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Their effort was weakened by a narrow 90-mile window leading to the German front, enclosed by the borders of Luxembourg and Belgium -
The German Army (Heer) reached the Channel after five days, encircling the Allied armies. The Germans gradually reduced the pocket of Allied forces, forcing them back to the sea. The Belgian Army surrendered on 28 May 1940, ending the battle. -
The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, ended the debate over American intervention in both the Pacific and European theaters of World War II. The day after the attack, Congress declared war on Imperial Japan with only a single dissenting vote. -
The battle ended the proposed Japanese sea-borne invasion of Port Moresby. -
Hitler had attacked Poland because he wanted Germans to live there. He considered the Polish people inferior and only fit as a work force. In the last three months of 1939, the Nazis murdered 65,000 Jewish and non-Jewish Poles. -
Operation Dynamo, the evacuation from Dunkirk, involved the rescue of more than 338,000 British and French soldiers from the French port of Dunkirk between 26 May and 4 June 1940. The evacuation, sometimes referred to as the Miracle of Dunkirk, was a big boost for British morale. -
the U.S. Navy intercepted a Japanese invasion fleet heading for Midway Island, achieving an overwhelming victory and resulting in the turning point of the war in the Pacific -
The Germans began by attacking coastal targets and British shipping operating in the English Channel. They launched their main offensive on 13 August. Attacks moved inland, concentrating on airfields and communications centres. -
under the act, approximately 24 million men registered for the draft. Of the total U.S. troops sent to Europe, 2.8 million men had been drafted, and 2 million men had volunteered. -
The declaration followed the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor four days earlier, and was made the same day as Germany's declaration of war against the United States -
set up a system that would allow the United States to lend or lease war supplies to any nation deemed "vital to the defense of the United States." -
Was an awaking -
The assault killed or wounded more than 3,500 American troops and civilians; severely damaged the fleet; and shocked the nation. -
brought together the land, air, and sea forces of the allied armies in what became known as the largest amphibious invasion in military history. The operation, given the codename OVERLORD, delivered five naval assault divisions to the beaches of Normandy, France. -
The Allied victory in North Africa destroyed or neutralized nearly 900,000 German and Italian troops, opened a second front against the Axis, permitted the invasion of Sicily and the Italian mainland in the summer of 1943, and removed the Axis threat to the oilfields of the Middle East and to British -
led directly to the fall of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and the surrender of the Italian government to the Allies -
marks the end of World War II, one of the deadliest and most destructive wars in history. When President Harry S. Truman announced on Aug. 14, 1945, that Japan had surrendered unconditionally, war-weary citizens around the world erupted in celebration. -
Roosevelt and Churchill discussed with Stalin the conditions under which the Soviet Union would enter the war against Japan and all three agreed that, in exchange for potentially crucial Soviet participation in the Pacific theater, the Soviets would be granted a sphere of influence in Manchuria following -
On Victory in Europe Day, or V-E Day, Germany unconditionally surrendered its military forces to the Allies, including the United States. On May 8, 1945 - known as Victory in Europe Day or V-E Day - celebrations erupted around the world to mark the end of World War II in Europe. -
The US wanted to force a quick surrender by the Japanese to reduce the number of American lives lost. In addition, it was secretly decided at the Yalta Summit in February 1945 that the Soviet Union would enter the war against Japan -
It is possible that U.S. President Harry Truman ordered the atomic bomb to be dropped on Nagasaki not only to further force Japan to surrender but also to keep the Soviets out of Japan by displaying American military power. -
German forces launched a surprise attack on Allied forces in the forested Ardennes region in Belgium, Luxembourg, and France