-
France's swift fall to Nazi forces in May-June 1940 resulted from Germany's Blitzkrieg tactics, including a surprise armored thrust through he Ardennes, bypassing the Maginot Line, which overwhelmed the unprepared French and British armies, leading to the capture of Paris, the Dunkirk evacuation, and an armistice creating a German-occupied north and a collaborating Vichy regime in the south, ending the Third Republic.
-
The Guadalcanal Campaign (August 1943) was the first major Allied land offensive against Japan in WWII.
-
Germany's invasion of Poland starting September 1, 1939, with a Soviet invasion from the east two weeks later, triggered World War II as the Blitzkrieg tactics overwhelmed Poland, leading to its partition between the two powers under the secret Molotov-occupation and the Holocaust.
-
The victory at Stalingrad was a decisive Soviet triumph in WWII (1942-43) where the Red Army encircled and defeated the German Sixth Army, halting the Nazi eastward advance, shattering German invincibility, and marking the major turning point on the Eastern Front, shifting the wars momentum permanently to the Allies.
-
The Rescue at Dunkirk (Operation Dynamo, May-June 1940) was a massive evacuation of over 338,000 Allied soldiers, mostly British and French, trapped by German forces in France, using Royal Navy ships and hundreds of civilian "a little ships" (Yachts, fishing boats) to ferry them across the English Channel, saving them to fight another day and boosting British morale despite vast amounts of military equipment.
-
The London Blitz (Sept 1940 - May 1941) was Nazi Germany's sustained aerial bombing campaign against Britain, targeting London and other cities to destroy morale and infrastructure.
-
On December 7,1941, the Japanese military launched a surprise attack on the U.S. Naval base at Pearl Harbor. The attack killed 2,403 service members and wounded 1,178 more, and sank or destroyed six U.S. ships.
-
After the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, They invaded Luzon, Philippines in January 1942. Despite insufficient supplies, American and Filipino troops were able to fight for 3 months. Eventually, they surrendered to Japanese troops and were forced into the Bataan Death March where some of the most horrific war crimes were committed by the Japanese.
-
The Doolittle Raid on April 18, 1942, was America's first retaliatory air strike against Japan's home islands after Pear Harbor.
-
The Battle of Midway (June 4-7,1942) was a decisive naval victory for the U.S. over Japan in World War II, considered the turning point in the Pacific; American code breakers' intelligence allowed the U.S. to ambush Japan's fleet, sinking four of their aircraft carriers (Akagi, Kaga, Soryu, Hiryu) while losing only o of their own (Yorktown), crippling Japan's offensive power and shifting momentum to the Allies.
-
The Italian Campaign (1943-1945) was the Allied invasion of mainland Italy, starting after Sicily's capture, to knock Italy out of WWII, secure the Mediterranean, and divert German troops from other fronts.
-
D-Day, June 6, 1944, was the massive Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied Normandy, France (Operation Overlord), the largest seaborne invasion in history, launching the liberation of Western Europe with simultaneous air, land, and sea assaults on five beaches.
-
Operation Market Garden (September 17-25, 1944) was an ambitious, ultimately failed Allied world war II plan to seize key ridges in the Netherlands with airborne troops ("market") to create a fast invasion route into Germany with ground forces ("Garden"), but it faltered due to poor intelligence, bad weather, German resistance, and logistical issues, leading to heady casualties and delaying the war's end in Europe by months.
-
The Battle of Leyte (October-December 1944) was a crucial campaign in WWII, starting with the massive US amphibious invasion of Leyte, Philippines, to liberate the islands from Japanese occupation and Behan the liberation of the Philippines.
-
The Battle of the Bulge, WWII's last major German Offensive, ran from December 16, 1944, to January 25, 1945, beginning with a surprise attack in the Ardennes Forest and ending when Allie forces pushed the Germans back, creating a "bulge" in the lines.
-
The Battle of Iwo Jima (Feb-Ma 1945) was a brutal, 36-day fight where U.S. Marines captured the strategic volcanic island from heavily entrenched Japanese forces, providing a crucial emergency landing strip for bombers targeting Japan, but at immense cost, with over 26,000 American casualties (6,800 killed) and nearly all 21,000 Japanese defenders lost.
-
The Battle of Okinawa (April-June 1945) was the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific.
-
The United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima (August 6,1945) and Nagasaki (9, 945)
-
Japan's surrender in WWII concluded on September 2, 1945, with the formal signing of the instrument of surrender aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay.
-
Victory in Europe Day, celebrated on May 8, 1945, marks the formal acceptance of Nazi Germany's unconditional surrender to the Allies, signifying the end of World War II in Europe after nearly six years of devastating conflict, leading to massive celebrations but also solemn remembrances as the war in the Pacific continued.