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The Invasion of Poland was a swift, overwhelming attack by Nazi Germany using Blitzkrieg tactics, quickly overwhelming Polish defenses. This aggression, soon followed by a Soviet invasion from the east, directly led to Great Britain and France declaring war on Germany, officially starting World War II. -
The Battle of Britain was a major air campaign where the Royal Air Force (RAF) successfully defended the United Kingdom against massive air attacks by Nazi Germany's air force, the Luftwaffe. This victory was the first major defeat of Hitler's forces, compelling him to postpone and ultimately cancel the planned land invasion of Britain. -
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Empire of Japan on the United States Pacific Fleet at its naval base at Pearl Harbor on Oahu, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941. At the time, the U.S. was a neutral country in World War II. -
The Battle of Midway was a decisive naval victory for the United States against Japan in the Pacific Theater of World War II. The U.S. successfully ambushed the Japanese fleet, sinking four of their aircraft carriers and permanently shifting the strategic balance in favor of the Allies. -
The Battle of Stalingrad was a brutal and decisive confrontation on the Eastern Front of World War II, fought between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union from July 1942 to February 1943 for control of the city of Stalingrad. -
Operation Torch was the first major Anglo-American campaign of World War II as an Allied invasion of French North Africa. Its primary goal was to secure a foothold in the region to trap German and Italian forces already fighting the British in the east, ultimately opening a "second front" to relieve pressure on the Soviet Union. -
The MFAA program was an Allied military unit composed of experts known as the "Monuments Men" who were tasked during and after World War II with protecting European cultural sites from damage. -
The Battle of Kursk was the largest tank battle in history, where German forces launched their last major strategic offensive on the Eastern Front against a massive Soviet defense. Despite heavy losses, the decisive Soviet victory exhausted German offensive capability for the remainder of the war. -
D-Day was the largest seaborne invasion in history, where Allied forces landed over 150,000 troops on five beaches in Normandy, France, to begin the liberation of Nazi-occupied Western Europe. This massive operation, codenamed Operation Overlord, successfully established a vital Western Front, leading directly to the defeat of Nazi Germany less than a year later. -
The Battle of the Bulge was the last major German offensive on the Western Front, launched as a desperate, surprise attack through the Ardennes forest, aiming to split Allied forces and capture the port of Antwerp. -
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. -
The Battle of Okinawa, codenamed Operation Iceberg, was a major battle of the Pacific War fought on the island of Okinawa by the United States Army and United States Marine Corps forces against the Imperial Japanese Army. -
President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) died on April 12, 1945, from a massive cerebral hemorrhage while at his retreat in Warm Springs, Georgia. His sudden death came in the final months of World War II, just before the Allied victory in Europe. -
Adolf Hitler's death by suicide on April 30, 1945, in his Berlin bunker decapitated the Nazi regime's leadership and eliminated the person who symbolized the German war effort, effectively signifying the total military and political defeat of Germany. -
The bombing of Hiroshima occurred when the United States dropped an atomic bomb, code-named "Little Boy," on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. This devastating single act immediately killed tens of thousands of people and was the first use of a nuclear weapon in warfare. -
The Atomic Bombing of Nagasaki occurred on August 9, 1945, three days after the attack on Hiroshima, when the United States dropped a second atomic bomb, "Fat Man," on the Japanese city of Nagasaki. This second catastrophic strike, which immediately killed tens of thousands, hastened Japan's decision to surrender on August 15, formally ending World War II.