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Japan, which joined Germany in the Anti-Comintern Pact of 1936, which was directed against the Soviet Union, was outraged when Hitler signed a nonaggression pact with Stalin. However, in September 1940, Japan joined with Germany and Italy in the Tripartite Pact that created the Axis Powers. -
After the Germans conquered Poland, they began a systematic destruction of Polish intellectuals and the ruling classes, and by the end of World War II had killed a total of three million Poles (in addition to an equal number of Polish Jews). -
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The British and French had given Poland guarantees of military support in the event of an attack by Germany -
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Invading France on May 10, the Germans made an effective use of mechanized forces and air power to rapidly defeat the French; German troops entered Paris on June 14. -
For “Operation Barbarossa,” their campaign against the Soviet Union, the Germans assembled the largest invasion force in history, totaling almost 150 divisions (or about three million men), 3,000 tanks, 7,000 artillery pieces, and 2,500 aircraft. In addition, more than 30 divisions of Finnish and Romanian troops supported this massive German force. -
By order of Tojo the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor -
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American naval dive bombers fly in formation over the Midway atoll. -
The Japanese continued their occupation of China until the end of World War II. -
The atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima killed 70,000 people immediately; by the end of 1945 an additional 30,000 had died. -
More about the image: Participating in “Operation Overlord,” the Allied invasion of northern France, U.S. troops leave landing craft and wade ashore at Omaha Beach on D-Day, June 6 1944. -
Intensive attacks using incendiaries were made against the Japanese positions on Iwo Jima, but the defenders were so well dug into the island’s caves that the bombing raids produced little effect.
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Austrian SS chief Ernst Kaltenbrunner oversaw the Nazi concentration camps throughout Europe. Captured by a U.S. patrol shortly after the German surrender, he was indicted on August 29, 1945 by the international military tribunal at Nuremberg on charges of war crimes. Here Katlenbrunner is shown addressing the court during his trial. He was found guilty of crimes against humanity and executed on October 16, 1946. -
The combination of the threat of further U.S. attacks with atomic weapons, together with the Soviet Union’s declaration of war against Japan on August 8, caused the Japanese to surrender.