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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.
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British cruisers defeat a German pocket battleship at the Battle of the River Plate, the first major naval engagement of World War II. -
Germany invades Norway, ending a 6-month period of limited land operations called the “Phony War.” -
Winston Churchill replaces Neville Chamberlain as British Prime Minister. The same day, Germany invades Belgium. -
The trapped British army evacuates to England from Dunkirk, France, surviving to fight another day. -
Paris falls to German forces. France capitulates 11 days later. -
The Battle of Britain pits German bombers against British fighters in a thwarted German prelude to invasion. -
Japan attacks Pearl Harbor, starting war with the US. Sensing weakness, Hitler declares war on America 4 days later. -
pulling out of China would result in a loss of face and decided instead to take military action against US
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After a rapid advance across North Africa toward British - held Egypt , a German offensive was halted at el- Alamein during the summer of 1942.
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American naval dive bombers fly in formation over the midway atoll -
The Japanese continued their occupation of China until the end of WW2. -
Almost immediately after France fell to the Nazis in 1940, the Allies planned a cross-Channel assault on the German occupying forces, ultimately code-named Operation Overlord. -
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After heavy fighting, Soviet forces neared Adolf Hitler's command bunker in central Berlin. On April 30, 1945, Hitler committed suicide. Within days, Berlin fell to the Soviets. German armed forces surrendered unconditionally in the west on May 7 and in the east on May 9, 1945. -
the United States becomes the first and only nation to use atomic weaponry during wartime when it drops an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Approximately 80,000 people are killed as a direct result of the blast, and another 35,000 are injured. -
The surrender of Imperial Japan was announced by Japanese Emperor Hirohito on August 15 and formally signed on September 2, 1945, bringing the hostilities .