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Versailles Treaty
Twenty-seven countries met at Versailles, near Paris, to negotiate a peace settlement. Germany and Russia were not invited to this meeting. -
Battle of France
After the Battle of Flanders and the Allied withdrawal, Nazi Germany ordered 142 divisions southward with France attempting to defend. Their troops were delayed due to German air forces. -
Battle of Britain
Hitler made plans for an invasion that involved destroying Britain's Royal Air Force. -
Lend Lease
President Franklin D. Roosevelt proposes Lend-Lease. It gave Britain and Canada fifty destroyers and ten Coast Guard cutters in return for leases on selected bases in the Western Hemisphere. -
Germans Invade Soviet Union -Operation Barbarossa
Germans attacked with a force of 160 divisions and were aided by Finnish, Hungarian, Italian, Romanian, and Slovakian forces. Because of the Soviets bad positioning they had 1200 of their aircrafts destroyed. -
Normandy. Campaign - D-Day - Operation Overlord
Victory in Europe required the defeat of Nazi Germany so the US and Great Britain formed Operation Overlord. In this plan, they would invade through France to cooperate with the Soviet Union in their conquest of Nazi Germany. -
Ardennes Alsace Campaign - Battle of the Bulge
While the Allies closed to the German border in the prolonged Rhineland Campaign (15 September 1944 – 21 March 1945), the Germans attempted to regain the initiative with a surprise offensive through the Ardennes to seize the vital port of Antwerp. -
Yalta Conference
Prime Minister Winston S. Churchill of the United Kingdom, President Franklin D. Roosevelt of the United States, and General Secretary of the Communist Party Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Union were brought together to discuss the postwar settlement of Europe and the war against Japan. -
Iwo Jima Campaign
Marines cut the island in two on the first day and secured dominant Mt. Suribachi - the site of the iconic flag raising - by 23 February. All but about 1,000 of the defenders died in the fighting. The Americans suffered 24,891 casualties, of whom 6,821 were killed. -
Japanese Surrender
The Allies issued the Potsdam Declaration, presenting Japan with an ultimatum and defining terms of surrender. The Japanese government ignored the ultimatum. After the bombing of Hiroshima though, their surrender terms were altered and accepted.