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German Blitzkrieg
1.5 million German troops invaded Poland along the boarder. The German Luftwaffe bombed polish airfields, and German airships and U-Boats attacked Polish naval forces in the Baltic Sea. Hitler believed that the invasion of Poland would bring "Lebensraum" or Living Space for the German people. His plan was the the "racially superior" Germans would colonize the territory and the native Slavs would be enslaved.
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/germans-invade-poland -
Capture of Paris
The people of Paris were awoken by a German voice over the loudspeaker saying a curfew will be imposed for 8 p.m. and that German troops would occupy Paris. Winston Churchill tried to convince Frances government to not sue for peace. By the time the Germans entered paris 2 million Parisians fled paris
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/germans-enter-paris -
Germany Bombs London
1,000 German aircraft-over 300 bombers escorted by 600 fighters. Convinced that the German invasion of Britain was imminent, the country was put on high alert. Signals of impending invasion went out - the code word "Cromwell" was sent to military units and church bells rang. some of the bombs didn't land on their intended targets of the docks, but many landed on peoples homes. -
Lend Lease
The Lend-Lease Act was the principal means for providing U.S. military aid to foreign countries during World War II. It authorized the president to transfer arms or any other defense materials for which Congress appropriated money to the government of any country whose defense the President deems vital to the defense of the United States. Britain, the Soviet Union, China, Brazil, and many other countries received weapons under this law.
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/lend-lease-act -
Germany invades Soviet Union
Adolf Hitler had always regarded the German-Soviet nonaggression pact, signed on August 23, 1939, as a temporary tactical maneuver. In July 1940, just weeks after the German conquest of France and the Low Countries, Hitler decided to attack the Soviet Union within the following year. On December 18, 1940, he signed Directive 21 code-named Operation "Barbarossa" the first operational order for the invasion of the Soviet Union.
https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005164 -
Operation Barbarossa
Hitler launched three great army groups with over three million German soldiers150 divisions,& three thousand tanks smashed across the frontier into Soviet territory.The invasion covered a front from the North Cape to the Black Sea, a distance of two thousand miles. Barbarossa was the crucial turning point in World War IIfor its failure forced Nazi Germany to fight a two-front war against a coalition possessing superior resources.
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/operation-barbarossa -
Pearl Harbor
hundreds of Japanese fighter planes attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor near Honolulu, Hawaii.It lasted two hours,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.The Japanese did this surprise attack because America stopped their embargoes with Japan http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/pearl-harbor -
War with Japan
On December 8, Congress approved Roosevelt’s declaration of war. Three days later, Japanese allies Germany and Italy declared war against the United States. For the second time, Congress reciprocated. More than two years after the start of the conflict, the United States had entered World War II.
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/pearl-harbor -
Bataan Death March
Within a month,the Japanese had captured Manila, the capital of the Philippines, and the American and Filipino defenders of Luzon were forced to retreat to the Bataan Peninsula. For the next three months,the combined U.S.-Filipino army held out despite a lack of naval and air support. Finally, on April 9, with his forces crippled by starvation and disease, U.S. General Edward King Jr. surrendered approximately 75,000 troops at Bataan.
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/bataan-death-march -
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
the Warsaw ghetto uprising began after German troops and police entered the ghetto to deport its surviving inhabitants. 750 fighters fought the heavily armed and well-trained Germans.The ghetto fighters were able to hold out for a month, but on May 16,1943, the revolt ended. The Germans had slowly crushed the resistance. Of the more than 56,000 Jews captured, about 7,000 were shot, and the rest were deported to camps.
https://www.ushmm.org/outreach/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007745 -
D-Day
Normandy 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 known as D-Day, when 156,000 American,British and Canadian forces landed on five beaches along a 50-milestretch of the coast of France’s Normandy region.The invasion wasone of thelargest amphibious military assaults in history and required extensive planning.
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/d-day -
Liberation Concentration Camps
Soviet soldiers were the first to liberate concentration camp prisoners in the final stages of the war. they entered the Majdanek camp in Poland, and later overran several other killing centers they entered Auschwitz and there found hundreds of sick and exhausted prisoners. The Germans had been forced to leave these prisoners behind in their retreat from the camp.
https://www.ushmm.org/outreach/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007724 -
Battle of Iwo Jima
Iwo Jima was defended by roughly 23,000 Japanese army and navy troops, who fought from an elaborate network of caves, dugouts, tunnels and underground installations. Despite the difficulty of the conditions, the marines wiped out the defending forces after a month of fighting, and the battle earned a place in American lore with the publication of a photograph showing the U.S. flag being raised in victory. -
Hiroshima and Nagasaki
On August 6, 1945, during World War II an American B-29 bomber dropped the world’s first deployed atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The explosion wiped out 90 percent of the city and immediately killed 80,000 people; tens of thousands more would later die of radiation exposure. Three days later, a second B-29 dropped another A-bomb on Nagasaki, killing an estimated 40,000 people.
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/bombing-of-hiroshima-and-nagasaki -
U.S. Victory over Japan
On August 14, 1945, it was announced that Japan had surrendered unconditionally to the Allies, effectively ending World War II. Since then, both August 14 and August 15 have been known as “Victory over Japan Day,” or “V-J Day.” The term has also been used for September 2, 1945, when Japan’s formal surrender took place aboard the U.S.S. Missouri, anchored in Tokyo Bay.
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/v-j-day -
Battle of the Bulge
On December 16, three German armies launched the deadliest and mostdesperate battle of the warin the west in the heavily forested Ardennes. The once-quiet regionbecame bedlam as American units were caught flat-footed and fought desperate battles.The inexperienced U.S. 106th Division was nearly annihilated,the line the Alliedfront took on the appearanceof a large protrusion or bulge,the name by which the battle would forever be known.
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/battle-of-the-bulge
