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Japanese Invasion of China
One must acknowledge that Japan, at that time, was a well structured and civilized country, due to the quick adoption of foreign ideals, compared to China which had little to no structure. The Japanese were also more educated and hardworking compared to the inactive Chinese.This led Japan to quickly prosper, develop and emerge into a global superpower that had an economy larger than the rest of Asia combined at that time.This then lead the japanese to attack to china. -
Germany's invasion of Poland
At 4:45 a.m., some 1.5 million German troops invade Poland all along its 1,750 mile border with Geman-controlled territory.Simultaneously,the German Luftwaffe bombed Polish airfields,and German warships and U-boats attaked Polsh naval forces in the Baltic Sea.Nazo leader Adolf Hitler claimed the massive invasion was a defensive action. -
German Blitzkrieg
Its successful execution results in short military campaigns, which preserves human lives and limits the expenditure of artillery. German forces tried out the blitzkrieg in Poland in 1939 before successfully employing the tactic with invasions of Belgium, the Netherlands and France in 1940. -
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.By the time German tanks rolled into Paris, 2 million Parisians had already fled, with good reason. In short order, the German Gestapo went to work: arrests, interrogations, and spying were the order of the day, as a gigantic swastika flew beneath the Arc de Triomphe. -
Pearl Harbor
Just before 8 a.m. on December 7, 1941, hundreds of Japanese fighter planes attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor near Honolulu, Hawaii. The barrage lasted just two hours, but it was devastating: The Japanese managed to destroy nearly 20 American naval vessels, including eight enormous battleships, and more than 300 airplanes. More than 2,000 Americans soldiers and sailors died in the attack, and another 1,000 were wounded.The day after FDR declared war on Japan. -
Bataan Death March
After the April 9, 1942, U.S. surrender of the Bataan Peninsula on the main Philippine island of Luzon to the Japanese during World War II (1939-45), the approximately 75,000 Filipino and American troops on Bataan were forced to make an arduous 65-mile march to prison camps. -
Battle of Midway
(June 3–6, 1942), World War II naval battle, fought almost entirely with aircraft, in which the United States destroyed Japan’s first-line carrier strength and most of its best trained naval pilots. Together with the Battle of Guadalcanal, the Battle of Midway ended the threat of further Japanese invasion in the Pacific. -
Allied invasion of Italy
With North Africa secured and Sicily—the stepping stone to Italy—conquered, the Allied forces launched their invasion of Italy on 3 September 1943. It began with British forces skipping across the Strait of Messina to Calabria. A few days later, more British and American forces landed several hundred miles to the north at Salerno. Their plan was simple: the northern forces would throw a net across the Italian peninsula while the British army chased the Germans into it from the south. -
D-Day
During World War II (1939-1945),the Battle of Normandy, which lasted from June 1944 to August 1944, resulted in the Allied liberation of Western Europe from Nazi Germany’s control.Codenamed Operation Overlord, the battle began on June 6, 1944,also known as D-Day,when some 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.The invasion was one of the largest amphibious military assaults in history. -
Battle of Iwo Jima
U.S. Marines invaded Iwo Jima on February 19, 1945, after months of naval and air bombardment. The Japanese defenders of the island were dug into bunkers deep within the volcanic rocks.Approximately 70,000 U.S. Marines and 18,000 Japanese soldiers took part in the battle. In thirty-six days of fighting on the island,nearly 7,000 U.S. Marines were killed. Another 20,000 were wounded. Marines captured 216 Japanese soldiers; the rest were killed in action. -
Battle of Okinawa
The battle of Okinawa, also known as Operation Iceberg, took place in April-June 1945. It was the largest amphibious landing in the Pacific theater of World War II. It also resulted in the largest casualties with over 100,000 Japanese casualties and 50,000 casualties for the Allies. This article gives an account of the 80 day plus battle for the Island of Okinawa which some have described as the "typhoon of steel". -
VE Day
Victory in Europe Day.Also called V-E Day VE Day.Observed by European Allied nations and territories involved in World War II Significance End of World War II in Europe Date 7/8 May.Related to Victory over Japan Day Winston Churchill waves to crowds in Whitehall, London on the day he broadcast the news that the war with Germany was over.Crowds gathered in celebration at Piccadilly Circus, London during VE Day in 1945.The instrument of Germany's surrender signed at Reims, France on May 7. -
Dropping of the atomic bombs
On August 6, 1945, during World War II (1939-45), an American B-29 bomber dropped the world’s first deployed atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The explosion wiped out 90 percent of the city and immediately killed 80,000 people; tens of thousands more would later die of radiation exposure.Three days later, a second B-29 dropped another A-bomb on Nagasaki,killing an estimated 40,000 people.Japan’s Emperor Hirohito announced his country’s unconditional surrender in WWII on the radio. -
VJ Day
On August 14, 1945, it was announced that Japan had surrendered unconditionally to the Allies, effectively ending World War II. Since then, both August 14 and August 15 have been known as “Victoryover Japan Day,” or simply “V-J Day.” The term 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.
