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Mein Kampf
Adolf HItler's auto-biography, Mein Kampf, or "My Struggle," is the book in which HItler explains his past and outlines his plans for a future Germany. The date that this was published marks the beginning of the Nazi idealogy. -
Japanese Invasion of China "Japanese forces move in on a battelfield near Manchuria"
China, as of 1930, was in civil unrest. Two different Chinese factions were fighting for control of the governement: the nationalist party and the communist party. While the Chinese were fighting amongst themselves, Japan invaded China. They wanted China for its vast natural resources. The Chinese, though divided by civil war, tried to put aside their differences to fight off the Japanese. The Chinese received aid from many countries. Thought they tried to fight, Japan took much of the country. -
Rape of Nanking "Women are lined up to be raped"
There was roughly 600,000 Chinese civialians and soldiers. The Japanese Imperial Army started to murder this crowd killing 300,000 of the population by the end of six weeks. The Japenese soliers made the younger soldiers enflict maximum pain to the Chinese. They raped over 20,000 women and if they were pregnant then they sliced open their stomaches. The Japanese went into random homes and made Fathers rape daughters, sons rape mothers and sisters, and made the families watch. -
Kristallnacht "Nazi officials have anti-semitic signs put up"
Kristallnacht, german for "night of the broken glass," is the night that the Nazis rounded up and assaulted Jews in German controlled areas. Around 30,000 Jews were sent to concentration camps after this night. -
Germany Invades Poland "German soldiers parade through Warsaw after the annexation of Poland"
On this date, the German army began it's invasion of Poland. The Germans unveiled their new blitzkrieg tactic during the invasion. WIthin a short amount of time, the German army was able to annex Poland. Half of the country fell under HItler's control, and the other half fell under Stalin's control. -
German Blitzkrieg "German Panzers and troop carriers advancing across a field"
Blitzkrieg, or lightning war, is a german military tactic. This tactic consisted of multible light armor vehicles and a small amount air support that is sent to spear head enemy defenses. Using speed and surprise put the enemies into shock and confusion. Blitzkreig was a successful tacric used for Germany's 1939 - 1941 campaigns. -
The Fall of Paris "A soldier stands looking at the rumble of an old home"
Germany started invading lower countries and France was one of those. This battle mainly depleated the French forces and was meant to take over the French Goverment. This was a a success for Germany. France took flight instead of fight and tried to save as many of their people as possible. France was now under Axis control. -
Operation Barbarossa "Panzers moving through the city of Belarus"
Operation Barbarossa is the code name for invasion the of the Soviet Union by Germany. The operation was authorized by Hitler on December 18, 1940. The invasion is the biggest in warfare history. It consisted of 600,000 vehicles and 700,000 horses. Germany took most of the Soviet's main economic cities, including Ukraine. The invasion was halted by the Red Army in Moscow. The war became a war of attrition and Germany was not equiped for that. Germany retreated after some time. -
Pearl Harbor is attacked! "The USS Shaw is hit"
The attack consisted of 353 Japaneze fighters, bombers, torpedo planes (these were sent in 2 waves), and 6 aircraft carriers. Every U.S. battleship was damaged but, 4 were sunk. The Japanese also sank or damaged 3 cruisers, 3destroyers, an anti aircraft training ship, and one minelayer. 188 U.S. aircraft were destroyed, 2,403 Americans were killed, and 1,178 others were wounded. No important buildings were attacked. Japan was searching for the U.S. aircraft carriers -
Wannsee Conference "The villa in which the meeting took place"
On this date, high-ranking Nazi and governement officials met to discuss the problem that Jews posed to Nazi ideals. It was here that the "Final Solution" was concieved; the idea to eleminate the 11 million Jewish people from Europe. The Nazis made plans to systematically eliminate the Jews from their controlled territories, and built the concentration camps to meet this need. -
Bataan Death March
When the Japanese forced approximately 75,000 American and Filipino troops to surrender, they were forced to march along a difficult 65-mile long road to the prison camps. Due to harsh treatment from Japanese guards and exposure to the intense heat, thousands of men died. -
Operation Gomorrah "Burnt out building in Berlin"
This was a week of chaos. There was constant bombing on Hamberg, Germany from both British and American bombers. The Americans bombed during the day and the British bombed during the night. The British bombings lasted until November of that year and they had dropped roughly 9,000 tons of explosives, destroying close to 300,000 buildings, and killing 30,000 civilians. The Americans bombed the north of Germany and focused on muntion buildings. -
D-Day "Soldiers disembark their landing craft"
Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of Europe, was begun on June 6, 1945. Approximately 156,000 allied forces landed on the heavily-fortified beaches of Normandy, France, as well as thousands of paratroopers behind enemy lines. It is estimated that 4,000 Allied troops were killled. Though bloody, the operation opened up Europe for the Allied invasion. -
Operation Thunderclap "Searchlights scan the sky for planes"
This was a plan to bomb Germany to the ground. It was originally meant to kill 100,000 people and have over 200,000 casualties. This was cancelled in 1944 due to people thinking that it was not worth it. Later in 1945, it was brought up agian as a way to clear choke points for the Soviet Army. Instead of just bombing anything they saw, it was changed to very precise attacks on Berlin, Dresden, Chemnitz and Leipzig (killing 60,000 civilians). This also destoried Germany's communications. -
The Battle For Iwo Jima "Marines running towards the enemy"
The war in the Pacific required an airbase so that American planes could bomb Japanese targets. Iwo Jima, a small island, was deemed to be the airfield for American operations. The island was defended by 22,000 Japanese who would fight to the death to defend a piece of their homeland. 110,000 Marines stormed the beaches, and after fierce fighting, the remaning 1,000 Japanese surrendered. This gave the US a key base to strike Japan with. -
Battle of Okinawa " The U.S. storms the beaches of Okinawa"
This was the last but also the biggest battle of the Pacific war. The purpose of this battle was so that the U.S. could take over the island of Okinawa that was fairly close to Japan. They wanted this island to have a base of operations close to japan. This did not go as smoothly as they had hoped. The Japaninize set an astonishing amount of defenses aoong the landing beaches. The U.S. used caves to get pasted the defenses and took the island. -
VE Day " The announcement is made"
This was a day of celebration, because it was the end of World War II. Germany had just surrendered its armed forces. This was mainly in Europe, but the celebrations consisted of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth coming to their balcony and looking down upon thousands of cheering people, this is where they gave the news. Everyone went crazy. On April 30th, Adolf Hitler commited suicide during the battle of Berlin. -
Dropping of the atomic bombs "Boom"
President Truman wanted Japan to surrender, but Japan wouldnt. So Truman thought that it would be more efficent on the U.S. lives to just nuke the crap out of Japan. On August 5th, operation "little boy" was under way. A B-29 carrying an atomic bomb was sent to make history. The bomb was dropped, exploding 1,900 feet over a hospital and having the same power of 12,500 tons of TNT. The bomb had writng on its shell, one of which read “Greetings to the Emperor from the men of the Indianapolis”. -
V-J Day "Kiss in Times Square"
On this day, the Empire of Japan announced their surrender to the United States. It wouldn't be until September 2, that the Japanese would formally surrender to the US aboard the USS Missouri. President Truman declared September 2, to be V-J Day, or Victory in Japan Day. -
Battle of the Bulge "A Tiger II carries German infantry"
This was the most expensive battle for the U.S. ever. This costed the U.S. army more than 100,000 lives. Germany attacked the U.S. army by surprise with a sum of about 750,000 troops. Germany's plan was to split up the U.S. from the British and to destroy them one by one. Thanks to the U.S. army not takin proper precautions, Germany was able to scout and plan a perfect attack on the allied troops. Germany ended up having a shortage of fuel and ammo gave the U.S. an advantage. This was the bloodi
