Japan surrenders (V-J day)

Victory in Japan Day (V-J Day)
As Japan’s major cities were devastated by attacks, and millions of people died, Japan was desperate. Its naval fleet was lost, and merchant ships could not leave Japan or sail without submarine or mine attack attempts.  Oil stocks were empty, rubber and steel were in very short supply, and the Soviets were attacking against the only sizable forces the Japanese had left, the Kwantung Army. They were a starving and undersupplied force. Many other armies had transferred to the Pacific, where they died in the island battles.  Defeat was unavoidable, but many in the military wanted to fight on, preferring death to capitulation.

One day after the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, it was clear that Japan would be destroyed if the war continued. Emperor Hirohito, Emperor of Japan, demanded that an official answer be sent accepting surrender. On August 10, Japan notified the U.S via diplomatic channels in Switzerland that Japan accepted an unconditional surrender.

The Japanese military struggled to keep the war going. Emperor Hirohito secretly recorded an announcement of surrender, which was broadcast over Radio Tokyo on the morning of August 15. In the broadcast, the emperor said:

“We have ordered our government to communicate to the governments of the United States, Great Britain, China, and the Soviet Union that our empire accepts the provisions of their Joint Declaration.”
President Henry Truman announced Japan's official surrender at exactly 7:00 P.M. on August 14, U.S. time. Allied forces began landing on Japan's shores just two weeks later, led by General Douglas MacArthur.

On September 2, 1945, Allied representatives met with representatives of the Japanese government aboard the Battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay to sign the official surrender document. Over the weeks, Japanese forces surrendered on a number of fronts, including the Philippines, China, and Korea.
World War II was over. All that remained was to put the world back together.

Atomic bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima

Near the end of the war, German had already surrendered, Japan was the only country left on the Axis team. President Truman believed that if they invaded Japan, it would cost them 1,000,000 men. So the U.S created the Atomic Bomb. Two planes dropped atomic bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima, 3 days apart. The damage was devastating. Thousands of people died, and there was nothing left of Hiroshima and Nagasaki except dust and wreckage. After the dust cleared, even more died of radiation disease. The dropping of the atomic bombs on the Japanese cities and the horrific aftermath of their destruction, and the declaration of war against Japan by Russia forced the Emperor of Japan to announce his country’s surrender.

Germany surrenders (V-E day)

Victory in Europe, V-E Day
After the initial success of the D-Day invasion, the Allies had recaptured France on Aug, 15, 1944, but the war wasn’t over yet.

Allied armies crossed the Belgian border in the north during this time.  Brussels fell to Canadian and British troops early in early September.  Other forces went into the Netherlands and through Luxembourg.  The Allies crossed the German border on September 12, 1944.

Allied armies closed in on Germany from all directions.  At this point, it was highly unlikely that Germany could still win the war.  In late April, the head of the Gestapo (Germany’s secret police) tried to make a peace agreement with Great Britain and the United States.  The Allies demanded that the Germans surrender.  On April 25, 1945, U.S. troops joined forces with the Russian Red Army.  On April 28, the Italian resistance (pro Allied forces) called the Partisans captured and killed Mussolini – he was hated in Italy by many of his own people because his actions and alliance with Germany led to the death of many Italian soldiers.  German forces in Italy surrendered on May 2.

On May 1, 1945, as a ruse, German radio stations announced that Hitler had died while fighting for Berlin against the Russians.  Berlin fell to Russian forces the next day.  Eventually, Allied forces found out that Hitler and his wife had committed suicide on April 30 in a bunker under Berlin and their bodies had been burned by a SS (Special Security and elite military unit of the Nazis who supervised concentration camps and served as Hitler’s bodyguards) officer named Otto Guensche who was also a member of Hitler's inner circle.

On May 2, 1945, Colonel General Alfred Jodl of the German army entered Allied headquarters.  There, he signed the terms of the unconditional surrender of Germany. The world celebrated May 8, 1945 as V-E Day – the day when the world was free of the Nazis’ threat.

World War II in Europe was over.  Only Japan remained defiant.

Hitler commits suicide

Near the end of the war, when the Soviet troops entered Germany, it was suggested that Hitler should try to flee Germany. Hitler refused the idea as he feared the chance of being captured. There were rumors of how Soviet troops would parade him through Germany in a cage. To prevent this horrible humiliation Hitler decided to commit suicide.

Two days before committing suicide, Hitler married a woman named Eva Braun. That night he tested out a poisonous pill on his pet dog, Blondi. His new wife, Braun agreed to commit suicide with him. She could have become rich by writing her memoirs but she preferred not to live without Hitler.
By then the Soviet troops were now only 300 yards away from Hitler's underground bunker. Although defeat was unavoidable, Hitler demanded that his troops fight to the death or be executed.
Hitler made a will that left all his property to the Nazi Party. On April 30, 1945, after saying their farewells, Hitler and Eva Braun went into a private room and took poison tablets. Hitler also shot himself in the head. His body was then burned and his ashes were hidden in the ground.

U.S. President Roosevelt dies

America had been able to stay out of World War II until Pearl Harbor was attacked.  President Franklin Roosevelt described the day as "a date that will live in infamy".

After Pearl Harbor, Roosevelt had meetings in Washington with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. They decided that Germany, the most powerful of the Axis powers must be defeated first. They continued to meet, and then they included Joseph Stalin of Russia in the talks too. They were known as "The Big Three". Roosevelt also began talking with General Chiang Kai-shek of China.
As the war raged on, Roosevelt was elected President again in 1944.  This would be his fourth term.  He had already been President for twelve years.  He wanted to retire, but he felt it was his duty to continue to serve his country.  He won the election, and two days after his inauguration, he went to Yalta where he met Churchill and Stalin. They planned their strategy to defeat Germany.  Russia, in exchange for land and other favors, agreed to enter the war to help defeat Japan.  However, during this time, he began to have one cold after another, and his health was beginning to fail.

In April, 1945, Roosevelt was in Georgia, where he collapsed and died of a cerebralhemorrhage.  Millions of Americans mourned the death of their beloved President. The world had lost a great leader.  Sadly, President Roosevelt never saw the end of the war which would happen only four months later. 

Auschwitz Liberated

The Soviet Union liberated Auschwitz in 1945.  When the Nazis started to retreat, they wanted to hide evidence of their crime.  The Nazis forced most of the camp prisoners to march west into Germany or they tried to burn the bodies in the crematoria or in large graves.  The Soviets only found a few thousand emaciated prisoners in Auschwitz.  However, there was abundant evidence of mass murder in Auschwitz. The Germans had tried to destroy most of the warehouses in the camp, but in the ones left intact, the Soviets found personal belongings of the victims.  For example, they discovered hundreds of thousands of men's suits, more than 800, 000 women's outfits, and more than 14,000 pounds of human hair.

After the liberation of these camps was the full realization of what Nazis did to Jews was exposed to the world.  The Jews who survived were so thin because of the horrible conditions, forced labor, and the small amount of food they were given. Many were so weak that they could barely move.  Disease still was a danger, and most of the camps had to be destroyed to prevent the spread of sickness.  Survivors had a long and painful recovery. It was so terrible that millions of people still think about it today.

Assassination attempts on Hitler

The German resistance was a group of people that did not like what Hitler and the Nazis were doing.  Members of the resistance engaged in active plans to remove Adolf Hitler from power and overthrow his throne.  However, there were barely any members in the resistance because most people were scared to death of Nazis and wouldn’t dare speak out against them for the sake of their lives.  Their plans included a plot to assassinate Hitler.

On July 20, 1944, an assassination attempt on Hitler was put into action. One of his top military officers, Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, had placed a bomb in a suitcase under the table during a meeting at Hitler's Wolf's Lair. The assassination attempt failed because someone moved the briefcase containing a bomb, which had planted near Hitler's feet.  Von Stauffenberg had left the room before the bomb went off, and had returned to  where a group of high-ranking German army officers were planning to take control of the government after Hitler died.  The bomb exploded, but Hitler survived the blast with only injuries to his arm and some hearing loss.  Not everyone in the room was so lucky.  After the failed assassination, the SS arrested 7000 people, and it is estimated that almost 5000 Germans were executed after the July Plot. Hitler decided that the leaders should have a slow death. They were hung with piano wire from meat-hooks. Their executions were filmed and later shown to senior members of the armed forces.

D-Day

After planning the attack for about one year, the Allies were able to put together a three million-man army and store 16 tons (one ton = 1000 kg) of supplies in Great Britain for the huge attack. They had 5,000 large ships, 4,000 smaller ships on which planes could land, and more than 11,000 aircrafts.  June 6, 1944 was D-Day (code name Operation Overlord).  This was the day that the Allied forces would cross the English Channel and land on the beaches of Normandy,France to begin the liberation of Western Europe from Nazi control.  Within three months, the northern part of France would be freed and the Allied force would prepare to enter Germany and meet up with Soviet forces moving in from the east.The Allies knew that in order to win the war, they needed to successfully invade Europe.  Hitler knew this too, and he hoped to repel the Allies with strong counterattacks and delay future invasion attempts.  This would give Hitler time to use most of his forces to defeat the Soviet Union which Hitler believed would then lead to all-out victory.  At dawn, 18,000 parachutists were on the ground; the land invasions began at 6:30 a.m. The British and Canadians overcame light opposition to capture Gold, Juno and Sword beaches; the Americans captured Utah beach.  The Allied casualties figures for D-Day have generally been estimated at 10,000, including 2500 dead.  However, despite the heavy losses of men, the mission was successful because of the soldiers’ bravery, determination, and tenacity.  At the end of the day, 155,000 Allied troops – mostly Americans, British and Canadians - had stormed onto Normandy’s beaches.  By the end of June, the Allies had 850,000 men and 150,000 vehicles in Normandy, and now they were able to continue marching into the rest of Europe. The heroism and bravery displayed by troops from the Allied countries on D-Day serve as an inspiration for millions of people throughout the rest of history.

Liberation of countries begin

At dawn, on June 5, 1944, U.S. General Eisenhower, the supreme commander of Allied forces in Europe, gave the go-ahead for Operation Overlord, the largest military operation in history. At his orders, 6,000 landing craft, ships and other vessels carrying 176,000 troops began to leave England for the trip to France. That night, 822 aircraft filled with parachutists headed for drop zones in Normandy. An additional 13,000 aircraft were mobilized to provide air cover and support for the invasion.

Auschwitz Mass Killing starts

Auschwitz was a Jewish Prison Camp. It was the most infamous extermination camp because it was the largest camp set up by the Nazis for the purpose of mass killings.  Although the Nazis told the Jews that they were going to labour camps at Aushwitz to work for them, between one to two million people died at the hands of the Nazis there.  The first gassing experiments were carried out at Aushwitz.  When the final solution was put into action, the Jews were put into gas chambers, died of starvation, weakness, or exposure to the cold, and randomly shot by the soldiers.  When Allied liberators were finally able to rescue people in the Nazi camps, they found huge piles of unburied corpses.

Midway Battle

The Midway Battle was the first battle that Japan lost. Japanese forces spoke to each other in code, saying that a certain place was going to be attacked. American code breakers found it that it was Midway Island, but they weren’t sure, so they sent a fake message that Midway’s fresh water conveyor had broken down. They found out it was Midway, and they told President Roosevelt.

People worried that Midway was not the real target and thought that Pearl Harbor was the actual target, but all the ships were sent to Midway. A Japanese plane was sent to see if the ships were in Pearl Harbor, but it didn't make it because it couldn’t refuel. The Japanese went toward Midway, and were ambushed by U.S planes. Multiple waves of planes hit the Japanese ships, sinking all four carriers. The Japanese retreated, earning a victory for the U.S.A. The Midway battle was a turning point in the war.

Coral Sea Battle

The Coral Sea Battle was the first battle that Japan did not win. Japanese planned to knock Australia out of the war. The Allies made a huge fleet to counter this, and the two fleets found each other. The Allies lost a carrier. Japan retreated after that, and so did the Allies, indicating that it was a draw.

Battle of Stalingrad

Stalingrad was a city in the Soviet Union, and the battle for it was a turning point in the European War.  During the Invasion of the Soviet Union, German forces attacked Stalingrad, bombing it, turning most of the city into rubble, but the Soviet Soldiers would not give up. They hid everywhere, and then when German soldiers came by, they attacked fiercely. Some Soviet union soldiers hid in sewers. This type of fighting took its toll on German Soldiers. They could not bring tanks in the city because there was too much rubble.

In November, Soviets planned a counter attack. They trapped German troops inside Stalingrad, cutting off all food supplies. Soon the army ran out of food, and in Winter, most of the German army surrendered, because of the lack of food and freezing conditions. About 91,000  Germans were captured.

When Hitler found out that the German Army had lost, and that the entire army was lost, Hitler stripped General Paulus of his rank, and made a day to mourn of what shame General Paulus did.  The battle at Stalingrad bled the German army dry, and after this defeat, the Germany Army was in full retreat. 

Final Solution

The “Final Solution” was the name of the Nazi plan to exterminate Jewish people.  The plan took place in several stages after the Nazi party rose to power.  At first, there were anti-Jewish laws and boycotts in Germany, but eventually, the plan expanded to include the annihilation of all European Jews.  Polish and Western European Jews were deported to ghettos in Poland, and German mobile killing squads were assigned to kill Jews during the invasion of the Soviet Union during the summer of 1941.  These squads follow the German army as it advances deep into Soviet territory, and carry out mass-murder operations.

The Wannsee conference takes place in early 1942.  It’s a meeting between the SS (the elite guard of the Nazi) and German government, and they coordinate the steps of the “Final Solution”.  All European Jews in occupied countries were deported and sent to concentration camps in Poland where millions are exterminated.  The “Final Solution” used gassings, shootings, random acts of terror, disease, and starvation to kill about six million Jews during World War II.

  

Pearl Harbor attacked

The Pearl Harbor Attack was an ambush attack led by Japanese planes. On Dec.7, at dawn, 353 Japanese planes swooped down and bombed Pearl Harbor, destroying and damaging most of the battleships. The American ships fought back, but there where too many Japanese ships, and they were too hard to hit. The Japanese fleet won, and the Americans lost most of their battleships.

The Japanese thought that, since they destroyed the Pacific Fleet, or most of it, they could take the Indonesian oil fields. Then they would offer peace, and the Americans would have to accept (before the battle, the U.S had stopped sending supplies to Japan because they were attacking other countries).  However, this thought was wrong because, one, all the aircraft carriers had not been at Pearl Harbor (a carrier is way more important then a battleship), and two, the Americans now were so angry that all they wanted was victory. There was no hope for peace.

The U.S made thousands of ships to battle Japan, and 12 million soldiers were set for battle. Japan had made all the ships it could, and could find no more soldiers.

After the battle, the U.S declared war on Japan, forcing Germany and Italy to declare war on them.

Invasion of the Soviet Union

The largest German military operation of World War II was on June 22, 1941 when they invaded the Soviet Union. The purpose of the operation was to destroy the Soviet Union by force and the seizure of land for German settlement.  Germany wanted to annihilate the Communist state as well as the Jews of the Soviet Union.  Three army groups, including more than three million German soldiers attacked the Soviet Union from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Black Sea in the south.

The Soviet leadership refused to listen to warnings from the Allies that German troops were building along its western border.  For that reason, Germany and its Axis partners achieved almost complete tactical surprise.  The Soviet air force was destroyed on the ground and its armies were overwhelmed. German units surrounded millions of Soviet soldiers.  Since the soldiers were cut off from supplies and reinforcements, all they could do was to surrender. As the German army advanced deep into Soviet territory, mobile killing units (called  Einsatzgruppen) started to kill large numbers of Jewish males, officials of the Communist Party, and they also established ghettos and facilities to concentrate large numbers of Soviet Jews. Due to the success in the Soviet Union, Hitler decided to deport German Jews to the occupied Soviet Union on October 15, 1941 – the beginning of the Final Solution that had a goal of the killing of all European Jews.

Although the Soviet Union suffered great losses, they did not surrender.  In August 1941, Soviet resistance started to make a comeback, and the Germans knew they had to keep fighting longer.  By early December, Germany had reached the outskirts of Moscow.  However, Germany had expected the Soviets to collapse much sooner, and after many months of fighting, the German army was exhausted and they were not prepared to fight in the cold, bitter winter of the Soviet Union.  German planners had failed to plan for sufficient food and medicine.

On December 6, 1941, the Soviet Union launched a major counterattack which pushed the Germans back from Moscow. In the summer of 1942, Germany went back on the offensive with a massive attack to the south and southeast toward the city of Stalingrad and toward the oil fields of the Caucasus.  The Germans were approximately 120 miles from the shores of the Caspian Sea, and this was the furthest German domination of Europe would reach.

Battle of Britain

The Battle of Britain was caused when Germany had captured almost every country in Europe; Britain was the only country that had a big enough force to stand a chance of still resisting them. Germany’s plan was to try and destroy the Britain Air Force by bombing.  At first, Germany tried destroying small towns on the southern coast, and they found out that the British Air Force was very strong.  So they turned their attention to the Air Force by destroying runways and radar stations, but the British kept fighting back at Germany.  Hitler was furious that it was taking too long to conquer Britain, so Germans started bombing important cities like London.

On Sept.15, 1940, Germany thought they were close to victory, so they planned a large bombing attack on London, but Britain fought back.  The British Royal Air Force scattered the German bombers and shot down a number of planes.  It was clear that Germany was not close to victory. After more raids and attacks, Germany realized that they couldn’t destroy the British Air Force.  So they retreated, and Britain won, signaling the first defeat for Germany.

Winston Churchill becomes Prime Minister of Britain

After the Nazis invaded Norway, PM Chamberlain resigned and Winston Churchill became Britain’s new PM.  He promised to refuse defeat or surrender. One of the major contributions made by Churchill during the war was making public broadcasts to the British people.  He was a brilliant speaker and his speeches gave hope to his people who were suffering from the Blitz (continuous bombings of Britain by Germany).

Churchill held important meetings with U.S. President Roosevelt and President Stalin of the Soviet Union. During the meetings, they discussed and planned about strategies for upcoming battles in order to defeat the Axis Powers.  Churchill led Britain throughout the war and was instrumental in helping lead the Allied countries to victory.

Germany starts invading Europe

After the battle of Poland ended on April 9, 1940, German forces invaded Norway and Denmark. 
On May 10, 1940, Germany began its assault on Western Europe by invading the Low Countries (Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg), each having took neutral positions in the war, as well as France. On June 22, 1940, France signed a contract with Germany, which provided Germany to occupy the northern half of the country.

Italy, a member of the Axis team (countries allied with Germany), joined the war on June 10, 1940. 

Germany attacks Poland World War II begins

World War II began on Sept. 1, 1939 when Germany, without notice of war, attacked Poland. The Germans used a technique called blitzkrieg (lightning war) and with it the Germans crushed the Polish defenses.  Five German armies with 1.5 million men, 2,000 tanks, and 1,900 modern aircraft faced fewer than a million Polish troops with less than 500 aircraft and a small number of armored vehicles.  Also, German planning and understanding of the importance of modern tactical airpower gave Germany multiple advantages.

Within five days, German forces occupied all of the frontier zones.  All the Polish air forces were destroyed and the Polish army was scattered.  By September 17, the war was basically over.  After a devastating air attack, Warsaw, capital of Poland, surrendered on September 27.  ­This was the start of the war that Adolf Hitler had wanted.

The German invasion provoked a global conflict.  On September 3, Britain and France declared war on Germany when they couldn’t negotiate a German withdrawal from Poland.  In Britain and France, the people had braced themselves for war.  There was little appetite for war, but a strong wave of anti-Germany helped people understand that Adolf Hitler would only stop if he was faced by force.

Almost instantly, the British and French empires (not including Ireland) joined the battle, turning it into a worldwide war.  World War II was fought not only in Europe, but across the entire world.  Canada declared war on Germany on September 10, 1939.