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Japenese Invasion of China
A military conflict fought primarily between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan from 1937 to 1945. accounted for the majority of civilian and military casualties in the Pacific War, with anywhere between 10 and 25 million Chinese civilians and over 4 million Chinese and Japanese military personnel dying from war-related violence, famine, and other causes. -
Rape of Nanking
Japanese Imperial Army marched into China's capital city of Nanking and proceeded to murder 300,000 out of 600,000 civilians and soldiers in the city. Chinese soldiers at Nanking were poorly led and loosely organized. The elimination of the Chinese POWs began after they were transported by trucks to remote locations on the outskirts of Nanking. Old women over the age of 70 as well as little girls under the age of 8 were dragged off to be sexually abused. 20,000 females were gang-raped by Japan -
German Blitkrieg
German forces tried out the blitzkrieg in Poland in 1939 before successfully employing the tactic with invasions of Belgium, the Netherlands and France in 1940. forces would drive a breach in enemy defenses, permitting armored tank divisions to penetrate rapidly and roam freely behind enemy lines, causing shock and disorganization among the enemy defenses. German air power prevented the enemy from adequately resupplying or redeploying forces and thereby from sending reinforcements to seal breach -
Fall of Paris
German invasion of France and the Low Countries during the Second World War. French forces put up stiff initial resistance, German air superiority and armoured mobility overwhelmed the remaining French forces. German armour outflanked the Maginot Line and pushed deep into France with German forces arriving in an undefended Paris on 14 June. German commanders met with French officials on 18 June with the goal of the new French government accepting an armistice offered by Germany -
Pearl Harbor
Was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, in the United States Territory of Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941. Japan intended the attack as a preventive action to keep the U.S. Pacific Fleet from interfering with military actions the Empire of Japan planned in Southeast Asia against overseas territories of the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and the United States. All eight U.S. Navy battleships were damaged. -
Wannsee Conference
Meeting of senior officials of Nazi Germany, held in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee on 20 January 1942. To ensure the cooperation of administrative leaders of various government departments in the implementation of the final solution to the Jewish question, whereby most of the Jews of German-occupied Europe would be deported to Poland and murdered -
Battle of Midway
A crucial and decisive naval battle in the Pacific Theater of World War II. Sought to eliminate the United States as a strategic power in the Pacific, thereby giving Japan a free hand in establishing its Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. The plan was handicapped by faulty Japanese assumptions of the American reaction and poor initial dispositions -
Allied Invasion of Italy
Allied amphibious landing on mainland Italy that took place on 3 September 1943 during World War II. Operation was undertaken by General Sir Harold Alexander's 15th Army Group. -
D-Day (Normandy Invasion)
Some 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 amphibious military assaults in history and required extensive planning. -
Battle of the Bulge
Major German offensive campaign launched through the densely forested Ardennes region of Wallonia in Belgium, France, and Luxembourg on the Western Front toward the end of World War II in Europe. United States forces bore the brunt of the attack and incurred their highest casualties for any operation during the war. Battle also severely depleted Germany's armored forces on the western front, and Germany was largely unable to replace them. -
Liberation of Concentration Camps
Soviet soldiers were the first to liberate concentration camp prisoners in the final stages of the war. They entered the Majdanek camp in Poland, and later overran several other killing centers. January 27, 1945, they entered Auschwitz and there found hundreds of sick and exhausted prisoners. Survivors of Mauthausen cheer American soldiers as they pass through the main gate of the camp. -
Battle of Iwo Jima
Major battle in which the U.S. Marines landed on and eventually captured the island of Iwo Jima from the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II. The American invasion, designated Operation Detachment, had the goal of capturing the entire island, including the three Japanese-controlled airfields. The Imperial Japanese Army positions on the island were heavily fortified, with a dense network of bunkers, hidden artillery positions, and 18 km (11 mi) of underground tunnels. Despite the bloody fi -
VE Day
Victory in Europe Day, was the public holiday celebrated on 8 May 1945 to mark the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Nazi Germany's unconditional surrender of its armed forces. In the United Kingdom, more than one million people celebrated in the streets to mark the end of the European part of the war. -
Dropping of Atomic Bombs
American bomber Enola Gay dropped a five-ton bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Blast equivalent to the power of 15,000 tons of TNT reduced four square miles of the city to ruins and immediately killed 80,000 people. Tens of thousands more died in the following weeks from wounds and radiation poisoning. Three days later, another bomb was dropped on the city of Nagasaki, killing nearly 40,000 more people. Japan announced its surrender a few days later. -
VJ Day
Japan has surrendered to the Allies after almost six years of war. There is joy and celebration around the world and 15 August has been declared Victory in Japan day. The US dropped two atomic bombs on Hiroshima on 6 August and Nagasaki on 9 August, the day Soviet forces invaded Manchuria after Japan would not surrender.
