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Benito Mussolini
Benito began ruling in 1922 till 1943. He was one of the key figures in the creation of fascism. He was teamed up with Hitler to fight the democracies of the world. His army was quickly defeated by the Allied forces. -
Josef Stalin
Stalin served as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee from 1922 until his death in 1953. Over time, he became the absolute ruler of the USSR. Under his leadership, the Soviet Union played a major role in the defeat of Hitler's Germany during World War II. With the Allied nations, the succesfully ended WW2. -
Adolf Hitler
He was the chancellor of Germany and the leader of the National Social German Workers Party. When he invaded Poland in 1939, it caused the outbreak of WW2. -
The Holocaust
When Hitler grew to power, him and the Nazi party blammed the Jews for the problems and captured almost all of the Jews and put them into concentration camps. In the concentration camps, many Jews were killed using gas chambers, shooting, etc. Millions of Jews were killed. -
Franklin D. Roosevelt
FDR lead the US through the Great Depression and World War 2. After instituting his New Deal, he lead the country through the depression and then he lead the nation after through the devastating attack at Pearl Harbor. -
Neville Chamberlain
Chamberlain served as British prime minister from 1937 to 1940, and is best known for his policy of "appeasement" toward Adolf Hitler's Germany. After declaring war on Germany in 1939, he lost political support and resigned in 1940. -
Sir Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill was the Prime Minister of Britain. By joining forces with both the United States and with the Soviet Union, Churchill not only saved Britain, but helped save all of Europe from the domination of Nazi Germany. -
Blitzkrieg
Blitzkrieg was first used by the Germans in World War Two and was a tactic based on speed and surprise and needed a military force to be based around light tank units supported by planes and infantry (foot soldiers). As a tactic it was used to devastating effect in the first years of World War Two and resulted in the British and French armies being pushed back in just a few weeks to the beaches of Dunkirk and the Russian army being devastated in the attack on Russia in June 1941. -
The Manhattan Project
In late 1941, the American created aneffort to design and build an Atomic Bomb. Nearly $2 billion had been spent on research and development of the atomic bomb and employed 120000 Americans. -
Battle for Moscow
Hitler believed that once the heart ,Moscow, had been cut out of Russia, the whole nation would collapse. ltimately it was a Soviet victory, the Nazi's were unable to capture the city which they had planned to do within four months of the launch of Barbarossa (June 1941). However they were held up through tenacious defence and over-stretched supply lines and then finally by winter. By January 1942 they were forced to retreat and turned their attention to attempting to capture Leningrad and Stal -
Hideki Tojo
As the Prime Minister, he was responsible for the attack on Pearl Harbor, which intiated the war between the US and Japan. His attacks lead to the later atomic bombings and was removed from office in 1944 and executed. -
Pearl Harbor
On Sunday morning, two waves of attacks struck Pearl Harbor to destroy as much as possible. 8 battle ships, 3 cruisers, 4 minor sea vessels were sunk, 188 airplanes were destoryed, and 2400 soldiers and sailors died.This sparked the US to enter in WW2. -
Internment Camps
President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized the internment with Executive Order 9066, issued February 19, 1942, which allowed local military commanders to designate "military areas" as "exclusion zones," from which "any or all persons may be excluded." Over 127000 were imprisoned for being of Japanese ancestry. Camps included Amache, Gila River, Heart Mountain, Jerome, and many others. -
Battle of Stalingrad
The Battle for Stalingrad was fought during the winter of 1942 to 1943. It was considered to be the turning point in WW2 since after this the German army was in full retreat. Stalingrad was important for Russia since in was center of communications in the south as well as being a center for manufacturing. -
Island Hopping
It is a military strategy that utilizes submarines and air attacks to weaken Japanese forces and bypass the Japanese positions during the World War II. One of the first use of this technique was in the Solomon Islands. -
Battle of Normandy
Operation Neptune, D-Day, included 12,000-plane airborne assault preceded an amphibious assault involving almost 7,000 vessels. Nearly 160,000 troops crossed the English Channel on 6 June; more than three million allied troops were in France by the end of August. The battle lasted 2 months. Between 15000 and 20000 casualties were reported. -
Saipan
American forces invaded the island of Saipan, part of the Mariana Islands in the Central Pacific.This island would be crucial for the US Air Force. Japan lost three aircraft carriers and more than 300 planes and Of the 30,000 Japanese troops who defended Saipan, less than 1,000 remained alive when the battle ended July 9. America ultimately won and took the island. -
Iwo Jima
American forces invaded the tiny island of Iwo Jima to secure airstrips for American B-29 flyers where they encountered many Japanese defenders. When the battle ended on March 26, 1945, there were 30000 American casualties but the Americans ended up winning the battle and using the island. -
Harry S. Truman
After FDR's sudden death, Truman took over. Under his command, he dropped the two atomic bombs which effectively lead to the ending of the war. -
Okinawa
The final land battle of World War II took place a mere 350 miles from the main islands of Japan. The U.S. planned that Okinawa, once captured, would serve as a staging area for an invasion of the main islands. This battle lasted 82 days long and was extremely bloody. When the island was finally secured, more than 12,000 U.S. soldiers and Navy personnel were dead or missing and more than 36,000 were wounded. Seventy thousand soldiers of the Japanese Army died on Okinawa. -
Atomic Bombing Hiroshima
The Atomic Bomb, "Little Boy", exploded 1900 feet above the city. The mushroom cloud was estimated to reach a height of 40000 feet. Two- thirds of Hiroshima was destoryed. 140000 deaths were estimated. -
Atomic Bombing Nagasaki
Only three days after the bombing of Hiroshima, "Fat Man" was dropped over Nagasaki. It exploded 1650 feet above the city and about 40% of Nagasaki was destroyed. Approximately 70,000 people died by the end of the year.