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Britain, France, the US, and other allies defeat Germany, bringing an end to World War I. -
Adolf Hitler becomes chancellor of Germany and starts to influence the people of Germany. -
Germany invades Poland, inciting Poland’s allies Britain and France to declare war on Germany. -
Working in concert with Hitler, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin orders the invasion of Poland, securing a share of Polish territory. -
Warsaw surrenders to German troops. Poland holds out for another 9 days before capitulating. -
British cruisers defeat a German pocket battleship at the Battle of the River Plate, this was a major win for the british! -
Germany invades Norway, bringing an end to the "Phony War," a six-month period of limited land operations. -
Winston Churchill succeeds Neville Chamberlain as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Germany invades Belgium on the same day. -
The trapped British army evacuates to England from Dunkirk, France, surviving to fight another day. This happened because the prime minister of Britain decided to save them with boats. After all, the Germans retreated for a bit and this allowed the British soldiers to escape. -
The city of Paris is conquered by German soldiers. France surrenders 11 days later. -
The air attack on the Greek island of Crete, the first action in which substantial numbers of paratroopers were dropped, was one of the most daring actions in the German conquest of Europe. British and Greek forces defended Crete, with considerable success against the weakly equipped German soldiers who jumped out of the sky. -
In the Battle of Britain, German bombers face off against British fighters in an attempt to forestall a German invasion. -
Japan bombs Pearl Harbor, declaring war on the United States. Hitler declares war on America four days later, sensing weakness. -
Submarine warfare had limited impact during WWI, but it became significantly more important during WWII, as German U-boat packs attempted to blockade Europe. Merchant ships began to travel in convoys, shielded by destroyers and corvettes equipped with depth charges and sonar. Daring U-Boat commanders launched torpedo strikes within the defensive screen, and the defenders had little chance of retaliating when multiple submarines struck at once. -
The Siege of Leningrad, popularly nicknamed as "the 900-day siege" because it lasted nearly that long (in reality, it lasted 872 days), began when German and Finnish forces surrounded and gained control of Leningrad. -
This was a very big battle and this changed the way that the war was going. -
This was also known as operation overlord. It was the day that many countries came and fought each other. It was known as the allied invasion where many soldiers died! -
The Battle for Narva Bridgehead and the Battle of Tannenberg Line were the two phases of the battle. The USSR, and especially Stalin, sought to gain control of Estonia and exploit its strategic locations to attack Finland and Prussia by sea and air. The German soldiers held their own and thwarted the Soviet Union's efforts to establish a stronghold in Narva. Both sides lost a total of almost 500,000 soldiers. -
A complex system of bunkers, caverns, and tunnels was dug in by 20,000 Japanese defenders. A tremendous naval and air bombardment that lasted several days and covered the whole island before the raid. Despite being outmanned five to one and facing certain defeat, the Japanese held firm and almost no one surrendered. -
The Battle of Berlin may appear to people in the West like an afterthought, the final stages of a war that has already been decided. In truth, it was a vast and extremely bloody operation, with three-quarters of a million German forces fighting a desperate last-ditch resistance against the advancing Red Army under Hitler's command.
Russian tanks were superior, but armored vehicles were vulnerable to new portable anti-tank rockets, which destroyed 2,000 of them.