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Battle of the Bulge
The Battle of the Bulge started on December 16, 1944 and ended January 25, 1945. The purpose of the battle was for Germany to split up the allied forces by using a surprise blitzkrieg attack. The battle was fought in the Ardennes forest, which had severe weather conditions. The snow and the cold accounted for many of the deaths durng this time and was definitely not the ideal weather or terrain for the fighting troops. Germany suffered immensely from this battle and the allied forces won. -
Yalta Conference
The Yalta Conference was held from February 4th, 1945 to February 11th, 1945. Joseph Stalin, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Winston Churchill, A.K.A. the "Big 3", assembled in a Russian resort town in Crimea. They discussed the unconditional surrender of Germany and they discussed their hopes for the post war world. More specifically, they tried to come to a consensus on how the government of Poland was going to be run. Churchill and FDR wanted democracy whole Stalin wanted communism. -
Battle of Remagen
The Battle of Remagen lasted until March 25th, 1945. The purpose of the battle was for control of the Remagen bridge, one of the main access points into Berlin, and was one of the key factors leading up it. If the allied forces were not able to control the bridge, there would have been no way for them to secure Berlin and overpower the Nazis. The allied forces gained control of the bridge, which lead to their victory in the Battle of Berlin about a month later. -
Liberation of Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp
On April 11th, 1945 the Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp was handed over to the British forces without a fight. The Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp was responsible for about 37,000 prisoner deaths. There were thousands of bodies that were left unburied when the British arrived. Those bodies were eventually buried in mass graves, huge graves designed to hold large groups of dead bodies. -
Battle of Berlin
The Battle of Berlin was one of the leading factors in the ending of WWII in Europe. The USSR had secured and were protecting the borders of Germany to ensure the safety of the German citizens from their government. On April 20th ,1945 the USSR began to shell the German forces, greatly weakening them. When this attack happened, Hitler foresaw the fate of Germany which eventually led him to commit suicide eight days later. The battle ended on May 2nd, 1945 with the USSR as the upper hand. -
Liberation of Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp
The Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp was liberated on April 22nd, 1945 by the Soviet troops. By the time that the Soviets arrived, the Nazis had already fled with most of the prisoners. There were only 3,000 very weak and very ill prisoners remaining when the Soviet troops found them. These were the prisoners who were not in suitable conditions to participate in the death march, which happened a day before the liberation. -
Death of Benito Mussolini
Mussolini was the leader of the facist Italian party. He was executed by members of the Italian Resistance movement in northern Italy. -
Hitler kills himself
Hitler killed himself with a gunshot to the head when he realized that there was not much hope left for him in the war. He killed himself in his underground Führerbunker in Berlin. Many people say that this was the cowardly way out because he was afraid to accept the consequences for his actions. -
Prauge Offensive
The Prauge Offensive was an attack by the USSR on the eastern front of Prauge, a heavily jewish-populated city which, at the time, was being controlled by the Nazis. The USSR attacked from the eastern front of prauge in hopes to liberate the city. After about a week of battle, the USSR succeeded in their goal of liberating the city. -
Final German surrender
On May 7th, 1945 General Alfred Jodl signed the unconditional surrender of all German forces. He had hoped to only sign for the surrender of western German forces, but he was required to sign for the surrender of all. If the terms had not been met, General Dwight Eisenhower was going to completely secure the German western front, leaving the German citizens the only option of fleeing east into the USSR territory. -
Stutthof Concentration Camp liberation
Stutthof was the last of the concentraion camps liberated by the Soviets. It was liberated on May 9th, 1945, but had been mostly evacuated earlier in January of 1945. There were more than 85,000 deaths accounted for during the time that this camp was running. -
Berlin Declaration
The Berlin Declaration was the official document stating the German surrender. It addressed the supreme authority of the WWII Allies over Germany. Germany was split up into four major occupation zones between the U.S., Britain, France, and the Soviet Union. There were also smaller zones that were occupied by Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Polish. -
Potsdam Conference
The Potsdam Conference was held in Potsdam, Germany. It was a meeting between the allied leaders, Joseph Stalin, Clement Attlee, and Harry Truman, to discuss tactics of defeating Germany and Japan. They gathered to come to an agreement about the punishments of the Axis as well as plans for the post-war world. -
Paris Peace Conference
The Paris Peace Conference was held from July 29th, 1946 to October 15th, 1946. During the conference, the the terms of the peace treaties of Italy, Finland, Bulgaria, Romania, and Hungary were discussed. These terms included payment of war reparations, committment to minority rights, and territorial adjustments. The treaties were all signed on February 10th, 1947.