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Battle of France
In World War II, the Battle of France, also known as the Fall of France, was the German invasion of France and the Low Countries ended the Phoney War. In a flanking move that made the French Maginot Line irrelevant, the Germans attacked the low countries. The Netherlands surrendered in four days, after massive German attacks on Rotterdam. -
Dunkirk
The evacuation of Allied forces from Dunkirk on the Belgian coast ends as German forces capture the beach port. The nine-day evacuation, the largest of its kind in history and an unexpected success, saved 338,000 Allied troops from capture by the Nazis. -
Battle of Britain
For nearly six years, Germany launched over 1,000 U-Boats into combat, in an attempt to isolate and blockade the British Isles, thereby forcing the British out of the war -
Germany Attacks the Soviet Union
Under the codename Operation "Barbarossa," Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union in the largest German military operation of World War II. -
Operation Typhoon
The capture of Moscow, Russia's capital, was seen as vital to the success of 'Operation Barbarossa'. Hitler believed that once the heart - Moscow - had been cut out of Russia, the whole nation would collapse. -
Odessa
The Odessa massacre was the extermination of Jews in Odessa and surrounding towns in Transnistria during the autumn of 1941 and the winter of 1942 in a series of massacres and killings during the Holocaust by Romanian forces, under German control, encouragement and instruction. -
Germany declares war on the United States
On December 7, 1941, while German armies were freezing before Moscow, Japan suddenly pushed the United States into the struggle by attacking the American naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Germany and Italy have announced they are at war with the United States. America immediately responded by declaring war on the two Axis powers. -
"Final Solution of the Jewish Question."
At the meeting, 15 top Nazi bureaucrats and members of the SS met to coordinate the "Final Solution" in which the Nazis would attempt to exterminate the 11 million Jews of Europe and the Soviet Union. -
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 -
The Commando Order
Hitler orders the execution of all captured British commandos. The Commando Order was a secret order issued by Adolf Hitler stating that all Allied commandos encountered by German forces in Europe and Africa should be killed immediately, even if in uniform or if they attempted to surrender (prompted by the success of the British Commandos).