-
Part of his racist, expanionist ideology, Hilter invaded Poland on claim of reclaiming it after WWI. He intended to destroy the sovereign country, exterminate its citizens, and give it to the Germans to inhabit.
-
During the Battle of France, German forces overwhelmed Allied defenses and captured Paris, leading to a French armistice on June 22nd, 1940. This act effectively divorced France as a major power for years.
-
The evacuation of Allied soldiers from the beaches and harbor of Dunkirk, in the north of France, between May 26 to June 4, 1940. The operation began after large numbers of Belgian, British, and French troops were cut off and surrounded by German troops during the six-week Battle of France. The significance of this event was the recovery of troops and boosting of morale with continual resistance to Nazi Germany.
-
A bombing campaign enacted by Nazi Germany and Facist Italy against the United Kingdom. It lasted for eight months, from September 7, 1940 to May 11, 1941. This event signified the failure to break British morale and instead forged a national unity and symbol of defiance against Nazi aggression.
-
The Soviet victory was a decisive turning point in WWII. This event crushed Germany's advancement into the USSR, stopped the Axis from securing vital resources, and marked the beginning of the end for Nazi Germany by forcing Hilter onto the defensive, boosting Allied morale.
-
A period of time where Allied and Axis operations inhabited Italy from 1943 to 1945, involving many invasions of the country. The invasion of Sicily in July 1943 led to the fall of the Facist Italian regime and the demise of Mussolini. The new government signed an armistice with the Allies on September 8, 1943. Unfortunately, Italy was repeatedly invaded and attacked until the Axis surrender in 1945.
-
Allied forces launched Operation Overlord, landing over 150,000 troops on the beaches of Normandy, France, to liberate Western Europe from Nazi occupation. This event led to the liberation of France and eventual defeat of the Nazi regime.
-
An Allied military operation where soldiers fought in the German-occupied Netherlands from September 17 to 25, 1944. Their mission was to worm in German territory and create a route for future Allied invasion into northern Germany. They failed, however, resulting in a massive amount of deaths due to the massive scale of the operation.
-
A major German offensive campaign on the Western Front, taking place from December 16, 1944 to January 25, 1945. Launched from the Ardennes region of eastern Belgium and northern Luxembourg, German soldiers intended to stop Allied use of the Belgian port of Antwerp to split the Allied lines. The main goal was for the Germans to encircle and destroy each of the four Allied armies and force the Western Allies to negotiate a peace treaty in the Axis powers' favor. They were successful.
-
The formal acceptance of Nazi Germany's surrender to the Allies, signifying the end of World War II in the European theater after six years of fighting. This holiday is a call for celebration for countries all over Europe.