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German Blitzkrieg
German forces swept through Poland, Norway, Belgium, Holland and France with astonishing speed and force using blitzkrieg. The Germans decided to prepare for a shorter conflict won through military maneuvers, rather than in the trenches. Its successful execution results in short military campaigns, which preserves human lives and limits the expenditure of artillery.
https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/blitzkrieg -
Pearl Harbor
A large Japanese fleet, complete with six carriers loading some 450 aircraft, set sail from Japan towards Hawaii to attack. Japan wanted to surprise and destroy America's navy as quickly as possible. The attack destroyed nearly 20 American ships, more than 300 airplanes, 2,403 sailors, soldiers and civilians were killed and about 1,000 people were wounded.
https://www.secondworldwarhistory.com/attack-on-pearl-harbor.php -
Wannsee Conference
Nazi officials meet to discuss the details of the "Final Solution" of the "Jewish question".Months later, the “gas vans” in Chelmno, Poland, which were killing 1,000 people a day, proved to be the “solution” they were looking for–the most efficient means of killing large groups of people at one time.
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-wannsee-conference -
Battle of Midway
The Battle of Midway was an epic clash between the U.S. Navy and the Imperial Japanese Navy that played out six months after the attack on Pearl Harbor. As a result of the U.S. victory in the Battle of Midway, Japan abandoned its plan to expand its reach in the Pacific, and would remain on the defensive for the remainder of World War II.
https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/battle-of-midway -
Bataan Death March
The day after Japan bombed the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, on December 7, 1941, the Japanese invasion of the Philippines began. After the war, an American military tribunal tried Lieutenant General Homma Masaharu, commander of the Japanese invasion forces in the Philippines. He was held responsible for the death march, a war crime, and was executed by firing squad on April 3, 1946.
https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/bataan-death-march -
Operation Gomorrah
On this day in 1943, British bombers raid Hamburg, Germany, by night in Operation Gomorrah, while Americans bomb it by day in its own “Blitz Week.” When it was over, 17,000 bomber sorties dropped more than 9,000 tons of explosives, killing more than 30,000 people and destroying 280,000 buildings, including industrial and munitions plants.
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/operation-gomorrah-is-launched -
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
The Warsaw uprising inspired other revolts in extermination camps and ghettos throughout German-occupied Eastern Europe. By May 16, the ghetto was firmly under Nazi control, and on that day, in a symbolic act, the Germans blew up Warsaw’s Great Synagogue. An estimated 7,000 Jews perished during the Warsaw ghetto uprising, while nearly 50,000 others who survived were sent to extermination or labor camps.
https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/warsaw-ghetto-uprising -
D-Day (Normandy Invasion)
The battle began on June 6, 1944, also known as D-Day, when some 156,000 American, British and Canadian forces landed on five beaches along a 50-mile stretch of the heavily fortified coast of France’s Normandy region. It resulted in the Allied liberation of Western Europe from Nazi Germany’s control.
https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/d-day -
Battle of the Bulge
The battle took place during frigid weather conditions, with some 30 German divisions attacking battle-fatigued American troops across 85 miles of the densely wooded Ardennes Forest. Hitler's aim of the battle was to split the Allies in their drive towards Germany.
https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/battle-of-the-bulge -
VE Day
In 1945, both Great Britain and the United States celebrate Victory in Europe Day. Cities in both nations, as well as formerly occupied cities in Western Europe, put out flags and banners, rejoicing in the defeat of the Nazi war machine.
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/victory-in-europe -
Dropping of the atomic bombs
On August 6, 1945, an 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.
https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/bombing-of-hiroshima-and-nagasaki -
VJ Day
On August 14, 1945, it was announced that Japan had surrendered unconditionally to the Allies, effectively ending World War II. Many V-J Day celebrations fell out of favor over the years due to concerns about their being offensive to Japan, now one of America’s closest allies, and to Japanese Americans, as well as ambivalent feelings toward the nuclear devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/v-j-day -
Liberation of concentration camps
On April 29,1945, the first concentration camp established by Germany’s Nazi regime. In the course of Dachau’s history, at least 160,000 prisoners passed through the main camp, and 90,000 through the sub-camps. Incomplete records indicate that at least 32,000 of the inmates perished at Dachau and its sub-camps, but countless more were shipped to extermination camps elsewhere.
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/dachau-liberated -
Battle of Okinawa
On April1, 1945, the Navy’s Fifth Fleet and more than 180,000 U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps troops descended on the Pacific island of Okinawa for a final push towards Japan. Winning the Battle of Okinawa put Allied forces within striking distance of Japan. But wanting to bring the war to a swift end Harry S. Truman chose to drop an atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6.
https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/battle-of-okinawa -
Battle of Iwo Jima
The Battle of Iwo Jima was an epic military campaign between U.S. Marines and the Imperial Army of Japan in early 1945. In the end, neither the U.S. Army nor the U.S. Navy was able to use Iwo Jima as a World War II staging area. Navy Seabees, or construction battalions, did rebuild the airfields for Air Force pilots to use in case of emergency landings.
https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/battle-of-iwo-jima
