WWII Timeline Project

  • Japanese Invasion of China

    Japanese Invasion of China
    Japan saw China as a land full of resources, so they first invaded China and took Manchuria. China then sought the help of the League of Nations, who postes a paper which condemed Japanese agression, which lead to Japanese delegations leaving the League. After that the Japanese just went around and kept taking over city after city. Then in 1937, Japanese and Chinease forces battles head to head, this battle was called the Marco Polo Bridge Incident, which lead to the Sino-Japanese War.
  • Rape of Nanking

    Rape of Nanking
    During the Sino-Japanese War, Nanking, the capital of China, would fall into Japanese forces, and the Chinese government flees further inland along the Yangtze River. To get to the Chinese people, Japanese General, Matsui Iwane, commanded that the city of Nanking be destroyed. Most of the city was burned and many of the civilians were killed. This is refered to the Rape of Nanking. The forces killed many male fighters and raped women and young girls, killing or mutalating them in the process.
  • Ribbentrop/ Molotov Pact

    Ribbentrop/ Molotov Pact
    This is when Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union signed the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact. This pact was made to say that these two contries wouldn't attack each other for the next ten years. Stalin saw this as an opprotunity for him to build of the Union while Adolf Hitler was this as a chance to invade Poland without any opposition. This pact was later broken when Germany invaded the Soviet Union.
  • Germany's Invasion of Poland

    Germany's Invasion of Poland
    (Sept. 1, 1939 - Oct. 6, 1939) Hitler, leader of the Nazi party, knew that he needed to take over Poland to get resources and help prepare for when Britain and France would attack him.
  • German Blitzkrieg

    German Blitzkrieg
    When Germany invaded Poland, they used a type of warfare that was new to the fighters of the war. This type of warfare was called Blitzkrieg, which used infantry, armor, artillery and aircraft in a way that complimented each other so they were able to take Poland in a shorter time.
  • Fall of Paris

    Fall of Paris
    This is when the Germans came in and took Paris by telling them over a loudspeaker saying they had a curfew as they marched into Paris. The British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, had tried for days to convince the French government to hang on and told them the Americans could provide aid. But it was too late, many of the people lead and Germany gained full contorl of Paris.
  • Operation Barbarossa

    Operation Barbarossa
    Germany had finally invaded the Soviet Union with its allied powers from the Baltic shore to the Black Sea. This took the Soviet Union by surprise so they weren't ready for an attack.
  • Pearl Harbor

    Pearl Harbor
    On December 7, 1941, Japanese carrier-based bombers struck the American naval base at Pearl Harbor. On the morning of December 7th, 1941, Japanese planes bombes the American base of Pearl Harbor. They hoped that by doing this they could take control of the land they wanted. The two nations never decided to go to war and it was taking too long for the Japanese representatives to give their word about it but their plan was to send a letter telling them they were going to war thirty minutes before the bombing of Pearl Harbor.
  • Wannsee Conference

    Wannsee Conference
    On January 20, 1942, 15 high-ranking Nazi and German government members gathered in Wannsee to discuss and plan the implementation of what they called the "Final Solution of the Jewish Question," which is the murder of all the Jews in Europe.
  • Bataan Death March

    Bataan Death March
    This is when the Americans had to give up the Bataan Peninsula and make the 65-mile march to prison camps. The march there was made during has weather and the prisoners were treated terribly by the Japanese forces. Many perished on the long journey.
  • Battle of Midway

    Battle of Midway
    This was a key battle fought betweeen the Americans and the Japanease in the Pacific Theater. They Japanease would lure the Americans into a complicated trap and would then crush them. The Japanease attack with everything but in the end they suffered a terrible loss to the Americans.
  • Operation Gomorrah

    Operation Gomorrah
    The British army suffered many deaths by German bombers so they decided to bomb them back with Operation Gomorrah. British bombers raid Hamburg, Germany, at night in Operation Gomorrah, and the Americans bomb it during the day.
  • D-Day (Normandy Invasion)

    D-Day (Normandy Invasion)
    On the morning of June 6th, 1944, the three Allied powers (USA, Canada, and the British) took superiority of the skies over the Normandy Coast of France. From there, paratroops were send down, most killed in crashes and gunfire from the Gernans. Then five divisions were sent out and they took the main beaches (US: 2, Canada: 1, British: 2).
  • Battle of the Bulge

    Battle of the Bulge
    German troops were seceretly creating a mass amount of tanks, guns, artillery pieces, and has nearly 1,000 men to drive a wedge inbetween American and Britiish forces so they could take back the port of Antwerp. Early in the morning, the Germans hid in the forest and ambushed some lightlly defended Americans and were able to crush them. But the Americans were able to pull forces together and fight back along 50 miles of land.
  • Operation Thunderclap

    Operation Thunderclap
    This was a plan to pull a full scale ambuush against Berlin but was later cancelled because the Allies didn't think it would work so they decided to bomb cities instead. One of the cities bombed was Dresden, when 805 RAF bobmers leveled the city killing tons of civilians who didn't have any military or stratigic use for Germany.
  • Battle of Iwo Jima

    Battle of Iwo Jima
    The land of Iwo Jima is only eight square miles big. Japanese fighters were stuck in caves and tried to defeat the American army. It took only a month for the Americans to defeat the Japanese. Only 300 of the 21,000 Japanese defenders were kept alive
  • Battle of Okinawa

    Battle of Okinawa
    The island of Okinawa represented a grand strategic map marker for both the Allies and the Japanese. The battle of Okinawa was the biggest ambush in fighting history. The allied powers had tries to take Okinawa many times but failed. Now they used the US Marines and US Army along with US Navy support by both sea and air to take the well fortified land. The Japanese sent in a ship called : IJN Yamato. But this was only used as a distraction. After they figured they would loose, the Japanese pilots began crashing into ships, which was refered to as; Kamikaze. The Japanese later lost the fight.
  • VE Day

    VE Day
    Victory in Europe celebrated by Britain and the Victory in Europe celebrated by Britain and the Allies. This is when the Russians raced the Americans to Berlin. But Russia got there first and set up a perimiter around the inner city. This is where Hitler killed himself and poisioned his newly married wife.
  • Dropping of the atomic bombs

    Dropping of the atomic bombs
    After capturing the island of Okinawa in an 82-day battle, Allied planners began preparing for the invasion of the Japanese home islands.After Allied forces captured Okinawa, they planned for an counter attack by the Japanese. So instead of waiting for them to attack they decided to drop an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, obliterating the town. When their was no response to that they dropped a second bomb on Nagasaki. People were shocked at the number of civilian deaths.