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Battle of Britain
The Battle of Britain is the name given to the air campaign waged by the German Air Force against the UK. The objective was to gain air superiority over the Royal Air Force. -
FDR approves "shoot on sight"
Germany had been attacking US Ships, so in the early 1940’s FDR retaliated by shoot on site tactic -
Japan joins Axis
would give Japan a better chance at controlling the Pacific -
Hitler breaks Non-Aggression agreement and invades the Soviet Union
Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II. Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a 1,800 mile front. This broke the Non-Aggression Pact that the two countries signed. -
Attack on Pearl Harbor
an unannouced military strike by the Japanese navy against the US naval base in Hawaii which resulted in the US's entry into WW2 -
Japanese ambassors arrive in Washington
to speak with FDR -
Germany and Italy declare war on US
America immediately responded by declaring war on the two Axis powers. -
MacArthur promises return
MacArthur makes good on promise to return to Philippines while retreating from the Japanese -
Bataan death march
took place in the Philippines and was later accounted as a Japanese war crime. The 60-mile march occurred after the three-month Battle of Bataan. -
Battle of Coral Sea
This was a major naval battle in the Pacific Theater of World War II between the Imperial Japanese Navy and Allied naval and air forces from the US and Australia. The battle was the first fleet action in which aircraft carriers engaged each other. It was also the first naval battle in history in which neither side's ships sighted or fired directly upon the other. -
Battle of Midway
The Battle of Midway is widely regarded as the most important naval battle of the Pacific Campaign of World War II. Approximately one month after the Battle of the Coral Sea and six months after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States Navy decisively defeated an Imperial Japanese Navy attack against Midway Atoll, inflicting irreparable damage on the Japanese. -
Guadalcanal
The Battle of Guadalcanal was fought on and around the island of Guadalcanal in the Pacific theatre of World War II. Fiercely contested on the ground, at sea, and in the air, the campaign was the first major offensive launched by Allied forces against the Empire of Japan. -
General Eisenhower and his forces land in North Africa
aka Operation Torch was the British-American invasion of French North Africa in World War II during the North African Campaign. -
Vichy France begins
Metropolitan France was divided into a German occupation zone in the north and west and an unoccupied zone in the south. -
end of Battle of Stalingrad
The surrender of the German VI Army -
Sicily falls
the Allies took Sicily from the Axis (Italy and Nazi Germany). It was a large scale amphibious and airborne operation, followed by six weeks of land combat. -
Rome falls
the Allied forces captured their first Axis capital, Rome. -
D-Day
D-Day (also known as the Normandy Landings) were the landing operations of the Allied invasion of Normandy during World War II. -
MacArthur returns
US General Douglas MacArthur kept the promise he had made 2 and a half years earlier to the people of the Philippines: he returned to the islands with an enormous invasion force and the largest assemblage of naval vessels in the history of mankind. For MacArthur, the liberation of the Philippines from the Japanese was the culmination of the war. -
Kamikaze atacks begin
the first mass kamikaze attack occurred on the ships of the Third Fleet steaming off Luzon, Philippines. Six suicide craft plunged into four aircraft carriers — USS Hancock, USS Essex, USS Cabot and USS Intrepid. -
Battle of the Bulge
It was the last major German offensive of the war. The Germans attacked a weak area of the allied lines. Their intention was to break through, split the American and British armies, capture Antwerp, Belgium thus cutting off the British from supplies and reinforcements. It was unsuccessful however, the allied lines held up. -
US flag raised on Mt. Suribachi
Marines raised the American flag at the summit of Mt. Suribachi during the battle for Iwo Jima -
Okinawa taken
was fought on the Ryukyu Islands of Okinawa and was the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific Theater of World War II. The battle last 82 days -
Truman becomes President
Harry Truman becomes the 33rd president after Roosevelt died less than three months after beginning his fourth term. -
Hitler commits suicide
The cause of death is suicide by a gunshot wound to the head and cyanide posioning. The lack of public information concerning the whereabouts of Hitler's remains, confused reports stemming from the dual method and other circumstances surrounding the event encouraged rumours that Hitler may have survived the end of World War II. -
V-E Day
date when the World War II Allies formally accepted the unconditional surrender of the armed forces of Nazi Germany and the end of Adolf Hitler's Third Reich. -
Hiroshima
another effort by the US to end the war -
Nagasaki
an effort by the US to end the war, Japenese generals would not accept defeat -
V-J Day
the day on which the Surrender of Japan occurred, ending WW2. -
Formal surrender of Japan
Japan surrenders after the bombing of Nagasaki- Emperor Hirohito declared that he couldn't bare to watch his innocent people suffer the way they did, so he had his empire surrender.
