American world war ii senior military officials, 1945

World War II

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    Battle of The Atlantic

    the struggle between the Allied and German forces for control of the Atlantic Ocean. To do this, German submarines, called U-boats, and other warships prowled the Atlantic Ocean sinking Allied transport ships.
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    Fall of France

    Hitler advanced his troops on Dunkirk, 200,000 British and 140,000 French troops were evacuated to England. The Germans swung southwards and French resistance finally collapsed but not without heavy fighting.
  • Attack on the Soviet Union

    Attack on the Soviet Union
    Operation Barbarossa, original name Operation Fritz, during World War II, code name for the German invasion of the Soviet Union,
  • Doolittle's Raid on Japan

    Doolittle's Raid on Japan
    Doolittle Raid on Japan early in World War II bolstered American spirits just months after the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor and the loss of the U.S. territories of Guam and the Philippines.
  • Air War Over Japan

    Air War Over Japan
    Allied forces conducted many air raids on Japan during World War II, causing extensive destruction to the country's cities and killing between 241,000 and 900,000 people.
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    Battle of Midway

    Japan hoped to defeat the US Pacific Fleet and use Midway as a base to attack Pearl Harbor, securing dominance in the region and then forcing a negotiated peace.
  • Battle of Guadalcanal

    Battle of Guadalcanal
    some 6,000 men of the U.S. 1st Marine Division, commanded by Maj. Gen. Alexander Vandegrift, launched an amphibious assault on Guadalcanal and Florida Island, surprising Guadalcanal's 2,000 Japanese defenders.
  • Invasion of Sicily and Italy

    Invasion of Sicily and Italy
    combined air and sea landings involving 150,000 troops, 3,000 ships and 4,000 aircraft, all directed at the southern shores of the island.
  • Battle of Normandy

    Battle of Normandy
    After a prolonged naval and aerial bombardment of German defenses on the Channel coast of France and the Low Countries, the Allied invasion of Normandy began in the early morning hours.
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    Battle of Okiwana

    when a contingent of U.S. ground troops landed at Hagushi, on the west coast of central Okinawa. Before nightfall, some 50,000 men of the U.S. 10th Army, under the command of Buckner, had gone ashore and established a beachhead about 5 miles (8 km) long.
  • Surrender of Germany

    Surrender of Germany
    After heavy fighting, Soviet forces neared Adolf Hitler's command bunker in central Berlin. On April 30, 1945, Hitler committed suicide. Within days, Berlin fell to the Soviets. German armed forces surrendered unconditionally https://www.ushmm.org/learn/timeline-of-events/1942-1945/german-forces-surrender-to-the-allies#:~:text=May%207%2C%201945&text=After%20heavy%20fighting%2C%20Soviet%20forces,east%20on%20May%209%2C%201945.
  • Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

    Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
    During World War II an American B-29 bomber dropped the world's first atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. That Killed an estimated 80,000 people even ten thousand more would later die due to the radiation exposure. https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/bombing-of-hiroshima-and-nagasaki
  • Surrender Of Japan

    Surrender Of Japan
    Japan surrender because the Soviet Union entered the war. Japanese leaders said the bomb forced them to surrender.
    https://www.carnegiecouncil.org/education/008/expertclips/010
  • Escape from Dunkirk

    Escape from Dunkirk
    On June 4,1940, 340,000 Allied troops were evacuated from the French seaport Dunkirk to England.