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Japanese Invasion of China
What Happened: The Japanese launched a full-scale invasion of China using Manchuria as a launching base for troops.
Why: Japanese claimed they were fired of by Chinese troops at the Marco Polo Bridge near Beijing.
Effects: In November 1937, China’s most important port, Shanghai, fell and Nanjing (Nanking), Chiang Kai-Shek’s capital, fell in December 1937.
Facts: 1) Within 5 months, 1 million Chinese people were under Japanese control. 2) By 1941, there were 2 million Japanese soldiers in China. -
Rape of Nanking
What Happened: Over a six week span, the Japanese brutally murdered hundreds of thousands of Chinese civilians and soldiers in the Chinese city of Nanking.
Why: They attacked because they were afraid of losing them in battle. Nationalist leader, Chiang Kai-Shek, ordered the removal of almost all Chinese troops from the city.
Effects: Somewhere between 20,000 and 80,000 women were sexually assaulted and between 200,000 and 300,000 were killed. -
Rape of Nanking
Facts: The city of Nanking had created a safety zone for Nanking citizens to go to and Japan initially agreed to let them have their safe zone but in the end, they ignored it and even those within that area were not safe. -
Germany's Invasion of Poland
What Happened: German Luftwaffe bombed Polish airfields and German warships and U-boats attacked Polish naval forces in the Baltic Sea.
Why: Hitler believed the conquest of Poland would create living space for Germans
Effects: Hitler claimed it was a defense action but France and Britain were not convinced and on September 3, they declared war on Germany, started WWII -
Germany's Invasion of Poland
Facts: On August 31, Nazi soldiers wore Polish uniforms and staged a phony invasion of Germany and even left dead concentration camp prisoners in Polish uniforms to give further evidence of the “Polish invasion” -
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German Blitzkrieg
What Happened: German military tactic that involved the concentration of offensive weapons along a narrow front.
Why: Germany wanted to defeat its opponents in a series of short campaigns. They wanted to avoid a long war.
Effects: Germany quickly overran much of Europe: Poland, Denmark, Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, France, Yugoslavia, and Greece. -
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German Blitzkrieg
Facts: Attempted to defeat Soviet Union with this but Hitler then declared war on the US which brought military forces and money to Russia’s aid to help defeat Germany. -
Fall of Paris
What Happened: Parisians were awaken to the sound of a German-accented voice saying that curfew was at 8:00 pm that night as German troops enter and occupy Paris.
Why: The German’s wanted to take over all of Europe.
Effects: When German tanks finally arrived in Paris, over 2 million Parisians had already fled the city. The German Gestapo went to work with arrests, interrogations, and spying.
Facts: On this day, President Roosevelt froze American assets of the Axis powers, Germany and Italy. -
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Operation Barbarossa
Facts: In the first month, German Armies went deep into Soviet territory, Panzer armies encircled large Soviet forces at Minsk and Smolensk. -
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Operation Barbarossa
What Happened: Hitler launched his armies, which included three great army groups, 3,000,000+ soldiers, 150 divisions, and 3,000+ tanks, eastward in a massive invasion of the Soviet Union.
Why: They wanted to enslave the Slavic population and exterminate the Jews.
Effects: It was the crucial turning point in the war, its failure forced Nazi Germany to fight a 2-front war against a coalition. -
Pearl Harbor
Facts: 1) The entire attack only lasted two hours. 2) The Japanese managed to destroy almost 20 American naval vessels which included eight giant battleships and almost 200 airplanes. 3) More than 2,000 American soldiers and sailors died and another 1,000 were wounded. -
Pearl Harbor
What Happened: Hundreds of Japanese fighter planes attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor near Honolulu, Hawaii.
Why: The US had cut off all supplies they had been sending to Japan so Japan had to invade a country in order to receive the things they needed but no one thought it would be the US.
Effects: The day after the attack, President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on Japan and Congress approved with only one dissenting vote. -
Wannsee Conference
What Happened: High ranking Nazi Party and German government officials gathered at a villa in Wannsee, a suburb of Berlin.
Why: To discuss and coordinate the implementation of what they called the “Final Solution of the Jewish Question”
Effects: Led to the Holocaust
Facts: 1) The “Final Solution” was code the systematic, deliberate, physical annihilation of the European Jews. 2) At some time in 1941, Hitler authorized this European-wide scheme for mass murder. -
Bataan Death March
What Happened: About 75,000 Filipino and American troops on Bataan were forced to make a 65-mile march to prison camps.
Why: The US surrendered the Bataan Peninsula on the main Philippine island of Luzon to Japan
Effects: The marchers mad the trek in intense heat and were subjected to harsh treatment by Japanese guards. Thousands perished in what became known as the Bataan Death March.
Facts: The day after Pearl Harbor, the Japanese invaded the Philippines. -
Battle of Midway
What Happened: Six months after Pearl Harbor, the US defeated Japan in one of the most decisive naval battles of WWII.
Why: This fleet engagement between US and Japanese navies in the Pacific resulted from Japan’s want to sink the American aircraft carriers that had survived Pearl Harbor.
Effects: The Japanese lost four fleet carriers with 332 aircraft and over 5,000 sailors, while the US lost 147 aircraft and more than 300 sailors. -
Battle of Midway
Facts: The US broke the Japanese code and knew exactly where they were going to be and when and were able to defeat them by outsmarting them and being one step ahead of where they were. -
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Battle of Stalingrad
What Happened: Successful Soviet defense of Stalingrad in the USSR during WWII.
Why: The Soviets did not want to give up their territory.
Effects: Stopped the German advance into the Soviet Union and marked the turning of the tide of war in favor of the Allies. -
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Battle of Stingrad
Facts: Russians consider it to be the greatest battle of their Great Patriotic War, and most historians consider it to be the greatest battle of the entire conflict. It was one of the bloodiest battles in history with combined military and civilian casualties of nearly 2 million. -
Operation Gomorrah
Facts: 1) Britain only lost 12 out of 791 aircraft during this raid. 2) Britain had created a new radar-jamming device called “Window,” which were aluminum foil dropped by the bombers en route to their target. Theses confused German radar, which mistook the strips for dozens of aircraft, diverting them from the trajectory of the actual bombers. -
Operation Gomorrah
What Happened: British bomber raid Hamburg, Germany by night is Operation Gomorrah, while Americans bomb it by day in its own “Blitz Week.”
Why: Britain suffered 167 civilian deaths as result of German bombing raids in July and now they were seeking revenge.
Effects: More than 1,500 German civilians were killed in the first British raid. -
D-Day
What Happened: 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.
Why: The Allies wanted to take control of the Normandy region. -
D-Day
Effects: Less than a week later, June 11, the beaches were fully secured and over 326,000 troops, more than 50,000 vehicles and some 100,000 tons of equipment had landed on Normandy. By the end of August 1944, the Allies had reached the Seine River, Paris was liberated and the Germans had been removed from northwestern France, effectively concluding the Battle of Normandy.
Facts: 1) This invasion was one of the largest amphibious military assaults in history and required extensive planning. -
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Battle Bulge
Facts: It was the costliest action ever fought by the US Army, resulting in over 100,000 causalities. -
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Battle of the Bulge
What Happened: Three German armies launched the deadliest and most desperate battle of the war in the west in the poorly roaded, rugged, heavily forested Ardennes.
Why: To split the Allied armies by means of a surprise blitzkrieg thrust through the Ardennes to Antwerp.
Effects: Germany suffered a fuel shortage and the American troops that were fighting in Ardennes became fatal to Hitler’s goal to capture, if not victory, at least a draw with the Allies in the west. -
Operation Thunderclap
What Happened: Code for the cancelled operation planned for August of 1944.
Why: To disrupt the transport infrastructure behind what was becoming the Eastern front
Effects: It was later decided that the plan would never work and it was then called off.
Facts: If the operation would have taken place, it is estimated that there would have been around 220,000 causalities and around 100,000 deaths. -
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Battle of Iwo Jima
What Happened: Three US marine divisions landed on the island.
Why: The US needed a base near the Japanese coast.
Effects: 5,900 Americans were killed and 17,400 were injured.
Facts: 1) Iwo Jima was defended by about 23,000 Japanese army and navy troops. 2) Iwo Jima is a key island in the Bonin chain which is about 575 miles from the Japanese coast. -
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Battle of Okinawa
What Happened: Japanese changed their typical tactics and in conjunction, the navy and army mounted mass air attacks by planes on one-way “suicide” missions.
Why: The “special attack” kamikaze tactics the Japanese used were so determined that Allied forces perhaps faced their most difficult Pacific campaign.
Effects: Japan lost over 77,000 soldiers and the Allies suffered over 65,000 casualties including 14,000 dead. -
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Battle of Okinawa
Facts: 1) Involved 287,000 of the US Tenth Army troops against 130,000 of the Japanese Thirty- second Army. 2) It was the last and also largest of the Pacific island battles of WWII. -
VE Day
What Happened: German troops throughout Europe finally laid down their weapons.
Why: Germany surrendered throughout Europe.
Effects: Over 13,000 British POWs were released and sent back to Great Britain.
Facts: VE Day is celebrated in the US and Great Britain to celebrate the defeat of the Nazi War Machine. But it is not celebrated until May 9 in Moscow because on that day the Soviets would lose 600 soldiers in Silesia before Germany finally surrendered. -
Dropping of the Atomic Bombs
Facts: The first of the two atom bombs dropped was nicknamed “Little Boy.” -
Dropping of the Atomic Bombs
What Happened: An American B-29 bomber, the Enola Gay, drops the world’s first atom bomb over Hiroshima.
Why: US President, Harry Truman, was discouraged by the Japanese response to the Potsdam Conference’s demand for unconditional surrender and made the decision to us the atom bomb to end the war.
Effects: Approximately 80,000 people are killed as direct result of the blast and another 35,000 are injured. 60,000 would be dead by the end of the year from the effects of the fallout. -
VJ Day
What Happened: Japan surrendered unconditionally to the Allies which officially ended WWII
Why: If the surrendered, they were promised a peaceful government and if they did not, they would face “prompt and utter destruction.”
Effects: Originally Japan did not accept this offer and on August 6, Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima and three days later another was dropped on Nagasaki. After those two attacks, Japan finally surrendered. -
VJ Day
Facts: The famous photo of a US sailor kissing a nurse in Times Square was taken after Japan surrendered on VJ Day during the celebration.