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Genocide
Genocide in WWII was mainly done by the Nazis using concentration camps. These camps were terrible places to be and caused many deaths. People were ripped from their homes and forced to work on Nazi projects. These people were famously Jews along with people who opposed nazi beliefs. Many of these people were used as test subjects for new drugs and poisons to test their potency. The first concentration camp was Dachau, originally made for political prisoners but became a death camp for Jews. -
Rape of Nanking
In the middle of the Sino-Japanese war the capital of China, Nanking fell to the Japanese. To hurt the Chinese further General Matsui Iwane ordered his men to utterly destroy Nanking which included the butchering of 150,000 men and the further killing of 50,000 men and the mass rape of 20,000 Chinese women of all ages. This was seen as a horrific act and there were many apologies and reliefs after it, -
Munich conference
The powers of Italy, Germany, France, and Britain meet up to allow German annexation of the western part of Czechoslovakia specifically the Sudetenland. Though the other nations gave Germany the Sudetenland Germany wanted more so they slowly took over Czechoslovakia while Britain and France were scared at the idea of opposing the Germans. This was essentially the start of WWII -
Nazi-Soviet non-aggression pact
The Soviet Union after resisting Nazi control and asking help from Britain and France and getting none eventually come to an agreement with Nazi Germany to split up Eastern Europe into spheres of influence and stop fighting for ten years between Germany and the Soviet Union. Joseph Stalin decided to reach this agreement with Hitler because he wanted to give the Soviet Union more time to prepare for battle and build a bigger army, Hitler agreed so that he could take over Poland with no resistance -
Invasion of Poland
The invasion of Poland was done by Germany to get back lost territory and control Poland. Germany conquered Poland through blitzkrieg which was intense bombing to destroy their enemies' communication, transportation, and finally kill any remaining resistance. After establishing a base in Poland Hitler started to create concentration camps within the country to stop anyone who opposed his nazi Ideology. Poland mainly lost due to their unpreparedness and gave the Nazis more strength and power. -
Western Desert Campaign
The Western Desert Campaign was a series of fights in North Africa between the Allies and the Axis. It started with Italy trying to fight an outnumbered British force until the British had a successful couter-attack led by General Sir Archibald Wavell. Eventually, German reinforcements came and fighting resumed and reached a long stalemate until the Allies used their advantage of resources to gain the upper hand. Germany kept trying but eventually didn't want to waste and resources and left. -
Dunkirk
The Evacuation of Dunkirk or Operation Dynamo was a plan to get British and Allied forces out of Dunkirk and back to Britain. Hundreds of boats were used to get people back and ended up saving 338,000 lives. The evacuation happened because the Germans got the upper hand over the Allies by using their blitzkrieg strategy, leaving less communication and transport between the allies. General John Gort who was the commander of the British Expeditionary Force was the one who knew they needed help. -
Battle of Moscow
The battle of Moscow was a battle between the Nazis and the Soviets. Hitler believed that if Moscow was destroyed then the rest of Russia would follow. At first, the Nazis with their blitzkrieg were able to establish dominance but the Nazis didn't take into account the Russian winter and the separation of their forces across the world. Russia started to protect an area greatly and the Nazis went back but eventually come back but are met with heavy Russian resistance and eventually lose. -
Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor a naval base in Honolulu, Hawaii was surprise attacked by the Japanese. The Japanese used bomber planes to destroy twenty sailing vessels and more than three hundred airplanes. Along with the destruction of the vessels and planes over one thousand people were wounded and two thousand five hundred were lost to the attack. After this attack president, Franklin Roosevelt said that the U.S would now be entering the war. -
Battle of Stalingrad
This was a battle between the Soviets and Nazis which almost solidified the Allies' victory. The Soviets were able to hold the Nazis off until they started to control the skies as a response Stalin made an order that said if anyone ran away they would be killed. Eventually, Russia booked the Nazis from their resources and combined with the Russian winter slowly killed off all of the remaining Nazis despite Hitler's trying to never give up. Over the course of the battle, millions died. -
D-Day
The Allied forces planned the Normandy invasion or D-day to get into Normandy using the English Channel. The invasion was initially supposed to be done on the 5th of June but was postponed because of bad weather. More than 5,000 ships filled with troops were sent along with 11,000 aircraft. The invasion was a success and had 156,000 men alive with only 4,000 dead and more lost or missing. Germany thought the invasion was a distraction so there was no backup and in a few days Normandy was cleared -
Hiroshima and Nagasaki
After Germany was defeated by the allied forces Japanese officials refused to give up fighting. As a response to this President Truman realized that if the U.S kept fighting millions would die to stop this he let the atomic bomb drop and their first target would be a Japanese manufacturing base Hiroshima. This bomb had deadly effects on the environment but Japan refused to surrender so the U.S military dropped an even stronger bomb on Nagasaki. It is estimated that roughly 215,000 people died. -
Kamikaze
Kamikaze attacks were first used during the Battle of Leyte Gulf. Kamikaze means Divine wind in Japanese and had Japanese airships crash into the ground. These attacks were used as a last resort and usually had a sendoff for the people that flew them because of their inevitable death. Most planes used in these attacks were light bombers and were known as "Baka" by the Americans baka beating the Japanese word for fool.