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Japanese invasion of china (1937)
Japan was being controlled by hard-line military officers. They wanted war in part simply because part of their ideology extolled war. Japan's invasion of China was due essentially to Japan's desire to be an imperial power. China has grown from Japanese failure in China and the eventual triumph of Mao Zedong's communists in 1949.
http://www.enotes.com/homework-help/why-did-japan-invade-china-1937-an-what-was-marco-315915 -
Germany’s invasion of Poland (1937)
German forces bombard Poland on land and from the air, as Adolf Hitler seeks to regain lost territory and ultimately rule Poland. Germany successfully used the Blitzkrieg tactic against Poland. It happened because to overturn the Treaty of Versailles, and The Nazi-Soviet Pact. The invasion led to many Jewish and non-Jewish refugees fleeing.
http://www.johndclare.net/RoadtoWWII3_HitlerInvadesPoland.htm
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/germany-invades-poland -
Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact (1939)
The Ribbentrop-Molotov pact was a nonaggression pact between Germany and the Soviet Union concluded before the beginning of World War II. The purpose of this pact was to divide Eastern Europe into German and Soviet spheres of influence. The public German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact caused consternation in the capitals of Britain and France.
http://www.britannica.com -
German blitzkrieg (1939-1940)
Blitzkrieg tactics required the concentration of offensive weapons. It happened because the British wanted to send their air force to bomb targets inside Germany but were persuaded not to by the French who feared German reprisal. The major activity consisted of dueling propaganda messages blared from loud speakers. Many blitzkriegs result in a success which makes expansion possible, and things easier to achieve.
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/blitzkrieg -
Operation Barbarossa (1941)
Adolf Hitler launched his armies eastward in a massive invasion of the Soviet Union: 3 great army groups with over 3m German soldiers. It happened because the wake of Germany’s stunning success against the western allies in France. Impact was that Barbarossa was the crucial turning point in World War II, for its failure forced Nazi Germany to fight a two-front war against a coalition possessing immensely superior resources.
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/operation-barbarossa -
Pearl harbor (1941)
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise, Japanese planes filled the sky over Pearl Harbor. It happened because The Japanese government believed that the only way to solve its economic and demographic problems was to expand into its neighbor’s territory and take over its import market; to this end. President Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on Japan then Germany and Italy declared war on the United States.
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/pearl-harbor -
Battle of Midway 1942
A four-day sea-and-air battle, where the U.S. destroyed four Japanese aircraft carriers while losing only one of its own. This battle was a result of Japan being offensive. The US was a threat, and Japanese sought to destroy the U.S. Pacific Fleet before it was large enough. This battle made a turning point for the US.
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/battle-of-midway-begins# -
Battle of Stalingrad 1942
The Germans invaded Stalingrad, they believed it was essential to their campaign in southern Russia. Russians consider it to be the greatest battle of their Great Patriotic War. It stopped the German advance into the Soviet Union, making it the turning of the tide of war.
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/battle-of-stalingrad -
Manhattan Project 1942
President Roosevelt signed an order creating a secret project to develop the nuclear weapon. The program was the largest secret project ever undertaken by the U.S. government during world war ll.
The first atomic bomb was exploded at a site on the Alamogordo air base. The explosion came as an intense light flash.
http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1644.html -
Operation Gomorrah 1943
British bombs Hamburg, Germany, by night while Americans bomb it everyday. Britain had suffered due to German bombing raids in July. Other than that, Hitler refused to visit the burned-out cities. German officials would describe this period with a similar despair.
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/operation-gomorrah-is-launched -
Allied invasion of Italy 1943
The Italian government agreed to surrender to the Allies when Montgomery's army began its invasion. The Italians would be treated with leniency if they aided the Allies in expelling the Germans from Italy. The allied advance up through Italy proved to be a slow and costly affair, and eventually all of Germany surrendered.
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/allies-invade-italian-mainland -
D-Day (Normandy Invasion – 1944)
American, British and Canadian forces landed on the coast of France’s Normandy region. This invasion was one of the largest amphibious military assaults in history. The Allied forces wanted to enter Germany, where they would meet up with Soviet troops moving in from the east because the invasion was successful. Lastly, it resulted in the Allied liberation from Nazi Germany’s control.
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/d-day -
Battle of the Bulge 1945
Germans created a “bulge” around the area of the Ardennes forest in pushing through the American defensive line. The Germans threw 250,000 soldiers into the initial assault. It resulted in a massive loss of American and civilian life. Nazi abounded, including the murder of many American soldiers by SS soldiers in the Ardennes town of Malmedy.
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/battle-of-the-bulge -
Operation Thunderclap 1945
This proposal was to bomb the eastern most cities of Germany. The purpose was to disrupt the transport infrastructure behind what was becoming the Eastern front. Also to demonstrate to the German population that the air defenses of Germany were now of little substance and that the Nazi regime had failed them.
http://ww2today.com/13-february-1945-operation-thunderclap-raf-start-firestorm-in-dresden# -
Battle of Iwo Jima 1945
It was sparked by the desire for a place where B-29 bombers damaged over Japan could land without returning all the way to the Marianas. The battle was marked by changes in Japanese defense tactics–troops no longer defended at the beach line but rather concentrated inland. At the end it was America's victory.
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/battle-of-iwo-jima -
Battle of Okinawa 1945
It was the last and biggest of the Pacific island battles of World War II. The capture of Okinawa was part of a three-point plan the Americans had for winning the war in the Far East. By the end of the 82-day campaign, Japan had lost more than 77,000 soldiers and the Allies had suffered more than 65,000 casualties. http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/battle-of-okinawa# -
Liberation of concentration camps 1945
Soviet soldiers were the first to liberate concentration camp prisoners in the final stages of the war. As for Germany, they had to leave behind prisoners that were very sick and exhausted and they returned in hasty. British, Canadian, American, and French troops also freed prisoners from the camps. The Americans were responsible for liberating Buchenwald and Dachau, while British forces entered Bergen-Belsen.
https://www.ushmm.org/outreach/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007724 -
VE Day 1945
Both Great Britain and the United States put out flags and banners, rejoicing in the defeat of the Nazi war machine. Consequently, V-E Day was not celebrated until the ninth in Moscow, with a radio broadcast salute from Stalin himself: “The age-long struggle of the Slav nations… has ended in victory. Your courage has defeated the Nazis. The war is over.”
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/victory-in-europe -
Dropping of the atomic bombs 1945 http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/atomic-bomb-is-dropped-on-hiroshima
On this day in 1945, at 8:16 a.m. Japanese time, an American bomber, drops the world’s first atom bomb, over the city of Hiroshima. There were 90,000 buildings in Hiroshima before the bomb was dropped; only 28,000 remained after the bombing. Of the city’s 200 doctors before the explosion; only 20 were left alive or capable of working. -
VJ Day 1945
The term VJ Day means “Victoryover Japan Day,” and it was used when Japan’s formal surrender. Other than that, it was used when Japan had surrendered unconditionally to the Allies, effectively ending World War II as well. As a result of VJ Day which was due to Japan's surrender, it had been stated that it was the day that was awaited since Pearl Harbor.
