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Germany uses blitzkrieg to overpower Polish army
Britain & France declare war on Germany
Make it to Warsaw (capital of Poland) in less than a month
Germany begins enforcing racial policies
Jews had to wear white armbands with blue Stars of David
Expelled 1000s of Poles and replace them with Germans -
Britain’s Royal Air Force against Nazi Germany’s air force
first battle fought solely in air
Luftwaffe hoped it would be an easy defeat, but RAF proved to be a formidable enemy
Hitler planned a massive invasion by land and sea but needed to get past the RAF first
Hoped to intimidate Britain enough and even offered a peace treaty but underestimated the military and the prime minister
attacked but was very unprepared, did very little damage Britain won after Hitler called off planned invasion -
Mixed force of New Zealanders, British, Australian, and Greek troops against German airborne assault
Crete became a German target following their raid occupation of the Greek mainland in April
Crete was difficult to defend with its mountains and having no aircrafts
sent after seaborne invasion but missed it majorly being airborne, sea was only a minor threat
Germans gained nothing but then Crete made a grave mistake and threw everything at them
Last of German's major airborne operations -
Germans were focusing on Moscow
They wanted to commence in May but was delayed
They quickly overwhelmed the Soviet Union
Sought to destroy the economic base
Goal was to capture the capital before the harsh Russian winter
if successful then Gernan forces would encircle Moscow and compel Stalin to make peace
Gailed to account supply lines were having problems
Soviet was preparing for the battle
Germany was having success at first but Russia was wearing them down and winter came and Russia won -
Japan launches a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor which is a US military base
Attempted to cripple our fleet and nearly succeeded
Killed/injured thousands of people and lost ships and aircrafts
US declared war on Japan the next day
knew war was inevitable with Japan but unable to predict the attack by Japan -
Longest, bloodiest warfare with two million troops
Turned the tide to the Allied forces favor
Germany’s forces decided to attack southern Russia
Expected another attack on Moscow but Germany had other ideas, which was Stalingrad
Set to be a bloody attack
Russia held them off
Germans were at a disadvantage not being accustomed to the winters there
Hitler still refused to surrender even with his men dying
in February 1943 Russia had taken back Stalingrad
Most captured soldiers died in camps -
Allied invasion of western Europe
Largest amphibious military assaults and required extensive planning
Deceived Germans to think the main invasion was Pas-de-Calais and other areas as well
bad weather delay caused it to delay for 24 hours.
Heavy resistance at Omaha Beach
Successful storm of Normandy’s beaches