World War II Historical Events

  • Non Agression Pact

    This was an agreement between Germany and the Soviet Union to become allies with each other. If Germany attacked Poland with no inference from the Soviet Union they would be granted land. The pact was broken when Hitler did a surprise invasion of the Soviet Union. The pact had lasted for 2 years until it was broken.
  • Battle of Britain

    After Hitler had gained the power of France his next target became Britain. The invasion of Britain was call Operation Sea Lion which relied on the German's air force to destroy Britain's air force. This was an air battle to fight over the power of the English Channel and Great Britain. Over 2,700 planes were destroyed and many civilians were bombed by Germany. Hitler had lost the battle and postponed the invasion of Britain indefinitely.
  • Atlantic Conference

    Attended by Churchill and FDR this strengthened between the US and Great Britain by signing the Atlantic Charter.
  • Battle of Midway

    Japan had planned to attack America's aircraft carriers and they believed that if this was destroyed it would push the US back to California. The US found out about the plan through intercepting the messages that was being sent by the Japanese. This was a naval battle in the Pacific Theater which ended up in the destruction of most of Japan's naval strength. This was considered the turning point for the war in the Pacific.
  • Battle of Stalingrad

    Tension started to form between Germany and Russia during the year 1941 after Germany attacked Russia. Hitler's forces began capturing and killing Soviet civilians and forces. Hitler wanted to control the oil fields in Russia, this led to the starting of the Battle of Stalingrad. German soldiers began to starve and suffer during the battle which led to their surrender on January 31, 1943. This battle was a major turning point for Europe and destroyed Hitlers chances of dominating Europe.
  • Operation Torch

    The invasion of North Africa was launched to free the Mediterranean Sea from German control and protect the oil fields in the Middle East.
  • Italian Campaign

    Allies started to target Sicily, Italy for an invasion with little risk by using U-Boats with protection of air forces. British and American forces started to make advances to the north of the city where they joined forces. The Axis powers had escaped to the Italian mainland before the forces got there. This campaign lasted for 38 days. After Italy had surrender to the Allies, this allowed the Allies to control all of the Mediterranean and ended the rule of Mussolini.
  • Tehran Conference

    This was a meeting between Stalin, FDR and Churchill which was where they discussed the final plan to defeat Germany and the cross-channel invasions. This would led to the creation of Operation Overlord.
  • Operation Overlord

    This was a naval battle that involved the landing on the beaches of Normandy. This involved 21 American divisions and 26 British, Canadian and Polish divisions with the involvement of 4,400 ships and aircraft. This was a deception tactic to convince Germany to attack Calais. This is known as D-Day, where they had planned to destroy Germans communication and transportation. By the end of the battle, the Allies gained control of France and was on the road to gaining Germany's capital, Berlin.
  • Battle of Bulge

    This was also known as a counterattack by Germany and was Germany's last defense offence. Germany had surprised the Allies powers and captured several major towns. The Allies and had bombed several German positioning, slowly pushed the Germans out of France. France, America and the British they met at Berlin and had weakened Hitler's army.
  • Yalta Conference

    Attended by Churchill, Stalin and Roosevelt. This is a strategy meeting that led to an agreement of Poland, Bulgaria and Romania were allowed to hold free elections.
  • Battle of Iwo Jima

    This was a US-led invasion and which led to the capturing of Iwo Jima. The US used air weaponry and naval artillery. The Japanese had suffered more casualties than the US. After the US won the battle it was re-purposed as an emergency airstrip during the war.
  • Battle of Okinawa

    This was a battle between Japan and the US. Japan had Kamikaze bombers which destroyed 30 American Naval ships. This battle lasted 82 days and showed how deadly the invasions on Japan really were. This help lead to the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to keep bloody battles like this one from happening again.
  • Surrender of Berlin/Germany

    Couple months before the end of the war the 3 Allied powers decided to invade Berlin. The Soviet union invaded first, they were killing people without mercy and forced the Germans to give up power of Berlin. This sped up Germany's full surrender of World War II to keep this violence from happening again.
  • Potsdam Conference

    Attended by Stalin and Truman which they discussed the unconstitutional leave caused by Japan during World War II. This is also where Stalin had refused for Eastern Europe to allow free elections.
  • Hiroshima

    This one of the cities that was destroyed during World War II at 8:15 a.m. After the bomb exploded 60,000 out of 334,000 people were killed or missing. This further advanced the ending of World War II.
  • Nagasaki

    This was the second city to be destroyed during World War II. The Soviet Union had declared war against Japan and had invaded Manchuria. This event led to the bombing of Nagasaki and it killed 35,000 residents living there. After the second bombing America went in to war with the Soviet Union, known as the Arms Race.