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Japanese invasion of China
China was divided, impoverished, economically exploited, and at war with Japan. A first-class power like Japan not only could afford to exercise general self-restraint. In the long run, Japan had higher chances of winning the war anyway. Japan was prepared and China was not. Japan invaded from the North part of China, China was not expecting it at all. -
Rape of Nanking
During the Sino-Japenese War, Nanking falls to Japenese forces, and then the Chinese government flees to Hankow, along the Yangtze River. Japenese General Matsui Iwane orders that the city of Nanking is to be destroyed. Japenese troops burned most of the city down and caused harm. It is known as the "Rape of Nanking" because an estimated 150,000 male "war prisoners" were butchered, massacred an additional 50,000 male civilians, and raped at least 20,000 women and girls of all ages. -
German Blitzkrieg
Blitzkrieg was another term for "lightning war". It was a military tactic designed to create disorganization among enemy forces through the use of mobile forces and locally concentrated firepower. -
Germany's invasion of Poland
The Germans attacked Poland by many different angles along Poland's 1,750-mile long border. The German Luftwaffe bombed Polish airfields. Hitler thought the conquest of Poland would bring living space for the German people. He also thought the Germans would colonize the territory and the native Slavs would be enslaved. -
Operation Gomorrah
British bombers raid Hamburg, Germany, by night in Operation Gomorrah, while Americans bomb it by day in its own “Blitz Week.” -
Fall of Paris
"On this day in 1940, Parisians awaken to the sound of a German-accented voice announcing via loudspeakers that a curfew was being imposed for 8 p.m. that evening-as German troops enter and occupy Paris." (https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/germans-enter-paris) -
Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor is a U.S. naval base near Honolulu, Hawaii. Hundreds of Japenese fighter planes descended on the base, they managed to destroy or damage nearly 20 American naval vessels, 8 battleships, and over 300 airplanes. More than 2,400 Americans died in the attack, including civilians, and another 1,000 people were hurt. This happened the day after the assault of President Franklin D. -
Bataan Death March
U.S. surrender of the Bataan peninsula on the main Philippine island of Luzon to the Japanese during World War II. Approximately 75,000 Filipino and American troops on Bataan were forced to make a 65-mile march to prison camps. The temperature of the march was very hot, many marchers died because of dehydration and heat exhaustion, and the Japanese guards were very harsh on the marchers. It is called the Bataan Death March because many marchers died on the march to the prison camps. -
Battle of Midway
Six months later after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States defeated Japan in one of the most decisive naval battles of World War II. An important turning point in the Pacific campaign. -
Battle of Stalingrad
It was a brutal military campaign between Russian forces and those of Nazi Germany. The battle is infamous as one of the largest, longest and the bloodiest engagements in modern warfare. -
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was a violent revolt. Residents of the Jewish ghetto in Nazi-occupied Warsaw, Poland, staged the armed revolt. They did that to prevent deportations to Nazi-run extermination camps. The Warsaw uprising inspired other revolts in extermination camps and ghettos throughout German occupied Eastern Europe. -
Allied invasion of Italy
The British army under Field Marshal Bernard begins the allied invasion of the Italian peninsula. One day, the Italian government secretly agreed to the allies. -
D-Day
156,00 American, British and Canadian forces landed of five beaches along a 50-mile stretch of the heavily fortified coast of Frances Normandy region. The invasion was one of the largest military assaults in history and required a lot of planning and thinking. -
Liberation of concentration camps
As the allies advanced across Europe at the end of WWII, they came across concentration camps full of starving and sick prisoners. The Germans attempted to hide the evidence by destroying the gas chambers and most of the camps that were still standing. Many people discovered the camps and chambers before they were destroyed. -
Battle of the Bulge
Adolf Hitler attempted to split the allied armies in northwest Europe by a surprise of blitzkrieg. As the Germans drove deeper into the Ardennes in an attempt to secure vital bridgeheads, the Allied line took on the appearance of a large bulge, giving rise to the battle’s name. -
Battle of Iwo Jima
It was an epic military campaign between the U.S. Marines and the imperial army of Japan. -
Battle of Okinawa
The Battle of Okinawa was the last major battle of World War II, and one of the bloodiest. -
Dropping of the atomic bombs
America becomes the first and the only nation to use atomic weaponry during wartime. Though the dropping of the atomic bomb on Japan marked the end of WWII, many historians argue that it also ignited the Cold war. -
VJ Day
Japan had surrendered unconditionally to the Allies, effectively ending WWII. -
VE Day
VE day is the day of victory in Europe. Everyone celebrated when Europe won.
