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Nazi 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. -
Period: to
World War II
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Russia invades Finland
On 30 November 1939, the Soviet Red Army invaded Finland. The first month turned out to be a nightmare for the Red Army. They were taken by surprise by extreme weather conditions occurring totally unexpected in the high north of Europe. -
Germany invades Denmark and Norway.
German forces invaded Denmark and Norway by sea, by land, and by aerial bombardment. Some 10,000 German soldiers hidden in vessels disguised as merchant ships occupied the coasts of Oslo, Bergen, Kristiansund, Trondheim, and Narvik. Paratroopers captured the airports of Oslo and Stavanger. Although the onslaught took the Norwegians by total surprise, they inflicted heavy losses on the German navy. -
Germany invades Russia.
On Sunday, June 22, 1941, Hitler's Nazi forces stormed across the Russian border where the resistance was met almost immediately. Planes flew overhead dropping their payload on Russian troops and German 88's pounded Russians. Artillery was being poured onto the enemy, tanks pounded in, it was a Russian nightmare. The attack was called Operation Barbarossa. -
The final German attack towards Moscow begins (operation Typhoon).
On October 15th the rains stops German advance into Moscow because of the deep mud that stoped both tanks and infantry. ob October 16th the Germans leave Moscow and occupoy Odessa. On November 15th after the mud has frozen and temperatures drop Germans advance into Moscow once again. -
United States land in Guadalcanal
The Guadalcanal Campaign, also known as the Battle of Guadalcanal was fought between August 7, 1942 and February 9, 1943 on and around the island of Guadalcanal in the Pacific theatre of World War II. Launched a few months after the Kokoda Track campaign, it was the second major offensive by Allied forces against the Empire of Japan. -
German forces in Stalingrad surrender
On November 19, 1942 General Zhukov struck, quickly overran ill equiped Romanian and Italian troops maintaining a defensive line to the north and completely encircled the German Sixth Army of 250,000 soldiers. The weakened German land forces could not break through the stronger Russian defensive lines and the Luftwaffe was woefully inadequate to supply such a large army. Hitler’s stubborn refusal to allow the Sixth Army to break out or retreat doomed them to the inevitable surrender. -
Eisenhower becomes supreme commander of western allied forces
During World War II, he served as Supreme Commander of the Allied forces in Europe, with responsibility for planning and supervising the successful invasion of France and Germany in 1944–45, from the Western Front. In 1951, he became the first supreme commander of NATO. -
British forces land in Greece
British troops in 1944 finally reentered Greece as the Wehrmacht withdrew north. This was the second British landings in Greece. The first had confronted a very different Wehrmacht in April 1941. The British action aimed at assisting the Greek Government in its efforts to prevent a take-over by Communist-dominated insurgents. -
The first automic bomb dropped on Japan
By executive order of President Harry S. Truman, the U.S. dropped the nuclear weapon "Little Boy" on the city of Hiroshima on Monday, August 6, 1945, followed by the detonation of "Fat Man" over Nagasaki on August 9.
