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Hitler moved quickly into Poland. German tanks and troops cross Poland’s border while German aircraft bombed Warsaw. It was a surprise attack.
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France and Great Britain declare war on Germany, Poland fell before they could make any military response.
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France and Great Britain declare war on Germany, Poland fell before they could make any military response.
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Germans gave up on daylight raids in favor of night bombing to avoid the RAF’s attacks.
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Hitler sent the “Afrika Korps”, a tank force under the command of General Erwin Rommel, to Africa and attacked the British, making them retreat to east Tobruk, Libya.
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Germany attacked the Soviet Union, taking them by surprise, as they were not well equipped nor well trained.
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President Franklin D. Roosevelt cut off oil shipments to Japan, as they overran French Indochina, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos.
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Japan attacked Pearl Harbor sinking or damaging 19 ships, killing 2,300 American soldiers, and 1,100 were wounded. The president called this day “The Day of Infamy”.
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The Nazi plan to exterminate the Jewish people. The Nazis begin the systematic deportation of Jews all over Europe to extermination camps established in former Polish territory.
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16 aircrafts under the command of Lieutenant Colonel James H. Doolittle bombed Tokyo and other Japanese cities, although the bombs did not do much damage.
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American pilots destroyed 332 Japanese planes, 4 aircraft carriers, and 1 support ship.
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Japan lost more than 24,000 soldiers out of 36,000, and they called that place “the Island of Death”.
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British, American, French, and Canadian troops fought their way onto a 60-mile stretch of beach in Normandy. More than 2,700 American soldiers died on the beaches that day.
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German tanks broke through weak American defences along a 75-mile front in the Ardennes. Although they were caught off guard, the Allies pushed Germany back, making them retreat.
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The US, the UK, and the Soviet Union represented by Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin came together to discuss Europe’s postwar reorganization.
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US troops moved onto the island of Okinawa, 350 miles from southern Japan, and fought the Japanese who were defending their homeland.
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The Third Reich from the German military surrendered unconditionally to General Eisenhower, who accepted their surrender.
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The B-29 Enola Gay dropped a uranium bomb on Hiroshima, killing between 70,000 and 80,000 people.
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The US dropped a plutonium bomb on Nagasaki, and again, about 70,000 people were killed.
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The Japanese finally surrendered to General Douglas MacArthur, and the war ended.