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Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany
Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany. The supposed one thousand year Reich had started. But it would be another nineteen months before Hitler achieved absolute power. -
Kristallnacht
"night of broken glass;" Nazi thugs destroyed Jewish storefronts, burned synagogues, and killed 100 Jewish people -
Invasion of Poland
On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland. The Polish army was defeated within weeks of the invasion. From East Prussia and Germany in the north and Silesia and Slovakia in the south, German units, with more than 2,000 tanks and over 1,000 planes, broke through Polish defenses along the border and advanced on Warsaw in a massive attack. -
Period: to
WWII
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Battle of French
he Battle of France, also known as the Fall of France, was the German invasion of France and the Low Countries, executed from May 10, 1940, which ended the Phoney War. The battle consisted of two main operations. -
Battle of Britain
months of bombing by the Germans on English cities in preparation for an invasion of the island; first time the Germans were not victorious -
Atlantic Charter
secret meeting in the middle of the ocean in which Churchill and FDR discussed goals for the war -
Attack on Pearl Habor
On December 7, 1941, hundreds of Japanese fighter planes attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor near Honolulu, Hawaii.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. -
Bataan Death March
Largest American surrender in the history of warfare on the Philippines. American and Filipino soldiers were forced to march 65 miles up the peninsula to the prisoner camps. -
Battle of Midway
Japanese plan a two pronged attack on the Aleutian Islands & Midway Islands; Allies had broken the Japanese code and knew the main attack was at Midway; Japan loses 4 aircraft carriers, U.S. loses 1; Defensive victory for the Allies helped equal out the naval power between Japan and the U.S. -
Battle of Guadalcanal
1st offensive attack by the U.S. against the Japanese; part of the Solomon Islands; difficult Allied victory showed the Japanese were a determined enemy who refused to surrender. -
Battle of Stalingrad
last German offensive on the eastern front; important Soviet city because of its location on the Volga River and proximity to Soviet oil fields -
D-Day
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 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. -
Battle of Leyte Gulf
Large naval battle in which the U.S. began the process of liberating her soldiers on the Philippines; decisive victory which destroyed much of the Japanese navy -
Battle of the Bulge
last German offensive attack on the western front; winter 1944; near the northern portion of the French border with Belgium and Germany; 101st was surrounded at Bastogne but refused to surrender to the Germans -
Yalta Conference
FDR, Churchill, & Stalin meet to discuss plans for postwar peace -
Japan surrenders
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Victory in Europe Day
On this day in 1945, both Great Britain and the United States celebrate Victory in Europe Day. Cities in both nations, as well as formerly occupied cities in Western Europe, put out flags and banners, rejoicing in the defeat of the Nazi war machine. -
Hiroshima
1st atomic bomb dropped on this Japanese city -
Nagasaki
2nd atomic bomb dropped on this Japanese city -
Nuremberger Trails
war crimes trials held in Germany after the war
