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Japanese invasion of China
In 1931 Japan invaded Manchuria, China. Over time Japan started to gain more and more land and they had a lot of land from China in their possession. By 1937 Japan had many large sections of land in China and there were a lot of accusations of war crimes against the Chinese. In 1939 the Japanese and the Soviet Union fought in Manchuria and Japan suffered from a humiliating defeat. -
Germany annexes the Sudetenland
Germany takes over the Sudetenland and claims it as their own land. They were able to get away with this because there was a large number of Germans in the area and so they were able to claim that they belonged with them since they were of German heritage. -
Munich Conference
The Munich Agreement was an agreement in which Germany, Great Britain, France, and Italy all signed which made Czechoslovakia surrender land (the land known as the Sudeten Land) to Nazi Germany. Hitler said he would declare war if that land was not given to him so Britain, France, and Italy gave it to him in return for his pledge to maintain the peace. -
Genocide
Genocide was mostly a big factor in Germany. Genocide is the intention to destroy, as a whole, a nation, ethnicity, religion or race. Hitler was most known for his acts of genocide because he killed thousands of Jews and had an intent to kill them all. He believed that they were the cause of the humiliation. The United States approves a genocide convention in 1948. The convention had more than 130 countries that had joined it. -
Invasion of Poland
On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland. This is the main start of WWII. Due to Germany invading Poland the countries finally stop letting Hitler take all the land he wants and they start WWII. Germany quickly broke through Poland’s defenses and they went straight to Warsaw, the capital. Germany made all Jews wear the Star of David and ended up forcefully removing over 500,000 jews from their houses to replace them with Germans. -
Strategic Bombing
There was a lot of bombing in WWII. At the beginning of WWII, all nations had a policy in which they could only attack military targets and nothing else. Due to this strategic bombing became much more efficient because there could be multiple planes and military equipment and bases overcome and destroyed. It is also meant to demoralize a population into not wanting to fight anymore. Both sides also started doing night raids which led to both sides having to create a night raid policy. -
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Western Desert Campaign (Desert War)
This was a campaign that took place in Egypt and Libya. This was mostly just a war in the open deserts of Africa. In this war, they used tanks and other equipment to cross the vast desert. -
Siege of Leningrad
This event took place on September 8, 1941. Germany sieged Leningrad, a Russian city, and they controlled Leningrad for over 900 days and killed an estimated amount of 800,000 civilians. Germany initiated the attack on June 22, 1941, and broke the non-aggression pact they had with Russia by sending over 3 million German soldiers to attack them with a 3-pronged attack formation. They used 2 of the groups as a distraction whilst one went straight for Leningrad and through 3 other cities. -
Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor is an American naval base in Honolulu, Hawaii. On December 7, 1941, Japanese bombers dropped bombs on the base and destroyed or severely damaged 20 naval vessels (8 of which were battleships), over 300 airplanes, and killed more than 2,400 Americans, and injured over 1,000 Americans. The day after the assault Franklin D. Roosevelt declared war on Japan. -
Battle of Stalingrad
This is the battle in which Germany attempted to take over Stalingrad. Russia was successful in defending these attacks and it is known as one of the greatest patriotic events in Russia. At the time, Stalingrad was seen and known as the strongest city in Russia, so if Germany would have taken over Stalingrad then Russia would have been at a great loss and more than likely would have been out of the war due to Germany taking them. -
Combined Bomber Offensive
The Combined Bomber Offensive was when all of the allies started to bomb Germany. They started to not only bomb Germany but all the areas Germany had annexed too. The main part that the allies were bombing was the oil factories Germany owned. If Germany had no oil they could not fuel tanks nor could they fuel airplanes or any other large machinery. All throughout WWII Germany was struggling to maintain enough oil and continue supplying the military with oil. -
D-Day (Normandy Invasion)
The Normandy Invasion, also known as D-Day, was considered the biggest turning point in the war. It started on June 6, 1944. This event in the war was known as the turning point in the war because it symbolizes when America, Britain, and Canada all force their way onto the beaches of the Normandy area in France and forcefully storm and liberate France. This is one of the biggest naval attacks in history. -
Hiroshima and Nagasaki
On August 6 and 9 of 1945 there were 2 bombs dropped. One of these bombs was dropped on Hiroshima. This was the first atomic bomb and it was named “Little Boy.” This bomb decimated everything within 5 square miles of the city. Roughly 135,000 people died from it. Three days later another bomb called “Fat Man” was dropped on Nagasaki and it killed an estimated amount of 80,000 people.