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Germany takes France
On the tenth of May, 1940, Nazi germany invaded France throught the ardennes. This came as an enormous surprise as the area was considered invasion proof. The british troops were evacuated through the city of Dunkirk. What became known as the miracle at Dunkirk. On June 22nd an armistice was signed and Hitler had taken France. -
The Battle of Britain
Operation sealion as it was called by germany was an attempt to demoralize the British into surrendering and/or severely damage Britains wartime economy. Many civilian lives were saved due to the use of radar to forwarn residents of attacking bombers. -
Attack on Pearl Harbor
The Japanese attack the U.S. naval base Pearl Harbor in a two wave bombing run The attack was meant to cripple the American navy in order to prevent them from intervening in Japans pacific campaign. U.S. aircraft carriers were spared but all eight battleships along with several other U.S. ships were damaged or sunk. 188 U.S. aircraft were also destroyed. 2402 americans were killed; 1282 wounded. This attack directly led to the U.S. declaring war on Japan the next day. -
The battle of Midway
The Japanese planned to push U.S. forced back to California by taking midway. American codebreakers discovered the plan in time for the U.S. to set up an ambush at midway and deal major damage to the Japanese navy. At Midway the actual shios never saw direct combat but the planes attacked both ship and enemy planes. At the end of the battle Japan lost four aircraft carriers and one heavy cruiser and the U.S. had lost one aircraft carrier and one destroyer. Lasted 3 days. -
The Battle of Stalingrad
After failing to capture three individual russian cities Hitler ordered the entire force that invaded Russia to attack Stalingrad. The attack lasted until Feburary second, 1943. The forces attacking Stalingrad were cut off from the rest of the army by Russian forces and were ill-prepared for the Russian winter. The bittercold along with starvation caused them to eventually surrender. The Russians killed almost all of them. Sending the rest back and prompting a massive russian invasion of Germany -
D-day
A massive invasion of Normandy France is planned by collective allied forces under Dwight D. Eisenhower. The invasion took place on five beaches after the defenses had been weakend by bombing runs. paratroopers also landed behind enemy lines. One of the five beaches (Omaha) was still heavily defended and provided lots of resistence. All of the beaches were eventually taken and the stage was set for the allied invasion of Europe, operation overlord. -
Battle of the Bulge
This was Hitlers attempt to destroy the attacking allied forces in order to force a peace treaty. The plan was to create a buldge in the allied line andcut it in half. The weather was severely overcast which grounded the allies vastly superior air force. fierce resistence in several towns that commanded key roads to the offensives sucess slowed them down and eventually Patton arrived with reinforcements, the weather improved, and the offensive failed, demoralizing the remainder of Hitlers army -
Auschwitz is liberated
Auschwitz is a nazi death camp which operated from may of 1940 to janurary 1945. During which time the systematic murder of 2.5-4 million people took place as a part of Hitlers "final solution" to the "jewish question". This is the largest and most well-known of all the death camps. during it's opreation countless atrocities of the most abhorrent nature took place such as the use of people as live test subjects for experiments that often killed them in horribly painful ways. -
Hitler commits suicide
The soviets are tearing apart berlin in search of hitler. Hitler is giving orders that no one will follow beliving that he can lead Germany to "ultimate victory". He's heavily medicated for various health conditions. He, and ava bron commit suicide via cyanide capsules and according to previous instruction Hitler's doctors take his body putside the bunker, pour gasoline on it and light it on fire. -
The U.S. drops the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
On August 6th the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima; On August 9th, on Nagasaki. The decision to use the atomic bomb was made my Harry Truman. He decided that it was the best option for the sake of preserving American lives because an invasion of Japan was estimated to cost 1 million American lives.
