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Invasion of Poland
German forces broke through Polish defenses along the border and quickly advanced on Warsaw, the Polish capital. Hundreds of thousands of refugees, both Jewish and non-Jewish, fled the German advance hoping the Polish army could halt the German advance. But, after heavy shelling and bombing, Warsaw surrendered to the Germans within a month of the German attack. Soviet forces quickly annexed most of eastern Poland. -
Britain and France declare war on Nazi Germany
On 3 September 1939, the United Kingdom declared war on Germany—two days after the German invasion of Poland. France also declared war on Germany later the same day. -
Invasion of Belgium
The invasion of Belgium or Belgian campaign (10–28 May 1940), often referred to within Belgium as the 18 Days' Campaign (French: Campagne des 18 jours; Dutch: Achttiendaagse Veldtocht), formed part of the larger Battle of France, an offensive campaign by Germany during the Second World War. -
Battle and great escape at Dunkirk
Operation Dynamo, the evacuation from Dunkirk, involved the rescue of more than 338,000 British and French soldiers from the French port of Dunkirk between 26 May and 4 June 1940. The evacuation, sometimes referred to as the Miracle of Dunkirk, was a big boost for British morale. Prime Minister Winston Churchill recognised however that the greatest challenge still lay ahead, as Nazi ambitions now turned toward Britain. -
Battle at Britain
The Battle of Britain, 10 July – 31 October 1940. The Battle of Britain was fought above the skies of Britain, between the RAF and the German Luftwaffe. Had British and Allied aircrew not defeated the Luftwaffe, it is likely that Germany would have invaded Britain. -
Selective service and training arc
This Selective Service Act required that men who had reached their 21st birthday but had not yet reached their 36th birthday register with local draft boards. -
land lease act
Passed on March 11, 1941, this act set up a system that would allow the United States to lend or lease war supplies to any nation deemed vital to the defense. -
Attack on pearl harbor
Pearl Harbor attack, (December 7, 1941), surprise aerial attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor on Oahu Island, Hawaii, by the Japanese that precipitated the entry of the United States into World War II. The strike climaxed a decade of worsening relations between the United States and Japan. -
America enters war
After the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor in December, 1941, the United States declared war on Japan. Germany and Italy declared war on the U.S. a few days later, and the nation became fully engaged in the Second World War. U.S. involvement in the Second World War was quickly followed by a massive mobilization effort. -
Germany and Italy declare war on America
On December 11, 1941, Italy declared war on the United States. The declaration followed the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor four days earlier, and was made the same day as Germany's declaration of war against the United States. -
battle at coral sea
Time would reveal, though, that the Battle of Coral Sea was a strategic victory for the Allies, in that it preserved Port Moresby. More important, it had an outsized effect on the much more-important upcoming operation aimed at Midway. Shōkaku was heavily damaged; Zuikaku's air group had been shot to pieces. -
battle of midway
The Battle of Midway occurred when the U.S. Navy intercepted a Japanese invasion fleet heading for Midway Island, achieving an overwhelming victory and resulting in the turning point of the war in the Pacific. -
invasion of north africa
Operation Torch (8–16 November 1942) was an Allied invasion of French North Africa during the Second World War. Torch was a compromise operation that met the British objective of securing victory in North Africa while allowing American armed forces the opportunity to begin their fight against Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy on a limited scale.[6] It was the first mass involvement of US troops in the European–North African Theatre and saw the first airborne assault carried out by the United States -
Invasion of Sicily and Italy
Allied invasion of Sicily, (July 9–August 17, 1943), during World War II, the invasion of the Italian island of Sicily by Allied forces. The conquest of Sicily took a little more than a month and it led directly to the fall of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and the surrender of the Italian government to the Allies. -
D-Day
The D-Day operation of June 6, 1944, brought together the land, air, and sea forces of the allied armies in what became known as the largest amphibious invasion in military history. The operation, given the codename OVERLORD, delivered five naval assault divisions to the beaches of Normandy, France. -
Nazi concentration camps discovered
The American government first became aware of the Holocaust in German-occupied Europe in 1942 and 1943. Following a report on the failure to assist the Jewish people by the Department of State, the War Refugee Board was created in 1944 to assist refugees from the Nazis. -
Battle of Bulge
The Battle of the Bulge, also known as the Ardennes Offensive, was the last major German offensive campaign on the Western Front during the Second World War -
Yalta conference
The Yalta Conference took place in a Russian resort town in the Crimea from February 4–11, 1945, during World War Two. At Yalta, U.S. President Franklin D. -
V-E
On May 8, 1945 - known as Victory in Europe Day or V-E Day - celebrations erupted around the world to mark the end of World War II in Europe. -
Atomic bomb in Hiroshima
On the morning of August 6, 1945, the American B-29 bomber Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Named Little boy. -
Atomic bomb on Nagasaki
The atomic bomb used at Nagasaki, Japan, on August 9, 1945, was "Fat Man". The bomb was dropped by a USAAF B-29 airplane named "Bockscar", piloted by U.S. Army Air Force Major Charles Sweeney. -
V-J
Victory over Japan Day (V-J Day) would officially be celebrated in the United States on the day formal surrender documents were signed aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay: September 2, 1945. But as welcome as victory over Japan was, the day was bittersweet in light of the war's destructiveness.