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German troops invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, triggering World War II. -
Britain and France declared war on Germany on 3 September 1939, two days after the German invasion of Poland. The guarantees given to Poland by Britain and France marked the end of the policy of appeasement. -
On 10 May 1940, Germany invaded the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France. Luxembourg was occupied that same day. The Netherlands surrendered on 15 May, Belgium on the 28th. At first, Great Britain supported the Netherlands, Belgium, and France, but it withdrew later. -
The evacuation boosted morale
If the BEF had been captured, it would have meant the loss of Britain's only trained troops and the collapse of the Allied cause. The successful evacuation was a great boost to civilian morale, and created the 'Dunkirk spirit' which helped Britain to fight on in the summer of 1940. -
It was one of Britain's most important victories of the Second World War because it showed Germany could be defeated, it allowed Britain to carry on fighting the war, and ultimately ensured the Allies had a base from which to launch the liberation of Europe on D-Day in June 1944. -
On September 16, 1940, the United States instituted the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940, which required all men between the ages of 21 and 45 to register for the draft. This was the first peacetime draft in United States' history. -
Following two months of debate, Congress passed the Lend-Lease Act, meeting Great Britain's deep need for supplies and allowing the United States to prepare for war while remaining officially neutral. -
On December 7, 1941, Japan staged a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, decimating the US Pacific Fleet. When Germany and Italy declared war on the United States days later, America found itself in a global war. Top Image: Propaganda poster developed by the Office of War Information following the attack on Pearl Harbor. -
With its vast human and material resources, the United States had the potential to supply both itself and its allies. But first the American economy had to be converted to war production. The war production effort brought immense changes to American life. -
On December 11, 1941, Italy declared war on the United States in response to the latter's declaration of war upon the Empire of Japan following the attack on Pearl Harbor four days earlier. Germany also declared war on the U.S. the same day. -
the Battle of Coral Sea has often been overshadowed by the events a month later at Midway. Yet it stands on its own as a very important contest. It was the world's first carrier-vs. -carrier battle, and the first naval battle in which neither side's ships sighted the others -
This critical US victory stopped the growth of Japan in the Pacific and put the United States in a position to begin shrinking the Japanese empire through a years-long series of island-hopping invasions and several even larger naval battles -
n World War II, series of battles for control of North Africa. At stake was control of the Suez Canal, a vital lifeline for Britain's colonial empire, and of the valuable oil reserves of the Middle East -
The conquest of Sicily took a little more than a month and it led directly to the fall of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and the surrender of the Italian government to the Allies. -
At Yalta, the Big Three agreed that after Germany's unconditional surrender, it would be divided into four post-war occupation zones, controlled by U.S., British, French and Soviet military forces. -
In every camp, Allied soldiers encountered appalling scenes. Bergen-Belsen was liberated by British forces on 15 April 1945. It had become exceptionally overcrowded after the arrival of survivors of the death marches. Thousands of unburied bodies lay strewn around the camp, while in the barracks some 60,000 starving and mortally ill people were packed together without food or water. The mortality rate amongst those suffering from typhus was over 60 per cent -
On 6 June 1944, D-Day, Allied troops landed on the coast of Normandy. It was the start of the campaign to liberate Europe and defeat Germany. -
On Victory in Europe Day, or V-E Day, Germany unconditionally surrendered its military forces to the Allies, including the United States. On May 8, 1945 - known as Victory in Europe Day or V-E Day - celebrations erupted around the world to mark the end of World War II in Europe. -
The United States bombings of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and August 9, 1945, were the first instances of atomic bombs used against humans, killing tens of thousands of people, obliterating the cities, and contributing to the end of World War II -
Fat Man detonated at an altitude of 1,650 feet over Nagasaki with a yield of 21 kilotons, about 40 percent more powerful than Little Boy had been. It did so almost directly above the Mitsubishi factories that were the city’s primary targets, rather than over the residential and business districts further south. Tens of thousands of civilians, especially children, had already been evacuated from the city. The series of hills bracing Nagasaki also somewhat confined the initial blast and restrict -
V-J Day, or Victory over Japan Day, marks the end of World War II, one of the deadliest and most destructive wars in history. When President Harry S. Truman announced on Aug. 14, 1945, that Japan had surrendered unconditionally, war-weary citizens around the world erupted in celebration. -
The Battle of the Bulge marked the last German offense on the Western Front. The catastrophic losses on the German side prevented Germany from resisting the advance of Allied forces following the Normandy Invasion. Less than four months after the end of the Battle of the Bulge, Germany surrendered to Allied forces