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German Invasion of Poland
Germany invaded Poland to regain lost territory and ultimately rule their neighbor to the east. The German invasion of Poland was a primer on how Hitler intended to wage war–what would become the “blitzkrieg” strategy.
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Fall of France
https://www.britannica.com/event/Battle-of-France-World-War-II/The-fall-of-France-June-5-25-1940 Jun 5-25, 1940
For the new offensive, German forces were redistributed, with two fresh armies (the Second -
Battle of Britain
Jul 10, 1940 – Oct 31, 1940
destructive air raids conducted by the German air force (Luftwaffe) from July through September 1940, after the fall of France.
https://www.britannica.com/event/Battle-of-Britain-European-history-1940 -
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Attack on the Soviet Union
Adolf Hitler launched his armies eastward in a massive invasion of the Soviet Union: three great army groups with over three million German soldiers, 150 divisions, and three thousand tanks smashed across the frontier into Soviet territory. The invasion covered a front from the North Cape to the Black Sea, a distance of two thousand miles.
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Battle of the Coral Sea
May 4, 1942 – May 8, 1942
This four-day World War II skirmish in May 1942 marked the first air-sea battle in history. The Japanese were seeking to control the Coral Sea with an invasion of Port Moresby in southeast New Guinea, but their plans were intercepted by Allied forces.
https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/battle-of-coral-sea -
Surrender of Corregidor and the Philippines
May 5, 1942 – May 6, 1942
The island of Corregidor remained the last Allied stronghold in the Philippines after the Japanese victory at Bataan (from which General Wainwright had managed to flee, to Corregidor). Constant artillery shelling and aerial bombardment attacks ate away at the American and Filipino defenders.
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/all-american-forces-in-the-philippines-surrender-unconditionally -
Operation Torch
Nov 8, 1942 – Nov 10, 1942
The British, however, favoured an invasion of North Africa (Operations Gymnast and Super-Gymnast) that would secure the Mediterranean theatre once and for all. Owing to a number of factors—notably the American decision to contest the Japanese occupation of Guadalcanal in the southern Solomon Islands—the British eventually prevailed.
https://www.britannica.com/event/North-Africa-campaigns/Operation-Torch -
Marshall Island Campaign
November 1943
American planes bombed the Japanese administrative and communications center for the Marshalls, which was located on Kwajalein.
By January 31, Kwajalein was devastated. Repeated carrier- and land-based air raids destroyed every Japanese airplane on the Marshalls. By February 3, U.S. infantry overran Roi and Namur atolls. The Marshalls were then effectively in American hands
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/u-s-troops-capture-the-marshall-islands -
Battle for Attu and Kiska
May 11, 1943 – May 30, 1943
American and Japanese armies fought from May 11 to May 30, 1943, for control of Attu, a small, sparsely inhabited island at the far western end of Alaska’s Aleutian chain in the North Pacific.
https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/battle-of-attu -
Invasion of Sicily and Italy
Jul 9, 1943 – Aug 17, 1943
the United States and Great Britain, the leading Allied powers, looked ahead to the invasion of occupied Europe and the final defeat of Nazi Germany. The Allies decided to move next against Italy, hoping an Allied invasion would remove that fascist regime from the war, secure the central Mediterranean and divert German divisions
https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/invasion-of-sicily -
Battle of Normandy
June 1944 to August 1944
the Allied invasion of western Europe, which was with the simultaneous landing of U.S., British, and Canadian forces on five separate beachheads in Normandy, France. By the end of August 1944 all of northern France was liberated, and the invading forces reorganized for the drive into Germany, where they would eventually meet with Soviet forces advancing from the east to bring an end to the Nazi Reich. -
Yalta Conference
Feb 4, 1945 – Feb 11, 1945
The Yalta Conference was a meeting of three World War II allies: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin. The trio met in February 1945 in the resort city of Yalta
https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/yalta-conference -
Battle of Okinawa
Apr 1, 1945 – Jun 22, 1945
The Battle of Okinawa (April 1, 1945-June 22, 1945) was the last major battle of World War II, and one of the bloodiest.
https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/battle-of-okinawa -
Surrender of Germany
May 7, 1945
On May 7, 1945, the German High Command, in the person of General Alfred Jodl, signs the unconditional surrender of all German forces, East and West, at Reims, in northeastern France.
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/germany-surrenders-unconditionally-to-the-allies-at-reims -
Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima and Hagasaki
Aug 6, 1945 – Aug 9, 1945
An American B-29 bomber dropped the world’s first deployed atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The explosion immediately killed an estimated 80,000 people; tens of thousands more would later die of radiation exposure.On August 6, 1945, during World War II (1939-45), an American B-29 bomber dropped the world’s first deployed atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima.
https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/bombing-of-hiroshima-and-nagasaki -
Surrender of Japan
August 15, 1945
By the summer of 1945, the defeat of Japan was a foregone conclusion. The Japanese navy and air force were destroyed. The Allied naval blockade of Japan and intensive bombing of Japanese cities had left the country and its economy devastated. At the end of June, the Americans captured Okinawa, a Japanese island from which the Allies could launch an invasion of the main Japanese home islands.
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/japan-surrenders