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Japanese Invasion of China
The Second Sino-Japanese War was a military conflict fought primarily between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan from 1937 to 1945.It followed the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894–95.The war was the result of a decades-long Japanese imperialist policy aiming to dominate China politically and militarily to secure its vast raw material reserves and other resources. Chinese sources list the total number of military and non-military casualties, both dead and wounded, at 35 million -
Rape of Nanking
The Nanking Massacre or Nanjing Massacre, also known as the Rape of Nanking or Rape of Nanjing, was an episode during the Second Sino-Japanese War of mass murder and mass rape by Japanese troops against the residents of Nanjing, then capital of the Republic of China.The massacre occurred over six weeks starting December 13, 1937, the day that the Japanese captured Nanjing. During this period, soldiers of the Imperial Japanese Army murdered an estimated 40,000 to over 300,000 Chinese civilians. -
Germanys Invasion of Poland
At 4.45 am on 1 September 1939 the German battleship Schleswig-Holstein opened fire on the Polish garrison of the Westerplatte Fort, Danzig ,in what was to become the first military engagement of World War Two.Nazi leader Adolf Hitler claimed the massive invasion was a defensive action, but Britain and France were not convinced.Some consequences were the Rejection of Germany's proposal for a roadway and Withdrawal from German-Polish Non-Aggression Pact. -
Germanys Blitzkrieg
In the first phase of World War II in Europe, Germany sought to avoid a long war.Germany quickly overran much of Europe and was victorious for more than two years by relying on a new military tactic called the "Blitzkrieg" (lightning war). -
Fall of Paris
The Battle of France, also known as the Fall of France, was the German invasion of France and the Low Countries during the Second World War. Beginning on 10 May 1940, the battle defeated primarily French forces.After the withdrawal of the BEF, the German forces launched a second operation, Fall Rot (Case Red) on 5 June 1940. While the depleted French forces put up stiff initial resistance, German air superiority and armoured mobility overwhelmed the remaining French forces. -
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Nazi Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II, which began on 22 June 1941.Operation Barbarossa is highly important because it was the beginning of the end of the Third Reich. The Germans scored several outstanding victories in 1941, but the capture of Moscow was not one of them. By going to war with the Soviet Union in 1941 after having already declared war on Britain, Hitler and the German military was fighting a two-front war. -
Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, in the United States Territory of Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941.The causes of the attack on Pearl Harbor stemmed from intensifying Japanese-American rivalry in the Pacific. The attack led to the United States entry into World War II.The bombing killed more than 2,300 Americans. It completely destroyed the American battleship U.S. -
Wannsee Conference
The Wannsee Conference was a meeting of senior officials of Nazi Germany, held in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee on 20 January 1942.Reinhard Heydrich, Himmler's second in command of the SS, convened the Wannsee Conference in Berlin with 15 top Nazi bureaucrats to coordinate the Final Solution in which the Nazis would attempt to exterminate the entire Jewish population of Europe, an estimated 11 million persons. -
Battle of Midway
The Battle of Midway was a crucial and decisive naval battle in the Pacific Theater of World War II.The operation, like the earlier attack on Pearl Harbor, sought to eliminate the United States as a strategic power in the Pacific, thereby giving Japan a free hand in establishing its Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. The plan was handicapped by faulty Japanese assumptions of the American reaction and poor initial dispositions. -
Operation Gomorrah
The Allied bombing of Hamburg during World War II included numerous strategic bombing missions and diversion/nuisance raids. The attack during the last week of July 1943, Operation Gomorrah, created one of the largest firestorms raised by the Royal Air Force and United States Army Air Forces in World War II,killing 42,600 civilians and wounding 37,000 in Hamburg and virtually destroying most of the city. British attacks on Hamburg continued until November of that year. -
Allied Invasion of Italy
The Allied invasion of Italy was the Allied amphibious landing on mainland Italy that took place on 3 September 1943 during World War II. The operation was undertaken by General Sir Harold Alexander's 15th Army Group.Germany. By the spring of 1943, opposition groups in Italy were uniting to overthrow Mussolini and make peace with the Allies, but a strong German military presence in Italy threatened to resist any such action. -
Normandy Landings (D-Day)
The Normandy landings were the landing operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II.The 1944 battle for Normandy was the most important battle between the western Allies and German forces on the continent of Europe in World War II. D-Day was the beginning of the end for not only the Germans but Hitler most of all. D-Day forced the Germans to fight a two front war again just as they had in WWI. -
Battle Of The Bulge
The Battle of the Bulge was a major German offensive campaign launched through the densely forested Ardennes region of Wallonia in Belgium, France, and Luxembourg on the Western Front toward the end of World War II in Europe. At the end of the Battle of the Bulge, German losses were greater than their army could take. Approximately 30,000 soldiers and 44,000 infantry forces were killed or captured. The Germans also lost a significant amount of weapons, specifically tanks. -
Battle of Iwo Jima
The Battle of Iwo Jima was a major battle in which the U.S. Marines landed on and eventually captured the island of Iwo Jima from the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II.The Imperial Japanese Army positions on the island were heavily fortified, with a dense network of bunkers, hidden artillery positions, and 18 km of underground tunnels.Iwo Jima was strategically important: it provided an air base for Japanese fighter planes to intercept long-range B-29 Superfortress bombers. -
Operation Thunderclap
Operation 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. -
Battle of Okinawa
The Battle of Okinawa codenamed Operation Iceberg, was a series of battles fought in the Ryukyu Islands, centered on the island of Okinawa, and included the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific War during World War II, the 1 April 1945 invasion of the island of Okinawa itself.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. -
VE Day
On this day in 1945, both 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.The main concern of many German soldiers was to elude the grasp of Soviet forces, to keep from being taken prisoner. The German forces in Italy surrendered on May 2. -
Potsdam Declaration
The 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.On July 26, the United States, Britain, and China released the Potsdam Declaration announcing the terms for Japan's surrender, with the warning, "We will not deviate from them. There are no alternatives. We shall brook no delay. -
Dropping of the Atomic Bombs
The United States, with the consent of the United Kingdom as laid down in the Quebec Agreement, dropped nuclear weapons on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, during the final stage of the World War II.In the final year of the war, the Allies prepared for what was anticipated to be a very costly invasion of the Japanese mainland. More than 100,000 people were killed, and others subsequently died of radiation-induced cancers. -
VJ Day
On 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.Many V-J Day celebrations fell out of favor over the years due to concerns about their being offensive to Japan.
