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Japanese invasion of China
Japan tried to make the Chinese government recognize the independence of Manchukuo. The Japanese invasion of China happened because Japan wanted to be an imperial power like China. -
Germany's invasion of Poland
The German Luftwaffe bombed airfields in Poland. The Polish naval forces were attacked in the Baltic Sea by German warships and U-boats. To Hitler, the conquest of Poland would bring living space, for the German people. German expansion began in 1938 with the annexation of Austria. Hitler thought that the invasion of Poland would be tolerated. The Soviets completed the liberation of Poland in 1945 and established a communist government in the nation. -
German Blitzkrieg
Blitzkrieg is a term for "lightning war". German forces used the blitzkrieg in Poland before it successfully employed the tactic with invasions on Belgium, the Netherlands, and France. In the first part of World War II, in Europe, Germany sought to avoid war. Germany's strategy was to defeat its opponents in a series of short campaigns. Germany was unable to defeat the Soviet Union. They became included in a long war, which led to Germany's defeat. -
Fall of Paris
Germans trapped over 400,000 British and French soldiers, French surrendered after Italy entered the war on the side of Germany. In May 1940, Hitler began having a powerful effect, to react emotionally to a situation having a powerful wide scope through the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg. -
Pearl Harbor
Japanese fighter planes attacked the American naval base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. More than 2,400 Americans were killed. The United States wasn't happy with Japan's attitude towards China. Japan wanted to expand into China to take over its stock market. Japan ended up declaring war on China in 1937. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the American people wanted to go to war. Two years later, the United States had entered World War II. -
Battle of Midway
Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku chose to invade a target near Pearl Harbor to draw out the American fleet, figuring out that when the United States began its counterattack, the Japanese would be ready to crush them. Some people see Midway as the turning point in the Pacific theater of the war, The japanese wanted to draw the American fleet into a trap. -
Allied invasion of Italy
The Allies moved against Italy next, hoping an Allied invasion would remove that fascist regime from the war, secure the central Mediterranean and divert German divisions from the northwest coast of France where the Allies planned to attack soon after. Italy surrendered on Sep 3, 1943. Fighting in Italy continued until May 1945 when Germany fell. -
D-Day
Western Allies landed in Northern France to open a Second Front against Germany. Allies knew that a successful invasion was key to winning the war. Hitler hoped to repel the Allies from coast with a strong counterattack that would delay future invasion attempts, giving him time to throw the majority of his forces into defeating the Soviet Union in the east. The Normandy Invasion drove the Germans out of France. -
Liberation of Concentration Camps
The Germans attempted to demolish the Majdanek camp in an effort to hide the evidence of mass murder. The camp staff set fire to the large crematorium at Majdanek, but because of the hasty evacuation the gas chambers were left standing. Soviet forces later liberate Auschwitz (January 1945), Gross-Rosen (February 1945), Sachsenhausen (April 1945), Ravensbrueck (April 1945), and Stutthof (May 1945). -
Battle of Iwo Jima
Marines landed in the Pacific. It was the bloodiest battle in Marine Corps history. The US had over 7,000 people die. The capture of Iwo Jima greatly increased the air support and bombing operations against the Japanese home islands. The Battle of Iwo Jima happened because there was a need for a base near the Japanese coast. This was a victory for the US. -
Battle of Okinawa
The battle of Okinawa was the last and biggest of the Pacific island battles of World War II, the Okinawa campaigN involved the 287,000 troops of the U.S. Tenth Army against 130,000 soldiers of the Japanese Thirty-second Army. Japan had lost more than 77,000 soldiers and the Allies had more than 65,000 casualties by the end. The U.S. wanted Okinawa so they could use it as a support base for the scheduled November invasion of Japan. -
VE Day
1 million Germans were stopped by Russians and taken captive when they tried to escape to the West when the fighting in Czechoslovakia ended. German soldiers tried to escape Soviet forces to keep from being taken prisoner. The German surrender was realized in a final cease-fire. More surrender documents were signed in Berlin and in eastern Germany. -
Dropping of the atomic bomb
The American bomber Enola Gay dropped a five-ton bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The bomb immediately killed 80,000 people. Tens of thousands more died later on from wounds and radiation poisoning. Another bomb was dropped on Nagasaki three days later, killing almost 40,000 more people. The bombs were dropped on Hiroshima so the war with Japan would come to a speedy end and spare American lives. A few days after the bombing, Japan announced its surrender. -
VJ Day
VJ Day was the victory over Japan. The Allies announced the surrender of Japanese forces during World War II. VJ Day has also been used for September 2, 1945, when Japan’s formal surrender took place aboard the U.S.S. Missouri, anchored in Tokyo Bay. Japan’s capitulation in the Pacific brought six years of hostilities to a final and highly anticipated close several months after the surrender of Nazi Germany.
