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The Royal Air Force and the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Navy defended the United Kingdom against large-scale attacks by Nazi Germany's air force. -
A surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service on the United States. -
A U.S. Navy's victory in the air-sea battle and its successful defense of the major base located at Midway Island dashed Japan's hopes of neutralizing the United States as a naval power and turned the tide of World War II in the Pacific. -
This resulted from an compromise between the Western Allies, and was intended to relieve pressure on the Soviet Union by imperiling Axis forces in the region and by enabling an invasion of Southern Europe in 1943. -
A major battle where Nazi Germany and its allies unsuccessfully fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad in Southern Russia. -
A program established under the Civil Affairs Division of the Army to protect cultural materials and locations in war areas. -
The largest tank battle in history. It marked the end of the German offensive capability on the Eastern Front and cleared the way for the great Soviet offensives of 1944–45. -
Allied forces launched the largest amphibious invasion in the history of warfare. These landings on the beaches of Normandy marked the start of a long and costly campaign to liberate north-west Europe from Nazi occupation. -
The last major German military offensive in western Europe. The German offensive was only temporarily successful in halting the Allied advance. Eventually the Allies won. -
A major battle in which the United States Marine Corps and United States Navy captured the island of Iwo Jima from the Imperial Japanese Army. -
FDR died from a cerebral hemorrhage. His death caused sadness around the world. -
Holed up in a bunker under his headquarters, Adolf Hitler commited suicide by swallowing a cyanide capsule and shooting himself in the head. Then Germany surrendered to the Allied forces. -
The final major battle of World War 2. Capturing Okinawa would provide Allied forces an airbase from which bombers could strike Japan and an advanced anchorage for Allied fleets. -
The US becomes the first nation to use an atomic weapon during wartime. Approximately 80,000 people are killed as a direct result of the blast, and another 35,000 are injured. At least another 60,000 would be dead by the end of the year from the effects of the fallout. -
The bombing of Hiroshima was not sufficient to convince the Japanese War Council to accept the Potsdam Conference’s demand for unconditional surrender. The US drops another atomic bomb in Nagasaki killing 40,000.