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German Blitzkrieg
Blitzkrieg ment lightening war, basically they attack with mobile forces quickly and efficiently, first they bombed, sent in tanks, then sent in infantry, it was a tactic that was created after WW1 to prevent deadlocks which made WW1 combat the way it was. With the Blitzkrieg strategy they were able to take over France and cause a lot of damage on the battle fronts. [https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/blitzkrieg] -
Pearl Harbor
A Hawaiian base was brutally bombed by the Japanese, their reasoning was due to use causing an oil blockade. From Pearl Harbor alone they managed to severely damage or destroy 20 ships, then the same to 300 ships, and 2,403 sailors, soldiers, and civilians were killed and 1,000 were wounded.
https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/pearl-harbor -
Wannsee Conference
a conference between nazi higher ups about what to do with the jews essentially this discussion was called the "final solution". The Wannsee conference was had because the nazi's wanted to deal with the jew's once and for all but weren't sure how. This led to the holocaust, as in it led to all the concentration and death camps that jews were taken to. https://www.britannica.com/event/Wannsee-Conference -
D-Day (Normandy invasion)
D-day was the invasion of a heavily fortified coats of about 150,000 allied forces attempting to begin their plan of liberating France. D-day was just about their only way of slowly beginning their liberation of France. The casualties were immense with more than 4,000 allied troops losing their lives and 2,000 of those being Americans who perished in the battle, but in the end they did end up succeeding in taking the Normandy coast. https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/d-day -
Battle of the Bulge
The Battle of the Bulge was an attempt by Hitler to split the allied forces by a surprise blitzkrieg attack through Ardennes to Antwerp. This attack was a desperate one by the Germans, somewhat a last resort because if the allies weren't stopped on their march for Germany soon enough would Germany be stopped in their tracks. The American forces won with General's Patton leadership but there were over 100,000 american causalities. https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/battle-of-the-bulge -
VE Day
It was a celebration of Germany's defeat in Europe and America. The 8th of May was when the Germans finally laid down their arms and the 8th was when a lot of the world celebrated the war machine known as Germany was defeated, Russia celebrated it on the 9th. Many Germans shortly before and after were taken prisoner by Russians about 2 million Germans was what Russia got from their cornering and their surrender. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/victory-in-europe -
Dropping of the atomic bombs
It was August 6th 1945, a day that Japan will always remember along with 3 days after a second city being obliterated by an atomic bomb. America did this as a hope to make Japan surrender through the in comparison small deaths the bombs caused compared to storming through and conquering Japan which would cause the Japanese civilians to kill themselves. Impact was the death of more than 120,000 Japanese. https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/bombing-of-hiroshima-and-nagasaki -
VJ Day
August 14th of 1945 was when Japan surrendered without condition to the Allies which was the official ending to WW2. Japan surrendered because we showed our advancement in technology to Japan by dropping two atomic bombs on two cities which made the Japanese surrender due to their fear of American tech. The impact was the ending of WW2 finally. https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/v-j-day -
Liberation of concentration camps
While pushing into Germany in January many of the allies on their way to Berlin or after conquering Berlin freed many Jews from the many camps they encountered. The Allies seeing these camps was probably extremely mortifying to see the treatment of Jews like that. They free'd over 100,000 Jews from the camps. https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/liberation-of-nazi-camps -
Battle of Iwo Jima
It was battle on the Iwo Jima coast, basically a start at conquering Japan, and was the first large scale attack made on Japan by America. The battle of Iwo Jima was fought due to pearl harbor and making an attempt at having a starting point for invasion. the impact was devastating for both sides, over 21,000 Japanese were killed while 7,000 Americans were killed as well, in the end the Americans took the victory. https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/battle-of-iwo-jima
