-
German Blitzkrieg
Germany quickly overran much of Europe and was victorious for more than two years by relying on a new military tactic called the "Blitzkrieg" lightning war. Blitzkrieg tactics required weapons such as tanks, planes, and artillery along a narrow front. These forces would make a breach in enemy defenses, permitting armored tank divisions to penetrate rapidly and roam freely behind enemy lines
[https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005437] -
Invasion of France
The Battle of France, also known as the Fall of France, was the German invasion of France and the Low Countries in 1940 during the Second World War. In six weeks from 10 May 1940, German forces defeated Allied forces by mobile operations and conquered France, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, bringing land operations on the Western Front to an end until 6 June 1944.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_France -
Battle of Britain
German and British air forces clashed in the skies over the United Kingdom, locked in the largest sustained bombing campaign to that date. A significant turning point of World War II, the Battle of Britain ended when Germany’s Luftwaffe failed to gain air superiority over the Royal Air Force despite months of targeting Britain’s air bases, military posts and, ultimately, its civilian population
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/battle-of-britain -
Lend Lease Act
The Lend-Lease Act was the principal means for providing U.S. military aid to foreign nations during World War II. The act authorized the president to transfer arms or any other defense materials for which Congress appropriated money to “the government of any country whose defense the President deems vital to the defense of the United States.”
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/lend-lease-act -
Operation Barbarossa
Hitler launched his armies eastward in an invasion of the Soviet Union: 3 army groups with 3 million soldiers. Invasion covered a front from the North Cape to the Black Sea. In training, doctrine, and fighting ability, the forces invading Russia represented the finest army to fight in the twentieth century. Barbarossa was the crucial turning point in World War II, its failure forced Germany to fight a two-front war.
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/operation-barbarossa -
Bombing of pearl harbor
Japanese planes attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor. It lasted two hours, but it was devastating: The Japanese managed to destroy nearly 20 American naval vessels, including eight enormous battleships, and more than 300 airplanes. More than 2,000 Americans soldiers and sailors died in the attack, and another 1,000 were wounded. The day after the assault, President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared war on Japan
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/pearl-harbor -
Bataan Death March of 1942
U.S. surrender of the Bataan Peninsula on the main Philippine island of Luzon to the Japanese during World War II (1939-45), the approximately 75,000 Filipino and American troops on Bataan were forced to make an arduous 65-mile march to prison camps. The marchers made the trek in intense heat and were subjected to harsh treatment by Japanese guards. Thousands perished in what became known as the Bataan Death March.
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/bataan-death-march -
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
From April 19 to May 16, 1943, during World War II (1939-45), residents of the Jewish ghetto in Nazi-occupied Warsaw, Poland, staged an armed revolt against deportations to extermination camps. The Warsaw ghetto uprising inspired other revolts in extermination camps and ghettos throughout German-occupied Eastern Europe. -
Battle of Stalingrad
The Battle of Stalingrad was the successful Soviet defense of the city of Stalingrad (now Volgograd) in the U.S.S.R. during World War II. Russians consider it to be the greatest battle of their Great Patriotic War, and most historians consider it to be the greatest battle of the entire conflict. It stopped the German advance into the Soviet Union and marked the turning of the tide of war in favor of the Allies.
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/battle-of-stalingrad -
D-Day
The Battle of Normandy resulted in the Allied liberation of Western Europe from Nazi Germany’s control. Codenamed Operation Overlord, 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. The invasion was one of the largest amphibious military assaults in history and required extensive planning.
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/d-day -
Liberation of Concentration Camps
Soviet soldiers were the first to liberate concentration camp prisoners in the final stages of the war. On July 23, 1944, they entered the Majdanek camp in Poland, and later overran several other killing centers. On January 27, 1945, they entered Auschwitz
https://www.ushmm.org/outreach/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007724 -
Battle of the Bulge
Germans launch the last major offense of war, Operation Mist, aka the Ardennes Offensive and the Battle of the Bulge, an attempt to push the Allied front line west from northern France to northwestern Belgium. The Battle of the Bulge, so-called because the Germans created a “bulge” around the area of the Ardennes forest in pushing through the American defensive line, was the largest fought on the Western front
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/battle-of-the-bulge -
Battle of Iwo Jima
The American amphibious invasion of Iwo Jima during World War II stemmed from the need for a base near the Japanese coast. Following elaborate preparatory air and naval bombardment, three U.S. marine divisions landed on the island in February 1945. Iwo Jima was defended by roughly 23,000 Japanese army & navy troops, who fought from an elaborate underground network. The marines wiped out the defending forces after a month.
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/battle-of-iwo-jima -
Hiroshima and Nagasaki
During World War II, 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 killed 80,000 people; tens of thousands later died of radiation exposure. Three days later, a second B-29 dropped another A-bomb on Nagasaki, killing about 40,000 people. Japan’s Emperor Hirohito announced his country’s surrender in WWII
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/bombing-of-hiroshima-and-nagasaki -
The joining of America in WWII
The day after the assault in pearl harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on Japan; Congress approved his declaration with just one dissenting vote. Three days later, Japanese allies Germany and Italy also declared war on the United States, and again Congress reciprocated.
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/pearl-harbor -
Battle of Midway
After Pearl Harbor the US defeated Japan in one of the most decisive naval battles of World War II. Thanks to major advances in code breaking, the United States was able to preempt and counter Japan’s planned ambush of its few remaining aircraft carriers, inflicting permanent damage on the Japanese Navy. An important turning point in the Pacific campaign, the victory allowed the US and its allies to move into an offensive position.
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/battle-of-midway
