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Soviet Union, was outraged when Hitler signed a nonaggression pact with Stalin. However, in September 1940, Japan joined with Germany and Italy in the Tripartite Pact that created the Axis Powers. More about the image: This American cartoon satirizing the Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact was published the day before
Hitler invaded the Soviet Union—June 22, 1941. -
After the Germans conquered Poland, they began a systematic destruction of Polish intellectuals and the ruling classes, and by the end of World War Il had killed a total of three million Poles (in addition to an equal number of Polish Jews). More about the image: As head of the secret police, Heinrich Himmler was the chief architect of Nazi programs of terror and genocide. -
The British and French had given Poland guarantees of military support in the event of an attack by Germany. -
In the summer of 1940, as a result of an agreement with the pro-German Vichy government of France, Japan gained access to raw materials from French Indochina. -
Invading France on May 10, the Germans made an effective use of mechanized forces and air power to rapidly defeat the French; German troops entered Paris on June 14. -
In November 1937, people in Shanghai watch their city burn following Japanese bombardment. By late December, the city had fallen. -
For "Operation Barbarossa," their campaign against the Soviet Union, the Germans assembled the largest invasion force in history, totaling almost 150 divisions (or about three million men), 3,000 tanks, 7,000 artillery pieces, and 2,500 aircraft. In addition, more than 30 divisions of Finnish and Romanian troops supported this massive German force. -
American naval dive bombers fly in formation over the Midway atoll. -
After a rapid advance across North Africa toward British-held Egypt, a German offensive was halted at el-
Alamein during the summer of 1942. By mid-October, a British counteroffensive began to push the Germans -
The forward magazines of the USS Shaw, an American destroyer, explode during the Japanese raid on Pearl Harbor. -
The Japanese continued their occupation of China until the end of World War ll. -
Participating in "Operation Overlord," the Allied invasion of northern
France, U.S. troops leave landing craft and wade ashore at Omaha Beach on D-Day, June 6 1944. -
Intensive attacks using incendiaries were made against the Japanese positions on lwo Jima, but the defenders were so well dug into the island's caves that the bombing raids produced little effect. -
In mid-December 1944, a German counteroffensive halted the Allied drive toward the German frontier at the Rhine River, resulting in the so-called "Battle of the Bulge." By mid-January 1945, the Germans had been forced to withdraw, and the Allies continued their advance toward the Rhine, which they crossed in March. -
The combination of the threat of further U.S. attacks with atomic weapons, together with the Soviet Union's declaration of war against Japan on August 8, caused the Japanese to surrender.