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Germany invades Poland in a blitzkrieg (lightning war). England and France react by declaring war on Germany. This begins the European War, which will become World War II.
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Soviet-Finland war ends in Finland’s surrender.
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Germany invades Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg and France.
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Italy join the war as an ally of Germany and declare war against the Allies.
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Treaty that made the three countries allies against England and France. It was also seen as a warning to the United States to stop helping England and France.
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Period in which german planes were constantly attacking the UK.
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Germany, Italy, Hungary, and Bulgaria invade and dismember Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia surrenders on April 17.
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Unleashing its "Barbarossa" plan, Germany invades the Soviet Union without declaring war.
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A German submarine torpedoes the U.S. Navy destroyer Reuben James in the North Atlantic. It is the first U.S. warship sunk in the European War. Only 45 of the ship’s 160 crew members survive.
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After months of desert fighting, the British Eighth Army in North Africa puts Germany’s Afrika Corps to flight.
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The RAF and U.S. Eighth Air Force begin round-the-clock bombing of Germany.
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designated the Berlin Strategic Offensive Operation by the Soviet Union, was the final major offensive of the European theatre of World War II.
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Fearing Hungary’s intention to desert the Axis partnership, the Germans occupy Hungary and compel the regent, Admiral Miklos Horthy, to appoint a pro-German minister president.
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Within six weeks, Anglo-American bombers could hit targets in eastern Germany for the first time.
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On D-Day, June 6, 155,000 Allied troops land on the beaches of Normandy, France, to begin the liberation of Europe.
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As Allied forces broke through the German containment in the hedge row country beyond the Normandy beaches, Supreme Commander, General Dwight Eisenhower set his sights on a rush into Germany.
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was a major German offensive campaign launched through the densely forested Ardennes region of Wallonia in Belgium, France, and Luxembourg on the Western Front toward the end of World War II in Europe.
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Adolf Hitler, dictator of Germany, burrowed away in a refurbished air-raid shelter, consumes a cyanide capsule, then shoots himself with a pistol, on this day in 1945, as his “1,000-year” Reich collapses above him.
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On this day in 1945, the German High Command, in the person of General Alfred Jodl, signs the unconditional surrender of all German forces, East and West, at Reims, in northwestern France.
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V-E day is proclaimed as victory in Europe is celebrated
