world war 2

  • Invasion of Poland

    Invasion of Poland
    The Soviet Red Army's invasion of the Kresy on 17 September, in accordance with a secret protocol of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, rendered the Polish plan of defence obsolete. Facing a second front, the Polish government concluded the defence of the Romanian Bridgehead was no longer feasible and ordered an emergency evacuation of all troops to neutral Romania.On 6 October, following the Polish defeat at the Battle of Kock, German and Soviet Union forces gained full control over Poland.
  • invasion of France

    invasion of France
    the Battle of France, also known as the Fall of France, was the German invasion of France and the Low Countries, executed on 10 May 1940, which ended the Phoney War. The battle consisted of two main operations. In the first, Fall Gelb (Case Yellow), German armoured units pushed through the Ardennes, to cut off and surround the Allied units that had advanced into Belgium. The British Expeditionary Force (BEF) and many French soldiers were evacuated from Dunkirk in Operation Dynamo
  • Battle of Britain

    Battle of Britain
    The Battle of Britain was the first major campaign to be fought entirely by air forces and was also the largest and most sustained aerial bombing campaign to that date. From July 1940 coastal shipping convoys and shipping centres, such as Portsmouth, were the main targets; one month later the Luftwaffe shifted its attacks to RAF airfields and infrastructure. As the battle progressed the Luftwaffe also targeted aircraft factories and ground infrastructure.
  • Operation Sea Lion

    Operation Sea Lion
    ration Sea Lion (German: Unternehmen Seelöwe) was Germany's plan to invade the United Kingdom during World War II, beginning in 1940. To have had any chance of success, however, the operation would have required air supremacy over the English Channel. With the German defeat in the Battle of Britain, Sea Lion was postponed indefinitely on 17 September 1940 and never carried out.
  • Operation Barbarossa

    Operation Barbarossa
    Operation Barbarossa was the largest military operation in human history in both manpower and casualties. Its failure was a turning point in the Third Reich's fortunes. Most important, Operation Barbarossa opened up the Eastern Front, to which more forces were committed than in any other theatre of war in world history. Operation Barbarossa and the areas that fell under it became the site of some of the largest battles, deadliest atrocities, highest casualties, and most horrific conditions.
  • siege of leningrad

    siege of leningrad
    The Siege of Leningrad, also known as the Leningrad Blockade (Russian: блокада Ленинграда, transliteration: blokada Leningrada) was a prolonged military operation by the German Army Group North and the Finnish Defence Forces to capture Leningrad in the Eastern Front theatre. It started on 8 September 1941, when the last land connection to the city was severed. Although the Soviets managed to open a narrow land corridor to the city on 18 January 1943, the total lifting took place on 27 January 19
  • Attack on Pearl Harbor

    Attack on Pearl Harbor
    The attack on Pearl Harbor (called the Hawaii Operation or Operation Z by the Japanese Imperial General Headquarters, and the Battle of Pearl Harbor by some Americans)was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on the morning of December 7, 1941. The next day the United States declared war on Japan resulting in their entry into World War II.
  • Battle of Midway

    Battle of Midway
    The Battle of Midway is widely regarded as the most important naval battle of the Pacific Campaign of World War II.Between 4 and 7 June 1942, approximately one month after the Battle of the Coral Sea and six months after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States Navy decisively defeated an Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) attack against Midway Atoll, inflicting irreparable damage on the Japanese fleet.
  • Battle of Gaudalcanal

    Battle of Gaudalcanal
    The Guadalcanal Campaign, also known as the Battle of Guadalcanal and codenamed Operation Watchtower by Allied forces, 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. It was part of the Allied strategic plan to protect the convoy routes between the US, Australia and New Zealand. Launched a few months after the Kokoda Track campaign, it was the second major offensive by Allied forces against the Empire of Japan
  • Operation Torch

    Operation Torch
    Operation Torch (initially called Operation Gymnast) was the British-American invasion of French North Africa in World War II during the North African Campaign.
  • battle of stalingrad

    battle of stalingrad
    The Battle of Stalingrad was a major battle of World War II in which Nazi Germany and its allies fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad (now Volgograd) in southwestern Russia. It took place between 17 July 1942 and 2 February 1943. The battle's outcome was disastrous for Germany, making its victory in the East impossible.The battle marked the turning of the tide of war in favour of the Allies.
  • Anzio Landing

    Anzio Landing
    Operation Shingle (January 22, 1944), during the Italian Campaign of World War II, was an Allied amphibious landing against Axis forces in the area of Anzio and Nettuno, Italy. The operation was commanded by Major General John P. Lucas and was intended to outflank German forces of the Winter Line and enable an attack on Rome. The resulting combat is commonly called the Battle of Anzio.
  • D-Day

    D-Day
    The Normandy landings were the landing operations of the Allied invasion of Normandy, also known as Operation Overlord and Operation Neptune, during World War II. The landings commenced on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 (D-Day), beginning at 6:30 AM British Double Summer Time (GMT+2). In planning, D-Day was the term used for the day of actual landing, which was dependent on final approval.
  • Operation Market Garden

    Operation Market Garden
    he operation plan's strategic context required the seizure of bridges across the Maas (Meuse River) and two arms of the Rhine (the Waal and the Lower Rhine) as well as several smaller canals and tributaries. Crossing the Lower Rhine would allow the Allies to outflank the Siegfried Line and encircle the Ruhr, Germany's industrial heartland. It made large-scale use of airborne forces whose tactical objectives were to secure a series of bridges over the main rivers of the German-occupied Netherland
  • Battle of the Bulge

    Battle of the Bulge
    The Battle of the Bulge (also known as the Ardennes Offensive and the Von Rundstedt Offensive) was a major German offensive launched toward the end of World War II through the densely forested Ardennes Mountains region of Wallonia in Belgium, hence its French name, (Bataille des Ardennes), France and Luxembourg on the Western Front.
  • Battle for Berlin

    Battle for Berlin
    the Red Army breached the German front as a result of the Vistula–Oder Offensive and advanced westward as much as 40 kilometres a day, through East Prussia, Lower Silesia, East Pomerania, and Upper Silesia, temporarily halting on a line 60 kilometres east of Berlin along the Oder River. During the offensive, two Soviet fronts attacked Berlin from the east and south, while a third overran German forces positioned north of Berlin. The Battle was one of the bloodiest battles in history.
  • Period: to

    Battle of Okinawa

  • Hitler's Suicide

    Hitler's Suicide
    Adolf Hitler committed suicide by gunshot on 30 April 1945 in his Führerbunker in Berlin His wife Eva committed suicide with him by ingesting poison.In accordance with Hitler's prior instructions, their remains were carried up the stairs to ground level and through the bunker's emergency exit, doused in petrol and set alight in the Reich Chancellery garden outside the bunker.
  • Hiroshima

    Hiroshima
    On Monday at 8:15 AM, the nuclear bomb "Little Boy" was dropped on Hiroshima by an American B-29 bomber, the Enola Gay,directly killing an estimated 80,000 people. By the end of the year, injury and radiation brought total casualties to 90,000–140,000.Approximately 69% of the city's buildings were completely destroyed, and about 7% severely damaged.
  • Nagasaki

    Nagasaki
    Within the first two to four months of the bombings, the acute effects killed 90,000–166,000 people in Hiroshima and 60,000–80,000 in Nagasaki, with roughly half of the deaths in each city occurring on the first day. The Hiroshima prefectural health department estimates that, of the people who died on the day of the explosion, 60% died from flash or flame burns, 30% from falling debris and 10% from other causes. During the following months, large numbers died from the effect of burns,