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The Blitzkrieg was a war strategy used by the Germans to defeat their opponents in short succession. They did this to prevent a long war taking place. The Blitzkrieg was successful in the beginning which led Germany to become more confident in their attacks. This dragged them into a long war which eventually led to their downfall at the end of the war. -
On June 14, 1940, Paris had fallen to Germany one month after they had invaded France. France was at major disadvantage in numerous aspects of the war including, intelligence and poor tactics and strategies. This gave Germany the upper hand in the beginning of the war and also gave them the confidence to carry out future attacks. -
On June 22, 1941, Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa which was a military campaign against the Soviets. He did this because he thought of the Soviets as one of his greatest enemies and he wanted to work towards his goals for Germany. Germany’s failure to defeat the Soviets has hindered their ability to fight in the war. -
Pearl Harbor is a U.S. military base located near Honolulu which went under a surprise attack by the Japanese military on December 7, 1941. After months of tense relations over conflict in the Pacific, Japan had launched an attack on the U.S.. This attack had inspired the U.S. to enter the war which would help the Allies defeat Germany. -
On January 20, 1942, the Wannsee Conference was held in which Nazi officials met to discuss current events. They had met to devise a “final solution” to the supposed “Jewish question”. This led to the creation of concentration camps which had killed a lot of the Jewish population. -
On July 17, 1942, German forces attacked the Russian city of Stalingrad. The German army had attacked because they wanted to gain the upper-hand over the Russian army . However, they had failed to do so and they had actually made their situation even worse. Their loss had signalled the turning point in the war and had contributed to Germany’s overall defeat. -
The Allies had first invaded Italy on July 10, 1943. They had invaded Italy with the goal of diverting some of Germany’s forces to relieve some of the pressure for Russia. To the Allies’ benefit, Italy had quickly surrendered. This enabled them to focus on fighting Germany throughout the remainder of the war. -
D-Day (Normandy Invasion 1944)- The Battle of Normandy (otherwise known as D-Day) began when American and Canadian troops had attacked Normandy’s beaches. The fighting had lasted from June 1944, to August of the same year. This was all in an effort to liberate France from Germany. The Allies were victorious which had successfully given them an advantage over Germany which turned the tide of the war. -
In January of 1944 the first concentration camp was liberated by the Soviets. Then more camps had begun to be freed and by 1945 each camp was liberated. People were appalled by the cruelty of the camps and wanted to save the people kept within them. Getting rid of the camps had significantly weakened Germany’s forces and was one of the many turning points of the war. -
The Battle of the Bulge took place on December 16, 1944 and had lasted until January 25 of the following year. The battle was, in a way, Hitler’s final stand against the Allies. He had attempted to divide the Allies’ forces as they were coming towards Germany, but he had ultimately failed. This had led to Germany’s defeat in World War II and the victory of the Allies. -
The Battle of Iwo Jima occurred on February 19, 1945, when the U.S. attacked Japan. They did this with the hopes of one day invading Japan’s mainland. This had severely damaged the Japanese army as many of their troops had been wiped out. This had considerably weakened their armies and made it harder for them to fight future battles. -
May 8, 1945, is known as Victory in Europe Day (VE Day) which was the day that Germany first surrendered to the Allies, ending World War Two. Germany had surrendered because their forces had suffered significant losses and they were overpowered by the Soviets and their allies. This ended the conflict that had been raging in Europe for many years. VE Day brought peace back to Europe -
The Potsdam Declaration was announced on July 26, 1945, and had called for Japan’s unconditional surrender. Japan had decided to surrender three weeks later after having two of their cities bombed. This had officially ended World War Two, bringing peace to countries all over the world. -
On August 6 1945, the U.S. had dropped atomic bombs on two cities in Japan, Hiroshima and Nagasaki. They had chosen to bomb these cities because Japan was unwilling to surrender on the U.S.’s terms. However, the bombings had convinced Japan to surrender which had allowed the U.S. to focus on their other enemies near the end of the war. -
On September 2, 1945, Japan had officially surrendered to the U.S. and their allies. Japan had decided to surrender after they had lost many civilians and soldiers over the course of the war. This had signalled the end of the war and brought relief to many people all over the world.