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Battle of the Atlantic
It was the struggle between the Allied and German forces for control of the Atlantic Ocean. The Allies needed to keep the vital flow of men and supplies going between North America and Europe, where they could be used in the fighting, while the Germans wanted to cut these supply lines. To do this, German U-boats, and other warships prowled the Atlantic Ocean sinking Allied transport ships.The battle began on the opening day of the war and ended six years later with Germany’s surrender. -
Poland was divided up between Germany and the USSR
(as agreed in the pact of August 1939) -
Operation Weserübung: Denmark and Norway invaded
Hitler's troops occupied Denmark and landed at the main Norwegian ports in April 1940, rudely shattering the apparent calm of the 'phoney war'. Control of Norway was important for the Germans because Narvik was the main outlet for Swedish iron-ore, which was vital for the German armaments industry. -
Battle of France
Hitler attacks Holland, Belgium and France. The attacks on these countries were launched simultaneously, and again Blitzkrieg methods brought swift victories.
Paris was captured on 14 June and France surrendered on 22 June. At Hitler's insistence the armistice (ceasefire) was signed at Compiegne -
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Battle of Britain
This was fought in the air, when Luftwaffe tried to destroy the Royal Air Force as a preliminary to the invasion of Britain. The Germans bombed harbours, radar stations, aerodromes and munitions factories; in September they began to bomb London, in retaliation, they claimed, for a British raid on Berlin. The Battle of Britain was probably the first major turning point of the war: for the first time the Germans had been checked demonstrating that they were not invincible -
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The Holocaust
The Holocaust was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe, around two-thirds of Europe's Jewish population. The murders were carried out in pogroms and mass shootings; by a policy of extermination through labor in concentration camps; and in gas chambers and gas vans in German extermination camps. -
Operation Barbarossa
The German invasion of Russia. The operation put into action Nazi Germany's ideological goal of conquering the western Soviet Union so as to repopulate it with Germans.
Hitler predicted a quick victory, but after initial success, the brutal campaign dragged on and eventually failed due to strategic blunders and harsh winter weather, as well as a determined Soviet resistance and attrition suffered by German forces. -
Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor
Japanese motives.for the attack were tied up with her economic problems. The attack was brilliantly organized by Admiral Yamamoto. There was no declaration of war: 353 Japanese planes arrived undetected at Pearl Harbor, and in two hours, destroyed 350 aircraft and five battleships; 3700 men were killed or seriously injured.
It caused Hitler to declare war on the USA. Pearl Harbor had an important result: It gave the Japanese control of the Pacific -
The USA enters the war
The Japanese attack on the US naval base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, led President Franklin Roosevelt to declare war on Japan. A few days later, Nazi Germany declared war on the United States, and America entered World War II against the Axis powers. -
Battle of Midway
At Midway Island in the Pacific, the Americans beat off a powerful Japanese attack. The U.S. Navy’s decisive victory in the air-sea battle and its successful defense of the major base located at Midway Island dashed Japan’s hopes of neutralizing the United States as a naval power and effectively turned the tide of World War II in the Pacific.
Midway proved to be a crucial turning point in the battle for the Pacific: the loss of their carriers and strike planes seriously weakened the Japanese. -
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Battle of Stalingrad
Germany and its allies fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad (now Volgograd) in Southern Russia.
Although Germans more or less destroyed the city, the Russians refused to surrender. In November, Russians counter-attacked ferociously, trapping the Germans, whose supply lines were dangerously extended. With his retreat cut off, the German commander, von Paulus, had no reasonable alternative but to surrender with 94 000 men. -
Second Battle of El Alamein
Fought near the western frontier of Egypt, El Alamein was the climax and turning point of the North African campaign of World War Two. The Axis army of Italy and Germany suffered a decisive defeat by the British Eighth Army.
The El Alamein victory was another turning point in the war: The desert war had been a serious drain on German resources that could have been used in Russia, where they were badly needed. -
The fall of Italy
This was the first stage in the Axis collapse. British and American troops landed in Sicily from the sea and air and quickly captured the whole island. This caused the collapse of the Fascist Italian regime and the downfall of Mussolini, who was deposed and arrested by order of King Victor Emmanuel III on 25 July. The new government signed an armistice with the Allies on 8 September 1943. -
Operation Overlord (Battle of Normandy)
the Battle of Normandy resulted in the Allied liberation of Western Europe from Nazi Germany’s control. Codenamed Operation Overlord, also known as D-Day.The invasion was one of the largest amphibious military assaults in history and required extensive planning.
With a huge force of over 150,000 soldiers, the Allies attacked and gained a victory that became the turning point for World War II in Europe. -
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Battle of the Bulge
Called “the greatest American battle of the war” by Winston Churchill, the Battle of the Bulge in the Ardennes region was Hitler’s last major offensive in World War II against the Western Front.
Early in 1945, Germany was being invaded on both fronts, from east and west. The British still wanted to push ahead and take Berlin before the Russians, but supreme commander Eisenhower refused to be hurried, and Berlin fell to Stalin's forces in April. Hitler committed suicide and Germany surrendered -
Atomic Bombards of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
On 6 August 1945 the Americans dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, killing perhaps as many as 84 000 people and leaving thousands more slowly dying of radiation poisoning.
Three days later, Americans dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki, which killed perhaps another 40 000; after this the Japanese government surrendered.
The use of the bombs was also a deliberate demonstration to the USSR of the USA's enormous power.
This caused the end of the Second World War