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The beginning.
German forces invade Poland without a declaration of war. The operation is code named Fall Weiss (Plan White). The Germans allot 52 divisions for the invasion (some 1.5 million men), including the 6 armored divisions and all their motorized units. Of the divisions left to defend against an Anglo-French front, only about 10 are regarded by the Germans as being fit for any kind of action. -
The beginning.
The war is generally accepted to have begun on 1 September 1939, with the invasion of Poland by Germany and subsequent declarations of war on Germany by France and most of the countries of the British Empire and Commonwealth. Germany set out to establish a large German empire in Europe. -
The middle.
In June 1941, the European Axis launched an invasion of the Soviet Union, giving a start to the largest land theatre of war in history, which, from this moment on, was tying down the major part of the Axis military power. In December 1941, Japan, which had already been at war with China since 1937, and which aimed to establish a dominance over East Asia and Southeast Asia, attacked the United States. -
The bad battle.
The Axis advance was stopped in 1942 after the defeat of Japan in a series of naval battles and after devastating defeats of European Axis troops in the Mediterranean and at Stalingrad. In 1943, with a series of German defeats in Eastern Europe, the Allied invasion of Italy and American victories in the Pacific the Axis had lost strategic initiative and passed to strategic retreat on all fronts. -
The middle.
World War II, or the Second World War was a war fought on almost every continent on the world. There was fighting between two groups: the Allied Powers and the Axis Powers. The war was fought as a "total war", meaning all or most citizens of the countries were involved in the war effort, both civilians and also all resources a country had were poured into the war. -
Still in war.
In 1944, the Western Allies invaded France, whereas the Soviet Union regained all territorial losses and invaded the territory of Germany and its allies. The war in Europe ended with the capture of Berlin by Soviet troops and subsequent German unconditional surrender on 8 May 1945. By that time, the Japanese Navy was defeated by the United States, and invasion of the Japanese Archipelago ("Home Islands") became imminent. -
So close.
Eventually the “Big Three” agreed that Poland, Hungary, Romania, and the Baltics would fall into the Soviet Sphere of influence. Greece, Yugoslavia and Austria would be split between them; and France, Luxembourg, Holland, Denmark, and Norway would enter the American and British sphere of influence. -
Surrender.
At Yalta on the Crimea in February 1945, the “Big Three” decided how to govern postwar Europe. Stalin, whose nation had perhaps as many as twenty million dead by the time of the conference and a million more by the time the war was over, wanted lots of space between Russia and Germany to prevent another war. Roosevelt and Churchill. -
Notice to familys back home.
V-E Day in Germany The 385th Infantry Regiment Has met and defeated the German Soldier. I Know you are as proud of your infantryman as I am. May God speed his return home. Peter W.Garland, Jr. Lt Lol, 385th Infantry Regt Commanding. -
Hitler's death.
Hitler's death: On April 30, as the Battle of Berlin raged above him, realizing that all was lost and not wishing to suffer Mussolini's fate, German dictator Adolf Hitler committed suicide in his bunker along with Eva Braun, his long-term mistress whom he had married just hours before their joint suicide. -
German forces in Bavaria surrender.
During the spring of 1945, as the sky grew darker over Germany, the Nazi leaders had struggled desperately, by every means in their power, to whip their people into a last supreme effort to stave off defeat, hoping against hope that it would be possible, if only they could hold on long enough, to save the day by dividing the Allies. Blinded as they were by their own terror and hatred of "bolshevism, -
Close to the end.
In 1945, the Allies won the war. After the war, the United Nations was created to develop support between each country in the world and to prevent future wars, but the Cold War began between the two superpowers; the Soviet Union and the United States. Decolonization of Asia and Africa, where those countries that were controlled by European countries were granted their independence, occurred as well. -
Captured.
Deposition of captured German Army standards near the Kremlin Walls during the Victory Parade. -
The end.
By the end germany almost had every on their side surrender the nazis lost. -
The end.
The war ended with the total victory of the Allies over Germany and Japan in 1945. World War II left the political alignment and social structure of the world significantly altered. While the United Nations (UN) was established to foster international cooperation and prevent future conflicts (such as World War III), the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which would last for the next 46 years.