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Invasion of Poland
- This begins WW2
- Germany uses blitzkrieg to overpower Polish army
- Britain and France declare war on Germany
- Make it to Warsaw in less than a month
- Germany begins enforcing racial policies
- Jews had to wear white armbands with blue Stars of David
- Expelled 1000's of Poles and replaced them with Germans
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Battle of Britain (The Blitz)
- Germany launched attacks against British shipping to prevent needed supplies from getting back
- Germany planned to gain air superiority to invade Great Britain
- Test of strength between German Air Force and Royal Air Force
- Major air campaign
- Luftwaffe (German Air Force) was defeated by RAF, forcing Hitler to abandon invasion plans
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Battle of Moscow
- Original blitzkrieg invasion plan called for the capture of Moscow, Russia
- Offensive was slowed by weather conditions
- Soviet Siberian troops prepared for winter warfare attacked German forces, defeating the threat
- One of the largest battles during the war - over a million total casualties
- Marked a turning point since Germany began fighting that they were forced into a major retreat
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Attack on Pearl Harbor
- Surprise attack on U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, Oahu, Hawaii
- Bombs were deployed by the Japanese
- Japan combined fleet had planned attack on U.S. pacific fleet
- U.S. became actively involved in the war after the attack
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Operation Torch
- Allied invasion of French North Africa to draw axis forces away from Eastern front
- To help relieve pressure on Soviet Union
- U.S. and Britain had to combat French resistance
- American and British forces finally seized offensive after 3 years
- Roosevelt, Churchill, and others then met at Casablanca to determine next steps for defeating axis powers
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Operation Overlord/ D-Day
- U.S., Canada, United Kingdom, and other allies landed on beaches in Normandy, France to attack German Forces
- Thousands of paratroopers and glider troops were behind enemy lines
- Northwestern France liberated from Germany
- Turning point for Germany
- Prevented Hitler from sending troops to build up Eastern front against Soviets
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Hiroshima/ Nagasaki
- American B-29 bomber dropped the world's first deployed atomic bomb over Japanese city of Hiroshima
- Japan rejected allied demand for surrender - threatened with "prompt and utter destruction"
- Hiroshima - first target - Japan did not surrender
- Second plutonium bomb dropped at Japanese city of Nagasaki
- Japan then surrenders
- 70-135,000 deaths in Hiroshima
- 60-80,000 deaths in Nagasaki