World War II by country throughout the war, as did the international city of Tangier. Nauru was administered by Australia under a League of Nations mandate. Nauru was shelled by a German surface raider in December 1940, aiming to incapacitate its phosphate mining operations (this action was probably the most distant military activity carried out by Germany during the entire war). Phosphates are important for making ammunition and fertilizers. Nauru was occupied by Japan from 1942–45, and was the target of shelling by American battleships and cruisers, and aerial bombing by the Allies. For example, Nauru was bombarded by the American battleships "North Carolina", "Washington",
War crimes in occupied Poland during World War II with doctors (45%), lawyers (57%), university professors (40%), technicians (30%), clergy (18%) and many journalists. It was not only Polish citizens who died at the hands of the occupying powers but many others. Tadeusz Piotrowski estimates that two million people belonging to fifty different nationalities from 29 countries were exterminated by the Germans in occupied Poland. This includes one million foreign Jews transported from across Europe to die in the Nazi extermination camps on Polish soil, along with 784,000 Soviet POWs and 22,000 Italian POWs. War crimes in occupied Poland during World War II It's estimated that over six million