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Japanese invasion of China
the Japanese claimed that they were fired on by Chinese troops at the Marco Polo Bridge near Beijing. he Japanese launched a full-scale invasion of China using the conquered Manchuria as a launching base for their troops. the Japanese concentrated on an enemy they could ‘see’ and the Guomintang were the obvious enemy for the Japanese. Secondly, the communists continued with a policy of their soldiers helping the peasant population where they could, thus spreading the word of communism. -
German's invasion of Poland
Hitler intended to wage war–what would become the “blitzkrieg” strategy. Poland was to be partitioned between the two powers, enabled Germany to attack Poland without the fear of Soviet intervention.Nazi Germany occupied the remainder of Poland when it invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941. Poland remained under German occupation until January 1945.Nazi Germany occupied the remainder of Poland when it invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941. Poland remained under German occupation until January -
German Blitzkrieg
A German term for “lightning war,” blitzkrieg is a military tactic designed to create disorganization among enemy forces through the use of mobile forces and locally concentrated firepower. Its successful execution results in short military campaigns, which preserves human lives and limits the expenditure of artillery. military challenges that after 1918 confronted a state unwilling to accept the consequences of its defeat in World War I -
OPeration of Barbarossa
Barbarossa the largest military attack of World War Two and was to have appalling consequences for the Russian people. What happens was Adolf Hitler launched his armies eastward in a massive invasion of the Soviet Union. In the end the Soviets overreached, and the Germans restored a semblance of order to the front; the spring thaw in March 1942 brought operations to a halt. But Barbarossa had failed, and Nazi Germany confronted a two-front war that it could not win. -
Pearl Harbor
on December 7, 1941, hundreds of Japanese fighter planes attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor near Honolulu, Hawaii. President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared war on Japan More than two years into the conflict, America had finally joined World War II. -
Wannsee Conference
Herman Goering, writing under instructions from Hitler, had ordered Reinhard Heydrich, SS general and Heinrich Himmler’s number two man, to submit “as soon as possible a general plan of the administrative, material, and financial measures necessary for carrying out the final solution of the Jewish question Months later, the “gas vans” in Chelmno, Poland, which were killing 1,000 people a day, proved to be the “solution” they were looking for the most efficient means of killing large group -
Operation Gomorrah (1943)
this day in 1943, British bombers raid Hamburg, Germany, by night in Operation Gomorrah, while Americans bomb it by day in its own “Blitz Week.” Britain had suffered the deaths of 167 civilians as a result of German bombing raids in July. Now the tables were going to turn. The evening of July 24 saw British aircraft drop 2,300 tons of incendiary bombs on Hamburg in just a few hours. -
D-Day (Normandy Invasion)
156,000 American, British and Canadian forces landed on five beaches along a 50-mile stretch of the heavily fortified coast of France’s Normandy region. The invasion was one of the largest amphibious military assaults in history and required extensive planning. Prior to D-Day, the Allies conducted a large-scale deception campaign designed to mislead the Germans about the intended invasion target. by the end of August 1944, the Allies had reached the Seine River, Paris was liberated and the Germa -
Operation Thunderclap
Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur T. Harris was a chunky, forceful and energetic man of fifty-three who had enlisted at the outbreak of World War I as a bugler in the Rhodesian Infantry....Now he headed Bomber Command, and that night the men were scheduled to launch an attack on Dresden Since there was no communication between Dresden and the outside world, details of the ghastly story did not reach Berlin until later in the day. The preliminary official report stated that at least 100,000* people an -
Battle of the Bulge
-The Germans launch the last major offensive of the war
-The Germans threw 250,000 soldiers into the initial assault, 14 German infantry divisions guarded by five panzer divisions-against a mere 80,000 Americans.
-Adolph Hitler attempted to split the Allied armies in northwest Europe by means of a surprise blitzkrieg thrust through the Ardennes to Antwerp. -
Battle of Iwo Jima
-It was the only large engagement of the war in which Allied forces suffered more casualties (dead plus wounded) than their Japanese counterparts.
-The American amphibious invasion of Iwo Jima during World War II stemmed from the need for a base near the Japanese coast.
-Photographer Joe Rosenthal provided the U.S. Marine Corps with one of its most enduring images with his picture (restaged for the purpose) of Americans raising the flag over Mount Suribachi at the southwest corner of Iwo. -
-Battle of Okinawa
involved the 287,000 troops of the U.S. Tenth Army against 130,000 soldiers of the Japanese Thirty-second Army. At stake were air bases vital to the projected invasion of Japan. 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—including 14,000 dead 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 suici -
VE Day
Great Britain and the United States celebrate Victory in Europe Day. Cities in both nations, as well as formerly occupied cities in Western Europe, put out flags and banners, rejoicing in the defeat of the Nazi war machine.German-Soviet confrontation would continue into the next day. 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 ninth in Moscow -
Dropping of the atomic bombs
-At approximately 8.15am on 6 August 1945 a US B-29 bomber dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, instantly killing around 80,000 people. Three days later, a second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, causing the deaths of 40,000 more.
-Since 1942, more than 100,000 scientists of the Manhattan Project had been working on the bomb’s development.
-The moral aspect of the attacks upon Hiroshima and Nagasaki continues to divide historians. -
VJ Day
On August 14, 1945, it was announced that Japan had surrendered unconditionally to the Allies, effectively ending World War II. Since then, both August 14 and August 15 have been known as “Victoryover Japan Day,” or simply “V-J Day.” The term has also been used for September 2, 1945, when Japan’s formal surrender took place aboard the U.S.S. Missouri, anchored in Tokyo Bay.Allied supreme commander General Douglas MacArthur, along with the Japanese foreign minister, Mamoru Shigemitsu, and the chi
