-
World War II
World War II began on September 1, 1939, with the German invasion of Poland. Hitler invaded Poland from the west; two days later, France and Britain declared war on Germany; soviet troops invaded Poland from the east. -
Poland declares war to Germany
The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II -
France declares war to Germany
Two days after the German invasion of Poland—France declared war on Nazi Germany according to its defensive treaty with Poland, when France's ultimatum to Germany. -
Great Bretain declares war to Germany
In response to Hitler’s invasion of Poland, Britain’s response, it was initially no more than the dropping of anti-Nazi propaganda leaflets. -
Italy enters to the war
Italy joined World War II as an ally of Germany, eager to establish a new Italian empire. Italy occupied territory in Yugoslavia (1941), Greece (1941) and a small portion of southern France (1942). -
Battle of Bretain
The Luftwaffe mounted mass daytime raids against RAF bases and later London, hoping to gain air superiority and force Britain to make peace – preparations for invasion began. -
Operation Barbarossa
Hitler’s surprise attack on the USSR was the most devastating victory of the whole war; as a battle it covered the largest area. The Wehrmacht’s first objective was achieved: the rapid destruction the Red Army in western Russia. -
Moscow
The Russians would have bad defeats later, and the Germans would suffer much greater losses at Stalingrad in 1942–43. But the setback at Moscow meant that the Blitzkrieg strategy of Hitler and his generals had failed; the USSR would not be knocked out of the war in just a few months. -
Pearl Harbor
The fighting lasted only 90 minutes and was very one-sided, but this was undoubtedly a major battle – six aircraft carriers with more than 400 planes attacked the main American naval base. -
USA enters to the war
Japan, which continued to wage war in mainland China, launched a surprise air attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The United States immediately declared war on Japan. Great Britain followed suit. -
Japan enters to the war
Japan joined with Germany because they had two interests in common: One was territorial expansion and the foundation of empires through military conquest and the overthrow of the post-World War I international order, and the other was the destruction of the neutrality of Soviet communism. -
Midway
The Japanese Fleet put to sea to threaten Midway Island (northwest of Hawaii), hoping to lure the Americans to destruction. In reality it was the Japanese who were ambushed, losing four of their best carriers. The Midway victory allowed the Americans to take the strategic initiative in the South Pacific. It would be a year and a half before an American offensive directly across the Central Pacific began, but the Japanese had not had time to fortify their island defence line. -
Operation Torch
The Allied landings in Morocco and Algeria were an easy battle: Vichy French troops were the original opponent, and they quickly changed sides. But ‘Torch’ was the first successful strategic offensive, and American troops crossed the Atlantic for the first time. -
Mexico enters to the war
President Manual Avila Camacho requested the Congress of the Union to declare a state of war, arguing that the sinking of the Mexican ships, as well as the clear anti-fascist attitude that our country maintained and the protests made against the abuses, invasions and aggressions carried out by the Axis countries, obliged Mexico to take this resolution. -
D-Day
Literally, the ‘D’ stands for day, as in the day of the invasion. The earliest known reference goes back to 1917, but early in the Second World War it was called ‘Dog-Day’ after the phonetic alphabet of the day. It became simply known as ‘D-Day’ and was used for all major amphibious operations including north-west Africa, Sicily and southern Italy. -
End of WW2
It concluded on the deck of an American warship on September 2, 1945, World War II had claimed the lives of an estimated 60-80 million people, approximately 3 percent of the world’s population