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Germany invaded Poland setting off war in Europe. The Soviet Union also invaded Poland and the Baltic nations. (German Blitzkrieg)
A form of warfare used by German forces in World War II. In a blitzkrieg, troops in vehicles, such as tanks, made quick surprise strikes with support from airplanes. These tactics resulted in the swift German conquest of France in 1940 -
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Germany Invaded France and Captured Paris.
The Battle of France, also known as the Fall of France, was the German invasion of France and the Low Countries during the Second World War. In six weeks from 10 May 1940, German forces defeated Allied forces by mobile operations and conquered France, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, bringing land operations on the Western Front to an end until 6 June 1944. Italy entered the war on 10 June 1940 and attempted an invasion of France. -
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Germany bombed London, and the Battle of Britain began.
The Battle of Britain was a military campaign of the Second World War, when the Royal Air Force defended the United Kingdom against the German Air Force attacks. It is described as the first major campaign fought entirely by air forces. The British officially recognize its duration, which overlaps with the period of large-scale night attacks known as the Blitz. -
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The United States gave Britain war supplies and old naval warships in return for military bases in Bermuda and the Caribbean (Lend Lease).
The Lend-Lease Act was the means for the U.S. military giving aid to foreign nations during World War II. It authorized the transfer of arms or any other defenses which Congress appropriated money to any country whose defense deems vital to the defense of the United States. This allowed the transfer of supplies without compensation to Britain, China, the Soviet Union and other countries, the act permitted the United States to support its war interests without being overextended in battle. -
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Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa's original name was Operation Fritz. This was the code name for the German invasion of the Soviet Union. The failure of German troops to defeat Soviet forces in the campaign signaled a crucial turning point in the war. -
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Germany invaded the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union defeated Germany at Stalingrad, marking the turning point of the war in Eastern Europe.
The destruction of the Soviet Union by military force, the permanent elimination of the perceived Communist threat to Germany, and the seizure of prime land within Soviet borders for long-term German settlement had been core policy of the Nazi movement. Adolf Hitler had always regarded the German-Soviet nonaggression pact as a temporary tactical maneuver. Just weeks after the German conquest of France and the Low Countries, Hitler decided to attack the Soviet Union. -
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Japan bombed Pearl Harbor
The surprise aerial attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor by the Japanese that caused the entry of the United States into World War II. The strike climaxed a decade of worsening relations between the United States and Japan. Japan’s invasion of China, its subsequent alliance with the Axis powers, and its occupation of French Indochina prompted the United States to respond that same month by declaring an embargo on petroleum shipments and other vital war materials to Japan. -
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After Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, Germany declared war on the United States. The United States declared war on Japan and Germany.
Hitler was convinced that the United States would soon beat him to the punch and declare war on Germany. The U.S. Navy was already attacking German U-boats, and Hitler despised Roosevelt for his repeated verbal attacks against his Nazi ideology. He also believed that Japan was much stronger than it was, that once it had defeated the United States, it would turn and help Germany defeat Russia. -
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Bataan Death March
The Bataan Death March was the forcible transfer by the Imperial Japanese Army of 60,000–80,000 Filipino and American prisoners of war where the prisoners were loaded onto trains. The transfer began after the three-month Battle of Bataan in the Philippines during World War II. The total distance marched was reported as between 96.6 and 112.0 km. -
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The United States was victorious over Japan in the Battle of Midway. This victory was the turning point of the war in the Pacific.
Six months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States defeated Japan in one of the most decisive naval battles of World War II. The United States was able to preempt and counter Japan’s planned ambush of its few remaining aircraft carriers, inflicting permanent damage on the Japanese Navy. An important turning point in the Pacific campaign, the victory allowed the United States and its allies to move into an offensive position. -
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Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was the act of Jewish resistance that arose within the Warsaw Ghetto in German-occupied Poland during World War II, and which opposed Nazi Germany's final effort to transport the remaining Ghetto population to Treblinka. The uprising started when the Ghetto refused to surrender to a police commander who then ordered the burning of the Ghetto, block by block. A total of 13,000 Jews died, about half of them burnt alive or suffocated. -
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American and other Allied troops landed in Normandy, France, on D-Day to begin the liberation of Western Europe.
During World War II, the Battle of Normandy resulted in the Allied liberation of Western Europe from Nazi Germany’s control. Codenamed Operation Overlord also known as D-Day, when 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. -
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Liberation of concentration camps
Soviet soldiers were the first to liberate concentration camp prisoners in the final stages of the war.They entered the Majdanek camp in Poland, and later overran several other killing centers. They entered Auschwitz and there found hundreds of sick and exhausted prisoners. -
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Battle of the Bulge
The Battle of the Bulge was the last major German offensive campaign of World War II. It was launched through the densely forested Ardennes region of Wallonia in Belgium, France, and Luxembourg, on the Western Front, towards the end of World War II, in the European theater. The surprise attack caught the Allied forces completely off guard. -
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Battle of Iwo Jima
The Battle of Iwo Jima was a major battle in which the United States Marine Corps landed on and eventually captured the island of Iwo Jima from the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II. The American invasion had the goal of capturing the entire island, including the three Japanese-controlled airfields, to provide a staging area for attacks on the Japanese main islands. This five-week battle comprised some of the fiercest and bloodiest fighting of the War in the Pacific of World War II. -
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The United States dropped two atomic bombs on Japan (Hiroshima and Nagasaki) in 1945, forcing Japan to surrender and ending World War 2.
The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were nuclear attacks on the Empire of Japan during World War II. The United States and the Allies were fighting against Japan and slowly winning. Two nuclear weapons were dropped on Japan, one on the city of Hiroshima and the other on the city of Nagasaki.