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Japanese invasion of China
The Japanese invaded China. Japans invasion of China was due essentially to Japan's desire to be an imperial power. There was both an economic and a militaristic element to this desire.
China lost territory but eventually got it back. -
German Blitzkrieg
Was Germany's strategy to defeat its opponents in a series of short campaigns. Tactics required the concentration of offensive weapons (such as tanks, planes, and artillery) along a narrow front. These forces would drive a breach in enemy defenses, permitting armored tank divisions to penetrate rapidly and roam freely behind enemy lines, causing shock and disorganization among the enemy defenses.
https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005437 -
Germany's invasion of Poland
German forces bombard Poland on land and from the air, as Adolf Hitler seeks to regain lost territory and ultimately rule Poland. World War II had begun. The German invasion of Poland was a primer on how Hitler intended to wage war–what would become the “blitzkrieg” strategy
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/germany-invades-poland -
Operation Barbarossa
Adolf Hitler launched his armies eastward in a massive invasion of the Soviet Union: three great army groups with over three million German soldiers, 150 divisions, and three thousand tanks smashed across the frontier into Soviet territory. The encirclement battles of Kiev in September and Bryansk-Vyazma in October, each netting 600,000 prisoners.
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/operation-barbarossa -
Pearl Harbor
Japanese bombed the U.S. navy base in Pearl Harbor. They did it because the Japanese were worried that we would interfere with the military actions they planned in Southeast Asia. As a result nearly the entire U.S. Fleet was destroyed. -
Wannsee Conference (1942)
Nazi officials meet to discuss the details of the “Final Solution” of the “Jewish question.” They started murdering Jewish people -
Operation Gomorrah
British bombers raid Hamburg, Germany, by night in Operation Gomorrah, while Americans bomb it by day in its own “Blitz Week.” Britain had suffered the deaths of 167 civilians as a result of German bombing raids in July. The evening of July 24 saw British aircraft drop 2,300 tons of incendiary bombs on Hamburg in just a few hours.
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/operation-gomorrah-is-launched -
D-Day (Normandy Invasion - 1944)
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.Resulted in the Allied liberation of Western Europe from Nazi Germany’s control.
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/d-day -
Battle of the Bulge
Attempt to push the Allied front line west from northern France to northwestern Belgium. The Battle of the Bulge, so-called 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.The Germans threw 250,000 soldiers into the initial assault, 14 German infantry divisions guarded by five panzer divisions-against a mere 80,000 Americans. -
Operation Thunderclap
A series of Allied firebombing raids begins against the German city of Dresden, reducing the “Florence of the Elbe” to rubble and flames, and killing as many as 135,000 people.
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/firebombing-of-dresden -
Battle of Iwo Jima
The American amphibious invasion of Iwo Jima during World War II stemmed from the need for a base near the Japanese coast. Except for 1,083 prisoners (two of whom did not surrender until 1951) the entire garrison was wiped out. American losses included 5,900 dead and 17,400 wounded. -
Battle of Okinawa
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. 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—including 14,000 dead.
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/battle-of-okinawa -
VE Day
Great Britain and the United States celebrate Victory in Europe Day. Cities in both nations, as well as formerly occupied cities in Western Europe, put out flags and banners, rejoicing in the defeat of the Nazi war machine.more than 13,000 British POWs were released and sent back to Great Britain.
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/v-e-day-is-celebrated-in-america-and-britain -
Dropping of the atomic bombs (1945)
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. Japan’s Emperor Hirohito announced his country’s unconditional surrender in World War II
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/bombing-of-hiroshima-and-nagasaki -
VJ Day
Japan had surrendered unconditionally to the Allies, effectively ending World War II. We used an atomic bomb that caused the Japanese to surrender
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/v-j-day
