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it directly triggered World War II, causing Great Britain and France to declare war on Germany on September 3 -
they directly triggered the formal beginning of World War II in Europe, ending the policy of appeasement -
Blitzkrieg 1940: From the Invasion of Holland to the Fall of ...The 1940 German invasion of Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and France (Case Yellow) was a pivotal World War II event that enabled a rapid Nazi victory, bypassing the Maginot Line and forcing the surrender of France in six weeks -
rescuing over 338,000 Allied troops—the core of the British Army—who would have otherwise been captured or killed
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it was the first major Allied victory, stopping Hitler’s planned invasion of the UK by denying the Luftwaffe control of the skies
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the first peacetime draft in U.S. history, allowing the nation to rapidly mobilize 10 million soldiers by 1945 -
allowing the U.S. to supply vital war materiel to Allied nations (primarily Britain, the Soviet Union, and China) while officially remaining neutral -
it destroyed American isolationism, immediately thrusting the United States into the war as a unified combatant against the Axis Powers -
provided the Allied powers with essential industrial capacity, massive manpower, and financial resources, effectively shifting the balance of power -
The December 11, 1941, declarations of war by Germany and Italy on the U.S. were a critical turning point in World War II, transforming a regional Pacific conflict into a truly global war -
marking the first time Japanese expansion was checked by the Allies and the first major engagement fought entirely by aircraft carriers, with ships never directly firing on each other
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the U.S. Navy inflicted irreparable damage on the Japanese fleet, halting their Pacific expansion
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it marked the first major joint Allied offensive of World War II, opening a second front that relieved pressure on the Soviet Union and enabled the liberation of North Africa
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knocking Italy out of the war, diverting German forces from the Eastern Front, securing Mediterranean shipping routes, and providing essential combat experience for the eventual D-Day invasion
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it opened a massive second front in Western Europe, forcing Germany to fight a two-front war against both the Allied forces and the Soviet Union -
On the night of July 22-23, 1944, soldiers of the Red Army came upon Majdanek, the first of the Nazi camps to be liberated -
Nazi Germany’s final, failed attempt to reverse the Allied advance on the Western Front, severely depleting their remaining armored forces and manpower
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it finalized plans for the unconditional surrender and four-way occupation of Germany, secured Soviet participation in the Pacific war against Japan, and established the framework for the United Nations, while setting up the post-war division of Europe
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V-E (Victory in Europe) Day, celebrated on May 8, 1945, was highly significant because it marked the formal, unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany, effectively ending nearly six years of brutal war in Europe -
it introduced nuclear warfare, caused unprecedented destruction—instantly killing roughly 80,000 people—and acted as a primary catalyst for Japan's unconditional surrender -
it demonstrated that the U.S. had a deployable nuclear arsenal, forcing Japan's immediate, unconditional surrender and ending World War II. This second, more powerful "Fat Man" bomb destroyed a major industrial city and, alongside the Soviet declaration of war, broke the Japanese government's deadlock on ending the conflict -
it marked the final surrender of Japan, ending the deadliest conflict in human history