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German Blitzberg
Germany's strategy was to defeat its opponents in a series of short campaigns. Germany quickly overran much of Europe and was victorious for more than two years by relying on a new military tactic called the "Blitzkrieg" (lightning war).These forces would drive a breach in enemy defenses. permitting armored tank divisions to penetrate rapidly and roam freely behind enemy lines. causing shock and disorganization among the enemy defenses. -
Pearl Harbor
hundreds of Japanese fighter planes descended on the base, where they managed to destroy or damage nearly 20 American naval vessels, including eight battleships, and over 300 airplanes. More than 2,400 Americans died in the attack, including civilians, and another 1,000 people were wounded. The day after the assault, President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on Japan. After the Pearl Harbor attack the American people were united in their determination to go to war. -
Battle of midway
Six months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States defeated Japan in one of the most decisive naval battles of World War II. This fleet engagement between U.S. and Japanese navies in the north-central Pacific Ocean resulted from Japan’s desire to sink. the American aircraft carriers that had escaped destruction at Pearl Harbor. -
Wannsee Conference
is seen as the meeting where the so-called ‘Final Solution‘ was decided on. The conference at Wannsee was chaired by Reinhard Heydrich with the minutes being taken by Adolf Eichmann. At Wannsee, decisions were taken that led directly to the Holocaust – the setting up of death camps to eradicate Europe’s Jews, gypsies etc. -
Operation Gomorrah
British bombers raid Hamburg, Germany, by night in Operation Gomorrah, while Americans bomb it by day in its own “Blitz Week.”Britain had suffered the deaths of 167 civilians as a result of German bombing raids in July. Now the tables were going to turn. The evening of July 24 saw British aircraft drop 2,300 tons of incendiary bombs on Hamburg in just a few hours.The explosive power was the equivalent of what German bombers had dropped on London in their five most destructive raids. -
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
a violent revolt that occurred from April 19 to May 16, 1943, during World War II. he Jewish ghetto in Nazi-occupied Warsaw, Poland, staged the armed revolt to prevent deportations.Shortly after the German invasion of Poland in September 1939, more than 400,000 Jews in Warsaw, the capital city, were confined to an area of the city that was little more than 1 square mile. -
Allied invasion of Italy
On July 10, 1943, the Allies began their invasion of Axis-controlled Europe with landings on the island of Sicily, off mainland Italy. Encountering little resistance from demoralized Sicilian troops. On August 17, Patton arrived in Messina before Montgomery, completing the Allied conquest of Sicily and winning the so-called Race to Messina.On September 3, Montgomery’s 8th Army began its invasion of the Italian mainland and the Italian government agreed to surrender to the Allies. -
D-Day (Normandy Invasion)
resulted in the Allied liberation of Western Europe from Nazi Germany’s control. Codenamed Operation Overlord, the battle began on June 6, 1944, also known as D-Day.The invasion was one of the largest amphibious military assaults in history and required extensive planning. the Allies conducted a large scale deception campaign designed to mislead the Germans about the intended invasion target. By late August all of northern France had been liberated and the Allies had defeated the Germans. -
Battle of bulge
Hitler attempted to split the Allied armies in northwest Europe by means of a surprise blitzkrieg thrust through the Ardennes to Antwerp. the Allied line took on the appearance of a large bulge giving rise to the battle’s name. Lieutenant General George S. Patton’s remarkable feat of turning the Third Army ninety degrees from Lorraine to relieve the besieged town of Bastogne. The Battle of the Bulge was the costliest action ever fought by the U.S. Army, which suffered over 100,000 casualties. -
Battle of Iwo Jima
Battle of Iwo Jima lasted for five weeks. In some of the bloodiest fighting of World War II, it’s believed that all but 200 or so of the 21,000 Japanese forces on the island were killed, as were almost 7,000 Marines. But once the fighting was over, the strategic value of Iwo Jima was called into question. addition, Japan’s air force had lost many of its warplanes, some unable to protect an inner line of defenses set up by the empire’s military leaders. -
Liberation of the concentration camp
It had become overcrowded after the arrival of survivors of the death marches.Thousands of unburied bodies lay strewn around the camp while in the barracks some 60,000 starving and mortally ill people were packed together without food or water. The mortality rate among those suffering from typhus was over 60 per cent.The first intake of food proved fatal for many prisoners weak from starvation to digest it. For the survivors of the Nazi camps, the road to recovery would be long and painful. -
VE day
On this day in 1945, Great Britain and the United States celebrate Victory in Europe Day. Cities in both nations put out flags and banners, rejoicing in the defeat of the Nazi war machine.Germans surrendered to their Soviet antagonists, after the latter had lost more than 8,000 soldiers. to keep from being taken prisoner. About 1 million Germans attempted a mass exodus to the West when the fighting in Czechoslovakia ended, but were stopped by the Russians and taken captive. -
Dropping of the atomic bombs
The United States becomes the first and only nation to use atomic weaponry during wartime when it drops an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima.Though the dropping of the atomic bomb on Japan marked the end of World War II, many historians argue that it also ignited the Cold War. In the years since the two atomic bombs were dropped on Japan, a number of historians have suggested that the weapons had a two-pronged objective. -
VJ day
On August 14, 1945, it was announced that Japan had surrendered unconditionally to the Allies effectively ending World War II.when Japan’s formal surrender took place aboard the U.S.S. Missouri, anchored in Tokyo Bay. Coming several months after the surrender of Nazi Germany Japan’s capitulation in the Pacific brought six years of hostilities to a final and highly anticipated close.Japan devastating surprise aerial attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor on Oahu,Hawaii, on December 7,1941. -
Battle of Okinawa
The Battle of Okinawa was the last major battle of World War II, and one of the bloodiest.the Navy’s Fifth Fleet and more than 180,000 U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps troops descended on the Pacific island of Okinawa for a final push towards Japan. By the time American troops landed on Okinawa, the war on the European front was nearing its end. Allied and Soviet troops had liberated much of Nazi-occupied Europe and were just weeks away from forcing Germany’s unconditional surrender.
