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1941 BCE
Launching of Operation Barbarossa
On 22 June, 151 German divisions, supported by 14 Finnish and 13 Romanian divisions – nearly 3.6 million German and allied troops, backed by 3,350 tanks and 1,950 aircraft – were launched in a surprise attack. There was no realistic political plan to accompany the strategy. The failure to knock the Soviet Union out that year left the Germans involved in an intractable struggle that was to lead to eventual defeat. -
WW2
the start of ww2 -
Blitzkrieg
Hitler launched his blitzkrieg (lightning war) against Holland and Belgium. Rotterdam was bombed almost to extinction. Both countries were occupied. -
Pearl Harbor
The Japanese planned to wreck the American Pacific Fleet. It was a classic case of an operational-tactical success, but a strategic failure. Some 353 aircraft from six Japanese carriers totally destroyed two American battleships and damaged five more, while, in an attack on the naval air station at Kaneohe Bay, nearly 300 American aircraft were destroyed or damaged on the ground. -
Dropping of second atom bomb, on Nagasaki
As a result, Japan agreed to surrender unconditionally. An Imperial broadcast on 15 August announced the end of hostilities. It followed Emperor Hirohito’s intervention at the Imperial Conference on 9 and 14 August. The limited American ability to deploy more bombs speedily was not appreciated. Some 6.7 square kilometres of Nagasaki was reduced to ashes; 73,884 people were killed and 74,909 injured. Long-term health consequences were calamitous.
