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Japanese Invasion of China (1937)
Conflict that broke out when China began full-scale resistance to the expansion of Japanese influence in its territory (begun in 1931). In an effort to unseat the Nationalist government of Chiang Kai-shek, the Japanese occupied large areas of eastern China in 1937–38. A stalemate then ensued, and Japanese forces were diverted to Southeast Asia and to the Pacific theatre of World War II against the Western Powers and their allies beginning in 1941. Japan’s defeat in that by the Allies in 1945. -
German Blitzkrieg
Germany proved unable to defeat the Soviet Union, which together with the Great British and the United States seized the initiative from germany. -
Germany's Invasion of Poland
On September 1, 1939, Germany Invaded Poland. The Polish army was defeated witing weeks of the invasion.From East Prussia and Germany in the north and Silesia and Slovakia in the south, German units, with more than 2,000 tanks and over 1,000 planes, broke through Polish defenses along the border and advanced on Warsaw in a massive encirclement attack. -
Operation Barbarossa
On June 22, 1941, 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.Barbarossa was the crucial turning point in World War II, for its failure forced Nazi Germany to fight a two-front war against a coalition possessing immensely superior resources. -
Pearl Harbor
Hundreds of japanese fighter planes attacked the American naval base ar Pearl Harbor near Honolulu, Hawaii. -
Wansee Conference
The Wanasee Conference (German:Wannseekonferenz) was a meeting of senior official of Nazi Germany, held in hthe Berlin surbub of Wannsee. -
Operation Gomorrah
The evening of July 24, 1943 saw British aircraft drop 2,300 tons of incendiary bombs on Hamburg in just a few hours. The explosive power was the equivalent of what German bombers had dropped on London in their five most destructive raids. -
D- Day (Normany Invasion)
The battle began on june 6, 1944, also know as D-Day, when some 156,000American, British and canadian forces landed on fiv ebeaches along a 50-Mile stretch of the heavily fortified coast of France's Nnormandy region. -
Operation Thunderclap
When the... joint intelligence committee reported that a four-day, four-night series bombing attacks could very well cause a heavy flow of German refugees that 'would be bound to create great confusion, interfer with the orderly movement of troops tot he front and hamper the German military and administrative machine' and 'materially assist the Russians in the all-important battle now raging on the eastern front...' -
Batlle of The Bulge
The Battle of the Bulge was a major German offensive campaign launched through the densely forested Ardennes region of Wallonia in Belgium, France, and Luxembourg on the Western Front toward the end of World War II in Europe. -
Battle of Iwo Jima
Was a major battle in which the U.S. Marines landed on and eventually captured the island of Iwo Jima from the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II. -
VE Day
The eighth of May spelled the day when German troops throughout Europe finally laid down their arms: In Prague, Germans surrendered to their Soviet antagonists, after the latter had lost more than 8,000 soldiers, and the Germans considerably more; in Copenhagen and Oslo; at Karlshorst, near Berlin; in northern Latvia; on the Channel Island of Sark—the German surrender was realized in a final cease-fire. -
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. At stake were air bases vital to the projected invasion of Japan. 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. -
Dropping the atomic Bomb
Since 1940, the United States had been working on developing an atomic weapon, after having been warned by Albert Einstein that Nazi Germany was already conducting research into nuclear weapons. The United States becomes the first and only nation to use atomic weaponry during wartime, drops an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Though the dropping of the atomic bomb on Japan marked the end of World War II. -
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. Coming several months after the surrender of Nazi Germany.
