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Japanese Invasion of China
A disagreement that occured when China began to resist to the expansion of Japanese influence in its land. Trying to unseat the Nationalist government of Chiang Kai-shek, the Japanese took over large areas of eastern China in 1937–38. And then a delay occurred, and Japanese forces were sent back to Southeast Asia and to the Pacific theatre of World War II against the Western Powers and their allies beginning in late 1941. Japan’s defeat in 1945 ended its occupation of China. -
Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact
The Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact after the 2 foreign ministers who discussed the agreement, had two parts. A ten-year nonaggression pact and an economic agreement. The pact enabled Germany to attack Poland on the 1st of September, 1939 without fear of Soviet intervention. On the 3rd of September, 1939, Britain and France declared war on Germany. These events were marked as the start of WWII. -
Germany's Invasion of Poland
The German-Soviet Pact which stated that Poland was to be split up between the two powers, allowed Germany to invade Poland. The polish army was defeated withing several weeks of the war. -
German Blitzkrieg
The Blitzkrieg was a military tactic that Germany came up with, and its a way to attack and defeat their opponents in a short time period using tanks, planes and artillery. Germany successfully use this tactic on Poland, Denmark, Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Yugoslavia and Greece. -
Fall of Paris
On this day, Germany attacked Paris. The British prime minister tried to convince the French to hold on and told them that the U.S would enter the war and help save Paris. The French premiere telegrammed Roosevelt, The U.S president, and asked for any kind of help possible. The secretary of State Cordell Hull refused knowing that Hitler and Allies would take such a public declaration of help as a prelude to a deceleration of war. The Canadians joined the war offering hope for a free France. -
Operation of Barbarossa
Operation of Barbarossa was a code name that Germans came with when they invaded the Soviet Union. It was the largest military operation in history involving more than 3 million axis troops and 3,500 tanks. Hitler invaded the USSR because he wanted to defeat communism happening in USSR, take over land in USSR and use the Soviet people for slave labour. Also, he knew certain feilds of Ukraine and oil fields of Caucasus would be handy. -
Pearl Harbor
On Dec. 7, 1941, the Japanese attacked the american naval base at Pearl Harbor near Honolulu, Hawaii. The japanese attacked because they wanted to put a hold on unnecessary interference of Franklin Roosevelt (the U.S president) in the internal affairs of Japan. The attack left American navy lose 2400 of her best men and 21 ships that were either sunk or destroyed. 188 aircrafts were also destroyed. This left America angry to the point that they declared the World War II against Japan. -
Manhattan Project
The Manhattan Project was a secret military project to create the first nuclear weapon. They created it because they feared that the Germans would create a nuclear bomb and use it in the war so that triggered them to create the Manhattan project before the Germans did. The significance of the project was to put an end to WWII by using explosive weapons and forced Japan to surrender. But the downside was that it also gave other countries the chance to create nuclear weapons that are more powerful -
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
During WWII, residents of the Jewish getto in Nazi Warsaw, Poland, faked an armed revolt against deportations to extermination camps. The Warsaw ghetto uprising made other revolts in extermination camps and ghettos throughout German-occupied Eastern Europe. This ghetto was locked by brick walls, barbed wire and armed guards, anyone caught trying to leave was shot. the Nazis were in control of the amount of food that was brought in, and lots died due to diseases and starvation each month. -
Operation Gomorrah
British bombers attack Hamburg, Germany, by night in Operation Gomorrah, while Americans bomb it by day in its own “Blitz Week.” Britain had suffered lots of deaths of civilians thanks to the german bombing. So, in return, British drop 2300 of bombs on Hamburg. More then 1500 German Civilians died from the attack. Britain had only lost 12/791 aircraft during the attack. To make the matter worse for Germany, the U.S joined in the raid and attacked the northern part of Germany. -
D-Day
The attack began when allied planes and warships bombarded German positions along the coastline. This was to damage the defences making it easier for the troops to get ashore.Thousands of ships set out from the south coast of England, in all over 6,000 vessels joined the attack. They were supported by over 11,000 planes. The naval force crossed the channel overnight. By the end of D-Day the allies had put 156,000 troops ashore in Normandy. -
Battle of the Bulge
The Battle of the Bulge was an attempt to push the allied front line west from northern France to northwestern Belgium. It was given that name because the Germans created a “bulge” around the area of the Ardennes forest in pushing through the American defensive line, was the largest fought on the Western front. 250,000 germans against 80,000 americans made the Germans push the Americans into retreat.The battle raged for 3 weeks, resulting in a massive loss of American civilians. -
Liberation of Concentration Camps
The soviet soldiers were the 1st to free concentration camp prisoners in the final days of WWII.They entered the Majdanek camp in Poland on the 23rd of July and overran other killing centers. On January 27, they entered Auschwitz and found lots of sick prisoners .French, British, American, and Canadian troops also liberated prisoners from the camps. The British were responsible for entering Bergen-Belsen while Amercans were liberating Buchenwald. -
Operation Thunderclap
Allies were discussing on whether they should invade and raid eastern Germany. They wanted to put an end to transport infrastructure behind the Eastern front. The allies wanted Germany to see that the Nazi's failed them and they wanted to go against them for that. First, they bombed Dresden and almost completely destroyed it. The allies wanted to ruin and execute lots of Germans in order to destroy their morale. -
The battle of Iwo Jima
This battle was he first major battle of World War II that took place in Japan. The U.S needed a place for fighter planes and bombers to land and take off when attacking Japan, so they wanted to take Iwo Jima because it was a strategic location. Despite the difficulty of the conditions, the marines wiped out the defending forces after a month of fighting, and the Americans raised the U.S flag in victory -
Battle of Okinawa
The U.S needed the Okinawa as a base to prepare for the planned attack of Japan. This battle was the biggest of the pacific island battles of WWII, the campaign involved the 287,000 troops of the U.S 10th army against 130,000 soldiers of the Japanese 32nd Army. By the end of the campaign, which lasted 82 days, Japan had lost more than 77,000 soldiers and the Allies had suffered more then 65,000 casualties including 14,000 dead. -
VE Day
Britain and the U.S both celebrated the victory of VE Day including formerly occupied cities in Western Europe, which stands for Victory in Europe day. They all put out flags and banners, rejoicing in the defeat of the Nazi war machine. The Germans surrendered to their soviet antagonist on the 8th of May. The main worry of many German soldiers was to elude the grasp of Soviet forces, to try to keep from being taken prisoner. VE Day was celebrated not unti the 9th in Moscow -
Potsdam Declaration
Japan submits its consent to the Potsdam Conference terms of unconditional surrender a day after the bombing of Nagasaki, as the U.S president orders a halt to atomic bombing. At the wish of two cabinet members, the emperor of Japan summoned over a meeting of the council and talked them into considering accepting the terms of Potsdam Conference, which meant unconditional surrender. Although, in the bombing of Nagasaki, Hiroshima, and the USSR war of Manchuria, it was agreed that japan surrenders -
Dropping of the Atomic Bombs
America dropped the world's 1st deployed atomic bomb over Hiroshima, Japan. The explosion killed 80,000 and destroyed 90% of the city. Thousands died later because they were exposed to radiation. 3 days later, a 2nd bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, killing about 40,000 civilians. Emperor Hirohito announced Japan's surrender in WWII on August 15, citing the devastating power of a "new and most cruel bomb". -
VJ Day
VJ Day stands for "Victory over Japan day". This was the day when Japan announced its surrender to the allies, which resulted in the end of WWII. The term has also been used for when Japan's formal surrender took place aboard the U.S.S Missouri, anchored in Tokyo Bay. Japan capitulated in the Pacific brought 6 years of hostilities to a final and highly anticipated close after the surrender of Nazi Germany several months later. -
website citation
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/japan-accepts-potsdam-terms-agrees-to-unconditional-surrender
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/victory-in-europe
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/operation-gomorrah-is-launched
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/germans-enter-paris
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/warsaw-ghetto-uprising
http://ww2today.com/13-february-1945-operation-thunderclap-raf-start-firestorm-in-dresden -
pic citation
http://www.nationalww2museum.org/assets/images/iwo-jima-flag-raising.jpg
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f4/Last_picture_of_LtGen._Buckner_at_Okinawa.jpg
http://static.bbc.co.uk/history/img/ic/640/images/resources/events/ve_day.jpg
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/03397/Hiroshima_aug_6_mu_3397911b.jpg
http://www.trbimg.com/img-55c4d299/turbine/ct-victory-over-japan-day-world-war-photos-20150806/650/650x366 -
pic citation
http://www.koco.com/image/view/-/26425432/highRes/2/-/maxh/630/maxw/1200/-/pu19o0z/-/Adolf-Hitler--Fall-of-Paris--1940--Eiffel-Tower-jpg.jpg
http://gdb.rferl.org/4001076F-528B-4625-9F85-B1C4E52C8547_mw1024_s_n.jpg
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fd/Stroop_Report_-_Warsaw_Ghetto_Uprising_09.jpg
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/03297/liberation_of_camp_3297513b.jpg
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/multimedia/archive/00433/132920731_hamburg_433776c.jpg -
pic citation
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/82/Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-R67561,_Potsdamer_Konferenz,_Konferenztisch.jpg
http://a3.files.thedailybanter.com/image/upload/c_fit,cs_srgb,dpr_1.0,q_80,w_620/MTM2NjQ1MDM4NDMzNTc2NTQz.jpg
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/61/D-day_-_British_Forces_during_the_Invasion_of_Normandy_6_June_1944_B5246.jpg
http://cdn.theatlantic.com/assets/media/img/photo/2011/07/world-war-ii-operation-barbarossa/w03_10721018/main_1200.jpg -
website citation
http://www.britannica.com/event/Manhattan-Project
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/battle-of-the-bulge
http://www.britannica.com/event/Sino-Japanese-War-1937-1945
https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005437
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/pearl-harbor
https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005156
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/d-day
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/bombing-of-hiroshima-and-nagasaki -
