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"Blitzkrieg," a German word meaning “Lightning War,” was Germany's strategy to avoid a long war in the first phase of World War II in Europe. Germany's strategy was to defeat its opponents in a series of short campaigns.
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/blitzkrieg-lightning-war#:~:text=%22Blitzkrieg%2C%22%20a%20German%20word,a%20series%20of%20short%20campaigns. -
Adolf Hitler launches Operation Barbarossa. Operation Barbarossa was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and many of its Axis allies, It was the largest land offensive in human history, with over 10 million combatants taking part.
https://spartacus-educational.com/RUSbarbarossa.htm -
Japanese forces attack the US Fleet at Pearl Harbor.
https://spartacus-educational.com/2WWbattles.htm -
Reinhard Heydrich organizes the Wannsee Conference.
https://spartacus-educational.com/2WWchron.htm -
After the failure of Operation Barbarossa to win a decisive victory, Adolf Hitler decided to launch a new offensive in July 1942. General Friedrich Paulus, the commander of the 6th Army, was ordered to capture Stalingrad, a city that controlled the rail and waterway communications of southern Russia.
https://spartacus-educational.com/RUSstalingrad.htm -
The Warsaw ghetto uprising was a violent revolt that occurred from April 19 to May 16, 1943, during World War II. Residents of the Jewish ghetto in Nazi-occupied Warsaw, Poland, staged the armed revolt to prevent deportations to Nazi-run extermination camps. The Warsaw uprising inspired other revolts in extermination camps and ghettos throughout German-occupied Eastern Europe.
https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/warsaw-ghetto-uprising -
On July 24, 1943, British bombers raid Hamburg, Germany, by night in Operation Gomorrah, while Americans bomb it by day in its own “Blitz Week.” It lasted for eight days and seven nights.
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/operation-gomorrah-is-launched -
Second Front opened with Allied landings in Normandy.
https://spartacus-educational.com/2WWbattles.htm -
In one final, desperate gamble of the war, Hitler enacted his Ardennes Offensive and drove a wedge into the Allied lines towards Antwerp - but little else came from the initiative.
https://www.secondworldwarhistory.com/battle-of-the-bulge.php -
Soviet troops liberated Auschwitz. Auschwitz was the largest Nazi killing center and concentration camp complex. Auschwitz camp personnel had forced the majority of Auschwitz prisoners to march westward in what would become known as "death marches." When they entered the camp, Soviet soldiers found over six thousand emaciated prisoners alive. These prisoners greeted the soldiers as their liberators.
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/liberation-of-nazi-camps -
The Battle of Iwo Jima was a major battle in which the United States Marine Corps and United States Navy landed on and eventually captured the island of Iwo Jima from the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II.
https://spartacus-educational.com/2WWjima.htm -
After the capture of Iwo Jima in March, 1945, General Douglas MacArthur, turned his attentions to the island of Okinawa. Lying just 563km from the Japanese mainland, it offered excellent harbour, airfield and troop-staging facilities. It was a perfect base from which to launch a major assault on Japan, consequently it was well-defended, with 120,000 troops under General Mitsuru Ushijima.
https://spartacus-educational.com/2WWokinawa.htm -
German radio broadcast on May 7th that General Alfred Jodl would sign the official surrender of Nazi Germany the following day. Winston Churchill immediately announced that the 8th May, 1945 would be a national holiday. This date became known as the Victory in Europe (VE) day.
https://spartacus-educational.com/2WWveday.htm -
On 6th August 1945, a B-29 Stratafortress bomber dropped an atom bomb on Hiroshima. Japan continued to fight and a second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki three days later.
https://spartacus-educational.com/2WWusaaf.htm -
V-J Day, or Victory over Japan Day, marks the end of World War II, one of the deadliest and most destructive wars in history. When President Harry S. Truman announced on Aug. 15, 1945, that Japan had surrendered unconditionally, war-weary citizens around the world erupted in celebration.
https://www.defense.gov/Multimedia/Experience/VJ-Day/#:~:text=V%2DJ%20Day%2C%20or%20Victory%20over,the%20world%20erupted%20in%20celebration.