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Rise of Fascism and Nazism
Fascism is a political system in which the state has all the power, similar to nazism. Nazism is the ideology and practice of the German Nazi Party and state. Both became a strong movement during the first part of the 20th century for many reasons. After World War I many people were disappointed and angry because the war destroyed a lot of their country or because some of their land was taken away from them. -
Neutrality Act
Congress passed the first Neutrality Act prohibiting the export of “arms, ammunition, and implements of war” from the United States to foreign nations at war and requiring arms manufacturers in the United States to apply for an export license. American citizens traveling in war zones were also advised that they did so at their own risk. President Franklin D. Roosevelt originally opposed the legislation, but relented in the face of strong Congressional and public opinion. -
Germany’s expansion and annexation of Austria
During this time Germany had put much pressure on Austria to perform Anschluss as well as many inside supporters for the “Heim ins Reich” movement both Nazi’s and non-Nazi’s. Before Anchluss had occurred, Nazi Germany had provided support for the Austrian National socialist Party also known as the Austrian Nazi Party, on its way to seize power from the Austrofascist leadership -
Signing of the Non-Aggression Pact (Germany and U.S.S.R.)
The German-Soviet Pact, also known as the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact after the two foreign ministers who negotiated the agreement, had two parts. An economic agreement, signed on August 19, 1939, provided that Germany would exchange manufactured goods for Soviet raw materials. Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union also signed a ten-year nonaggression pact on August 23, 1939, in which each signatory promised not to attack the other. -
Blitzkrieg attack on Poland
Germany quickly overran much of Europe and was victorious for more than two years by relying on a new military tactic called the "Blitzkrieg" (lightning war). Blitzkrieg tactics required the concentration of offensive weapons (such as tanks, planes, and artillery) along a narrow front. Germany successfully used the Blitzkrieg tactic against Poland , Denmark, Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, France, Yugoslavia, and Greece. Germany did not defeat Great Britain in that attempt. -
Battle of Britain
The battle of Britain is the name given to the Second World War air campaign waged by the German Air Force (Luftwaffe) against the United Kingdom during the summer and autumn of 1940. The Battle of Britain was the first major campaign to be fought entirely by air forces, and was also the largest and most sustained aerial bombing campaign to that date. -
Lend-Lease Act
The Lend-Lease Act was the principal means for providing U.S. military aid to foreign nations during World War II. It authorized the president to transfer arms or any other defense materials for which Congress appropriated money to “the government of any country whose defense the President deems vital to the defense of the United States.” -
Bombing of Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941 (December 8 in Japan). The attack led to the United States' entry into World War II. -
Battle of Midway
Six months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States defeated Japan in one of the most decisive naval battles of World War II. Thanks in part to major advances in code breaking, the United States was able to preempt and counter Japan’s planned ambush of its few remaining aircraft carriers, inflicting permanent damage on the Japanese Navy. An important turning point in the Pacific campaign, the victory allowed the United States and its allies to move into an offensive position. -
Battle of Stalingrad
Nazi Germany and its allies fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad (now Volgograd) in the south-western Soviet Union. Marked by constant close quarters combat and direct assaults on civilians by air raids, it is often regarded as the single largest and bloodiest battle in the history of warfare. -
Invasion of Africa by Eisenhower
On November 8, 1942, the military forces of the United States and the United Kingdom launched an amphibious operation against French North Africa, in particular the French-held territories of Algeria and Morocco. That landing, code-named 'Torch,' reflected the results of long and contentious arguments between British and American planners about the future course of Allied strategy — arguments that were finally stilled by the intervention of the American president, Franklin D. Roosevelt. -
Transition of the US home front to War production
The transition to peacetime was under way on the home front by 1944, though World War II (1939–45) was still raging abroad. In 1943 full industrial and agricultural war production had been achieved; that is, the capability to meet the ongoing Allied needs for war materials and food had been reached. While war production did not slow down or cease, special emphasis on war mobilization was no longer needed. -
D-Day
On June 6, 1944 the Allied Forces of Britain, America, Canada, and France attacked German forces on the coast of Normandy, France. With a huge force of over 150,000 soldiers, the Allies attacked and gained a victory that became the turning point for World War II in Europe. This famous battle is sometimes called D-Day or the Invasion of Normandy. -
Liberation of Majdanek (concentration camp)
On 22 July 1944 Soviet forces liberated the Majdanek Concentration Camp in Eastern Poland. The camp was the first to be liberated from Nazi control, and Soviet officials invited journalists to see the horrors of Nazi oppression. In less than three years of operation, between 95,000 and 130,000 prisoners had been murdered at the site. -
The Battle of the Bulge
The Battle of the Bulge (16 December 1944 – 25 January 1945) was a major German offensive campaign launched through the densely forested Ardennes region of Wallonia in Belgium, France, and Luxembourg on the Western Front toward the end of World War II in Europe. Eric von Manstein planned the offensive with the primary goal to recapture the important harbor of Antwerp. The surprise attack caught the Allied forces completely off guard. -
Battle of Iwo Jima
The Battle of Iwo Jima (19 February – 26 March 1945) was a major battle in which the United States Armed Forces landed and eventually captured the island of Iwo Jima from the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II. The American invasion, designated Operation Detachment, had the goal of capturing the entire island, including the three Japanese-controlled airfields (including the South Field and the Central Field), to provide a staging area for attacks on the Japanese main islands. -
Battle of Okinawa
The capture of Okinawa was part of a three-point plan the Americans had for winning the war in the Far East. Okinawa was to prove a bloody battle even by the standards of the war in the Far East but it was to be one of the major battles of WWII. Four divisions of the U.S. 10th Army (the 7th, 27th, 77th, and 96th) and two Marine Divisions (the 1st and 6th) fought on the island. Their invasion was supported by naval, amphibious, and tactical air forces. -
V-E Day
Victory in Europe Day, was the public holiday celebrated on 8 May 1945 to mark the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Nazi Germany's unconditional surrender of its armed forces. It thus marked the end of World War II in Europe. -
Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
American B-29 bomber dropped the world’s first deployed atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The explosion wiped out 90 percent of the city and immediately killed 80,000 people; tens of thousands more would later die of radiation exposure. Three days later, a second B-29 dropped another A-bomb on Nagasaki, killing an estimated 40,000 people. Japan’s Emperor Hirohito announced his country’s unconditional surrender in World War II in a radio address on August 15. -
V-J Day
Victory over Japan Day, the day on which Japan surrendered, in effect ending World War II, and subsequent anniversaries of that event. After news of the Japanese acceptance and before Truman's announcement, Americans began celebrating "as if joy had been rationed and saved up for the three years, eight months and seven days since Sunday, Dec. 7, 1941", as Life magazine later reported.
