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Rape of Nanking
the Japanese Imperial Army marched into China's capital city of Nanking and proceeded to murder 300,000 out of 600,000 civilians and soldiers in the city. The six weeks of carnage would become known as the Rape of Nanking and represented the single worst atrocity during the World War II era in either the European or Pacific theaters of war.
http://www.historyplace.com/worldhistory/genocide/nanking.htm -
German Blitzkrieg
Large formations moving on tracks and wheels, directed by radios, could rupture an enemy’s front and so disorganize its rear that countermeasures would be paralyzed. First tested in Poland, the concept reached perihelion in France and the Low Countries in 1940, when in less than six weeks the German army crushed the combined forces of four nations.
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/blitzkrieg -
Fall of Paris
Parisians awaken to the sound of a German-accented voice announcing via loudspeakers that a curfew was being imposed for 8 p.m. that evening-as German troops enter and occupy Paris.The United States did not remain completely idle, though. On this day, President Roosevelt froze the American assets of the Axis powers, Germany and Italy.
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/germans-enter-paris -
Pearl Harbor
At about 8 a.m., Japanese planes filled the sky over Pearl Harbor. Bombs and bullets rained onto the vessels moored below. Every Battleship in Pearl Harbor was significantly damaged. The next day, Roosevelt declared war.
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/pearl-harbor -
Wannsee Conference
15 high-ranking Nazi Party and German government officials gathered at a villa in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee to discuss and coordinate the implementation of what they called the "Final Solution of the Jewish Question."The "final solution" was the Nazis' code name for the deliberate, carefully planned destruction, or genocide, of all European Jews. They wanted all of the jews dead.
http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005477 -
Battle of Stalingrad
the successful Soviet defense of the city of Stalingrad (now Volgograd) in the U.S.S.R. during World War II. On September 3, 1942, the German Sixth Army under Paulus reached the outskirts of Stalingrad, expecting to take the city in short order. But the Russians had built up their defenses and continued to bring in reinforcements. Stalin, on the other hand, gained confidence in his military.
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/battle-of-stalingrad -
Operation Gomorrah
British bombers raid Hamburg, Germany, by night in Operation Gomorrah, while Americans bomb it by day in its own “Blitz Week.”
Britain had suffered the deaths of 167 civilians as a result of German bombing raids in July.Diary entries of high German officials from this period describe a similar despair, as they sought to come to terms with defeat.
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/operation-gomorrah-is-launched -
D-Day
more than 160,000 Allied troops landed along a 50-mile stretch of heavily-fortified French coastline, to fight Nazi Germany on the beaches of Normandy, France. He hoped to repel the Allies from the coast with a strong counterattack that would delay future invasion attempts, giving him time to throw the majority of his forces into defeating the Soviet Union in the east. By the end of June, the Allies had 850,000 men and 150,000 vehicles in Normandy. http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/d-d -
Battle of the Bulge
the Germans attempted to push the Allied front line west from northern France to northwestern Belgium. it is also the largest battle ever fought by the United States Army.The war did not end until better weather enabled American aircraft to bomb and strafe German positions.
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/battle-of-the-bulge -
Operation Thunderclap
‘Operation Thunderclap’ had been under discussion within the Allied Command for some time, the proposal was to bomb the eastern-most cities of Germany to disrupt the transport infrastructure behind what was becoming the Eastern front.In total 796 Lancasters took part in the two raids on the night of the 13th/14th, only 6 aircraft were lost, one of the lowest rates of loss for any major http://ww2today.com/13-february-1945-operation-thunderclap-raf-start-firestorm-in-dresden#sthash.Z2UcWHmt.dpuf -
Liberation of Concentration Camps
Soviet soldiers were the first to liberate concentration camp prisoners in the final stages of the war. On July 23, 1944, they entered the Majdanek camp in Poland, and later overran several other killing centers. On January 27, 1945, they entered Auschwitz and there found hundreds of sick and exhausted prisoners.These prisoners were suffering from starvation and disease.
http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005131 -
Battle of Iwo Jima
The American amphibious invasion of Iwo Jima during World War II stemmed from the need for a base near the Japanese coast. Following elaborate preparatory air and naval bombardment, three U.S. marine divisions landed on the island in February 1945.American losses included 5,900 dead and 17,400 wounded.
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/battle-of-iwo-jima -
VE Day
Victory in Europe Day, generally known as V-E Day was the public holiday celebrated on 8 May 1945 to mark the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Nazi Germany's unconditional surrender of its armed forces. Stalin said. “The age-long struggle of the Slav nations… has ended in victory. Your courage has defeated the Nazis. The war is over.”
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/victory-in-europe -
Dropping of the Atomic Bombs
President Harry S. Truman, warned by some of his advisers that any attempt to invade Japan would result in horrific American casualties, ordered that the new weapon be used to bring the war to a speedy end. On August 6, 1945, the American bomber Enola Gay dropped a five-ton bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima.By 1949, the Soviets had developed their own atomic bomb and the nuclear arms race began.
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/atomic-bomb-dropped-on-hiroshima -
VJ Day
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.In 1995, the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II, the administration of President Bill Clinton referred not to V-J Day but to the “End of the Pacific War” in its official remembrance ceremonies.
