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Japanese Invasion of China
In the 1930's China was a divided country. In 1931 Japan was eager for the vast and natural resources to be found in China. In 1937 skirmishing between Japanese and Chinese troops on the frontier led to the Marco Polo Bridge Incident. The Japanese quickly captured all key Chinese ports and industrial centres, including cities such as the Chinese capital Nanking and Shanghai. -
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WWII Timeline Project
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German Blitzkrieg
The Germans successfully used the Blitzkrieg tactic against Poland. The German Blitzkrieg seemed to succeed because the Soviet forces were driven back more than 600 miles to the gates of Moscow. December 1941 Hitler declared war on The United States. The Soviet Union launched a couteroffensive in November 1942 trapping and deatroying the entire German Army and Stalingrad. Germany proved unable to defeat the Soviet Union. -
Fall of Paris
Parisians awaken to the sound of a German-accented voice announcing via loudspeakers that a curfew was being imposed for 8 p.m.. The British Prime Minister Winston Churchill had tried for days to convince the French government that America would enter the war and come to its aid. By the time German tanks rolled into Paris, 2 million Parisians had already fled. President Roosevelt froze the American assets. -
Operation Barbarossa
Hitler launched his armies eastward in a massive invasion of the soviet union. The invasion covered a front from the North Cape to the Black Sea distance of over 2000 miles. Russia represented the finest army to fight in the twentieth century. In the end the Soviets overreached, and the Germans restored a assemblance of order to the front; the spring thaw in March 1942. -
Pearl Harbor
Hundreds of Japanese fighter planes attacked the america naval banks.The Japanese managed to destroy nearly 20 American naval vessels, including eight enormous battleships, and more than 300 airplanes. More than 2,000 Americans soldiers and sailors died in the attack, and another 1,000 were wounded. The day after the assault, President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on Japan. -
Wannsee Conference
The Nazi Party and German government officials gathered at a village in Berlin. SS Major Rudolf Lange, commander of RSHA Einsatzkommando 2, deployed in Latvia in the autumn of 1941. -
Battle Of Stalingrad
The Battle Of Stalingrad was the successful defense of Stalingrad by the Soviet Union. Russians considered it their greatest battle of their Great Patriotic War. It stopped the German advancement into the Soviet Union. The Battle of Stalingrad was one of the most bloodiest battles in history with soldier and civilan casualties up to 2 million. -
Allied Invasion of Italy
Montgomery begins an Allied Invasion. the Italian government secretly agreed to the Allies’ terms for surrender, but no public announcement was made until September 8. Italian dictator Benito Mussolini envisioned building Fascist Italy into a new Roman Empire. By the spring of 1943, opposition groups in Italy were uniting to overthrow Mussolini and make peace with the Allies. -
D-Day (Normandy Invasion)
The Battle Of Normandy lasted from June 1944 to August 1944, and resulted in the Allied liberation of Western Europe from Nazi Germany’s control. The invasion was one of the largest amphibious military assaults in history and required extensive planning. By late August 1944, all of northern France had been liberated. The Normandy landings have been called the beginning of the end of war in Europe. -
Battle Of The Bulge
In December 1944 Adolf Hitler attempted to split the allied armies in Northeast Europe. American units fought desperate battles to stem the German advance at St.-Vith, Elsenborn Ridge, Houffalize and Bastogne. As the Germans drove deeper into the Ardennes in an attempt to secure vital bridgeheads. Lieutenant General George S. Patton’s successful maneuvering of the Third Army to Bastogne proved vital to the Allies. -
Liberation Of Concentration Camps
Soviet soldiers were the first to liberate concentration camps. On July 23, 1944, they entered the Majdanek camp in Poland, and later overran several other killing centers. January 27, 1945, they entered Auschwitz and there found hundreds of sick and exhausted prisoners. British, Canadian, American, and French troops also freed prisoners from the camps. the Allied soldiers came upon thousands of dead bodies stacked up. -
Battle Of Iwo Jima
The American amphibious invasion Iwo Jima during World War II. Three U.S. marine divisions landed on the island in February 1945. Iwo Jima was defended by roughly 23,000 Japanese army and navy troops. Despite the difficulty of the conditions, the marines wiped out the defending forces after a month of fighting. -
VE Day
Both Great Britain and The United States celebrated Victory In Europe Day. The eighth of May spelled the day when German troops throughout Europe finally laid down their arms. The German surrender was realized in a final cease-fire. The main concern of many German soldiers was to elude the grasp of Soviet forces, to keep from being taken prisoner. -
Dropping Of The Atomic Bomb
United States becomes the first and only nation to use atomic weaponry. By the time the United States conducted the first successful test (an atomic bomb was exploded in the desert in New Mexico in July 1945). The war against Japan in the Pacific, however, continued to rage. A blast equivalent to the power of 15,000 tons of TNT reduced four square miles of the city to ruins and immediately killed 80,000. -
VJ Day
August 14, 1945, it was announced that Japan had surrendered unconditionally to the Allies, effectively ending World War II. Both August 14 and August 15 have been known as Victoryover Japan Day. Japan’s ally Germany, led by Adolf Hitler, then declared war on the United States, turning the war raging in Europe into a truly global conflict. The embattled Japanese government in Tokyo refused to surrender.
