-
On September first, the invasion of Poland started in Danzig. Poland was bombed that day and they weren't ready for the Blitzkrieg invasion. They then were called for assistance to Great Britain and France. Hitler was violating the Treaty of Versailles, as well as taking advantage of the Treaty of Appeasement.
-
In response to Hitler's invasion of Poland, and honoring their guarantee of Poland's borders, Britain and France, both allies of the overrun nation declare war on Germany.
-
On April 9, 1940, German warships enter major Norwegian ports, from Narvik to Oslo, deploying thousands of German troops and occupying Norway. At the same time, German forces occupy Copenhagen, among other Danish cities.
-
Germany uses quick strikes called blitzkrieg, meaning lightning war, to take over much of western Europe including the Netherlands, Belgium, and northern France.
-
In May 1940, he became Prime Minister, replacing Neville Chamberlain. Churchill oversaw British involvement in the Allied war effort against the Axis powers, resulting in victory in 1945. After the Conservatives' defeat in the 1945 general election, he became Leader of the Opposition.
-
In June 1940, Italy joined the war on Germany's side (only after France was about to fall and WWII seemed over). Italy was still hoping for territorial spoils. This decision was announced to the crowds of Italy by Mussolini.
-
Battle of Britain, during World War II, the successful defense of Great Britain against unremitting and destructive air raids conducted by the German air force (Luftwaffe) from July through September 1940, after the fall of France.
-
It created a defense alliance between the countries and was largely intended to deter the United States from entering the conflict.
-
On June 22, 1941, Nazi Germany and its Axis allies began a massive invasion of the Soviet Union named Operation Barbarossa, in which nearly 4.5 million troops launched a surprise attack to realize Hitler's ambition of a vast eastern imperium.
-
Pearl Harbor attack, surprise aerial attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor on Oahu Island, Hawaii, by the Japanese that precipitated the entry of the United States into World War II. The strike climaxed a decade of worsening relations between the United States and Japan. The US enters World War II on the side of the Allies.
-
The U.S. Navy's decisive victory in the air-sea battle and its successful defense of the major base located at Midway Island dashed Japan's hopes of neutralizing the United States as a naval power and effectively turned the tide of World War II in the Pacific.
-
The Allies decided to move next against Italy, hoping an Allied invasion would remove that fascist regime from the war, secure the central Mediterranean and divert German divisions from the northwest coast of France where the Allies planned to attack in the near future.
-
Gen. Dwight Eisenhower publicly announces the surrender of Italy to the Allies. ... Ever since Mussolini had begun to falter, Hitler had been making plans to invade Italy to keep the Allies from gaining a foothold that would situate them within easy reach of the German-occupied Balkans. However, Germany helps Mussolini to escape and set up a government in Northern Italy.
-
On June 6, 1944 the Allied Forces of Britain, America, Canada, and France attacked German forces on the coast of Normandy, France. With a huge force of over 150,000 soldiers, the Allies attacked and gained a victory that became the turning point for World War II in Europe.
-
The Liberation of Paris (French: Libération de Paris) was a military battle that took place during World War II from 19 August 1944 until the German garrison surrendered the French capital on 25 August 1944.
-
On December 16, 1944, the Germans launch the last major offensive of the war, Operation Autumn Mist, also known as the Ardennes Offensive and the Battle of the Bulge, an attempt to push the Allied front line west from northern France to northwestern Belgium.
-
U.S. Marines invaded Iwo Jima on February 19, 1945, after months of naval and air bombardment. The Japanese defenders of the island were dug into bunkers deep within the volcanic rocks. Approximately 70,000 U.S. Marines and 18,000 Japanese soldiers took part in the battle.
-
Adolf Hitler, German politician who was the leader of the Nazi Party, committed suicide by gunshot on 30 April 1945 in his Führerbunker in Berlin.
-
The German Instrument of Surrender was the legal document that effected the extinction of Nazi Germany and ended World War II in Europe. Germany unconditionally surrendered to the Allies in Reims, France, ending World War II and the Third Reich.
-
American bomber Enola Gay dropped a five-ton bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. A blast equivalent to the power of 15,000 tons of TNT reduced four square miles of the city to ruins and immediately killed 80,000 people.
-
Japan formally surrenders to the Allies, bringing an end to World War II. By the summer of 1945, the defeat of Japan was a foregone conclusion
