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Japanese invasion of china
picsino japanese warIn 1937 skirmishing between Japanese and Chinese troops on the frontier led to what became known as the Marco Polo Bridge Incident. This fighting sparked a full-blown conflict, the Second Sino-Japanese War. -
Raping of Nanking
Raping of NankingThe Raping of NankingThe Japanese Imperial Army marched into China's capital city of Nanking and murder 300,000 civilians and soldiers in the city. The six weeks of slaughter would become known as the Rape of Nanking and represented the single worst cruelty during the World War II era in either the European or Pacific area of war. -
Germany's invasion of Poland
Invasion of PolandInvasion of PolandGermany invaded Poland. The Polish army was defeated within a few weeks of the invasion. German army's, with more than 2,000 tanks and over 1,000 planes, broke through Polish defenses along the border and advanced on Warsaw in a huge attack. After heavy shootinging and bombing, Warsaw surrendered to the Germans on September 27, 1939. -
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German Blitzkrieg
BlitzkriegGermany wanted to avoid a long war, so they used a military tatic called Blitzkrieg to wipe out their enimies. Blitzkrieg is toatally offesnisive and uses tanks and planes to push throgh enemy borders and cause disorganization and chaos. German forces could then in turn encircle opposing troops and force surrender. -
Operation barbarossa
operation barbossa pic[operation barbossa](Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Nazi Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II,)Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Nazi Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II. -
Pearl Harbor
Pearl HarborPearl HarborHundreds of Japanese fighter planes attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor near Honolulu, Hawaii. The attack lasted just two hours, but it was devastating: The Japanese destroyed nearly 20 American naval vessels, including eight huge battleships, and more than 300 planes. More than 2,000 Americans soldiers and sailors died in the attack, and another 1,000 were wounded. -
Wannsee Conference
wannsee conference picWannsee Conference15 high-ranking Nazi Party and German government officials gathered at a villa in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee to discuss and coordinate the implementation of what they called the "Final Solution of the Jewish Question." -
Bataan Death March
pic of death marchBataan death marchAmericans and Filippenos who surrendered to the Japanese were forced to march about 65 miles from Mariveles, to San Fernando. The men were divided into groups of about 100, and it took each group around five days to complete. The exact numbers arent known, but it is believed that thousands of troops died because of the brutality of their captors, who starved and beat them. those who survived were taken by rail from San Fernando to prisoner-of-war camps, where thousands more died from neglect. -
Warshaw Ghetto uprising
Warshaw picwarshaw ghetto uprisingResidents of the Jewish ghetto in Warsaw, Poland, staged an uprising against taking people to extermination camps. The Warsaw ghetto uprising inspired other revolts in extermination camps and ghettos throughout German-occupied Eastern Europe. -
Operation Gomorrah
oG raid picoperation GBritish 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. The explosive power was the equivalent of what German bombers had dropped on London in their five most destructive raids. -
D-Day
D-day picD-Day156,000 American, British and Canadian troops raided five beaches along a 50-mile stretch of the heavily protected coast of France’s Normandy region. The invasion was one of the largest military attack from sea in history and required large scale planning. By late August 1944, all of northern France had been freed, and by the following spring the Allies had defeated the Germans. The Normandy landings have been called the beginning of the end of war in Europe. -
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Battle at the bulge
Battle of the bulgeAdolph Hitler attempted to split the Allied armies in northwest Europe by a surprise blitzkrieg thrust through the Ardennes to Antwerp. Caught off-guard, American units fought desperate battles to hault the German advances. Successful guiding of the Third Army to Bastogne proved vital to the Allied defense, leading to the neutralization of the German counteroffensive despite heavy casualties. -
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Liberation of concentration camps
Liberation of campsThe Soviets liberated Auschwitz, the largest killing center and concentration camp, in January 1945. US forces liberated the Buchenwald concentration camp near Weimar, Germany, on April 11, 1945. British forces liberated concentration camps in northern Germany, including Neuengamme and Bergen-Belsen. They entered the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, near Celle, in mid-April 1945. Liberators confronted unspeakable conditions in the Nazi camps, where piles of corpses lay unburied. -
Operation thunderclap
thunderclap picoperation thunderclapOperation Thunderclap was the code for a cancelled operation planned in August 1944 but shelved and never implemented. The plan envisaged a massive attack on Berlin in the belief that would cause 220,000 casualties with 110,000 killed, many of them key German personnel, which would shatter German morale. However, it was later decided that the plan was unlikely to work. -
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Battle of Iwo Jima
Iwo JimaFollowing elaborate preparatory air and naval assalt, 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, who fought from an complex network of caves, dugouts, tunnels. Despite the difficulty of the conditions, the marines wiped out the defending forces after a month of fighting, and 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
Okinawa picBattle of okinawaLast and biggest of the Pacific island battles of World War II. involved the 287,000 troops of the U.S. against 130,000 soldiers of the Japan. 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. -
VE Day
ve day picVE DayBoth 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. -
Potsdam Declaration
Potsdam DeclarationPotsdam declarationThe Potsdam Declaration or the Proclamation Defining Terms for Japanese Surrender is a statement that called for the surrender of all Japanese armed forces during World War II. -
Dropping of the First atomic Bomb
abomb picAttomic bombPresident Harry S. Truman, warned by some of his advisers that any attempt to invade Japan would result in horrific American casualties, ordered that the new weapon be used to bring the war to a speedy end. American bomber Enola Gay dropped a five-ton bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. -
Dropping of the 2nd atomic bomb
2nd abomb pic2nd bombA second atom bomb is dropped on Japan by the United States, at Nagasaki, resulting finally in Japan's unconditional surrender. The devastation wrought at Hiroshima was not sufficient to convince the Japanese War Council to accept the Potsdam Conference's demand for unconditional surrender. -
VJ Day
VJ Day picVJ DayOn August 15, 1945, news of the surrender was announced to the world. This sparked spontaneous celebrations over the final ending of World War II. On September 2, 1945, a formal surrender ceremony was held in Tokyo Bay aboard the USS Missouri. At the time, President Truman declared September 2 to be VJ Day.
