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German Blitzkrieg (1939-1940)
This was a response to Germany's limited manpower, following by the Treaty of Versailles. German Blitzkrieg is a successful tatic used by nazi's in the early years of world war 2.
https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/blitzkrieg -
Pearl Harbor (1941)
The Japanese military launched a surprise attack on the United States Naval Base, Pearl Harbor. "It was a realistic account of a clash between the United States and Japan that begins with the Japanese destruction of the U.S. fleet and proceeds to a Japanese attack on Guam and the Philippines." The attack on Pearl Harbor crippled or destroyed nearly 20 American ships and more than 300 airplanes Congress declared war on Japan, bringing America officially into World War 2.https://www.history.com/ -
Wannsee Conference (1942)
At this conference, he presents plans to coordinate a European-wide “Final Solution of the Jewish Question” to key officials from the German State and the Nazi Party.
The mass murder of the Jews by Nazi Germany and its collaborators required the coordination and cooperation of governmental agencies throughout Axis-controlled Europe.
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/wannsee-conference-and-the-final-solution -
Bataan Death March (1942)
on April 9, 1942, the prisoners were force-marched north to San Fernando and then taken by rail in cramped and unsanitary boxcars farther north to Capas. The Bataan Death March is remembered as an absolute tragedy. The prisoners of war were forced to march through tropical conditions, enduring heat, humidity, and rain without adequate medical care. They suffered from starvation, having to sleep in the harsh conditions of the Philippines. -
-Battle of Midway (1942)
fought almost entirely with aircraft, in which the United States destroyed Japan's first-line carrier strength and most of its best trained naval pilots. he Imperial Japanese Navy would not be capable of overcoming the loss of four carriers and over 100 trained pilots, and with the loss at Midway, the Japanese offensive in the Pacific was overturned and the United States began offensive action in the Pacific.https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/topics -
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Battle of Stalingrad (1942)
It stopped the German advance into the Soviet Union and marked the turning of the tide of war in favour of the Allies.Hitler’s goal was to eliminate Soviet forces in the south, secure the region’s economic resources, and then wheel his armies either north to Moscow or south to conquer the remainder of the Caucasus.
https://www.britannica.com/event/Battle-of-Stalingrad -
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Allied invasion of Italy (1943)
The operation was undertaken by General Sir Harold Alexander's 15th Army Group and followed the successful Allied invasion of Sicily. In Casablanca, Morocco, in January 1943, Allied leaders decided to use their massive military resources in the Mediterranean to launch an invasion of Italy, which British Prime Minister Winston Churchill (1874-1965) called the “soft underbelly of Europe.”https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/italian-campaign -
D-Day (Normandy Invasion - 1944)
the Battle of Normandy, resulted in the Allied liberation of Western Europe from Nazi Germany’s control. British and Canadian forces landed on five beaches along a 50-mile stretch of the heavily fortified coast of France’s Normandy region. The invasion was one of the largest amphibious military assaults in history and required extensive planning
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Battle of the Bulge (1945)
Attacking through the Ardennes Forest in eastern Belgium on December 16, hundreds of German tanks and several hundred thousand German troops broke through the thinly held American lines. Hitler hoped that the German counter-attack would surround the British and American armies and stall the Allied offensive against Germany. By early January 1945, the German military effort had failed. The Battle of the Bulge cost the Reich some 100,000 casualties and tremendous losses in military equipment. -
Liberation of concentration camps (1945)
As Allied and Soviet troops moved across Europe against Nazi Germany in 1944 and 1945, they encountered concentration camps, mass graves, and other sites of Nazi crimes. Bergen-Belsen was liberated by British forces on 15 April 1945. It had become exceptionally overcrowded after the arrival of survivors of the death marches. Thousands of unburied bodies lay strewn around the camp, while in the barracks some 60,000 starving and mortally ill people were packed together without food or water. -
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Battle of Iwo Jima (1945)
The US wants to use the island as an airbase from which to attack Japan's home islands. nearly 7,000 U.S. Marines were killed. Another 20,000 were wounded. Marines captured 216 Japanese soldiers; the rest were killed in action.
https://www.nationalww2museum.org/sites/default/files/2020-02/iwo-jima-fact-sheet.pdf -
Battle of Okinawa (1945)
Taking Okinawa would provide Allied forces an airbase from which bombers could strike Japan and an advanced anchorage for Allied fleets. From Okinawa, US forces could increase air strikes against Japan and blockade important logistical routes, denying the home islands of vital commodities. https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/topics/battle-of-okinawa#:~:text=Taking%20Okinawa%20would%20provide%20Allied,home%20islands%20of%20vital%20commodities. -
VE Day (1945)
Germany unconditionally surrendered its military forces to the Allies, including the United States. For members of the Allied forces who were still serving overseas on VE Day, the occasion was bittersweet. Although it meant victory in one theatre, the war was not yet over in the Far East and Pacific.
https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/what-you-need-to-know-about-ve-day#:~:text=It%20was%20not%20the%20end%20of%20the%20war&text=For%20members%20of%20the%20Allied,the%20toughest%20of%20the%20war. -
Dropping of the atomic bombs (1945)
an American bomber dropped the world’s first deployed atomic bomb over the Japanese city of 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. What had led to the fateful decision to deploy these new weapons of mass destruction? https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/why-were-atomic-bombs-dropped-on-hiroshima-and-nagasaki