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Japanese invasion of China
In 1937 skirmishing between Japanese and Chinese troops on the frontier led to the Marco Polo Bridge Incident. This fighting sparked a full-blown conflict , the Second Sino-Japanese War.
In the 1930’s the Chinese suffered continued territorial encroachment from the Japanese, using their Manchurian base.This later led to the effect of when Japanese troops killed about 300,000 civilians and raped 80,000 women. Many Chinese were killed in the bombing by the Japanese air force . -
Rape of Nanking
In December of 1937, the Japanese Imperial Army marched into China's capital city of Nanking and proceeded to murder 300,000 out of 600,000 civilians and soldiers in the city.
Before the arrival of the troops , word was spreading that they had been killing people in atrocities on their way through China , which included killing contests and pillaging .
Soon after the end of the war, Matsui and his lieutenant Tani Hisao, were tried and convicted for war crimes and they were executed . -
German Blitzkrieg
Blitzkrieg is a military tactic designed to create disorganization among enemy forces through the use of mobile forces and locally concentrated firepower. First tested in Poland, when in less than six weeks the German army crushed the combined forces of four nations. Some insist that only Adolf Hitler’s incompetent interference tipped the war’s balance so far against Germany that even blitzkrieg’s most sophisticated refinements could do no more than stave off the Reich’s collapse. -
Germany's invasion of Poland
Nazi leader Adolf Hitler claimed the massive invasion was a defensive action, but Britain and France were not convinced. On September 3, they declared war on Germany, initiating World War II. To Hitler, the conquest of Poland would bring Lebensraum, or “living space,” for the German people . Germany and the Soviet Union dividing and annexing the whole of Poland under the terms of the German-Soviet Frontier Treaty . -
Fall of Paris
Winston Churchill had tried for days to convince the French government to hang on, not to sue for peace, that America would enter the war and come to its aid. Paul Reynaud telegrammed President Franklin Roosevelt asking for aid. Roosevelt said that the U.S. was prepared to send material aid but Cordell Hull opposed, knowing that Hitler would take a public declaration of help as but a prelude to a formal declaration of war.By the time German tanks rolled into Paris, 2 million Parisians had fled. -
Operation Barbarossa
Barbarossa was the crucial turning point in World War II - its failure forced Nazi Germany to fight a two-front war against a coalition. Hitler launched his armies east in a massive invasion of the Soviet Union: three great army groups with over three million German soldiers, 150 divisions, and three thousand tanks smashed across the frontier into Soviet territory. In the end the Soviets overreached.But Barbarossa had failed, and Nazi Germany confronted a two-front war that it could not win. -
Pearl Harbor
The Japanese destroyed nearly 20 American naval vessels,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 Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on Japan. Three days later, Japanese allies Germany and Italy also declared war on the United States.More than two years into the conflict, America had finally joined World War II. -
Wannsee Conference
The Wannsee Conference was a meeting of senior officials of Nazi Germany, held in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee on 20 January 1942. Everyone at the meeting kew that the 'Final Solution' did not mean the deportation of Jews. It was a code name for the murder of all the Jews of Europe. The people present at the Wannsee were there to discuss how to make mass murder happen in an organised and methodical way. No one present at the meeting objected to the 'Final Solution' . -
Bataan Death March
Filipinos and Americans soon were rounded up by the Japanese and forced to march 65 miles from Mariveles. The exact figures are unknown,but it is believed that thousands died because of the brutality of their captors, who starved and beat the marchers, and killed those too weak to walk. Survivors were taken to prisoner camps,where thousands more died from disease, mistreatment and starvation. After the war, Lieut.Masaharu was held responsible for the death march & was executed by April 3 ,1946 -
Warsaw Ghetto uprising
Between July 22 and September 12, 1942, the German authorities deported or murdered around 300,000 Jews in the Warsaw ghetto. The Germans had planned to liquidate the Warsaw ghetto in three days, but the ghetto fighters held out for more than a month. Even after the end of the uprising on May 16, 1943, individual Jews hiding out in the ruins of the ghetto continued to attack the patrols of the Germans and their auxiliaries. This was the largest , symbolically most important Jewish uprising . -
Operation Gomorrah
The evening of July 24 saw British aircraft drop 2,300 tons of incendiary bombs on Hamburg in just a few hours. When it was over, 17,000 bomber sorties dropped more than 9,000 tons of explosives, killing more than 30,000 people and destroying 280,000 buildings, including industrial and munitions plants. Theeffect on Hitler was significant. He refused to visit the burned-out cities, as the ruins bespoke nothing but the end of the war for him. -
D Day ( Normandy Invasion )
This battle begin when American, British and Canadian forces landed on five beaches along a fortified coast of France’s Normandy region.The Allied forces then prepared to enter Germany, where they would meet up with Soviet troops moving in from the east. The following spring, on May 8, 1945, the Allies formally accepted the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany. Hitler had committed suicide a week earlier, on April 30. -
Liberation of concentration camps
On this day , Soviet soldiers entered the Majdanek camp in Poland and later overran several other killing centers. On January 27, 1945, they entered Auschwitz and found hundreds of sick and exhausted prisoners.Survivors had mixed reactions to their newfound freedom. Some looked forward to being back with their families while others felt guilty for surviving when so many of their relatives and friends had died. Some even overwhelmed . -
Battle of the Bulge
Caught off-guard, American units fought desperate battles to stem the German advance at St.-Vith, Elsenborn Ridge, Houffalize and Bastogne. Its objective was to split the Allied armies by means of a surprise blitzkrieg thrust through the Ardennes to Antwerp. On December 16, three German armies launched the deadliest and most desperate battle of the war in the west in the poorly roaded, rugged, heavily forested Ardennes. This battle was the costliest action ever fought by the U.S. Army. -
Operation Thunderclap
From 1939 to the end of 1944, Dresden had been spared the bombing raids that the Allies had launched onNazi Germany. By February 1945, the city was filled with refugees – people moving from east to west in an attempt to escape the advancing Red Army. Between February 13th and February 14th 1945, between 35,000 and 135,000 people were killed by Allied bombing in Dresden. After the raid had finished , SS guards took two weeks to burn all the bodies due to how many there were . -
Battle of Iwo Jima
Iwo Jima was defended by roughly 23,000 Japanese army and navy troops, who fought from an elaborate network of caves, dugouts, tunnels and underground installations. American losses included 5,900 dead and 17,400 wounded.The battle was marked by changes in Japanese defense tactics–troops no longer defended at the beach line but rather concentrated inland. The battle earned a place in American lore with the publication of a photograph showing the U.S. flag being raised in victory. -
Battle of Okinawa
Using pillboxes and strongpoints, caves, and even some ancient castles, the Japanese defense positions supported one another and often resisted even the most determined artillery fire or air strikes.The commanding generals on both sides died in the course of this battle .American general Simon B. Buckner by artillery fire,Japanese general Ushijima Mitsuru by suicide.By the end of the 82-day campaign, Japan had lost more than 77,000 soldiers and the Allies had suffered more than 65,000 casualties -
VE Day
On this day German troops throughout Europe finally laid down their arms.More surrender documents were signed in Berlin and in eastern Germany. On May 9, the Soviets would lose 600 more soldiers in Silesia before the Germans finally surrendered. Consequently, V-E Day was not celebrated until the 9th in Moscow, with a radio broadcast salute from Stalin himself: “The age-long struggle of the Slav nations.. has ended in victory. Your courage has defeated the Nazis. The war is over.” -
Dropping of the atomic bombs
The American bomber,Enola Gay, dropped a five-ton bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. This bomb immediately killed 80,000 people. Tens of thousands more died in the following weeks from wounds and radiation poisoning. Three days later, another bomb was dropped on the city of Nagasaki, killing nearly 40,000 more people. A few days later, Japan announced its surrender. -
VJ Day
On August 14, 1945, it was announced that Japan had surrendered to the Allies, effectively ending World War II. Germany, led by Adolf Hitler, then declared war on the U.S. turning the war raging in Europe into a truly global conflict. In Washington on August 14, President Truman announced 'This is the day we have been waiting for since Pearl Harbor. This is the day when Fascism finally dies, as we always knew it would.'
