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Japan invasion of Manchuria
The Japanese invasion of Manchuria began on September 19, 1931, when the Kwantung Army of the Empire of Japan invaded Manchuria immediately following the Mukden Incident. The Japanese established a puppet state, called Manchukuo, and their occupation lasted until the end of World War II. This was a very bloody process because of the amount of civilians that China occupied. -
The Holocaust
The Holocaust also known as Shoah, was a genocide in which approximately six million Jews were killed by the Nazi regime, under the command of Adolf Hitler, and its collaborators.March 20, 1933: SS opens the Dachau concentration camp outside of Munich. April 1, 1933: Boycott of Jewish-owned shops and businesses in Germany. The Holocaust went on until May 9th, 1945 when the Germans surrendered to the Soviets. -
Munich Conference
On this day in 1938, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, French Premier Edouard Daladier, and British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain sign the Munich Pact, which states tgat Czechoslovakia will be handed over to Germany in the name of peace. Along with the civilians occupying Czechoslavakia the Germans also recieved 66 percent of Czechoslovakia's coal, 70 percent of its iron and steel, and 70 percent of its electrical power. -
Non-Aggression Pact
Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union surprised the world by signing the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact, in which the two countries agreed to take no military action against each other for the next 10 years. Soviet leader Joseph Stalin viewed the pact as a way to keep his nation on peaceful terms with Germany, while giving him time to build up the Soviet military.Of course the pact was disregarded and Hitler marched on Soviet territory anyway. -
Germany invades Poland
German forces bombard Poland on land and from the air, as Hitler attempts to regain lost territory and rule Poland. The German invasion of Poland was a primer on how Hitler intended to wage war--what would become the "blitzkrieg" strategy. France and Great Britain were unpleased with Hitler and his rash actions and on September 3rd, 1939, France and Great Britain declared war on Germany. This was the start of WW2. -
Blitzkrieg
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. Germany eventually used the Blizkrieg tactic however, Germany did not defeat Great Britain, which was protected from German ground attack by the English Channel and the Royal Navy. -
Battle of Britain
In the summer and fall of 1940, German and British air forces collided in the skies over the UK, locked in the largest bombing campaign to that date. The Battle of Britain ended when Germany’s Luftwaffe didn't gain air power over the Royal Air Force despite months of targeting Britain’s air bases, military posts and, its civilian population. The Battle of Britain ended October 31, 1940. -
Lend Lease Act
The Lend-Lease Act provided military aid for foreign countries that were fighting in WW2. Lend-Lease brought the United States one step closer to entry into the war. The Lend Lease Act meant The United States was now part of the war, however it was not yet physically entered into the war. -
Operation Barbarossa
Hitler launched his armies eastward in a massive invasion of the Soviet Union even though Germany and the Soviet Union had signed the Non-Aggression Pact, Hitler ignored and proceded on to march through the Soviet Union. The invasion covered a front from the North Cape to the Black Sea, a distance of two thousand miles. -
Pearl Harbor
December 7th, 1941 was the day the Japanese fighter planes attacked the American naval base in Pearl Harbor, close to Honolulu. The Japanese managed to destroy nearly 20 American naval vessels, including eight enormous battleships, and almost 200 airplanes. More than 2,000 Americans soldiers and sailors died in the attack, and another 1,000 were wounded. The day after the attack, President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked congress to declare war on Japan. -
Wannsee Conference
A meeting of senior officials of Nazi Germany, held in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee on 20 January 1942. The purpose of the conference, called by director of the SS- SS-, was to ensure the cooperation of administrative leaders of various government departments in the implementation of the final solution to the Jewish questions. -
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, around 75,000 Filipino and American troops on Bataan were forced to make an arduous 65-mile march to prison camps. Thousands died in what became known as the Bataan Death March. -
Battle of Midway
Six months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States defeated Japan in one of the biggest naval battles of WW2. Major advances in code breaking, the United States was able to become aware of Japan’s planned ambush of its few remaining aircraft carriers, inflicting permanent damage on the Japanese Navy. The victory allowed the United States and its allies to move into an offensive position. -
Battle of Stalingrad
(July 17, 1942-Feb. 2, 1943) The succesful Soviet defense of the city Stalingard. Russians consider it to be their greatest battle of the Great Patriotic War. It stopped the German advance into the Soviet Union, and marked the turning of the war in favor of the Allies. The Battle of Stalingrad was one of the bloodiest battles in history, with combined military and civilian casualties of nearly 2 million. -
D-Day
On D-Day more than 160,000 Allied Troops landed along a 50-mile stretch of heavily-fortified French coastline, to fight Nazi Germany on the beaches of Normandy, France. More than 5,000 Ships and 13,000 aircraft supported the D-Day invasion, and by day’s end, the Allies gained a foot-hold in Continental Europe. -
Battle of the Bulge
German launched through the forests of Adrennes region of Wallonia in Belgium, France, and Luxembourg toward the end of WW2 in Europe. The Allies called it the Ardennes Counteroffensive. Its objective was to split the Allied armies by means of a surprise blitzkrieg pushed through the Ardennes to Antwerp. -
Battle of Iwo Jima
The American invasion of Iwo Jima during World War II stemmed from the need for a base near the Japanese coast.Iwo Jima was defended by around 23,000 Japanese army and navy troops, and it was attacked by three marine divisions after elaborate preparatory air and naval invasion. Iwo Jima was the only Marine battle where the American casualties, 26,000, exceeded the Japanese. -
Battle of Okinawa
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. -
V-E Day
The 8th of May was the day that German troops throughout Europe laid down their arms. In Prague, Germans surrendered to their Soviet antagonists, after the latter had lost more than 8,000 soldiers. Many German soldiers were concerned that Soviet forces were to take them prisoners. The Russians took approximately 2 million prisoners in the period just before and after the German surrender. -
The Bombing of Hiroshima
An American 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, and an additional tens of thousands of more would be killed due to the high amounts of radiation exposure. Three days later the United States dropped another bomb on Nagasaki, killing an estimated 40,000 people. Hirohito, Japans emperor announced his unconditional surrender in WW2 via through a radio message. -
V-J Day
On August 14, 1945, it was announced that Japan had surrendered unconditionally to the Allies, ending World War II. Since then, both August 14 and August 15 have been known as “Victoryover Japan Day,” or simply “V-J Day.” Several months after the surrender of Nazi Germany, Japan’s capitulation in the Pacific brought six years of hostilities to a final an anticipated close. -
Warsaw Pact
The Soviet Union and seven of its European satellites sign a treaty creating the Warsaw Pact, a defense organization that put the Soviets in control of the armed forces of the member states.The Warsaw Pact included the Soviet Union, Albania, Poland, Romania, Hungary, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, and Bulgaria
