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Japan invades China
Japan's population was growing so large that the country was running out of room. So the Japanese decided they were going to expand into china to make more room. They decided to take over Manchuria and kill everyone there so more of there people could live there. Manchuria had no help from the League of Nations because the manchurian leader stated at the League of Nations meeting that he doesn't think there is the slightest prospect of any war, well Japan proved them wrong. -
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Munich Conference
It was a conference that was held with the leaders from Great Britain, France, and Italy. They were discussing on how they were going to give Germany apart of Czechoslovakia to keep them happy and from starting something. Hitler wanted the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia, so the had an appeasement even though chamberlain tried to talk him out of it. -
Non-Aggression Pact
Before World War II, Germany and the Soviet Union surprised the world by signing the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact, which the two countries agreed to take no military action against each other for the next 10 years. Joseph Stalin saw this as a way to keep peace with Germany. Adolf Hitler used the pact to make sure Germany was able to invade Poland without Russia interfering. The German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact was broken when Nazi forces invaded the Soviet Union. -
Germany Invades Poland
The German invasion of Poland was a primer on how Hitler intended to wage war--what would become the "blitzkrieg" strategy. The Polish army made several severe strategic miscalculations early on. Although 1 million strong, the Polish forces were severely under-equipped and attempted to take the Germans head-on with horsed cavaliers in a forward concentration, rather than falling back to more natural defensive positions. -
Battle of Britain
Britain stood alone against the power of Germany’s military forces, after the french surrendered their defeat. Germany’s power was so stong that they were able to conquer most of Western Europe in less than two months. Winston Churchill was still willing to battle, that’s what they did. Britain possessed an effective air defense system, first-rate fighter pilots, and a great military leader in Air Marshal Hugh Dowding, but so did Germany. This then would be the first all-air battle in history. -
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The Holocaust
This was a time in Germany where hitler forced all of the "sub-humans" in concentration camps and killed over 6 million people, but he mainly focused on inialating Jewish people. When hitler first started discrimination against Jews they had to wear the Star of David on there shirts so people knew they were Jewish. In the concentration camps people were shot, starved to death, burned, put in gas chambers ect... This was a very hard and said time period -
Lend-Lease Act
The act authorized the president to transfer arms or any other defense materials for which Congress appropriated money to the countries who the US were in alliances with like Great Britain, Soviet Union, China, Brazil, and many other countries received weapons under this act. -
Blitzkrieg
Another name for this is called Lightning War. It was a military technique that was first used by the Germans. It was used for speed and surprise attacks against the enemy. -
Operation Barbarossa
Adolf Hitler launched his armies in a massive invasion to the Soviet Union. The invasion covered a front of about 2,000 miles from the North Cape to the Black Sea. Barbarossa was the crucial turning point in World War II, for its failure forced Nazi Germany to fight a two-front war. -
Pearl Harbor
Japan made a surprise attack on a United States base at Pearl Harbor which is in the Pacific Ocean. They did the attack in the wee hours of the morning and the US was caught off guard. Hundreds of Japanese fighter planes attacked the base all at once. The US had no detection until they got in range and were not quick enough to alert the marines and naval soldiers. More than 2,000 American soldiers and sailors died that morning. FDR asked to declare war, and congress approved. US was in the war. -
Wannsee Conference
It was a meeting of the nazi senior officials to discuss and coordinate the "Final Solution of the Jewish Question." Which pretty much ment they were going to see how they were going to deal with the discrimination against the Jewish people and where to go from there since there were so few that were left after hitler and Germany inialated almost the whole race. -
Bataan Death March
The Untied States surrendered the peninsula of Luzon on the Philippine Islands to Japan. America troops had to march a 65-mile march to prison camps. They had to march in really bad temperatures, like hot, and were given harsh treatment by Japanese guards. Thousands of men died after these harsh punishments -
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Battle of Midway
This was fought in the Pacific Ocean during our war against the Japanese. Japan did have superiority over the United States, navy speaking, but after half way the countries became equal. Japan moved to destroy the US Pacific air craft carrier but US fought back and invaded two of Japan's small islands and took them over. -
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Battle of Stalingrad
Successful Soviet defense of the city of Stalingrad in the U.S.S.R. during World War II. Russians consider it to be the greatest battle of their Great Patriotic War, and most historians consider it to be the greatest battle of the entire conflict. It stopped the German advance into the Soviet Union and marked the turning of the tide of 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 mill. -
D-Day
The allies invaded Western Europe, and it was the largest attack in world history. Russian was closing in from the east britan was coming from the north and west and US was coming from the west and south pushing up through northern Africa and through Italy. On this day the allied powers took down the Eorupean super power Germany. -
Battle of the Bulge
Adolph Hitler tried to split the Allied armies in northwest Europe by a surprise blitzkrieg through the Ardennes to Antwerp. Three German armies had the deadliest and most desperate battle of the war in the west that was heavily forested it was called ArdennesA bad German shortage of fuel and the gallantry of American troops fighting in the frozen forests of the Ardennes proved fatal to Hitler’s ambition to snatch, if not victorious, at least a draw with the Allies in the west. -
Battle of Iow Jima
Americans made their first attack on Japan's home island. After our bombardment into the area, the US had 3 marine divisions that landed on the island which was defended by about 23,000 Japanese military men. Even though Japan had dugouts, tunnels, caves ect. Wiped out Japan's force in about a months time. -
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Battle of Okinawa
It was the biggest and the last of the battles in the Pacific Ocean. There was alot of defense lines across the island of Okinawa. American on both north and south ends of the beaches, enabled the Japanese to conduct a strong defense for weeks. The war took place in a heavily populated area so many anoccent lives were unfortunately taken during this battle. Not including the soldiers from both sides. -
V-J Day
This was the day the the Untied States defeated the last axis power standing Japan. Japan signed the surrender papers aboard a ship in the pacific. After the US sent two atomic bombs to destroy two of Japan's larger cities and killed over 100,000 Japanese civilians Japan called it quits. -
V-E Day
Both Great Britain and the United States celebrate Victory in Europe Day. Cities in both nations, as well as formerly occupied cities in Western Europe, they would put up flags and or hang banners in honor of taking down the war machine -
The Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
On this day the United States dropped the first atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima which knocked out 90 percent of the population and immediately killed 80,000 people with more that died later due to the toxic air. America asked fora response and after no reply we dropped another bomb on the city of Nagasaki killing 40,000 people. After these two devastating hits Japan unconditionally surrendered. -
Warsaw Pact
The Soviet Union and seven other European countires signed a treaty establishing the Warsaw Pact, it was a mutual defense organization that put the Soviets in command of the armed forces of the seven states. The treaty said if any of the seven states need help they have to come. It set up a unified military command under the Soviet Union.