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Nazi Germany Invaded Poland
Also known as the September Campaign, was the joint invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, and others that marked the beginning of WWII in Europe. -
Sitzkrieg
Also known as the Phoney War was an eight month period at the start of WW2 where there were no major military land operations on the Western Front. The result was the Battle of France. -
USS Kearny Attacked
It was a United States Navy warship during WW2. She was noted for being torpedoed by a German U-boat in October 1941, before the U.S. had entered the war. She survived that attack, and later served in North Africa and the Mediterranean. -
France Fell to Germany
German invasion of France and the Low Countries during the WW2. 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. -
Battle of Britain
Name given to the Second World War defence of the United Kingdom by the Royal Air Force against an onslaught by the German Air Force which began at the end of June 1940. -
Destroyers -For- Bases Deal
It was an agreement between the United States and the United Kingdom, fifty mothballed Caldwell, Wickes, and Clemson-class US Navy destroyers were transferred to the Royal Navy from the United States Navy in exchange for land rights on British possessions. -
America First Committee Launched
It was the foremost non-interventionist pressure group against the American entry into WW2. Peaking at 800,000 paid members in 450 chapters, it was one of the largest anti-war organizations in American history. It later dissolved three days after the pearl harbor attack. -
Congress Instituted the Draft
On this day in 1940, the Burke-Wadsworth Act is passed by Congress, by wide margins in both houses, and the first peacetime draft in the history of the United States is imposed. Selective Service was born. -
Four Freedoms
Goals articulated by president FDR where he proposed four fundamental freedoms that people everywhere should enjoy, they were freedom of speech, worship, from want and from fear. -
Lend-Lease
It was a program under which the US supplied France, the UK, China, USSR and other varied Allies with war supplies, this in turn gave them leases on war bases in Allied Territory during the war. -
Reuben James Sank
The USS Reuben James was a post WW1 clemson class destroyer, it was the first US navy ship sunk by hostile action in the European theater of WW2. -
Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor
That day Japanese planes surprise attacked the US Naval Base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii Territory, the bombing killed more than 2,300 Americans and led to the US entry in WW2. -
Battle of Bataan
The battle represented the most intense phase of Imperial Japan’s invasion of the Philippines in WW2, despite the hard fight of the Americans and Filipinos they eventually surrendered and many became POW’s in the Bataan Death March -
Manhattan Project Began
The project was to research and develop the first nuclear weapons during WW2. Two types of atomic bomb were made, a simple gun type of fission weapon and the other was a more complex plutonium implosion weapon. They were both used in the war. -
Bataan Death March
It was the transfer of American and Filipino POWs by the Japanese from Saisaih Pt. and Mariveles to Camp O’Donnell. Thousands of Filipinos and hundreds of Americans died before their destination, the 60 mi march was characterized by occasional severe physical abuse, later judged as a war crime. -
Battle of Coral Sea
It was a major naval battle in the Pacific Theater of WW2 between the Japanese Navy and naval and air forces from the US and Australia. The battle was the first of it’s kind for aircraft carriers to engage with each other, the result was an Allied strategic victory, and a Japanese tactical victory. -
Battle of Midway
It was a crucial victory in favor America against Japan in an attack on a fleet of Japanese Naval ships. -
Island Hopping Campaign Begins
It’s the crossing of an ocean by a series of shorter journeys between islands, as opposed to a single journey directly to the destination. In military strategy, it is the method of conquering islands in a steady sequence, usually with a defined endpoint. In WW2, it began from the Midway islands and culminated in the defeat of all Japanese islands. -
Battle of El Alamein
The First Battle was a major battle of the Western Desert Campaign of the WW2, fought on the northern coast of Egypt between Axis forces of the Panzer Army Africa and Allied forces of the Eighth Army, The British prevented a second advance by the Axis forces into Egypt. -
Battle of Stalingrad
It was a major battle on the Eastern Front of World War II in which Nazi Germany and its allies fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad in Southern Russia, on the eastern boundary of Europe. -
Casablanca Conference
It was a meeting between U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in the city of Casablanca, Morocco to plan for the Allied European Strategy for the next phase of WW2. -
Tehran Conference
It was a strategy meeting of Stalin, FDR, and Churchill, was the first of the World War II conferences of the "Big Three" Allied leaders (the Soviet Union, the United States, and the United Kingdom). -
D-Day
Codenamed Operation Overlord, the battle is also known as D-Day, some 156,000 American, British and Canadian forces landed on five beaches along a 50-mile stretch of the heavily fortified coast of France’s Normandy region. The invasion was one of the largest amphibious military assaults in history and required extensive planning. -
MacArthur Returned to the Philippines
After advancing island by island across the Pacific Ocean, U.S. General Douglas MacArthur wades ashore onto the Philippine island of Leyte, fulfilling his promise to return to the area he was forced to flee in 1942. -
Battle of the Bulge
It was a major German offensive campaign launched through the densely forested Ardennes region of Wallonia in Belgium, France, and Luxembourg on the Western Front toward the end of World War II in Europe. The result was an allied victory, and an operational failure of the germans. -
FDR Elected to a 4th Term
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the only president to be elected to three terms in office, is inaugurated to his fourth term. -
Yalta Conference
It was a meeting of British prime minister Winston Churchill, Soviet premier Joseph Stalin, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt early in February 1945 as World War II was winding down.It was intended mainly to discuss the re-establishment of the nations of war-torn Europe. -
Battle of Iwo Jima
It was a major battle in which the U.S. Marines landed on and eventually captured the island of Iwo Jima from the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II. -
Battle of Okinawa
Codenamed Operation Iceberg, was a series of battles fought in the Ryukyu Islands, centered on the island of Okinawa, and included the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific. -
FDR Died / Harry Truman Became President
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt passes away after four momentous terms in office, leaving Vice President Harry S. Truman in charge of a country still fighting the Second World War and in possession of a weapon of unprecedented and terrifying power. -
VE Day
Victory in Europe Day was the public holiday celebrated to mark the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Nazi Germany's unconditional surrender of its armed forces. -
Potsdam conference
The Big Three—Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill (replaced on July 26 by Prime Minister Clement Attlee), and U.S. President Harry Truman—met in Potsdam, Germany, from to negotiate terms for the end of World War II. -
Little Boy Dropped on Hiroshima
Little Boy was the first atomic bomb dropped in Hiroshima, Japan in WW2, it was the first of its kinds to be used in warfare, Little Boy was used as a threatening measure to get Japan to surrender, when they did not a second was dropped soon after. -
Fat Man Dropped on Nagasaki
“Fat Man” was the codename of the second nuclear bomb dropped in Japan, specifically Nagasaki. The dropping of the bomb, made Japan surrender and ultimately end the war. -
VJ Day
News of the surrender of Japan was announced following the dropping of the bombs, this sparked celebrations all over, but september 2 was when the formal surrender ceremony was held. -
Nuremberg Trials
A series of Military tribunals held by the Allies after WWII, they were most notable for the prosecution of prominent figureheads who had a part in the leadership of Nazi Germany and their crimes. -
Japanese War Crime Trials
THe trials convened in april to try the leaders of the Empire of Japan for three war crimes; Class A was for those involved in a joint war promoting conspiracy, Class B were for those who committed conventional atrocities against humanity, and Class C was for those who were involved in the planning, ordering, authorization or failure to prevent such trangressions.
