WWII MAJOR EVENTS

  • German blitzkrieg

    German blitzkrieg
    A German term for “lightning war,” blitzkrieg is a military tactic designed to create disorganization among enemy forces through the use of mobile forces and locally concentrated firepower. 15 million German troops invaded Poland along the boarder. The German airships and U- Boats attacked Polish naval forcesin the Baltic Sea Hitler belived that the invasion of Poland would bring " Lebensraum" or living Space for the German people.
    http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/blitzkrieg
  • Germany Invades France

    Germany Invades France
    British Prime Minister Winston Churchill had tried for days to convince the French government to hang on, not to sue for peace, that America would enter the war and come to its aid. French premier Paul Reynaud telegrammed President Franklin Roosevelt, asking for just such aid-a declaration of war, and if not that, any and all help possible. Roosevelt replied that the United States was prepared to send material aid http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/germans-enter-paris
  • Germany bombed london

    Germany bombed london
    1000 German aircraft over 300 bombers escorted by 600 fighters convinced that the German that the German invasion of Britain was imminent, the country was put on high alert. Signals of impeding invasion went out -the code word " crowwell" was sent to military units.
    [http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/events/germany_bombs_london]
  • Lend lease act

    Lend lease act
    The lead lease act was the principal means for providing U.S. military aid to foreign countries during world war II. It 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, Britain, the Soviet Union, China, Brazil, and many other countries revived weapons under the law
  • Operation Barbossa

    Operation Barbossa
    On June 22, 1941, Adolf Hitler launched his armies eastward in a massive invasion of the Soviet Union: three great army groups with over three million German soldiers, 150 divisions, and three thousand tanks smashed across the frontier into Soviet territory. The invasion covered a front from the North Cape to the Black Sea, a distance of two thousand miles.
    http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/operation-barbarossa
  • Pearl Harbor

    Pearl Harbor
    Just before 8 a.m. on December 7, 1941, hundreds of Japanese fighter planes attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor near Honolulu, Hawaii. The barrage lasted just 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.
    http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/pearl-harbor
  • Germany declared war on U.S

    Germany declared war on U.S
    The bombing of Pearl Harbor surprised even Germany. Although Hitler had made an oral agreement with his Axis partner Japan that Germany would join a war against the United States, he was uncertain as to how the war would be engaged. Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor answered that question. On December 8, Japanese Ambassador Oshima went to Germany.
    http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/germany-declares-war-on-the-united-states
  • Bataan Death March

    Bataan Death March
    After the April 9, 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.
    http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/bataan-death-march
  • Battle of Midway

    Battle of Midway
    Six months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States defeated Japan in one of the most decisive naval battles of World War II. Thanks in part 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.
    http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/battle-of-midway
  • Battle of Stalingrad

    Battle of Stalingrad
    The Battle of Stalingrad (July 17, 1942-Feb. 2, 1943), 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.
    http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/battle-of-stalingrad
  • Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

    Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
    On April 19, 1943, the Warsaw ghetto uprising began after German troops and police entered the ghetto to deport its surviving inhabitants. By May 16, 1943, the Germans had crushed the uprising and left the ghetto area in ruins. Surviving ghetto residents were deported to concentration camps or killing centers.
    https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005188
  • Normandy Landings

    Normandy Landings
    During World War II (1939-1945), the Battle of Normandy, which lasted from June 1944 to August 1944, resulted in the Allied liberation of Western Europe from Nazi Germany’s control. Codenamed Operation Overlord, 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.
    http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/d-day
  • Liberation of concentration camps

    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 and there found hundreds of sick and exhausted prisoners.
    https://www.ushmm.org/outreach/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007724
  • Battle of two Jimma

    Battle of two Jimma
    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 and navy troops, who fought from an elaborate network of caves, dugouts, tunnels and underground installations.
    http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/battle-of-iwo-jima
  • Battle of the Bluge

    Battle of the Bluge
    In December 1944, Adolph Hitler attempted to split the Allied armies in northwest Europe by means of a surprise blitzkrieg thrust through the Ardennes to Antwerp. Caught off-guard, American units fought desperate battles to stem the German advance at St.-Vith, Elsenborn Ridge, Houffalize and Bastogne. As the Germans drove deeper into the Ardennes in an attempt to secure vital bridgeheads.
    http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/battle-of-the-bulge
  • Atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

    Atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
    On August 6, 1945, during World War II (1939-45), 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. Three days later, a second B-29 dropped another A-bomb on Nagasaki, killing an estimated 40,000 people.
    http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/bombing-of-hiroshima-and-nagasaki