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World War II
The Germans started attacking Poland, they bombarded the city of Wileun, destroying the 75 % of the region and killing civils and soldiers. -
Britain's declaration of war on Germany
Britain and France ordered Hitler to leave Poland, but he ignored them, so Britain declared war on Germany. -
German invasions
Germany invaded the Western Europe (Luxemburgo, Belgium, France and the Netherlands). The picture shows Rotterdam (the Netherlands) after German bombing in May 1940. -
Italy invades France
Italy invaded France, declaring war on both France and the United Kingdom. Paris fell to the Germans on 14 June and eight days later France surrendered and was soon divided into German and Italian occupation zones. In the picture, a German armored tank crosses the Aisne River in France. -
Hitler wanted the war to end
Hitler again publicly offered to end the war, saying he had no desire to destroy the British Empire. The United Kingdom rejected this, -
Roosevelt aids Britain
President Franklin D. Roosevelt makes a deal to give Great Britain 50 destroyers in exchange for naval bases in Newfoundland, Bermuda, and sites in the Caribbean and the South Atlantic. -
Japan Joins Axis
Responding to the embargoes imposed by the United States, Japan joins the German-Italian coalition. -
Operation Barbarossa
Hitler ordered the invasion of the Soviet Union, codenamed Operation Barbarossa. Though Soviet tanks and aircraft greatly outnumbered the Germans’, their air technology was largely obsolete, and the impact of the surprise invasion helped Germans get within 200 miles of Moscow by mid-July. -
Japanese attack
360 Japanese aircraft attacked the major U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, taking the Americans completely by surprise and claiming the lives of more than 2,300 U.S. servicemen. -
Battle of Stalingrad
On World War II’s Eastern Front, a Soviet counteroffensive launched in November 1942 ended the bloody Battle of Stalingrad, which had seen some of the fiercest combat of the war. The approach of winter, along with dwindling food and medical supplies, spelled the end for German troops there, and the last of them surrendered on January 31, 1943. -
Allied naval's counterattack against Japan
Allied naval forces began an aggressive counterattack against Japan, involving a series of amphibious assaults on key Japanese-held islands in the Pacific. This “island-hopping” strategy proved successful, and Allied forces moved closer to their ultimate goal of invading the Japanese homeland. In the picture, allied commanders assemble on Guadalcanal in August 1943 to plan the next Allied offensive against the Japanese. -
Mussolini's government's fall
An Allied invasion of Sicily and Italy followed, and Mussolini’s government fell in July 1943, though Allied fighting against the Germans in Italy would continue until 1945. -
“D-Day”
The Allied began a massive invasion of Europe, landing 156,000 British, Canadian and American soldiers on the beaches of Normandy, France. In response, Hitler poured all the remaining strength of his army into Western Europe, ensuring Germany’s defeat in the east. -
Paris liberated
U.S. forces, aided by a Free French division, liberate Paris from Nazi control. -
Battle of the Bulge
Soviet troops advanced into Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Romania, while Hitler gathered his forces to drive the Americans and British back from Germany in the Battle of the Bulge, the last major German offensive of the war. It was a decisive Allied victory. -
Allied land invasion of Germany
An intensive aerial bombardment in February 1945 preceded the Allied land invasion of Germany, and by the time Germany formally surrendered on May 8, Soviet forces had occupied much of the country. Hitler was already dead, having committed suicide on April 30 in his Berlin bunker. -
Battle of Berlin
The Battle of Berlin was the last major battle in Europe during World War II. It began on April 20, 1945 after the start of a major offensive of the Soviet Union City. -
Death of Adolf Hitler
Hitler killed himself by gunshot in his Führerbunker in Berlin. His wife Eva committed suicide with him by taking cyanide (chemical compound). -
Germany surrenders
The German army signs an unconditional surrender. -
Hiroshima
The United States drops an atomic bomb—the first to be used in warfare—on Hiroshima, killing 75,000 people instantly, and injuring more than 100,000. -
World War II ends
Tokyo asks for peace on the condition that Emperor Hirohito will retain his throne.A formal surrender ceremony is conducted in Tokyo Bay on the U.S. battleship Missouri (picture). World War II officially ends.
