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This broke the nonaggression pact Germany had signed with Poland. Germans fought through East Prussia and Germany in the north and Silesia and Slovakia in the south, advancing towards Warsaw.
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Britain and France declare war on Germany, after Hitler's actions demand it. They are the first countries to respond, and line themselves up to later become major players within the Allies.
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Hitler launches his blitzkrieg (lightning war) against Holland and Belgium. Rotterdam is almost completely destroyed. Nazis occupy both countries afterwards.
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The French representative Marshall Petain sign an armistice with Germany. They allow for the occupation of France by the Germans, to stop any more devestation to the country from happening.
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This battle spans from July to October. Hitler sends his Luftwaffe to bomb Britain. He continues to aim for London and eventually begins a series of night bombings. The Royal Air Force keeps up it's own defense, and by October the raids are over.
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The Japanese Navy bombs Pearl Harbor, sinking four U.S. battleships, and killing 2,402 Americans. This led to U.S. involvement in the war.
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The U.S. and Britain declare war on Japan immediately following the Pearl Harbor bombings. The "sleeping giant" is awakened.
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Between 4 and 7 June 1942, only six months after Japan's bombing of Pearl Harbor, the United States Navy decisively defeats the Imperial Japanese Navy assault on Midway Atoll, causing irreconcilable destruction to the Japanese fleet.
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The Russians win their first victory against the Germans in a battle at Stalingrad. The fighting is building to building and almost man to man. The Soviets outlasted the Germans, holding on to the Volga River.
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Mussolini is removed from office and the new government of Italy surrenders to the British and the U.S. Italy agrees to join the Allies. The Germans free Mussolini from imprisonment and set him up as a puppet leader in Northern Italy. This stopped Allied progress in Italy.
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U.S., French, British, and Canadian forces launch an amphibious assault on the beaches of Normandy. They have the element of surprise, and battle against the Germans, successfully establishing 5 beachheads along the coast.
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Allied troops liberate the French capitol of Paris from the Nazi forces that occupy it. This signifies victory over the Germans in France.
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Germany begins it's final defensive move throughout Belgium, but the effort is ultimately put down by the Allies. The bloodiest battle fought by the U.S., at least 19,000 men are killed.
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Franklin Delano Roosevelt dies in office. He is succeeded by President Truman.
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Italians capture Mussolini and execute him, beating, spitting upon, and stoning his dead body. The Itlaians take revenge, and threaten any fascists to cease in their fight.
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The Nazi leader, Adolf Hitler, kills himself within his bombproof shelter, together with Eva Braun, his mistress. He made her his wife.
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The German forces in Italy surrender to the Allies, embodying the most prominent end goal achieved by the U.S. and the Allied forces.
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Victory in Europe Day; the public holiday that the WWII Allies celebrate to mark the date when they formally accept the unconditional surrender of the armed forces of Nazi Germany and the end of the war in Europe.
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The U.S. Air Force drops the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, decimating about 69% of the city's buildings and killing about 80,000 people.
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Also called VJ Day, this surrender brings the hostilities of the war to an end. Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu signs the Japanese Instrument of Surrender, and the Allies occupied Japan.
