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Japan Invaded China
The Japanese had their minds set on extending their empire. To accomplish that goal they claimed that the Chinese soilders had sabotaged their railway and that they were going to fight back. The Chinese knew that the Japanese just wanted an excuse to invade Manchuria so they did not fight back, China appealed to the Leage of Nations, and when they replied they said that Japan was in the wrong and needed to give back Manchuria. Japan refused and instead left the League of Nations & invaded Jehol. -
The Holocaust
The Holocaust began when Hitler came to power in Germany and ened when the Nazis were defeated by the Allies. The term holocust in Greek means "Sacrifice by fire". The Nazi's targeted Jews as well as Gypsies, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses. and the disabled. Approximatly 11 million people were killed during the Holocaust, 6 million being jews. The Nuremberg Laws were what began to excude Jews from Public Life and then eventually Anti-Jews Laws. -
Munich Conference
The Munich Conference invloved 4 major contries: Germany, Italy, France, and Great Britian. This was an agreemnt were Hitler could annx the sudetenland as long as he promised to not invade anywhere else. This agreement was okay for a short amount of time until Germany strikes again. Germany broke the agreement by subsequently invading and annexing the whole of Czechoslovakia in March of 1939. The British leader, Chamberlain, realized Hitler could not be trusted and WWII was declared soon after. -
Non-Aggression Pact
This was a pact between Germany and the Soviet Union, which the two countries agreed to take no military action for the next 10 years. Soviet leader, Stalin, viewed the pact as a way to stay peacful with Germany while giving him the chance to build up his army, Hilter viewed it as a chance to invade Poland unopposed. This pact also said that they would split up Eastern Europe at a later time. This pact fell apart in June 1941 because Germany ivaded the Soviet Union. -
Germany Invades Poland
This invastion was the somewhat start of WWII. Adolf Hitler claimed tat this massive invation was a defense action, but Britain and France were not convinced of this information. On Setember 3rd, they declared war on Germany, officaly initiating WWII. The German invasion of Poland was a pimer on how Hitler intended to wage war, this is what would become Blitzkreig Strategy, -
Blitzkrieg
This is a military tactic designed t create disoranization among enemy forces through the use of mobile forced and locally concentrated firepower. When using Blitzkrieg it is important to hit hard and then move on to the next target. For a little over 2 years this is what Germany focused on to allow them to conquer most of Europe. On september 1939, Germany used the tactic against Poland successfully. -
Battle of Britain
Having defeated France already, Germany wanted to invade Britain, but in order to do this; Germany had to destroy Britains RAF. The code name for this invation was operation Sea Lion. Germany attempted to do this with bombing raids which first started on July 10th 1940, The key event of this battle was that Germany launched massive assults on London and filled the skies with large numbers of bombers and fighter planes. It is thought that 1000 RAF planes were shot down in this battle. -
Lend-Lease Act
As Nazi's were winning many victories in Europe, FRD began seeking ways to sid Great Britain while staying out of any conflict. Roosevelt started sending large amounts of US weapons and ammunition to Britian in the mid 1940's. This was all done with an understanding that the US or anyone else lending supplies were going to get paid back or returned ,if they were not destoyed, after the war. To watch over this prosses FDR created the office of Lend-Lease Administration. -
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa was the name given to the Nazi Germany's invasion of Russia. Barbarossa was the largest military attack of WWII and was to have appalling conseuences for the Russian people. This operation was based on the tactics of Blitzkrieg. In total the Germans and thier allies used 3 million soilders, 3580 tanks, 7184 artillery guns, 1830 planes and 750,000 horses. -
Pearl Harbor
Japanese fighter planes attacked the U.S. base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, launching one of the deadliest attacks in American history. This invasion only lasted about 2 hours, but unfortunaly claimed more than 2,500 lives, 1000 wounded, 18 ships and 300 airplanes damaged or sunk. The day after the assault, FDR asked congress to declare war on Japan and congressed approved with only one opposing vote. More than two years had gone past and America had finally entered the world war. -
Wannsee Conference
On Noember 29th 1941, Heydrich send invitations for a ministerial conference to be held on December 9th. Between the days of the letter being sent and the conference date many situations happened. Therefor he sent out a new letter stating that the meeting will be on October 20th 1942. In the meeting Heydrich outlined how the Jews will be sent to consentrations camps to be killed. Violence and economic pressure was beginning to encourage Jews to leave the country voluntarily. -
Bataan Death March
The Japanese assembled about 78,000 prisoners to march up the east coast of Bataan. Although they didnt know it, their destination was camp O'Donnell. On the way to the camp if any PWO'S could not make it they were executed, some of the gaurds made a sport out of hurting or killing the PWO'S. The Dealth Marchers recieved only some food and little to no water which made their bodies extreamly weak causing them a hard time to keep walking. The PWO'S maches apporoximatly 65 miles over 6 days. -
Battle of Midway
This is when the US defeated Japan in one of the most decisive naval battles in WWII. Fortunaly the United States adanvanced their code breaking which made it possible to counter Japans plan to ambush the US. This was an important turning point in the pacific campaign, the vicotry allowed the US and its allies to move into offensive postions. Japans navy never really recovered from the defreat at Midwat and it was on the defensive after this battle. -
Battle of Stalingrad
Battle of Stalingrad was fought between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union and both sides were trying to take control of Stalingrad. Soilders from Italy, Romania, Hunary, Slovaki, Croatia, and Finland were all invloved here. This battle is specificly remembered from the destruction of the German 6th Army. In this battle Germany used Operation Barbarossa to take on the Soiviet Union. Germany decided to attack Stalingrad in order to prevent US from sending aid and supplies to the Soviet Union. -
D-Day
D-Day was the allied invasion of Normandy. The largest seaborne invasion in history as well. The invasions code name was operation overload. General Dwight D Eisenhower commanded the operation, and the planes were made to land in Normandy. The reason Eisenhower chose to land in that part of Normandy was because their were no artillery built up on the West side. Approximatly 156,000 Allied troops had successfully stormed Normandy's beaches. -
Battle of the Bulge
Germanys final attempet to get the allies off the mainland of Europe. It lasted about one month as American forces fought back and kept Germanyd army from overrunning Europe. Early on December 16th, 1944 Germany launched a major atack which took place in the Ardennes Forest of Belgium. Germany used 200,000 troops and nearly 1,000 tanks to break through the US lines. English speaking and dresesed Germans spied and secretly came into the Allied lines. -
Battle of Iwo Jima
The capture of Iwo Jima was part of a three-point plan the Americans had for the winning of the war in the far East. Despite its size, Iwo Jima was considered to have great tactical importance. Since Japan knew about the islands importantce, they were determined to keep control of it. The island was broken down slightly two months before the assault due to bombing raids. For three days prior to the attack, six American battleships launched contunious barage on the island. -
Battle of Okinawa
This was also known as operation iceberg. it is know as the largest amphibious landing in the pacific theater of WWII. All together there were 100,000 Japanese casualties and only 50,000 for the allies. The capture of Okinawa was part of a three point plan the americans had for winning the war in the far East. The Americans estimated that there were about 5,000 Japanese troops on the island with 450,000 civillians but there were actually a lot more. -
V-E Day
May 8th 1945, marked the defeat of Germany by the Allied forced in WWII. VE did not mark the end to all of the fighting in the world war but it was a big portion of it. Japan did not surrender until later in 1945. Allies accepted Germanys surrender, about a week after Adolf Hitler had committed suicide. This day marks the end of World War 2 in Europe. -
The bombing of Hiroshima/Nagasaki
An American B-29 bomber dropped the world first deploted atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The explosion wiped out 90% of the city and immediatly killed 80,000 people; and thosands were left with horrific radiation who soon after died. Three days later a second B-29 dropped nother atomic bomb on Nagasaki, killing 40,000 people. Hirohito anounced his countries surrender in WWII in a radio adress on August 15th which is what the United Sates wanted all along. -
V-J Day
It was announced that Japan had surrendered unconditionally to the allies, effectively eding the WWII. The allies were consistently bombing Japn from air and sea, dropping 100,000 tons of explosives on more than 60 Japanese cities an towns between March and July 1945. The last try to get Japan to surrender was the two atomic bombs and luckly the second atomic bomb worked. -
Warsaw Pact
The soviet Unions response to West Germany joining NATO. The pact was also called "The Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation an Mutual Assistance". The name commonly given to the treaty between Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and the Soviet Union. This bound the signors of the treaty to come to the aid of the others, should any one of them be the victom of foreign aggression.