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Germany invades Poland
At 4:45 a.m., 1.5 million German troops invade Poland all along its 1,750-mile border with German-controlled territory. Simultaneously, the German Luftwaffe bombed Polish airfields, and German warships and U-boats attacked Polish naval forces in the Baltic Sea. Nazi leader Adolf Hitler claimed the massive invasion was a defensive action, but Britain and France were not convinced. On September 3, they declared war on Germany, initiating World War II.http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/germ -
Germany captures Paris.
Beginning on May 10, 1940 German forces defeated Allied forces in a series of mobile operations, eventually leading to the conquest of France, Belgium and the Netherlands and the end of land operations on what had been the Western Front. Although Hitler's armies were smaller than those of his opponents, the Germans had both air superiority and imagination. More than half of France's 800,000 troops were confined to manning the defensive Maginot Line.
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Battle of Britain begins
The battle for Britain is the name given to the Second World War defence of the United Kingdom by the Royal Air Force (RAF) against an onslaught by the German Air Force (Luftwaffe) which began at the end of June 1940. In Britain, the officially recognized dates are 10 July – 31 October 1940, overlapping with the period of large-scale night attacks known as The Blitz. By preventing Germany from gaining air superiority, the British forced Adolf Hitler to postpone Operation Sea Lion.
History.com -
Lend-Lease Act
The Lend-Lease act was proposed in late 1940 and passed in March 1941, the Lend-Lease Act was the principal means for providing U.S. military aid to foreign nations during World War 2. It authorized the president to transfer arms or any other defense materials for which Congress appropriated money to “the government of any country whose defense the President deems vital to the defense of the United States.” Lend-Lease brought the United States one step closer to entry into the war. History.com -
Operation Barbossa
Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Nazi Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II, which began on 22 June 1941. The invasion covered a front from the North Cape to the Black Sea, a distance of two thousand miles. By this point German combat effectiveness had reached its apogee; in training, doctrine, and fighting ability, the forces invading Russia represented the finest army to fight in the twentieth century. Barbarossa was the crucial turning point in World War II. -
Japan Bombs Pearl Harbor
President Franklin Roosevelt called December 7, 1941, "a date which will live in infamy." On that day, Japanese planes attacked the United States Naval Base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii Territory. The bombing killed more than 2,300 Americans.It completely destroyed the American battleship U.S.S. Arizona and capsized the U.S.S. Oklahoma. 160 aircraft were destroyed and 150 others damaged. The attack took the country by surprise, especially the ill-prepared Pearl Harbor base.www.americaslibrary.com -
Germany declared war on the United States.
The US and Germany were already practically at war. The invasion of Russia was suddenly looking very bad.After all, the United States had not declared war on Germany despite being already practically at war.However, for the UK exceptions were made and thus, come 1940, the UK was increasingly dependent on supplies, arms and munitions from the US. Hitler declared war on the United States because he believed that it was an opportunity to be seized.
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Victory of the Battle of Midway
Between 3 and 7 June 1942, only six months after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor and one month after the Battle of the Coral Sea, the United States Navy under Admirals Chester Nimitz, Frank Jack Fletcher, and Raymond A. Spruance decisively defeated an attacking fleet of the Imperial Japanese Navy. An important turning point in the Pacific campaign, the victory allowed the United States and its allies to move into an offensive position. Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku, was the Japanese fleet commander. -
Bataan Death March
The march went from Mariveles, Bataan, to San Fernando, Pampanga. About 2,500–10,000 Filipino and 100–650 American prisoners of war died before they could reach their destination. The Bataan Death March (Japanese: Hepburn: Batān Shi no Kōshin , Filipino: Martsa ng Kamatayan sa Bataan) was the forcible transfer from Saisaih Pt. and Mariveles to Camp O'Donnell by the Imperial Japanese Army of 60,000–80,000 Filipino and American prisoners of war which began on April 9, 1942. -
The Soviet Union wins Stalingrad.
The Battle for Stalingrad was fought during the winter of 1942 to 1943. In September 1942, the German commander of the Sixth Army, General Paulus, assisted by the Fourth Panzer Army, advanced on the city of Stalingrad. The battle at Stalingrad bled the German army dry in Russia and after this defeat, the Germany Army was in full retreat. Stalingrad was also an important target as it was Russia’s centre of communications in the south as well as being a center for manufacturing. -
Warsaw Ghetto uprising
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was the 1943 act of Jewish resistance that arose within the Warsaw Ghetto in German-occupied Poland during World War II. This opposed Nazi Germany's final effort to transport the remaining Ghetto population to Treblinka extermination camp. The uprising started on 19 April when the Ghetto refused to surrender to the police commander SS-Brigadeführer Jürgen Stroop, who then ordered the burning of the Ghetto, block by block. 13,000 Jews died, about half of them burnt live -
D-Day
The United States and allied troops invaded at Normandy. This was the largest air, land, and sea invasion in history. The goal was to surprise Germany, but Germany was ready to fight. It was the beginning of the end of World War II. Over 425,000 Allied and German troops were killed, wounded or went missing during the Battle of Normandy. This figure includes over 209,000 Allied casualties, with nearly 37,000 dead amongst the ground forces and a further 16,714 deaths amongst the Allied air forces. -
Battle of the Bulge
The Allies called it the Ardennes Counteroffensive. Intercepted German communications indicating a substantial German offensive preparation were not acted upon by the Allies. The surprise attack caught the Allied forces completely off guard. German personnel, and later Luftwaffe aircraft (in the concluding stages of the engagement), also sustained heavy losses. The Germans' initial attack included 406,000 men, 1,214 tanks, tank destroyers, and assault guns, and 4,224 artillery pieces. -
Liberation of Concentration Camps
Soviet soldiers were the first to liberate concentration camp prisoners in the final stages of the war. On July 23, 1944, they entered the Majdanek camp in Poland, and later overran several other killing centers. On January 27, 1945, they entered Auschwitz and there found hundreds of sick and exhausted prisoners.The Germans had been forced to leave these prisoners behind in their hasty retreat from the camp. Also left behind were victims' belongings: 348,820 men's suits, 836,255 women's coats. -
Battle of Iwo Jima
The American amphibious invasion of Iwo Jima, a key island in the Bonin chain roughly 575 miles from the Japanese coast, was sparked by the desire for a place where B-29 bombers damaged over Japan could land without returning all the way to the Marianas, and for a base for escort fighters that would assist in the bombing campaign.Iwo Jima was defended by roughly 23,000 Japanese army and navy troops, and it was attacked by three marine divisions after elaborate preparatory air. -
USA drops two atomic bombs
n 1940 the USA began a government funded project called the Manhattan project. Scientists from America and many from fascist European countries were tasked with developing atomic weapons. After the defeat of the Germans in Europe, Japan refused to surrender. They vowed to fight until the end even though they had very small odds of winning the war. On August 6th, 1945 a bomb nicknamed "little boy" was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan. The explosion destroyed about 90% of the city and 80,000 people.
