-
Period: to
WWII Battles
-
Battle of Poland
Adolf Hitler invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, where he practiced a new form of attack known as "Blitzkrieg", Lightning War, where fast moving tanks, airplanes, and infantry were all used.. Britain and France declared war on Germany on September 3rd, 1939. -
Battle of Dunkirk
French and British forces retreated to the city of Dunkirk in France. The British and French soldiers barely escaped attacks by the Luftwaffe, or the German airforce, but were able to cross the English Channel, with the help of British, to Great Britain. This was known as the Miracle of Dunkirk. France surrendered in June of 1940.
The Maginot Line was then created with concrete fortifications, tanks obstacles, machine gun posts all on the borders of Germany and Italy. -
Battle of France
The French government abandoned Paris On June 10, 1940. Italy, run by Fascist Benito Mussolini, soon declared war on France as well as Great Britain on the same day. French general Charles de Gaulle led one of the few armoured counter-attacks that were successful. On June 14th, German troops enetered Paris and then on June 22nd, France and more than 1.5 million soldiers surrendered. -
Battle of Britain
Hitler turned to Luftwaffe to destroy Britain's air defenses. In August 1940, Hitler launched the biggest air aasault up to that date. Each and every day, as many as 1,000 planes showered bombs on Britain. At first bombs were only supposed to be dropped on British ports and radar installations, but eventually Hitler orderd for the city of London and others ot be bombed. Winston Churchill praised the resistance of the RAF where many British pilots gave their lives to defend Britain. -
Operation Barbarossa
Almost 3.6 million German and other Axis troops piled across the length of the Soviet border. Nearly 3 million Red Army soldiers, all who were poorly trained, prepared to face blitzkrieg. The Red Army was not prepared for the brutality of the German attack. Germany captured hundreds of thousands of Soviet soldiers. Soviet citizens, who were treated horribly and persecuted by the dictator, Stalin, greeted the German troops. However, their happiness ended when German troops began executing them. -
Pearl Harbor
Japan attacks Pearl harbor. By Tojo's order, Japanese planes bombed and attacked with machine gun fire the naval fleet and the air fields nearby. In less than two hours over 2,400 Americans were killed an dnearly 1,200 were wounded. nearly 200 American warplanes were either damaged or destroyed, 18 warships were either sunk or heavily damaged, including 8 of the 9 fleet's battleships. Japan only lost 29 planes. -
Battle of Midway
Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku, behind the Pearl Harbor attack, took out what was left of the U.S Pacific Fleet near Midway Island. The battle was fought in the air. 4 Japanese carriers were sunk. 250 planes and skilled naval pilots were lost. After the battle, Japan was unable to launch offensive operations in the Pacific. American forces began island hopping, tarting at Guadalcanal, cut off islands from supplies, and made useless to Japan. General Douglas MacArthur went through Solomon Islands. -
Battle of Stalingrad
The Germans began a campaign of firebombing and shelling that lasted a litle more than 2 months. Soviet fighters challeneged the advancing troops in the charred rubble of Stalingrad in house-to-house combat. In mid-November, Soviet soldiers took advantage of the brutal winter and launched a counterattack. Hitler called for a retreat, but the German troops were surrounded by the Red Army, On January 31, 1943 more than 90,000 surviving Germans surrendered. -
Battle of El Alamein
Hitler sent General Erwin Rommel and a German division to reinforce the Italians. Rommel, or Desert Fox, won 7 battles. The Germans went far into the British-controlled Egypt an threatened the Middle East. In November of 1942, Rommel's offensive failed when the British under General Bernard Montgomery won a victory at El Alamein. The German army retreated west. -
Sandwhich of North Africa
American General Dwight D. Eisenhower and a large American force went eastward in Morocco and Algeria. British troops chased after German troops heading westward from Egypt. Hitler sent 20,000 troops from Italy to Rommel's army in Tunisia. In February 1943, the American soldiers suffered a major defeat but returned in May of 1943. Allied forces had the Axis forces trapped in Nort Africa. About 240,000 Germans and Italians gave up. General George S. Patton invaded Sicily with British forces -
D-Day
Allied warships in the English Channel began a massive shelling of the coast of Western Europe. Hitler had hesitated and feared a second, larger invasion. Hitler's force resisted at Omaha beach at Normandy. Inspite of heavy casualities of D-Day, within a week a half million men had come a shore. By late July, the Allied force in France numbered some 2 million troops. -
Battle of the Bulge
hitler reinforced his army with thousands of new draftees, some as young as 15. Germany launched a counterattack in Belgium and Luxemburg. The German attack smashed into the U.S First Army and pushed it back, forming a bulge in the Allied line. General Patton rapidly moved his U.S Third Army north to stop the German advance. It was the largest battle in Western Europe during WWII. German losses totaled about 100,000. Most Nazi leaders recognized that the war was lost. -
Battle of Iwo Jima
American forces suffered 25,000 casualities. A photo of servicemen raising the United States flag on Mount. Surabachi came to symbolize the struggles and sacrifices of American troops during WWII. -
Battle of Okinawa
This battle was fought from April to June 1945 and was equally bloody. Okinawa was historically Japanese soil and was the last obstacle to an Allied invasion of the Japanese home islands. Nearly 100,000 pledged to fight to the death. Japanese pilots flew nearly 2,000 kamikazes and as American soldiers came ashore, Japanese defenders equally made banzai attacks, kills as many of the enemy until they themselves were dead. In June, 7,200 remained to surrender. America now had a clear path to Japan -
Hiroshima and Nagasaki
In August 1939, President Rooselvelt received a letter from Albert Einstein informing him about a new type of powerful bomb that could be built by the Germans. Roosevelt organized the Mahattan Project to build an atomic bomb before the Germans could. The test drop was in New Mexico on July 16, 1945. President Truman made the immdiate desicion to drop the bomb on Nagasaki and Hiroshima 3 months after Roosevelts death in April. -
V-E Day
Hitler committed suicide on April 30th, 1945 after the Soviet army had surrounded Berlin. Germany's remaining troops surrendered on May 8, 1945. -
V-J Day
On August 14th 1945, the government of Japan accepted the American terms for surrender. The next day, Americans celebrated Victory in Japan Day. The formal surrender agreement was signed September 2, 1945, aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. The war had come to an end.
