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The Battle of Britain was a military campaign of the Second World War, in which the Royal Air Force and the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Navy defended the United Kingdom against large-scale attacks by Nazi Germany's air force, the Luftwaffe. It was the first major military campaign fought entirely by air forces. The decisive factors were British capability and determination, but German mistakes, before and during the battle, contributed significantly to the outcome. -
On December 7, 1941, Japanese planes attacked the United States Naval Base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii Territory, killing more than 2,300 Americans. The U.S.S. Arizona was completely destroyed and the U.S.S. Oklahoma capsized. -
The Battle of Midway was a key battle to secure dominance in the Pacific in World War II. The Midway attack was commanded by the same man who oversaw Pearl. The Battle of Midway, fought over and near the tiny U.S. mid-Pacific base at Midway atoll, represents the strategic high water mark of Japan's Pacific Ocean. -
The Battle of Stalingrad was a brutal military campaign between Russian forces and those of Nazi Germany and the Axis powers during World War II. The battle is infamous as one of the largest, longest, and bloodiest engagements in modern warfare: From August 1942 through February 1943 -
The successful Operation Torch saw the American armies gain their first major victory in World War II. Paratroopers and Rangers from the U.S. Army were also successfully used for the first time at the landings around the city of Oran -
Representing thirteen nations, 345 men and women volunteered for service in this group, which was known as the "monuments men." Among their ranks were museum curators and art historians, as well as others with specialized training or professional expertise that enabled them to identify and care for works of art subject to forced relocation or harm under difficult wartime conditions. -
The Battle of Kursk occurred in July 1943 around the Soviet city of Kursk in western Russia, as Germany launched Operation Citadel, Hitler’s response to his devastating defeat by the Soviet Red Army at the Battle of Stalingrad. The battle was Germany’s last chance to regain dominance on the Eastern Front during World War II and would be their final blitzkrieg offensive. -
The D-Day operation of June 6, 1944, brought together the land, air, and sea forces of the allied armies in what became known as the largest amphibious invasion in military history. The operation, given the codename OVERLORD, delivered five naval assault divisions to the beaches of Normandy, France. -
In late 1944, during the wake of the Allied forces' successful D-Day invasion of Normandy, France, it seemed as if the Second World War was all but over. On Dec. 16, with the onset of winter, the German army launched a counteroffensive that was intended to cut through the Allied forces in a manner that would turn the tide of the war in Hitler's favor. -
The Battle of Iwo Jima was a major battle in which the United States Marine Corps and United States Navy landed on and eventually captured the island of Iwo Jima from the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II.
On February 19, 1945, U.S. Marines made an amphibious landing on Iwo Jima and were met immediately with unforeseen challenges. -
The Battle of Okinawa, codenamed Operation Iceberg, was a battle of the Pacific War fought on the island of Okinawa by United States Army and United States Marine Corps forces against the Imperial Japanese Army. More than 12,000 U.S. soldiers, sailors, and Marines died during the fighting. -
For much of his adult life, Franklin D. Roosevelt battled chronic health problems that could have derailed his political career. Instead, his personal suffering transformed him into a more empathetic politician and steeled him to confront the dual challenges of the Great Depression and World War II. -
On April 30, 1945, holed up in a bunker under his headquarters in Berlin, Adolf Hitler committed suicide by swallowing a cyanide capsule and shooting himself in the head. Soon after, Germany unconditionally surrendered to the Allied forces, ending Hitler’s dreams of a “1,000-year” Reich.
Since at least 1943, it was becoming increasingly clear that Germany would fold under the pressure of the Allied forces. -
The uranium bomb detonated over Hiroshima on 6 August 1945 had an explosive yield equal to 15,000 tonnes of TNT. It razed and burnt around 70 per cent of all buildings and caused an estimated 140,000 deaths by the end of 1945, along with increased rates of cancer and chronic disease among the survivors. -
On August 6, 1945, during World War II (1939-45), an American B-29 bomber dropped the world’s first deployed atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The explosion immediately killed an estimated 80,000 people; tens of thousands more would later die of radiation exposure.