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Japanese Invasion of China
Japanese troops first entered the city of Nanking, and began massacring the city. This resulted in the Nanking Massacre or the Rape of Nanking. After this massacre, about 20,000-30,000 Chinese people were killed.
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Rape of Nanking
The Sino-Japanese War was from 1937 to 1945. In 1937, Japan was trying to break down Chinese resistance in their capital city, Nanking. The Japanese troops butchered about 150,000 men and massacred around 200,000. They also raped and tortured around 20,000 women of all ages. This damaged Chinese spirit and Nanking fell to Japan.
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Ribbentrop/Molotov Pact (German/Soviet Pact)
On August 22, 1939, Ribbentrop (Germany foreign minister) flew from Berlin to Moscow to discuss with Stalin and Molotov (Soviet minister). He proposed a non-aggression pact between the countries that’d last 10 years. This enabled Germany to attack Poland on September 1, 1939 without fearing Soviet intervention. This continued with the Soviet Union invading eastern Poland and Finland. The pact allowed both countries to expand without having problems with each other. -
Germany's Invasion of Poland
On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland. The German/Soviet Pact allowed Germany to invade without worrying about the Soviet Union intervening. This event began World War II. Polish forces were underprepared and German forces were gaining land. They began creating concentration camps for slave labor.
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German Blitzkrieg (1939-1940)
Blitzkrieg was a successful military tactic used by Germany. In 1939, they tried it out in Poland. It proved to be effective, so they continued invading into Belgium, the Netherlands, and France in 1940. They were large formations moving on tracks and wheels that demolished the enemy’s front. This modern technology gave Germany an advantage in World War II.
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Fall of Paris
On June 14, Germany invaded and occupied Paris. Britain tried to convince France to not surrender, because the U.S. would get involved and come to the rescue. Germany continued to occupy French cities. France later surrendered on the 22nd of June. Hitler wanted France to be humiliated, similar to Germany, when they surrendered in 1918. This made Germany stronger during WWII.Link text -
Operation Barbarossa
On June 22, Hitler launched his armies for a massive invasion of the Soviet Union. Three big German army groups with 3 million soldiers attacked their territory. The front stretched about 2,000 miles long. This was a turning point in WWII, because Germany went too far and started a fight they couldn’t win. They broke their pact and the Soviet Union was strong enough to stop Germany from invading any longer.
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Pearl Harbor
On December 7, Japan sent hundreds of fighter planes to attack the American naval base at Pearl Harbor on Hawaii. The U.S. was devastated by this surprise attack. It destroyed dozens of ships, over 300 airplanes, and resulted in 3,000 casualties. This led to the U.S. declaring war on Japan. Japan allied with Germany and Italy and this marked the beginning of U.S. involvement in WWII.
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Wannsee Conference
Nazi officials met to discuss details of the “Final Solution” and the “Jewish question.” They proposed several ideas to put a final solution to the Jewish question. One idea was to create concentration camps in Poland to make Jews work until they are exterminated. A few months after, there were ‘gas vans’ in Poland, which sprayed gas to kill about 1,000 people a day. The conference resulted in various attempts to exterminate the Jewish population. -
Bataan Death March
The U.S. lost the Bataan Peninsula (Philippines) to Japan. About 75,000 Filipino and American troops were forced to walk 65 miles to prison camps. The Japanese guards were harsh and traveled in intense heat. It took groups of 100 each, 5 days to arrive. Thousands of troops died from being starved, beat, and bayoneted by their captors. They were taken to the camps where thousands more died from disease, mistreatment and starvation. -
Battle of Stalingrad
This battle lasted from July 17, 1942 to Feb. 2, 1943. The Soviets were defending their city, Stalingrad, from Germans. There was a total of 2 million casualties by the end. This was one of the bloodiest battles in history. This was also an important turning point where the Allies were stopping German advancement.
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Operation Gomorrah
On this day, Operation Gomorrah took effect. Britain bombed Hamburg, Germany during the night and America bombed there during the day. British aircraft dropped over 2,400 lots of explosives in just a few hours. It killed 1,500 German civilians in just that one British raid. After all of the attacks, it killed more than 30,000 people and destroyed 280,000 buildings. This created a bigger dent in German population but didn’t affect their morale in the war. -
D-Day
On this day, 156,000 American, British and Canadian forces landed on a beach along a 50-mile front in France. The invasion was one of the largest amphibious military assaults in history and required extensive planning. After that day, 4,000 Allied troops died and thousands more injured or missing. By the end of the invasion, they had successfully landed 850,000 men and 150,000 vehicles in Normandy. On May 8, 1945, Nazi Germany surrendered to the Allies. This was an important closing to the war. -
Operation Thunderclap
This operation was a lengthy strategic planning by the UK and US. The Allies had this discussion for quite some time. The proposal was to bomb eastern cities of Germany to disrupt the transportation to the Eastern front. The intentions of the attack were to hit a large city of Germany, like Dresden.
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Battle of the Bulge
On December 16th, German forces launched the deadliest and most desperate battle of the war. Hitler wanted to split the Allies and sent a blitzkrieg (surprise attack) to the American front in the Ardennes. The line of the Allied front resembled a large bulge, which gave the battle its name. This battle was the most costly for the U.S. as their army suffered over 100,000 casualties.
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Battle of Iwo Jima
The U.S. needed a naval base near Japan to make further advancements. In February 1945, three U.S. marine divisions landed on the island that was defended by about 23,000 Japanese troops. The Japanese troops elaborately fought through caves, dugouts, and tunnels, but eventually lost to the U.S. American losses included 5,900 dead and 17,400 wounded. This battle was important for the U.S. progress on Japan.
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Battle of Okinawa
More than 180,000 U.S. troops landed on the island of Okinawa, for a final push on Japan. During the battle, the Fifth Fleet (Japan) suffered around 1,000 casualties and hundreds of ships and aircraft were destroyed. After this battle, the U.S. suffered over 49,000 casualties. Also, about 110,000 Japanese soldiers died and even more civilians lost their life. This improved the chances of Japan surrendering to the U.S.
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VE Day
The Allies celebrated victory of World War II on May 7/8. People were out on the streets celebrating by hanging bunting and banners and dancing. At the end of April, Hitler committed suicide and Mussolini was captured and killed. This event meant the end of the war between Germany and Italy vs. France, Britain, Russia, and the US.
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Dropping of the Atomic Bombs
An American bomber dropped the first deployed atomic bomb on the Japanese city, Hiroshima. The atomic bomb wiped out 90% of the city, which killed 80,000 people. Then, tens of thousands of people died from radiation exposure. Another atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, which killed around 40,000 people. On the 15th, Japan announced their surrender to the US in World War II. This shows the devastating power of atomic bombs in warfare and puts a final end to majority of fighting in WWII. -
VJ Day
After Japan’s surrender, the U.S. celebrated their victory. August 14th and 15th are known in history as Victoryover Japan Day (VJ Day). The allied nations felt overwhelmingly relieved after this surrender. This highly anticipated event resulted in an official end to WWII.
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