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China Falls to Japan
The empire of Japan invaded Manchuria and took it over leaving a puppet govt in place. The govt held until the end of WW2. -
Blitzkrieg into Poland
Also known as lightening warfare, the Germans used fast moving infantry troops mixed with high paced air support. Poland's army was severely out matched. The Germans used this battle tactic to sweep through most of Europe without having lots of problems. -
Period: to
Start/end date of WW2
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Battle of the Atlantic
The longest continuous battle of www2. It began immediately upon the British declaration of war against Germany and ended with Germany's surrender to the Allies.Thousands of ships were sunk and tens of thousands of men were killed while the fight in the Atlantic raged on. -
Germany Invades France
Germany starts by wedging themselves in between the British and french troops. This forced Britain to evacuate 340,000 troops. In June of 1940 the Italians declare war on France as well and they invade in the south. By June 22nd France surrenders. -
Dunkirk Evacuation
A huge evacuation from the French port of Dunkirk. Hundreds of naval vessels and civilian boats were used. After the evacuation ended about 198,000 British and 140,000 French and Belgian troops were saved. -
Battle of Britain
Germany begins by bombing key ports, military bases and airfields. The battle of Britain was one of the key turning points. The British were able to hold off German Luftwaffe. They were able to do this with better planes (the spitfire) and the invention of radar. -
Germany Takes Greece
24 divisions and 12,000 tanks drove into Greece. The Germans also bombed the Greek port city of Piraeus. Greece at the time was already at war with fascist Italy. Greece only had small amount of reinforcements from Britain. -
Operation Barbosa
Hitler sent his army to the east for large scale invasion on the Russians. 3 million German soldiers and 3 thousand tanked barreled into the soviet line. It covered a two thousand mile length of troops entering the soviet defense. It was a turning point as Germany now had to fight a two front war. -
Pearl Harbor
At 7:55 am 360 Japanese planes will fly over and attack pearl harbor. We were unprepared as the attack was without warning. The United States lost 19 ships, 150 planes, and 2400 soldiers. We did get somewhat lucky because our aircraft carriers were not in the harbor at the time of the attack. -
Bataan
The day after Pearl Harbor Japan attacked the Philippines. After a month of battle the Japanese captured the Capital and forced the troops to retreat to the Bataan peninsula. Here they fought until they had to surrender. -
Doolittle Raid
Colonel James H. Doolittle led an air attack on Tokyo. They entered with 16 american b-52 bombers. The raid did very little damage to Tokyo but it hurt the Japanese government's prestige. The Japanese believed that the raid was launched from the midway islands and they then approved an attack on midway as result. -
Battle of Coral Sea
A four day battle that was the first in history to be a sea air battle. The Japanese were preparing to control the coral sea, but US hackers were able to learn of the attack before it happened. After fighting the Japanese did not have enough planes for their invasion. -
Battle of Midway
Known to be one of the most decisive naval battles of the whole war. Our United States coders helped us again in this battle by allowing us to counter plan for the Japanese attack. They had very few aircraft carriers left too. This win put us on the offensive. Ended on the 7th. -
Stalingrad
July 17, 1942-Feb. 2, 1943 the battle of Stalingrad was the biggest defensive achievement for the Russians. Hitler wanted to take a low shot at Stalin by taking the city named after him. However, the russians stopped the germans advance. This was a turning point as the wars momentum favored the allies. -
Guadal Canal
One of the first major offenses and a decisive victory in the pacific theater. With Japanese in the area the US sent a surprise attack into a under construction air base. with land sea and air attacks both sides lost many soldiers but in the end the Japanese had to retreat from the Guadalcanal. -
Battle of El Alamein
British commander Bernard Law Montgomery launched an attack on El Alamein with far greater mass of soldiers than the opposing Italian-German army. The amount of soldiers was too overwhelming for the battle to favor Hitler. Nazis did manage to retreat to Tunisia. -
Operation Torch
The US and UK launched a water invasion into northern Africa occupied by the french. Named operation torch because the US and UK planners were not on the same page as each other in the future of the war. However it may have been the most important decision for the allied powers to have made. -
New Guinea
New Guinea is the second largest island in the world. Troops say it rained for 9 months straight at times. Disease thrived in New Guinea and disease like malaria and dysentery took many lives. The Japanese had a good time with the unorthodox disease that US troops never encountered. -
Sicily
The allies Italian campaign started with the invasion of Sicily. After 38 days of fighting the US and British troops drove the axis powers into the mainland of Italy. -
Kursk
An unsuccessful German offensive into soviet territory. The Germans attempted an attack from multiple sides but the soviets preposition and held them off until launching a counterattack.Other threats in Italy caused for Germany to back off. -
Battle of Kursk
This battle was another point when the German offensive was losing power and was stopped by the allies. As the defensive line protruded into the enemy territory the Germans tried attacking from the sides. With time to reposition the soviets allied forces were able to take back two cities and hold the German attack. -
Salerno
The allied land invasion otherwise known as avalanche were launched. Salerno was chosen for being the farthest target planes allied planes could reach. Our beach landings went well with rockets providing cover fire from the carriers. -
Gilbert and Marshall Islands
Battles between the US and Japanese in the Pacific theater. These battles were meant to get naval and air bases to prepare for future battles across the Pacific. Getting control of these islands was necessary to the surrender of Japanese. -
Anzio
An allied attempt to bring german troops off of the gustav line. A large number of atacks for this battle caused large causalities between both sides. The allies broke though and led to the capture of Rome. -
D-day
Also known as operation overlord 156,000 allied troops landed on 50 miles of heavily fortified beaches. The largest water based invasion. The battle to liberate mainland Europe from nazi control. Consisted naval, air and land troops. Set in France. -
Guam
The Japanese took control of Guam early in the war and later when the US was trying to gain control in the pacific we recaptured it. We landed on both sides of a peninsula in the morning and by nightfall we had control of the peninsula. -
Operation Dragoon
An invasion of southern france. Initially meant to start alongside operation overlord was pushed back for lack of landing crafts. The US was all for the invasions while Britain saw it as a waste. Britain felt slowing war progress somewhere else would strengthen them more, -
Battle of Leyte Gulf
The US sixth army landed on the eastern side of the Philippines known as Leyte Gulf while being supported by naval and air force. The Japanese underestimated our power and tried to destroy our landing on the spot only to fail leading up to massive battles. Four of their carriers were sunk. 81,000 casualties for the Japanese. -
Phillipines
The Philippines is made up of a few islands. The US campaigned through gaining control one by one. Filipino guerrillas aided the US troops as they continued their conquest. A total of 70,000 casualties in the Filipino campaign. -
Battle of the Bulge
Hitler attempted an attack that would split the allied troops. They were caught of guard by blitzkrieg. As the fighting stemmed the line of defense was similar to the shape of a bulge giving it its name. -
Bastogne
The battle of bastogne happened during the battle of the bulge to relive Belgium. Capturing bastogne was the ultimate goal of the battle of the bulge. Relentless German assault made it tough to hold out but keeping the treacherous roadways safe was priority. -
Yalta Confrence
The second wartime meeting of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt. They debated on demanding Germanys surrender and how to overcome the postwar world. -
Iwo Jima
The US did an amphibious attack to secure bases as close to japan as possible. After lots of air and naval bombing we sent in three marine divisions. The defense by the Japanese included elaborate network of caves, dugouts, tunnels and underground installations. -
HItlers Suicide
Hitler buried himself inside of a refurbished air raid bunker he took a cyanide pill while shooting himself dead. His 1000 year reich was not to be completed. Knowing that the russians were collapsing on him instead of fleeing he took the baby way out with his wife. -
German Surrender
The German High Command, in the person of General Alfred Jodl, signs the unconditional surrender of all German forces. The Germans tried to make it a not full surrender but General Eisenhower said he was prepared to cut them off with a line in the east so nobody could flee the empire. -
Potsdam Conference
Was held near Berlin and was the last meeting of the "Big Three", Truman, Churchill and Stalin. They set up a central allied control of Germany for their post war administration. They came to agreements on the German economy, punishment for war criminals, land boundaries and reparations. -
Hiroshima and Nagasaki
An american B-29 bomber dropped dropped the worlds first atomic bomb. In Hiroshima 90 percent of the city was wiped out and 80,000 people died instantly. Tens of thousands died after from the radiation exposure. Three days later another B-29 dropped the second bomb over Nagasaki. This one killed 40,000 and then Hirohito announced his unconditional surrender. -
Invasion Of Manchuria
The soviet union officially declared war on Japan. They sent in a million soldiers to battle it out with the fierce Japanese troops. When we dropped the bomb on Hiroshima we didn't get immediate unconditional surrender. They wanted to be sure they would have a good future for emperor Hirohito. -
Japanese Surrender
On the USS Missouri in Tokyo bay japan formally surrendered to the allies ending ww2. It wasn't surprising since the Japanese military had been diminished to almost nothing. The US also had control of Okinawa which would have eventually led to a land invasion of the Japanese homeland. -
Philippines 1942
The Philippines Campaign or the Battle of the Philippines, fought from the 8th of December 1941 – 8th of May 1942.The invasion of the Philippines by Japan and the defense of the islands by Filipino and United States forces. Controlling territory in the Pacific was very important to both US and Japan. -
Okinawa
This was the final and largest Pacific theater battle. We sent in 287,000 troops to fight the 130,000 Japanese defenders. We needed vital air bases to be able to invade and defeat the Japanese.