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Invasion of Poland
Germany invaded Poland to justify the action because Nazi falsely claimed that Poland had been planning to entircicle, dismember Germany, and also Poles were persecuting ethnic Germans. The campaign ended with Germany and the Soviet Union dividing and annexing the whole of Poland under the terms of the German-Soviet Frontier Treaty. It marked the beggining of WWII -
Germany attacks France
German forces defeated Allied forces for having developed the Blitzkrieg tactics which were based on mobile attacks as well as tanks, planes and heavy artillery on the enemy's weak points. This action began because Germany was planning to attack Russia. And France, would honour its alliance with Russia. -
Onset of the Battle of Britain
Germans begin the first in a long series of bombing raids against British ships in the English Channels. The Luftwaffe want to gain air superiority over the RAF. This battle marked the 1st defeat of Hitler's military forces and it was the largest and most sustained aerial bombing campaign. -
Afrika Korps are heading to North Africa
German General Erwin Rommel arrives in Tripoli with the newly formed Afrika Korps which was the German expeditionary force in Africa. Hitler established the Afrika Korps for the explicit purpose of helping his Italian Axis partner and maintain territorial gains in North Africa. For strategic, political and psychological reasons, Germany must assist Italy in Africa. -
Operation Barbarossa
Hitler launched his armies eastward in a massive invasion all across the frontier into Soviet territory. The Operation of Barbarossa put into action the Nazi Germany's ideological goal of conquering the western Soviet Union so as to repopulate it with Germans. Both countries signed political and economic pacts for strategic purposes. -
Attack on Pearl Harbor
The aircraft of the Imperial Japanese Navy attacked the USA Naval base at Pearl Harbor on the Island of Oahu (Hawaii), it was a surprise military offensive. The aims of this attack were to destroy American fleet units and to enable Japan to conquer Southeast Asia without interference. -
New troops on the beaches of North Africa
The Operation Torch refers to the military forces of the United States and the United Kingdom when they launched on amphibious operation against French North Africa (Algeria and Morocco). It was intended to draw Axis forces away from the Eastern Front just like relieving pressure on the hand-pressed Soviet Union. -
Allied Troops on Salerno
Operation Avalanche refers when the Italians withdrew from the war the day before the invasion but the Allies landed in an area defended by German troops which was the beaches of Salerno. The impact of the Allied defeat was that the Italian people overthrew Mussolini and reclaimed control of their country. -
D-Day
The amphibious invasion of the Allied troops attacked German forces on the coast of Normandy in the North of France. The Allies gained a victory that became the turning point for WWII in Europe. At the end of the Operation Overlord, Allies had established a firm foothold in Normandy but America suffered over 2.000 casualties. -
The Allies liberate Paris
The American troops enter Paris joining the Allied fight to liberate the city from the German control. After many days of fighting Germany surrendered Paris to the Allied forces. The political significance was that Paris no longer had military value, except for its bridges by which fleeing German remnants could cross the Seine. -
Hitler's suicide
Adolf Hitler holed up in a bunker under his headquarters in Berlin. He commits suicide by swalling a cyanide capsule and shooting himself in the head. Several Germany military commanders plotted to remove Hitler from power but their attemps failed, in his reprisals, Hitler executed over 4.000 countrymen. -
First atomic bomb on Hiroshima
President Truman warned by some of his advisers that any attempt to invade Japan would result in honorific American casualties. During WWII an American bomber dropped the first deployed atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The US wished to prevent any possibility that the Soviet Union would occupy Japan. -
Japan surrenders
The Japanese government and Allied forces assembled aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo to sign the Japanese Instrument of surrender, which ended WWII. The President Truman approved that document and Emperor Hirohito announced Japan's surrender. Japanese leaders said that the bomb forced them to surrender they had been defeated by a miracle weapon.
