surrendered to their Soviet antagonists. The main concern of many German soldiers was to elude the grasp of Soviet forces, to keep from being taken prisoner. The Russians took approximately 2 million prisoners in the period just before and after the German surrender. -
Potsdam Declation (1945)
The Potsdam Declaration or the Proclamation Defining Terms for Japanese Surrender is a statement that called for the surrender of all Japanese armed forces during World War II. On July 26, 1945, United States President Harry S. Truman, United Kingdom Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Chairman of the Nationalist Government of China Chiang Kai-shek issued the document, which outlined the terms of surrender for the Empire of Japan as agreed upon at the Potsdam Conference. -
Dropping of the atomic bombs (1945)
At 8:16 a.m. Japanese time, an American B-29 bomber, the Enola Gay, drops the world’s first atom bomb, over the city of Hiroshima. 80,000 people are killed as a direct result of the blast, and another 35,000 are injured. At least another 60,000 would be dead by the end of the year from the effects. U.S. President Harry S. Truman made the decision to use the atom bomb to end the war in order to prevent what he predicted would be a much greater loss of life were the United States to invade Japan. -
VJ Day (1945)
On August 14, 1945, it was announced that Japan had surrendered unconditionally to the Allies, effectively ending World War II. August 14 and August 15 have been known as “Victoryover Japan Day." When Japan’s formal surrender took place aboard the U.S.S. Missouri, anchored in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945 is also known as "VJ Day."
