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WWII Begins
Germany invaded Poland without warning sparking the start of World War Two. -
The Battle of Atlantic
Battle of the Atlantic was the longest continuous military campaign in World War II, running from 1939 to the defeat of Germany in 1945.The six-year long Battle started on the 3rd with the sinking of liner "Athenia" by "U-30" (Lt Lemp) northwest of Ireland. She was mistaken for an armed merchant cruiser, and her destruction led the Admiralty to believe unrestricted submarine warfare had been launched.
222 ships sunk (114 by submarine) -
Pearl Harbor
the Japanese attack had missed the Pacific Fleet’s submarines. Even more importantly, the attack had missed the fleet’s aircraft carriers, which were out at sea at the time. -
USA Joins Forces with Great Britain
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War Plans
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Doolittle’s Raid
In the spring of 1942, the Allies began to turn the tide against the Japanese. The push began on April 18 with a daring raid on Tokyo and other Japanese cities. Lieutenant Colonel James Doolittle led 16 bombers in the attack. -
Battle of the Coral Sea
During this battle, the fighting was done by airplanes that took off from enormous aircraft carriers. Not a single shot was fired by surface ships. For the first time since Pearl Harbor, a Japanese invasion had been stopped and turned back. -
The Battle of Midway
Japan’s next thrust was toward Midway, a strategic island which lies north-west of Hawaii. Here again the Allies succeeded in stopping the Japanese. Americans had broken the Japanese code and knew that Midway was to be their next target. -
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Battle of Stalingrad
The Battle of Stalingrad is considered by many historians to have been the turning point in World War Two in Europe. -
The North African Front
Eisenhower was chasing the Afrika Korps led by General Erwin Rommel, the legendary Desert Fox. -
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Italian Campaign
The Italian campaign got off to a good start with the capture of Sicily in the summer of 1943. -
Liberation of Death Camps
As the Soviets drew near a camp called Majdanek in Poland, SS guards worked feverishly to bury and burn all evidence of their hideous crimes. -
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Battle of the Bulge
He ordered his troops to break through the Allied lines and torecapture the Belgian port of Antwerp. This bold move, the F hrer hoped, would disrupt the enemy’s supply lines and demoralize the Allies. -
Yalta Conference
the Allies pushed toward victory in Europe, an ailing Roosevelt had met with Churchill and Stalin at the Black Sea resort city of Yalta in the Soviet Union. -
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Iwo Jima
Iwo Jima was critical to the United States as a base from which heavily loaded bombers might reach Japan. It was also perhaps the most heavily defended spot on earth, with 20,700 Japanese troops entrenched in tun-nels and caves. -
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The Battle of Okinawa
The Japanese unleashed more than 1,900 kamikaze attacks on the Allies during the Okinawa cam-paign, sinking 30 ships, damaging more than 300 more, and killing almost 5,000 seamen. -
Roosevelt’s Death
while posing for a portrait in Warm Springs, Georgia, the pres-ident had a stroke and died. That night, Vice President Harry S. Trumanbecame the nation’s 33rd president. -
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Unconditional Surrender
the Soviet army had stormed Berlin. As Soviet shells burst overhead, the city panicked. “Hordes of soldiers stationed in Berlin deserted and were shot on the spot or hanged from the nearest tree,”
wrote Claus Fuhrmann, a Berlin clerk. -
Battle of Atlantic
Finally comes to an end after 6 years. U-Boats sunk more than 1,300 ships. -
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The Manhattan Project
A blinding flash, which was visible 180 miles away, was followed by a deafening roar as a tremen-dous shock wave rolled across the trembling desert.A day later, the United States warned Japan that it faced “prompt and utter destruction”
unless it surrendered at once. -
Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Forty-three seconds later, almost every building in the city collapsed into dust from the force of the blast. Hiroshima had ceased to exist. -
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The Occupation of Japan
In the early years of the occupation, more than 1,100 Japanese, from former Prime Minister Hideki Tojo to lowly prison guards, were arrested and put on trial. -
Ending of WWII
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Nuremberg Trials
the defendants included Hitler’s most trusted party officials, government ministers, military leaders, and powerful industrial-ists. As the trial began, U. S. Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson explained the significance of the event.
