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Japanese Invasion of Philippines
The Japanese, realizing they needed to conquer islands quickly or risk defeat quickly attack numerous places. The American army under General MacArthur and the Filipinos were able to hold the Philippines until this date which is when they were defeated. -
Battle of the Coral Sea
An American force beat the Japanese invaders trying to take Australia. This battle is one of the first battles conducted by carrier-based aircraft. -
Battle of Midway
Due to Americans being able to crack Japanese coded messages, they were able to destroy 4 carriers and 300 planes of the Japanese under Chester W. Nimitz which was the greatest Japanese defeat up to this time. -
Guadalcanal Campaign
American ground forces were able to gain some crontrol of Guadalcanal to protect the lifeline from America to Australia. Although it ultimately wasn't until February when the Japanese evacuated the island, Japanese losses were 20,000 compared to 1,700 Americans losses. -
El Alamein
There the British with American support were able to stop the Germans from progressing toward Egypt and repeal them to Tunisia. This was the end of German control of North Africa. -
Invasion of Italy
Considered the "soft underbelly of Europe," American and British forces attacked under General Eisenhower but did not take until early June in 1944. The fight opened up the Mediterranean and provided some air bases for attacking Germany. -
Casablanca Conference
At the conference Britain and America decided to invade Sicily and demand "unconditional surrender" from the Axis Powers. -
Tehran Conference
At the conference, Britain, America and the Soviets decided to liberate France and attack Germany's east side at the same time in the spring of 1944. -
Normandy Invasion
General Eisenhower led the allied forces which consisted of almost 3 million men as they attacked and graduallly took over the beachhead in France. This led to the liberation of Paris in August. -
Battle of the Leyte Gulf
The Japanese navy's last chance effort to defeat MacArthur. After a gigantic battle in both the sea and the air, the Americans were victorious having destroyed 60 ships and now soundly controlled the seas with close to 4000 ships. -
Battle of the Bulge
Hitler made one last offensive by throwing all he reserve troops at the Allied port of Antwerp, Belgum. Although he caught the allies off guard and managed to drive into their line, the allies quickly reinforced their postion and destroyed the German army. -
Yalta Conference
At the conference, the big 3 decided to divide Germany into occupation zones, allow free elections in many of the liberated countries, soviets would enter the war against Japan, and the United Nations would be formed. -
Iwo Jima
America needed this small island as a place for damaged American bombers to land and as a place so America could more easily bomb the Japanese homeland. 18,000 Japanese soldiers were killed compared to about 4,000 American soldiers in the 25 day battle. -
V-E Day
What was left of the German army surrendered after Hitler committed suicide. -
Okinawa
During this three month battle, 65,000 American men were killed taking the island although Japan lost 100,000 men. It was a very costly victory that showed the high number of causualties of an invasion of Japan. -
Potsdam Conference
At the conference, Japan was warned to surrender unconditionally or be destroyed. In additon, the leaders decided that they would hold war-crime trials for Nazi leaders. -
Atomic Bomb dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Since Japan refused to surrender, the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima (Little Boy) and then three days later the second one on Nagasaki (Fat Man). Together almost 260,000 people were killed, wounded, or missing. -
V-J Day
The allies accepted the Japanese surrender on this day even though the official surrender wasn't until September 2nd. This was the official end to World War II.
