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Japanese Invasion of China
Japanese Invasion Japan invaded China for natural resources and vast raw materials. The Marco Polo Bridge incident marked the beginning of war between China and Japan. China received aid from western democracies, where public opinion was strongly anti-Japanese. Britain, France and the US all sent aid. -
Rape of Nanking
Rape of Nanking During a six week period the Japanese army massively murdered over 300,000 people including soldiers and civilians, between 20,000 and 80,000 women were sexually assaulted. Nanking ,the Capital of China, was left in shambles after this event occured. Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-Shek ordered the removal of nearly all official Chinese troops from the city of Nanking. -
Germany's Invasion of Poland
German InvasionGermany invaded Poland beacause Hitler thought they would have more "living space" for the Germans. The germans would than colonize the land. At 4:45 A.M. the german invasion began; it ended with Britain and France declaring war on Germany which caused WWII to begin. -
German Blitzkrieg
BlitzkreigGermans thought that the best way to take over Poland was to use blitzkreig or a "lightning war". Armored divisions would shamsh through Poland and isolate segments of Poland. The Luftwaffe ,a German airforce plane, provided air support for the blitzkreig. Germany kept using this tactic throughout parts of the war. -
Pearl Harbor
Pearl HarborJust before 8 A.M. hundreds of Japense planes attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. The Japenese managed to destroy 20 American naval vessels, and more than 300 airplanes. 2,000 or more American soldiers died and 1,000 were wounded. The day after this brutal attack President Roosevelt declared war on Japan. -
Bataan Death March
Bataan Death MarchWhen the Americans surrendered the Bataan Peninsula to the Japanese approimately 75,000 Filipino and American troops were forced to march a 65 mile march to prision camps. They made this trek in harsh conditions like intense heat and were also subjected to harsh treatment by Japenese guards. Thousands died becasue of the brutality of their captors. They were beaten and starved. -
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
Warsaw ghettosDuring this timespan Germany sent or killed around 300,000 Jews in the Warsaw ghetto. Secret Service and police units deported 265,000 jews to the Treblinka killing center, and 11,580 were sent to forced-labor camps. Most Jews had to be deported from the Warsaw ghetto because there were at least 55,000-60,000 Jews living there at the time. -
D-day / Normandy invasion
d-dayThis was the day that the Allied forces attacked Germany in multiple ways at Normandy, France. More than 9,000 Allied Soldiers were killed or wounded, but their sacrifice allowed more than 100,000 Soldiers to begin the slow, hard slog across Europe to defeat Germany.This day became a major victory for the allied troops. -
Battle of the Bulge
Bulge BattleThe largest battle fought on the Western Front in Europe. It was a German offensive intended to drive a wedge between American and British armies in France to deny the Allies use of the port facilities. The German codename for the buildup to the offensive was Watch on the Rhine. 500,000 German, 600,000 American and 55,000 British troops were involved. The Germans lost some 100,000 men killed, wounded and missing, 700 tanks and 1,600 aircraft. -
Battle of Iwo Jima
Iwo Jima U.S. Marines invaded Iwo Jima , after months of naval and air bombardment. 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. The island was declared secured by the US on March19. -
Battle of Okinawa
Okinawa This battle involved 278,000 US troops , and 130,000 Japenese soldiers. At stake were air bases which were needed for the invasion of Japan. By the end of the 82-day battle, Japan had lost more than 77,000 soldiers and the Allies had suffered more than 65,000 casualties—including 14,000 dead. -
Liberation of Concentration Camps
Liberation The U.S. Seventh Army’s 45th Infantry Division liberates Dachau, the first concentration camp established by Germany’s Nazi regime.This camp was located in the middle of Germany. Prisoners at Dachau were used as forced laborers, initially in the construction and expansion of the camp and later for German armaments production.Over the 12 years of use as a concentration camp, the Dachau administration recorded the intake of 206,206 prisoners and deaths of 31,951. -
V-E Day
ve day The day when German troops throughout Europe finally laid down their arms. The war was finally over in Europe once this event had happended. the German surrender was realized in a final cease-fire. Surrender documents were signed in Berlin and in eastern Germany. -
Dropping of the atomic bombs
bombingAmerican 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. Three days later, a second B-29 dropped another A-bomb on Nagasaki, killing an estimated 40,000 people. -
V-J Day
V-J Day On August 14, 1945, US announced that Japan had surrendered unconditionally to the Allies, ending World War II. After the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Japan accepted defeat by the allied troops and offically ended World War 2.
