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Battle of France/Miracle of Dunkirk
-hitler failed to take the British army at Dunkirk, and many consider this one of the major turning points in the war
-a total of over 140,000 Polish, French and Belgium troops were taken as POW's
-Many of those who were captured forced marched into Germany and served as slaves labor for the Nazis party
-on the first evauation day, only 8,000 troops were rescued
-The phrase “Dunkirk spirit” is used to celebrate people who pull together in a time of extreme hardship. -
Battle of Britain
-The Battle of Britain was named by Winston Churchill when he said "the Battle of France is over. The Battle of Britain is about to begin."
-The Germans decided to focus on attacking the Royal Airforce because the British Airforce poised a large threat
-Hitler began bombing the smaller cities,he started bombing large cities including London
-Because the British utilized radar, they were able to defeat the Germans
-The code name for Hitler was Operation Sea Lion. -
Siege of Leningrad
-this was also called the 900-day siege, September 8, 1941–January 27, 1944
-there was a death toll of over 1,000,000 people in the city
-many of the people who perished died from starvation, freezing to death, and the constant amount of bombs that were dropped by the Germans
-the Germans planned to quickly freeze and starve the city.
-over 1.4 million people being evacuated during three phases. -
Operation Torch
-Operation Torch was the first time that the US and the British worked together on an invasion plan
-the plan was to invade Italy near Sicily and take up time and resources
-20,000 US and British troops were used, each contributing about 50% of the total troops
-there were around 2,000 total casualties (from both the Axis and Allied powers)
-this invasion resulted in a big win for the Allied Powers and confirmed the US and British friendship -
Battle of Stalingrad
-this battle happened because Hitler invaded the Soviet Union without declaring war
-the majority of the battles were fought in the streets with civilians present
-the Germans started with 270,000 German military personnel, 500 tanks, 3,000 artillery pieces and 600 aircrafts
-1,120,000 Soviet armed forces were declared dead or missing, while the Germans 850,000 military personnel were killed
-the continuous bombing from the Germans resulted in the streets smelling like decaying flesh -
D-Day
-this was the largest water-based invasion in history
-the Allied Powers used more than13,000 aircraft and 5,000 ships to complete the mission
-the original date for the invasion was June 5 but had to be delayed for 24 hours because of a very severe storm
-penicillin went with troops on D-Day and saved thousands of lives from infection and disease
-Around 6,000 Allied troops were killed or declared missing, while around 9,000 Geman lives were lost -
Battle of the Bulge
- Allied victory: German advances were pushed away
- Was fought between December 16th to January 25th -Over 89500 Allied troops were either killed, wounded, or taken as POWs, while the Germans lost over 100000 lives, with an estimated 3000 of them civilians -Germany had a total of over 200000 troops fight, while the Allies had originally only sent 80000 -Hitler's goal was to force the Allied Powers to try to make a peace treaty in the Axis Powers’ favor allowing him to focus on the East
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Battle of Berlin
-April 16, 1945 and lasted until May 2, 1945. This was fought between the Soviet Union and Germany
-this battle made Germany surrender
-the battle left over one million Germans without homes, food, clean water, or even shelter
-361000 Soviet Union troop were either killed or wounded, while Germany lost 334000 lives, 22000 of them being citizens
- on May 2nd, the German generals surrendered, and on May 7th, the entire Nazi party sighned an unconitional surrender to the Allies
