-
Rape of Nanking
Link for sourceIn December 1937, in what was then the capital of China, one of the most brutal massacres in the long annals of wartime barbarity occurred. The Japanese army swept into the ancient city of Nanking (Nanjing) and within weeks not only looted and burned the defenseless city but systematically raped, tortured, and murdered more than 300,000 Chinese civilians. -
Germanys Invasion of Poland
On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland. The Polish army was defeated within weeks of the invasion. From East Prussia and Germany in the north and Silesia and Slovakia in the south, German units, with more than 2,000 tanks and over 1,000 planes, broke through Polish defenses along the border and advanced on Warsaw in a massive encirclement attack. After heavy shelling and bombing, Warsaw surrendered to the Germans on September 27, 1939. Britain and France, -
Period: to
German Blitzkrieg
-
Fall of Paris
Info for sourceOn 11 November 1918, the French and British allies accepted Germany’s surrender and, between them, signed the armistice that ended the First World War. The signing took place in a railway carriage in the middle of the picturesque woods of Compiègne, fifty miles north-east of Paris. The humiliation of that event ran deep into the psyche of Germany, and none more so than in Adolf Hitler, at the time a corporal in the Imperial German Army. -
Operation Barbarossa
On 22 June 1941 Germany invaded the Soviet Union. Codenamed Operation Barbarossa, it was the largest military operation in history, involving more than 3 million Axis troops and 3,500 tanks. It was the logical culmination of Hitler’s belief that the German ‘master race’ should seek ‘lebensraum’ (living space) in the east, at the expense of the ‘subhuman’ native Slav people, who were to be exterminated or reduced to serf status. -
Pearl Harbor
INFO FOR SOURCEOn the morning of December 7, 1941, the Japanese launched a surprise air attack on the U.S. Naval Base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. After just two hours of bombing, more than 2,400 Americans were dead, 21 ships* had either been sunk or damaged, and more than 188 U.S. aircraft destroyed. The attack at Pearl Harbor so outraged Americans that the U.S. abandoned its policy of isolationism and declared war on Japan the following day -- officially bringing the United States into World War II -
Battle of Stalingrad
The battle of Stalingrad was fought between 23 August 1942 and 2 February 1943. It was one of the most hard fought battles of the Second World War – there were high levels of civilian and military casualties, and much of the city was reduced to rubble during the battle.The ultimate outcome of the battle was a crushing victory for the Soviet Union, which turned the tide of the war in their favour. -
Bataan Death March
-
Battle Of Midway
Info for sourceThe Battle of Midway was a naval battle between the U.S. and Japan that took place between 4th and 7th of June, 1942. This was about 6 months after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. Japan had won many battles after Pearl Harbor and thus they were very strong in the Pacific. The battle derives its name from the location on which it took place which is near the Midway Island in the Pacific Ocean. -
Allied Invasion of Italy
info for source the U.S. and Great Britain, the leading Allied powers, planned to invade Italy. Beyond their goal of crushing Italian Axis forces, the Allies wanted to draw German troops away from the main Allied advance through Nazi-occupied northern Europe to Berlin, Germany. The Italian Campaign, from July 10, 1943, to May 2, 1945, was a series of Allied beach landings and land battles from Sicily and southern Italy up the Italian mainland toward Nazi Germany. The campaign seared into history the names of s -
Tehran Conference
Info for source meeting of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Premier Joseph Stalin at Tehran, Iran. The conference was held to strengthen the cooperation of the United States, Great Britain, and the USSR in World War II. It followed the Cairo Conference with Chiang Kai-Shek and was the first three-power war conference attended by Stalin. Agreement was reached on the scope and timing of operations against Germany, including plans for the Allied invasion of France. Stalin -
D-Day ( Normandy Invasion)
info for sourceThe Battle of Normandy was fought during World War II in the summer of 1944, between the Allied nations and German forces occupying Western Europe. More than 60 years later, the Normandy Invasion, or D-Day, remains the largest seaborne invasion in history, involving nearly three million troops crossing the English Channel from England to Normandy in occupied France. -
Battle of Bulge
-
Liberation of concentration camps
-
Battle of Iwo Jima
-
Battle of Okinawa
-
Victory in Europe ( VE Day)
-
Potsdam COnference
-
Dropping of the Atomic Bomb
-
VJ day
