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Germany's invasion of Poland
*Germany invaded from the West and the Soviet Union invaded from the east
*Surprise attacks and rapid invasion which was know as a "blitzkrieg" or lightning war was used by the Germans
*Te invasion caused Great Britain and France to declare war on Germany -
German Blitzkrieg
*Also known as "lightning war"
*A military tactic designed to use the concentration of offensive weapons (such as planes and tasks) along a narrow front
*Used to create disorganization and its successful execution result sin small amounts of losses and limits artillery -
Pearl Harbor
*Was a surprise military strike by Japan
*Occurred on Sunday morning, December 7th, 1941
*11 ships were sunk and 188 planes were destroyed -
Battle of Stalingrad
*considered the turning point of the war
*Stalin started the "scorched earth policy"- burn everything that could be useful to the Germans
*1000,000 Germans died, 80,000 were captured -
Battle of Midway
*fought almost entirely with aircraft
*fought against the US and Japan
*was on June 3-6th, 1942 -
D-Day
*included 150,000 soldiers, 5,000 ships, and 11,000 planes and gliders
*the attack began on June 6th
*was also known as "Operation Overlord" -
Battle of the Bulge
*this was Hitler's last attempt to defeat the Allies in Europe
*occurred in December and January of 1944/1945
*80,000 Americans were killed, 100,000 Germans were killed; Germany lost because they ran out of fuel. -
Battle of Okinawa
*over 150,000 total casualties
* was important because it had air bases that were within striking distance in Japan
*it was an over 80 day battle -
Dropping of the Atomic Bombs
*Hiroshima was hit August 6th, 1945, killed 70,000 people immediately, killed 135,000 in total
*Nagasaki was hit August 9, 1945, killed 40,000 people immediately, killed 50,000 in total
*President Truman decided to drop the bomb in order to save American lives from a land invasion -
Battle of Iwo Jima
*the battle lasted over a month (36 days)
*the Japanese built at least 11 miles of tunnels underneath the island
*over 24,000 total soldiers lost their lives -
VE Day
*The day Germany surrendered
*Hitler commits suicide because of this
*VE stands for Victory in Europe -
VJ Day
*VJ stands for Victory in Japan
*Victory in Japan was on August 15th, 1945
*this was the official end of WW2