Course of World War II

Timeline:

1931 / 18th September / Japan invades Manchuria
1937 / 7th July / Sino-Japanese War starts
1939 / 15th March / The German Army invades Czechoslovakia.
7th April / Italy invades and occupies Albania.
18th April / Soviet Union proposes a triple alliance with Britain and France.
23rd August / Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler sign the Nazi-Soviet Pact.
25th August / Britain and Poland sign a treaty of mutual assistance.
1st September / The German Army invades Poland and annexes the free city of Danzig.
3rd September / Britain and France declare war on Nazi Germany.
17th September / The Red Army invades Poland.
1st November / Germany formally annexes western Poland into the German Reich.
2nd November / Joseph Stalin formally annexes eastern Poland into the Soviet Union.
1940 / 9th April / The German Army invades Denmark and Norway.
10th May / Adolf Hitler launches his Western Offensive and invades France.
10th May / Neville Chamberlain resigns as prime minister and is replaced by Winston Churchill.
14th May / Anthony Eden announces the formation of the Home Guard.
27th May / Evacuation from Dunkirk begins.
15th June / The USA rejects France's renewed appeal for help against the German Army.
5th July / Franklin D. Roosevelt bans the shipment of strategic materials to Japan.
23rd August / The Luftwaffe carry out a all-night bombing raid on London and begins the Blitz.
27th September / Yosuke Matsuoka of Japan signs the Tripartite Pact with Nazi Germany and Italy.
12th October, / Adolf Hitler postpones Operation Sealion.
18th November / Airborne radar successfully used by the Royal Air Force for the first time.
1941 / 14th April / Yosuke Matsuoka of Japan signs non-aggression pact with Soviet Union.
22nd June / Adolf Hitler launches Operation Barbarossa.
12th July / Soviet Union and Britain sign an agreement of mutual aid
5th December / Turn of the tide on the east front.
7th December / Japanese forces attack the US Fleet at Pearl Harbor.
8th December / Japanese troops invade Malaya, Thailand and the Philippines.
1942 / 3rd June / Start of the battle of Midway
24th August / The German Army enters Stalingrad.
1944 / 6th June, / D-day Second Front opened with Allied landings in Normandy.
1945 / 4th February / Winston Churchill, Joseph Stalin and Franklin D. Roosevelt meet at the Yalta Conference.
13th February / Marshall Arthur Harris orders the bombing of Dresden.
19th February / United States Army land on Iwo Jima.
9th March / United States Army Air Force creates firestorm in Tokyo.
4th May / All military forces in Germany surrender to the Allies.
6th August / United States Army Air Force drops atom bomb on Hiroshima.
9th August / United States Army Air Force drops atom bomb on Nagasaki.
2ndSeptember / General Douglas MacArthur accepts Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay.

Important events and terms:

The invasion of Poland: / Failure of Appeasement Policy. Britain and France decide to enter the war. Soviet Union invaded with Germany.
Blitzkrieg “lightning war” / Features: surprise attack, rapid advances in to enemy territory, coordinated massive air strike, flexible/mobility, simplicity, radio/good communication, paratroops
Strategic bombing / Definition: bombing of specific targets such as military industrial centers or civilian targets in an attempt to hamper the enemy’s ability to wage wars
Examples: battle of Britain (Blitz), bombing of Dresden, firebombing of Tokyo, dropping of atomic bomb.
Historiography on strategic bombing
Operation Barbarossa / Why did operation Barbarossa fail?
Germany
Geography:
-Physically and psychologically isolated in the vast land of Soviet Union.
-Soviet’s severe winter
-Unimproved airfield
-Long supply line lead back of fuel, ammunition+ troops
Equipment:
-Dispersed
-No clothes and equipment for winter
-Limited production capacity
Tactics:
-No reserves
-Dispersed forcesàthree directions
-Ideologyàracial annihilation
-officers lead in the frontàlack of commanders
Poor planning:
-unrealistic confidence
-planned to win early before winter comes
-railway problemàwidth of the wheels.
Soviet Union
-Soviet has more men!!!
-Patriotic
-Everyone must find to the end
-Scorched earth
-Sabotage occupied areas
Holocaust
Pearl Harbor / Why did the Japanese attack Pearl harbor?
-New order in Asia
-Expansion by forces
-Inevitable conflict between US and Japan
-Resources in Pacific
-US rejected Japan’s status as the leader of East Asia
Turning points of war / East Front: Battle of Stalingrad
West Front: landing of Normandy
Pacific War: Battle of Midway
D-day (Operation Overlord) / Why is operation Overlord a success
-Present superiority
U-boat defeated, Luftwaffe largely eliminated, successful campaign in Italy.
-Careful planning
-The deceiving attack totally cheated Germany+ use of phony radio message.
-The assassination attempt toward Hitler.
-Soviet Union’s attack on the East Front.
-Bad weather
Atomic bombing / Historiography on whether the atomic bombs were a military necessity
YES: Save US Soldiers’ life, destroy Japan’s industrial supply, break the morale, Make the leader realize their defeat, save Japan from full scale destruction.
NO: High percentage destruction of Japanese cities (Proportionality), Political necessity, huge suffering of civilians, Japan would have surrendered without the atomic bombs. Start of Cold War (used to show Soviet Union US power)