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Invasion of Poland
*Used blitzkrieg to overpower Polish army
*Britain & France declare war on Germany
*Make it to Warsaw (capital of Poland) in a month
*Germany begins enforcing racial policies
*Jews had to wear white armbands with blue Stars of David so they could be easily identified
*They wanted to make Jews feel humiliated and harass them as much as possible
*Expelled at least 1,000 poles and replaced them with Germans -
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Battle of Dunkirk
*Operation dynamo was the rescue of
*338,000 British expeditionary force and other allied troops were evacuated from Dunkirk to England as German forces were closing in on them
*it was a massive operation with naval vessels
*Civilian vessels were also used
*It became known as the miracle of Dunkirk and was a big turning point for the Allied war -
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Battle of Moscow
*German forces were attempting to take over Moscow
*Soviet reinforcements in a Russian winter were not a good mix and it took a toll on them and it left them exhausted and demoralized
*Soviet Union had 1.25 million men
*Germany had 1 million men
*This war took away a lot of Germany’s manpower and resources
*Casualties of the battle included 248,000-400,000 losses for Germany and for Soviet losses it was between 650,000-1,280,000 -
Attack on Pearl Harbor
*located in Honolulu, Hawaii
*it was a surprise attack by Japanese forces
*Damaged 20 American naval vessels, eight battleships, and 300 airplanes
*2,400 Americans died in the attack and 1,000 were wounded
*A day after it happened Franklin D. Roosevelt declared war on Japan
*it was a surprise but japan and the U.S. had been close to war for a long time -
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Battle of Midway
*Navy Cryptanalysts had begun to break Japanese communication codes and figured out the location and time
*Aircrafts from four aircraft carriers attacked and damaged the US base on midway
*The Japanese did not know the US was there
*the Japanese aircraft made its way back to refuel and rearm and they became aware of the US naval forces
*The Japanese lost 3,057 men
*The US lost approximately 362 men -
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Operation Overlord/ D-day
*allied troops landed on islands in Normandy and began liberation of German-occupied Western Europe
*A fleet of over 6,900 vessels landed and assault forces of more then 156,000 men on five beaches
*They received code names: Utah and Omaha (US), Gold (British), Juno (Canadian), And Sword (British)
*24,000 airborne troops were also deployed to take control over strategic points
*Really bad weather conditions and fierce resistance from German units -
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Battle of Berlin
*This is the battle that saw the end of Nazi Germany
*fought between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany
*Soviet forces overran the East and south quickly and then overran the German defenses in the north
*The Germans were so weak that they had to get the help of children
*Once the Soviet forces entered berlin, they continued fighting but not typical fighting with guns but continue to street fight in close quarters from house to house
*Before the end of the war Hitler committed suicide