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The Invasion of Poland
The attack on Poland was an initial victory for Germany that surpassed the staff’s initial expectations, but it also galvanized Polish military resistance with the formation of a strong partisan underground that would never flag during the course of World War II and a Polish army in exile that would fight alongside the Allies at major engagements that included Operation Market Garden and the Battle of Monte Cassino. -
Great Britian and France Declare War on Nazi Germany
Germany represented a direct threat to British security and the security of its empire. Accepting German domination of Europe had grave implications for British status and survival. Britain went to war in 1939 to defend the balance of power in Europe and safeguard Britain's position in the world. -
The Invasion of Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands & France
German military strategy involved invading the neutral Low Countries (Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg) in order to invade France. The conquest of western Europe brought hundreds of thousands of Jews under German control. -
The Battle & Great Escape at Dunkirk
The Dunkirk evacuation was an important event for the Allies. If the BEF had been captured, it would have meant the loss of Britain's only trained troops and the collapse of the Allied cause. The successful evacuation was a great boost to civilian morale, and created the 'Dunkirk spirit' which helped Britain to fight on in the summer of 1940. -
The Battle of Britain
The Battle of Britain was important because it kept Nazi materials of war focused on Britain, steeled the will of the British people to find the war to the end, and demonstrated that the Nazis were not invincible. By denying the Germans the ability to invade, the British were able to keep the war in mainland Europe. -
Selective Service & Training Act
The Selective Training and Service Act of 1940, signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, created the country's first peacetime draft. With Europe already engulfed in World War II and Japan making threatening moves in the Pacific, Roosevelt wanted to strengthen the unprepared U.S. armed. -
Lend-Lease Assistance Act
This system served a dual purpose: it enabled Roosevelt to send material support to the anti-Nazi allies while allowing the U.S. to avoid direct involvement in the widening war. -
The Attack on Pearl Harbor
This unprovoked attack brought the United States into World War II, as it immediately declared war on Japan. Pearl Harbor was, and still is, the most important American naval base in the Pacific and home to the US Pacific Fleet. -
America Enters World War 2
By 1944 America led the world in arms production, making more than enough to fill its military needs. At the same time, the United States was providing its allies in Great Britain and the Soviet Union with critically needed supplies. -
Germany and Italy Declare War on the United States
“assist one another with all political, economic, and military means when one of the three Contracting Parties is attacked by a power at present not involved in the European War or the Sino-Japanese Conflict.”[7] This clause of course included the United States. -
The Battle of the Coral Sea
It was the world's first carrier-vs. -carrier battle, and the first naval battle in which neither side's ships sighted the others. This in itself marked the coming of a new mode of naval warfare that had been predicted by airpower advocates as much as a decade prior. -
The Battle of Midway Island
This critical US victory stopped the growth of Japan in the Pacific and put the United States in a position to begin shrinking the Japanese empire through a years-long series of island-hopping invasions and several even larger naval battles. -
The Invasion of North Africa
Operation Torch was designed to take pressure off of the besieged Soviet Union by opening a second front in the Mediterranean to divert German attention. It would also give the United States experience fighting Nazi Germany. -
The Invasion of Sicily & Italy
he operation was a compromise between U.S. and British planners as the latter felt that the American-advocated landing in northern Europe was premature and would lead to disaster at this stage of the war.
The operation was planned as a pincer movement, with U.S. landings on Morocco’s Atlantic coast (Western Task Force—Safi, Fedala, Mehdia–Port Lyautey) and Anglo-American landings on Algeria’s Mediterranean coast (Center and Eastern task forces—Oran, Algiers). -
The D-Day Invasion of France
On June 6, 1944, in Operation Overlord, the Allied forces landed troops on Normandy beaches for the largest amphibious assault in history, beginning the march eastward to defeat Germany. In a larger strategic sense, the successful Allied landing in France was a psychological blow to the German occupation of Europe. -
Nazi Concentration Camps Discovered
In late July 1944, as Soviet forces approached Lublin, the remaining camp staff hastily abandoned Majdanek, without fully dismantling the camp. Soviet troops first arrived at Majdanek during the night of July 22–23 and captured Lublin on July 24. Captured virtually intact, Majdanek was the first major concentration camp to be liberated. Soviet officials invited journalists to inspect the camp and evidence of the horrors that had occurred there. -
The Battle of the Bulge
The Battle of the Bulge marked the last German offense on the Western Front. The catastrophic losses on the German side prevented Germany from resisting the advance of Allied forces following the Normandy Invasion. -
The Yalta Conference
At Yalta, Roosevelt and Churchill discussed with Stalin the conditions under which the Soviet Union would enter the war against Japan and all three agreed that, in exchange for potentially crucial Soviet participation in the Pacific theater, the Soviets would be granted a sphere of influence in Manchuria following. -
V-E (Victory in Europe) Day
On Victory in Europe Day, or V-E Day, Germany unconditionally surrendered its military forces to the Allies, including the United States. On May 8, 1945 - known as Victory in Europe Day or V-E Day - celebrations erupted around the world to mark the end of World War II in Europe. -
The Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima
The bombing of these cities in August 1945 brought an end to the Second World War, but at a terrible cost to the Japanese civilian population, and signalling the dawn of the nuclear age. -
The Atomic Bomb on Nagasaki
“The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki ended World War II. There can be no doubt of that. While they brought death and destruction on a horrifying scale, they averted even greater losses – American, English, and Japanese”. -
V-J (Victory over Japan) Day
V-J Day, or Victory over Japan Day, marks the end of World War II, one of the deadliest and most destructive wars in history. When President Harry S. Truman announced on Aug. 14, 1945, that Japan had surrendered unconditionally, war-weary citizens around the world erupted in celebration.